Reconstruction Of White Supremacy Summary

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Recommended: Economic failures due to reconstruction

Stephen Kantrowitz, in his book Ben Tillman and Reconstruction of White Supremacy tells exactly what the title intends. It represents the story of reconstruction of white supremacy post the Civil War, how the emancipation proclamation struggled to persist in the South, the Jim Crow movements and rebellions, all in context of a man who was not only symbolic to the movements but also the epitome of white supremacy. Even though Kantrowitz uses a biographical approach, it isn't the story of Tillman's life that he depicts but the story of white supremacy and its reconstruction(and politics) in the South through Tillman's life. Tillman was born on August 11, 1847, into a wealthy slaveholding family and became a wealthy farmer himself. He dominated …show more content…

In the initial chapters, Kantrowitz traces the already existing tensions of white supremacy prior to the Civil war in the South, then the effects of reconstruction in South Carolina, especially Edgefield County, the movements, massacres and the Klu Klux Klan, and how the planters together instigated these terrorizing activities. Then in the next chapter, he shows the continuing political struggle of reconstruction and how it also takes a toll on economy and the agriculture sector in the 1870s-80s, which in turn becomes another basis for the whites to come together to avoid loosing further control. This chapter also portrays the class struggles within the white community and how white manhood came to be redefined among elites and planters alike. The forth chapter shows how Tillman started to take control over politics and the democratic party and proposed a potential solution to such problems was by professing control and white supremacy. The next two chapters talk about lynching, women struggles, the efforts to retain white supremacy by making it into a law and protect the white citizen, and the efforts to disfranchise the non-whites. Then the last chapters, revolves around how Tillman asserted his legacy and strong philosophy throughout the nation, his role as a senator, his impact as popular speaker and the decline in his political

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