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Cape Fear Rising
In August 1898, Wilmington, North Carolina, was a Mecca for middle-class black citizens. Many of the city's lawyers, businessmen, and other professionals were black, as were all the tradesmen and stevedores. The black community outnumbered the white community by more than two to one. But the white civic leaders, many descended from the antebellum aristocracy, did not consider this progress. They looked around and saw working class white citizens out of jobs. They heard black citizens addressing white neighbors "in the familiar." They hated the fact that local government was run by Republican "Fusionists" sympathetic to the black majority. Rumors began to fly. The newspaper office turned into an arsenal. Secret societies espousing white supremacy were formed. Isolated incidents a shot was fired through a streetcar bearing white passengers, a black cemetery was desecrated. This incendiary atmosphere was inflamed further by public speeches from an ex-Confederate colonel and a firebrand black preacher. One morning in November, the almost inevitable gunfire began. By the time order was restored, many of the city's most visible black leaders had been literally put on trains and told to leave town, hundreds of black citizens were forced to hide out in the city's cemetery or the nearby swamps to avoid massacre, and dozens of victims lay dead. Based on actual events, Cape Fear Rising tells a story of one city's racial nightmare―a nightmare that was repeated throughout the South at the turn of the century. Although told as fiction, the core of this novel strikes at the heart of racial strife in America. Philip Gerard is the author of five novels and eight books of nonfiction, including Down the Wild Cape A River Journey Through the Heart of North Carolina and The Patron Saint of Dreams , winner of the 2012 North American Gold Medal in Essay/Creative Nonfiction from The Independent Publisher . "[A] complex and convincing . . . story [that] smartly limns the tangled combination of economic, social and visceral elements that led Wilmington to violence . . . " ―Publishers Weekly
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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312 people want to read
About the author
Philip Gerard
37 books14 followersPhilip Gerard is the author of 13 books, including The Last Battleground: The Civil War Comes to North Carolina. Gerard was the author of Our State's Civil War series. He currently teaches in the department of creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
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January 17, 2021
The Cape Fear River looks so peaceful as it flows southward past Wilmington, on its way down to the sea. Yet the Cape Fear region has seen its share of turbulent history - history that resonates in the present day - as Philip Gerard chronicles in his 1997 historical novel Cape Fear Rising.
Gerard, who chairs the professional writing and creative writing programs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, knows his region well; another of his books, Down the Wild Cape Fear (2013), chronicles his observations during a canoe-and-powerboat trip from the river’s source to its outlet. In Cape Fear Rising, however, Gerard takes for his subject one of the grimmest episodes from the history of Wilmington, North Carolina: the violent coup d’état of 1898 in which white supremacists seized power from the multiracial, democratically elected government of what was then the state’s largest city.
This novel about 1898 actually begins with a prologue set in 1831; a group of African-American men make their way into Wilmington in hopes of finding work. Unfortunately, however, they are traveling in the time after Nat Turner led the Southampton Insurrection, the most sustained and successful slave rebellion in U.S. history; and as they enter Wilmington, they encounter a group of white vigilantes who want nothing more than a pretext to inflict violence against some of the black men they hate and fear, particularly in the aftermath of Nat Turner’s rebellion. The "revenge" that the white mob unleashes against men who are guilty of nothing other than being black and looking for work is hideous, and chilling. At first, these horrifying events seem to have nothing to do with the Wilmington coup d’état of 1898; later in the novel, however, the connection is made more clear.
Cape Fear Rising then moves to the novel’s main action. Readers, most of whom will be relatively new to Wilmington, are brought into the city, by train, with two of the novel’s main characters: journalist Sam Jenks and his wife Gray Ellen Jenks. Sam is a recovering alcoholic who is trying to make a new start as a journalist in Wilmington; Gray Ellen, disillusioned by the failures caused by Sam’s drinking, is wondering whether she and Sam have a future together.
But these two Northerners swiftly find that they have much to learn about life in the Southern city of Wilmington in 1898. Their outsider status within a city where everybody seems to know everybody is emphasized. Sam, trying to rebuild his marriage, asks Gray Ellen, “Do you think we’ll be able to stay here?” and Gray Ellen replies, “The people are different….It’s what they say. What they don’t say. Whenever I leave a room, I can feel them talking behind my back” (p. 101).
