An aristocracy of color
Subtitle: race and reconstruction in California and the West, 1850-1890
By: D. Michael Bottoms
Series: Race and culture in the American West -- v. 5
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Norman
Language: eng
Number of pages: 274
ISBN-13: 9780806143354
Subjects: Race relations; Mexican Americans; Race relation; Chinese Americans; History; African Americans; Minorities
Description: As historian D. Michael Bottoms shows in An Aristocracy of Color, many white Californians saw in this and other Reconstruction legislation a threat to the fragile racial hierarchy they had imposed on the state's legal system during the 1850s. But nonwhite Californians -- blacks and Chinese in particular -- recognized an unprecedented opportunity to reshape the state's race relations. Drawing on court records, political debates, and eyewitness accounts, Bottoms brings to life the monumental battle that followed.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.