"This book argues that racism and white supremacist attitudes in the North, and not just the opposition of Andrew Johnson, blocked the adoption of Black suffrage (for men) in 1865. The virulent, racist tactics of the Democratic Party, as well as racism among a minority of Republicans and the small size of the northern Black population helped explain why the vigorous efforts of northern Blacks, southern Blacks, abolitionists, and Radical Republicans did not succeed"--
War hastens abolition amid prejudice, 1861-1862 -- The democratic opposition, 1861-1862 -- The Emancipation Proclamation and reactions -- The "problem" of freed slaves -- Freed slaves in reality -- Progress in the war but not in racial policy -- Progress, political crisis, and regression -- Freedom and the staying power of white supremacy.
Escott explores the contentious issue of American Civil War remembrance by comparing it to another national civil war--the Spanish Civil War. He explores the large-scale social and emotional wounds these conflicts left, the new power structures, the "spoils' of war, the future the winning sides created for each country, and various ways later generations revisited the moral and political aspects of the conflict
North Carolinian ambivalence : rethinking loyalty and disaffection in the Civil War Piedmont / David Brown -- A more rigorous style of warfare : Wild's Raid, guerrilla violence, and negotiated neutrality in northeastern North Carolina / Barton A. Myers -- Visions of freedom and civilization opening before them : African Americans search for autonomy during military occupation in North Carolina / Judkin Browning -- The order of nature would be reversed : soldiers, slavery, and the North Carolina gubernatorial election of 1864 / Chandra Manning -- To do justice to North Carolina : the war's end according to Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Zebulon B. Vance, and David L. Swain / John C. Inscoe -- Reconstruction and North Carolina women's tangled history with law and governance / Laura F. Edwards -- No longer under cover(ture) : marriage, divorce, and gender in the 1868 Constitutional Convention / Karin Zipf -- Different colored currents of the sea : reconstruction North Carolina, mutuality, and the political roots of Jim Crow, 1872-1875 / Paul Yandle -- The immortal Vance : the political commemoration of North Carolina's war governor / Steven E. Nash