Sam finds that his work as a journalist has virtually nothing to do with reporting the facts; rather, he is expected to add to the stream of racist propaganda being disseminated throughout Wilmington, all of it at the behest of powerful men who want to bring down the progressive-minded government of the city. The event that the conspirators hope to use as a catalyst in their scheme to seize power is a news editorial by local editor Alex Manly -- an editorial that said, among other things, that there are sometimes consensual sexual relationships between white women and African-American men.
This challenge to the racial taboos of the segregationist South is milked for maximum effect. Sam, at first, goes along to get along, though he later tries to rebel against his assigned role as tool of the vested interests. But his efforts are futile; when Sam, late in the novel, brings his editor a factually accurate account of the coup d’état, his editor responds dismissively: “You think the facts make it true?...Get out of here” (p. 400).
Gray Ellen meanwhile begins a new career as a teacher in an African-American school, swiftly builds a strong rapport with her students, and discovers her talent at and enjoyment of teaching. But she has a troubling encounter with Ivanhoe Grant, an eloquent and charismatic preacher whose militant advocacy of African-American rights worries the city’s more cautious black leadership; and in the process of that encounter, Gray Ellen discovers that her own liberalism has its limits.
The men planning the coup d’état include prominent businessman Hugh MacRae and Colonel Alfred Moore Waddell, who garners every possible degree of political capital from his service in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Father Christopher Dennen, a Catholic priest opposed to the coup, sees the self-interest inherent in Waddell’s plans and tells Waddell, “I don’t think you believe in this so-called Cause any more than I do….Everyone else may underestimate you, but I know exactly what you’re capable of” (p. 200).
But among Wilmington whites, sympathy for the conspirators’ dedication to restoring a white-supremacist order in Wilmington is widespread; and the machinations of upper-class leaders like MacRae and Waddell are compared with the violent proclivities of the brutal and uneducated “Red Shirts.” There are many different players among the men who are planning the coup d’état, and after a while it can seem difficult to tell the conspirators without a scorecard. But Gerard does a strong and effective job of dramatizing the tension that builds within Wilmington as the coup moves toward its violent climax.
Cape Fear Rising is, in many ways, a profoundly disheartening novel. It tells a true story, and a story that every American should know; but to call it a sad story is almost an understatement. What small measure of hope is to be found as the coup takes place comes through the words of John G. Norwood, an educator and community leader: “In a few years, or a few decades, there would be another kind of white man in the South – a white man as color-blind as Mrs. [Gray Ellen] Jenks….[T]hey would have moved beyond the old antagonism. They would understand that The Negro was as mythical as The White Man” (p. 298). These are hopeful words, and perhaps we as a society have moved closer toward the realization of that ideal. Perhaps.
I read Cape Fear Rising on a trip to Wilmington – a placid little city today, with citizens of all backgrounds mingling peacefully at Port City Coffee, or at restaurants like the Pilot House on the boardwalk along the Cape Fear River. But this well-researched, well-written historical novel provides a grim reminder of social injustices from our past that resonate in our present. Published by John F. Blair, a Winston-Salem firm that excels in publishing North Carolina regional material, Cape Fear Rising does all the things that a good historical novel should do.
Addendum - January 16, 2021:
Until ten days ago, Cape Fear Rising was, for me, simply a fine historical novel that told an interesting and important story from a grim time in the history of the United States. Yet in the wake of the attack on the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6, 2021, the story recounted by Philip Gerard takes on new and doubly menacing significance.
The attack on the Capitol has been described variously as a riot, an insurrection, and a coup attempt. Call it what you will, we can all agree that those who attacked the Capitol sought to keep the U.S. Congress from fulfilling its Constitutional role of certifying the Electoral College vote - and, thereby, of confirming challenger Joe Biden's victory over incumbent president Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Watching the events of the attack and its aftermath, I found myself looking back at the 1898 Wilmington coup d’état dramatized by Gerard in his novel, and seeing a number of parallels between Wilmington in 1898 and Capitol Hill in 2021.
Both incidents involved what I will call "suits" and "muscle." The "suits" are the well-dressed, well-coiffed leaders who gather the crowd together and tell the people in the crowd what to do. In 1898, they included Confederate veterans wrapping themselves in the rebel flag of the "Lost Cause"; in 2021, they included an Alabama congressman, a former mayor of New York City, the son of the U.S. president, and even the president himself. In 1898, the "muscle" that actually carried out the attack and perpetrated its physical violence were the brutal "Red Shirts"; in 2021, the "muscle" included groups with names like "Proud Boys," "3 Percenters," and "Oath Keepers." Both "suits" and "muscle," it seems, are necessary for any sort of coup attempt to go forward.
It also helps if there are compliant media entities that will seek to frame the coup in terms that will be pleasing to the "suits" and the "muscle." In Gerard's novel, we see the newspaper editor who responds to Sam Jenks's accurate reporting of the coup by telling Jenks, "You think the facts make it true?...Get out of here." After the Capitol Hill attack, we saw reporters and commentators for certain media sources twist themselves into rhetorical knots in their efforts to blame the attack on someone, anyone, other than the people who actually carried out the attack: militant supporters of the incumbent president, unable to bear the idea that their candidate had lost an election.
There are differences, of course, between Wilmington 1898 and Capitol Hill 2021. Wilmington was a "traditional" coup d’état; a group that was out of power used illegal means to seize power from another group that had been elected legally. The Capitol Hill attack, by contrast, might best be described via the Latin American term autogolpe, meaning "self-coup": a group that had attained power through the established legal process subsequently tried to hold onto it via illegal means.
For all of these reasons, Cape Fear Rising and the historical event that it dramatizes have resonated in my mind over the past ten days. Here in the United States of America, we make much of precedent. Ten days ago, a 220-year-old precedent was broken - the precedent that dictated that, no matter how passionate or bitter any particular presidential campaign might be, the transition of power from one presidential administration to the next would always occur peacefully.
Now that that precedent has been broken, I find myself wondering - as many Americans wondered after Wilmington 1898 - when will be the next time that a group of people decide that it is their place to use violence to displace an elected U.S. government, and to replace it with a government that is more to their liking?
It is worrying to contemplate that, sometimes, what is past is prologue.
Gerard, who chairs the professional writing and creative writing programs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, knows his region well; another of his books, Down the Wild Cape Fear (2013), chronicles his observations during a canoe-and-powerboat trip from the river’s source to its outlet. In Cape Fear Rising, however, Gerard takes for his subject one of the grimmest episodes from the history of Wilmington, North Carolina: the violent coup d’état of 1898 in which white supremacists seized power from the multiracial, democratically elected government of what was then the state’s largest city.
This novel about 1898 actually begins with a prologue set in 1831; a group of African-American men make their way into Wilmington in hopes of finding work. Unfortunately, however, they are traveling in the time after Nat Turner led the Southampton Insurrection, the most sustained and successful slave rebellion in U.S. history; and as they enter Wilmington, they encounter a group of white vigilantes who want nothing more than a pretext to inflict violence against some of the black men they hate and fear, particularly in the aftermath of Nat Turner’s rebellion. The "revenge" that the white mob unleashes against men who are guilty of nothing other than being black and looking for work is hideous, and chilling. At first, these horrifying events seem to have nothing to do with the Wilmington coup d’état of 1898; later in the novel, however, the connection is made more clear.
Cape Fear Rising then moves to the novel’s main action. Readers, most of whom will be relatively new to Wilmington, are brought into the city, by train, with two of the novel’s main characters: journalist Sam Jenks and his wife Gray Ellen Jenks. Sam is a recovering alcoholic who is trying to make a new start as a journalist in Wilmington; Gray Ellen, disillusioned by the failures caused by Sam’s drinking, is wondering whether she and Sam have a future together.
But these two Northerners swiftly find that they have much to learn about life in the Southern city of Wilmington in 1898. Their outsider status within a city where everybody seems to know everybody is emphasized. Sam, trying to rebuild his marriage, asks Gray Ellen, “Do you think we’ll be able to stay here?” and Gray Ellen replies, “The people are different….It’s what they say. What they don’t say. Whenever I leave a room, I can feel them talking behind my back” (p. 101).
Sam finds that his work as a journalist has virtually nothing to do with reporting the facts; rather, he is expected to add to the stream of racist propaganda being disseminated throughout Wilmington, all of it at the behest of powerful men who want to bring down the progressive-minded government of the city. The event that the conspirators hope to use as a catalyst in their scheme to seize power is a news editorial by local editor Alex Manly -- an editorial that said, among other things, that there are sometimes consensual sexual relationships between white women and African-American men.
This challenge to the racial taboos of the segregationist South is milked for maximum effect. Sam, at first, goes along to get along, though he later tries to rebel against his assigned role as tool of the vested interests. But his efforts are futile; when Sam, late in the novel, brings his editor a factually accurate account of the coup d’état, his editor responds dismissively: “You think the facts make it true?...Get out of here” (p. 400).
Gray Ellen meanwhile begins a new career as a teacher in an African-American school, swiftly builds a strong rapport with her students, and discovers her talent at and enjoyment of teaching. But she has a troubling encounter with Ivanhoe Grant, an eloquent and charismatic preacher whose militant advocacy of African-American rights worries the city’s more cautious black leadership; and in the process of that encounter, Gray Ellen discovers that her own liberalism has its limits.
The men planning the coup d’état include prominent businessman Hugh MacRae and Colonel Alfred Moore Waddell, who garners every possible degree of political capital from his service in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Father Christopher Dennen, a Catholic priest opposed to the coup, sees the self-interest inherent in Waddell’s plans and tells Waddell, “I don’t think you believe in this so-called Cause any more than I do….Everyone else may underestimate you, but I know exactly what you’re capable of” (p. 200).
But among Wilmington whites, sympathy for the conspirators’ dedication to restoring a white-supremacist order in Wilmington is widespread; and the machinations of upper-class leaders like MacRae and Waddell are compared with the violent proclivities of the brutal and uneducated “Red Shirts.” There are many different players among the men who are planning the coup d’état, and after a while it can seem difficult to tell the conspirators without a scorecard. But Gerard does a strong and effective job of dramatizing the tension that builds within Wilmington as the coup moves toward its violent climax.
Cape Fear Rising is, in many ways, a profoundly disheartening novel. It tells a true story, and a story that every American should know; but to call it a sad story is almost an understatement. What small measure of hope is to be found as the coup takes place comes through the words of John G. Norwood, an educator and community leader: “In a few years, or a few decades, there would be another kind of white man in the South – a white man as color-blind as Mrs. [Gray Ellen] Jenks….[T]hey would have moved beyond the old antagonism. They would understand that The Negro was as mythical as The White Man” (p. 298). These are hopeful words, and perhaps we as a society have moved closer toward the realization of that ideal. Perhaps.
I read Cape Fear Rising on a trip to Wilmington – a placid little city today, with citizens of all backgrounds mingling peacefully at Port City Coffee, or at restaurants like the Pilot House on the boardwalk along the Cape Fear River. But this well-researched, well-written historical novel provides a grim reminder of social injustices from our past that resonate in our present. Published by John F. Blair, a Winston-Salem firm that excels in publishing North Carolina regional material, Cape Fear Rising does all the things that a good historical novel should do.
Addendum - January 16, 2021:
Until ten days ago, Cape Fear Rising was, for me, simply a fine historical novel that told an interesting and important story from a grim time in the history of the United States. Yet in the wake of the attack on the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6, 2021, the story recounted by Philip Gerard takes on new and doubly menacing significance.
The attack on the Capitol has been described variously as a riot, an insurrection, and a coup attempt. Call it what you will, we can all agree that those who attacked the Capitol sought to keep the U.S. Congress from fulfilling its Constitutional role of certifying the Electoral College vote - and, thereby, of confirming challenger Joe Biden's victory over incumbent president Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Watching the events of the attack and its aftermath, I found myself looking back at the 1898 Wilmington coup d’état dramatized by Gerard in his novel, and seeing a number of parallels between Wilmington in 1898 and Capitol Hill in 2021.
Both incidents involved what I will call "suits" and "muscle." The "suits" are the well-dressed, well-coiffed leaders who gather the crowd together and tell the people in the crowd what to do. In 1898, they included Confederate veterans wrapping themselves in the rebel flag of the "Lost Cause"; in 2021, they included an Alabama congressman, a former mayor of New York City, the son of the U.S. president, and even the president himself. In 1898, the "muscle" that actually carried out the attack and perpetrated its physical violence were the brutal "Red Shirts"; in 2021, the "muscle" included groups with names like "Proud Boys," "3 Percenters," and "Oath Keepers." Both "suits" and "muscle," it seems, are necessary for any sort of coup attempt to go forward.
It also helps if there are compliant media entities that will seek to frame the coup in terms that will be pleasing to the "suits" and the "muscle." In Gerard's novel, we see the newspaper editor who responds to Sam Jenks's accurate reporting of the coup by telling Jenks, "You think the facts make it true?...Get out of here." After the Capitol Hill attack, we saw reporters and commentators for certain media sources twist themselves into rhetorical knots in their efforts to blame the attack on someone, anyone, other than the people who actually carried out the attack: militant supporters of the incumbent president, unable to bear the idea that their candidate had lost an election.
There are differences, of course, between Wilmington 1898 and Capitol Hill 2021. Wilmington was a "traditional" coup d’état; a group that was out of power used illegal means to seize power from another group that had been elected legally. The Capitol Hill attack, by contrast, might best be described via the Latin American term autogolpe, meaning "self-coup": a group that had attained power through the established legal process subsequently tried to hold onto it via illegal means.
For all of these reasons, Cape Fear Rising and the historical event that it dramatizes have resonated in my mind over the past ten days. Here in the United States of America, we make much of precedent. Ten days ago, a 220-year-old precedent was broken - the precedent that dictated that, no matter how passionate or bitter any particular presidential campaign might be, the transition of power from one presidential administration to the next would always occur peacefully.
Now that that precedent has been broken, I find myself wondering - as many Americans wondered after Wilmington 1898 - when will be the next time that a group of people decide that it is their place to use violence to displace an elected U.S. government, and to replace it with a government that is more to their liking?
It is worrying to contemplate that, sometimes, what is past is prologue.
March 22, 2011
Wilmington, North Carolina is the only city in the entire history of the United States to have its elected government violently overthrown.
Yes, the sort of thing you think couldn't possibly happen here, did indeed happen here in 1898. The recently elected integrated city council was forced out by a group of wealthy white men.
"Cape Fear Rising" is a fictionalized account of the 1898 Wilmington race riots. I had a hard time getting through this book, even though I found the subject truly fascinating. A great story was lost among lengthy descriptions and Gerard's clunky style.
Still, I did manage to read on until the end, where, of course, all hell breaks loose. As a resident of Wilmington, a lot of the names of the conspirators are familiar--they're all on street signs and adorning parks and historic buildings. The story did motivate me to want to find out more about the 1898 riots, but then again, that's the reason I read the book in the first place.
"Cape Fear Rising" could have been a real page turner and it was at times. But overall, it was a disappointment.
Yes, the sort of thing you think couldn't possibly happen here, did indeed happen here in 1898. The recently elected integrated city council was forced out by a group of wealthy white men.
"Cape Fear Rising" is a fictionalized account of the 1898 Wilmington race riots. I had a hard time getting through this book, even though I found the subject truly fascinating. A great story was lost among lengthy descriptions and Gerard's clunky style.
Still, I did manage to read on until the end, where, of course, all hell breaks loose. As a resident of Wilmington, a lot of the names of the conspirators are familiar--they're all on street signs and adorning parks and historic buildings. The story did motivate me to want to find out more about the 1898 riots, but then again, that's the reason I read the book in the first place.
"Cape Fear Rising" could have been a real page turner and it was at times. But overall, it was a disappointment.
October 20, 2025
3.5⭐️ Such an important story! Still little known outside of the proximity of Wilmington. My problem with the book is with the writing. Very slow at times. Confusion with the characters. I had a hard time following the factions within the white groups. I still don’t know who was who. The political maneuvering was and is still confusing. The pace picked up at the end but confusion still reigns. As a new resident of Wilmington I would like to know more… I will have to seek clarification with other resources.
January 11, 2018
One can only try to imagine what Wilmington, NC, and the country, might have been like today if the coup of 1898 had not happened. Very few of us had any idea that a violent overthrow of the democratically elected local government had even occurred. With at least dozens of lives lost - and hundreds of futures destroyed - the course of history was permanently changed by a mob of power hungry residents. Based on the only too true story of this piece of history, this book forces us to begin questioning how many other embarrassing details of our history have been ignored by the history books, buried with the dead.
December 17, 2007
What a masterpiece. Again, I feel so privileged to have Philip Gerard as my professor. This book tackles such important issues, and the blend of history and fiction is seamless (almost too seamless, as I don't know who exactly is real! My only complaint). Every word rings true. This is the kind of writing to which I aspire.
October 30, 2023
Unbelievable that this happened only about 120 years ago. Spoiler— this story documents the 150 black people murdered and the 1000 black people ‘ran out of town’ in Wilmington in 1898. Read this for my first Island Readers Book Club. The tampered elections, overthrow of government, seizing of property, mob violence, murder of innocent people, legalizing unlawful acts and more happened to change the course of the city’s history. Then, even after these horrible events, some of these people were still honored and rewarded. 3.5 stars - glad I read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 24, 2019
The history that I learned in school did not tell the whole story. As a resident of NC and the USA, this book fills in gaps and tells some of the untold stories of my state and country.
August 13, 2020
Telling this story almost entirely from white points of view, exploring all the nuances of the beliefs of the organizers of the massacre while giving nearly no time to black voices, was...bizarre.
September 18, 2025
I love historical fiction and this book didn’t disappoint. Being a recent transplant to the Wilmington area I found it very interesting and well written. That being said it was without a doubt one of the most disturbing books that I’ve ever read. I couldn’t put it down. I highly recommend it.
February 3, 2016
Cape Fear Rising is a deeply researched, historically accurate envisioning of the 1898 Wilmington, North Carolina, Massacre, which was plotted and set into motion by white-supremacist city grandees, aided and abetted by a sensationalist local press and gangs of local hooligans, and resulted in the murder of anywhere from 14 to more than a hundred African-American Wilmingtonians and the "banishment" of some 1000 members of the black middle class as well as a group of "devilish" white Republican politicians and office holders who participated in Wilmington's post-Reconstruction government. Author Philip Gerard gives a compellingly accurate account of the summer and fall 1898 events that led up to the killings of 10 November as well as to the culminating event that distinguishes Wilmington as the only city in the United States to have experienced a successful municipal coup d'etat, in which the biracial Fusionist Republican-Populist government was deposed by election-day plotters and replaced by an all-white government of the leading conspirators.
For me (but perhaps not for others), the novel almost succeeds better as meticulous history than as a novel. Almost, because Gerard gives a plausible, persuasive account of the minds of the conspirators and those conspired against. But I found the motivations and behaviors Gerard creates for some of his invented principalts to be simply reckless, out-of-character, and thus implausible for the time, place, and character of the actor - and much of this to the end of raising the flag of miscegention (which of course makes - shadow of Faulkner - a "southern novel" a truly Southern Novel). To lay this out in any detail is a spoiler for potential readers, so I’ll leave this be. What Gerard could not have intended, however, but which rings remarkably true today, are the parallels the novel creates between the political climate of 1898 Wilmington, the views of the city’s upper crust, and contemporary 2016 American politics, the interconnections of which are startlingly revealed in the language of Wilmington’s White Supremacists – most importantly, the rallying cry of “Take our City back” and the racial motives that underlie such a call - which Gerard reproduces in detail, drawing on the documents and press of the day.
A short note on Gerard's particular perspective, which I think is important. He tells most of his story though the point-of-view of two Philadelphians, Sam and Gray Ellen Jenks, who have migrated to Wilmington with the assistance of Sam's influential cousin (and generally well-portrayed historical figure) Hugh MacCrae. Gerard is similarly not a native Wilmingtonian but at several points in his narrative talks about the particular magnetic pull of "place" on its inhabitants, who are pulled in this case are pulled in by the many good, even wonderful, aspects of Wilmington and who, if repelled by troubling aspects of the city, do mental tallies and offsets that yield the deduction, "...but this is my city. My place." Gerard loves Wilmington, New Hanover Country, the nearby sea, the Cape Fear River. So do his characters, from all walks of life. So do Sam and, to a lesser extent, Gray Ellen (for whom the sea coast is the county's saving grace). As a relatively new Wilmingtonian who had been coming here for nearly a decade and who has long read, thought, and written about the lure of the city, I understand this as a human motive, a kind of elaborate "you've made your bed, now sleep in it." For some of the players in this drama, love of place is a cynical cover story for simple pecuniary gain. For others, it's a more honest emotion.
The Wilmington Massacre was a turning point in the rollback of Reconstruction and the institutionalization of Jim Crow in the South. And Cape Fear Rising has a dramatis personae of heroes and villains in this event. Gerard is judgmental...but not ferociously so, and not without trying honestly to capture the motives - good, bad, indifferent - of the many names whose stories he partly retells, partly invents. This is an extremely worthy, informative, and at times moving story of a harrowing chapter in Wilmington history - and an answer to the question, "Why can't we put all this behind us?" As Gerard himself answers, "Well, you can’t really put it behind you until you put it in front of you." That's starting to happen now: many have finally realized that we can't look forward to a better future without fully and accurately understating the past. Cape Fear Rising is a useful avenue into one of the darker episodes of that past.
For me (but perhaps not for others), the novel almost succeeds better as meticulous history than as a novel. Almost, because Gerard gives a plausible, persuasive account of the minds of the conspirators and those conspired against. But I found the motivations and behaviors Gerard creates for some of his invented principalts to be simply reckless, out-of-character, and thus implausible for the time, place, and character of the actor - and much of this to the end of raising the flag of miscegention (which of course makes - shadow of Faulkner - a "southern novel" a truly Southern Novel). To lay this out in any detail is a spoiler for potential readers, so I’ll leave this be. What Gerard could not have intended, however, but which rings remarkably true today, are the parallels the novel creates between the political climate of 1898 Wilmington, the views of the city’s upper crust, and contemporary 2016 American politics, the interconnections of which are startlingly revealed in the language of Wilmington’s White Supremacists – most importantly, the rallying cry of “Take our City back” and the racial motives that underlie such a call - which Gerard reproduces in detail, drawing on the documents and press of the day.
A short note on Gerard's particular perspective, which I think is important. He tells most of his story though the point-of-view of two Philadelphians, Sam and Gray Ellen Jenks, who have migrated to Wilmington with the assistance of Sam's influential cousin (and generally well-portrayed historical figure) Hugh MacCrae. Gerard is similarly not a native Wilmingtonian but at several points in his narrative talks about the particular magnetic pull of "place" on its inhabitants, who are pulled in this case are pulled in by the many good, even wonderful, aspects of Wilmington and who, if repelled by troubling aspects of the city, do mental tallies and offsets that yield the deduction, "...but this is my city. My place." Gerard loves Wilmington, New Hanover Country, the nearby sea, the Cape Fear River. So do his characters, from all walks of life. So do Sam and, to a lesser extent, Gray Ellen (for whom the sea coast is the county's saving grace). As a relatively new Wilmingtonian who had been coming here for nearly a decade and who has long read, thought, and written about the lure of the city, I understand this as a human motive, a kind of elaborate "you've made your bed, now sleep in it." For some of the players in this drama, love of place is a cynical cover story for simple pecuniary gain. For others, it's a more honest emotion.
The Wilmington Massacre was a turning point in the rollback of Reconstruction and the institutionalization of Jim Crow in the South. And Cape Fear Rising has a dramatis personae of heroes and villains in this event. Gerard is judgmental...but not ferociously so, and not without trying honestly to capture the motives - good, bad, indifferent - of the many names whose stories he partly retells, partly invents. This is an extremely worthy, informative, and at times moving story of a harrowing chapter in Wilmington history - and an answer to the question, "Why can't we put all this behind us?" As Gerard himself answers, "Well, you can’t really put it behind you until you put it in front of you." That's starting to happen now: many have finally realized that we can't look forward to a better future without fully and accurately understating the past. Cape Fear Rising is a useful avenue into one of the darker episodes of that past.
November 6, 2011
This is an historical novel about events that took place in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898. Following the Civil War and Reconstruction blacks thrived here, filling skilled working class positions as well as political offices. White-led "redemption" arrived later than it did in some other Southern communities, but in November of 1898 it struck full force. Gerard does his best to weave this sorry tale together from several perspectives, drawing deeply upon the actual events and considerable research into primary materials. On the whole, it is a well-told tale.
July 28, 2011
Philip Gerard is an eloquent writer and he managed to capture the complexities of the late 1800s. This book demonstrates how people manipulate the hatred of others to benefit themselves financially. The failure of good people to intervene was based largely on fear of social isolation, the unknown, desperation, failure, or the possibility of danger. The author also points out how distorted that the truth can become even decades later when no one steps up and becomes an honest witness of history.
September 12, 2008
I have recently moved to North Carolina, near Wilmington. Cape Fear Rising introduces a bold time in our history that few of us are aware. The introduction of characters is a bit confusing but worth the effort to keep them all lined up. A great read.
December 30, 2010
Another exceptional tale based on facts. They may not be facts that some of us would be particularly proud of, but they are of historical significance. These facts also combine in Philip Gerard's writing skill to become one hell of a good novel.
January 11, 2014
Good book but difficult to deal with emotionally.
July 29, 2015
Good historical fiction about events that happened in Wilmington that I believe could still happen today...
March 18, 2020
This is a book that was hard to read due to its many characters, most based on real people. But it is a story that demands attention despite its difficult subject matter.
The only successful coup in the United States took place in 1898 in Wilmington, NC. Thousands of African-Americans were killed and even more fled the city. Institutional racism was 'legitimized' when white supremacists forced duly elected representatives to resign. They were banished and forced to leave the city. Those in power after the coup assumed the considerable assets left behind. The successful Black middle-class and skilled artisans fled for their lives, few have ever returned.
It is ironic that names in this book are honored in parks and roadways still in use today. When I first came to Wilmington, I noticed a dearth of African-American in the historic district of Wilmington, now I understand why.
The only successful coup in the United States took place in 1898 in Wilmington, NC. Thousands of African-Americans were killed and even more fled the city. Institutional racism was 'legitimized' when white supremacists forced duly elected representatives to resign. They were banished and forced to leave the city. Those in power after the coup assumed the considerable assets left behind. The successful Black middle-class and skilled artisans fled for their lives, few have ever returned.
It is ironic that names in this book are honored in parks and roadways still in use today. When I first came to Wilmington, I noticed a dearth of African-American in the historic district of Wilmington, now I understand why.
April 27, 2021
Amazing local historical fiction with beautiful scenery.
Paced gracefully with each chapter bouncing from character to character. It's easy to become emotionally invested in each storyline.
Only complaint whatsoever is that the ending left much to be desired. It was a bit of a fast and flat ending for how much energy was built up through the whole book.
Paced gracefully with each chapter bouncing from character to character. It's easy to become emotionally invested in each storyline.
Only complaint whatsoever is that the ending left much to be desired. It was a bit of a fast and flat ending for how much energy was built up through the whole book.
January 7, 2019
Very sobering historical account of the August 1898 massacre of prosperous black residents in Wilmington NC - and of the resulting destruction of the prosperous black presence in that city. An indelible black mark on Wilmington NC and its past citizens. No way to live down something like that.
January 11, 2023
I’ve now read several books both nonfiction and fiction about the 1898 massacre and I think this one does the best job of putting you inside the event. Whether build up or the battle itself, you feel what the key participants are feeling.
March 20, 2023
I stopped reading on page 82. I found the writing to be flat and wooden and thus lost interest.
If one is interested in learning about the events of 1898 in Wilmington NC, a much better choice is “Wilmington’s Lie”, a factual account.
If one is interested in learning about the events of 1898 in Wilmington NC, a much better choice is “Wilmington’s Lie”, a factual account.
November 23, 2025
A very powerful book! I'll have to make a side trip to Wilmington next time I'm in North Carolina to trace the history. The author's afterword was especially interesting, and sad to realize how accurate it is 10 years after he wrote it.
September 19, 2017
I decided not to read this book. I am interested in a factual account, not a fictional one.
June 20, 2020
True to the real story of what happened in the Wilmington coup of 1898.
May 19, 2021
(no 20 of 2021)
May 26, 2021
If you can digest the slang/dialogue of this, it’s a good read. I had no former knowledge of what took place here. Odd this is not part of any history class. 🤔🙁
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August 7, 2021Not what I was expecting. It was about black vs white along Cape Fear River.
April 16, 2024
Very interesting, tough read. White men behaving badly. Race conflicts, chaos, white supremacy, government overthrow. And all in Wilmington, NC.
November 6, 2024
If you can't handle nonfiction, this is a good way to learn about the only successful coup in the US. The author did his research.
November 14, 2025
Really interesting premise but just so slow and bogged down by a LOT of names and characters and no emotion at all.
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