Beyond Redemption: Race, Violence, and the American South after the Civil War

by Carole Emberton

In the months after the end of the Civil War, there was one word on everyone’s redemption. From the fiery language of Radical Republicans calling for a reconstruction of the former Confederacy to the petitions of those individuals who had worked the land as slaves to the white supremacists who would bring an end to Reconstruction in the late 1870s, this crucial concept informed the ways in which many people—both black and white, northerner and southerner—imagined the transformation of the American South.


Beyond Redemption explores how the violence of a protracted civil war shaped the meaning of freedom and citizenship in the new South. Here, Carole Emberton traces the competing meanings that redemption held for Americans as they tried to come to terms with the war and the changing social landscape. While some imagined redemption from the brutality of slavery and war, others—like the infamous Ku Klux Klan—sought political and racial redemption for their losses through violence. Beyond Redemption merges studies of race and American manhood with an analysis of post-Civil War American politics to offer unconventional and challenging insight into the violence of Reconstruction.

Genres: History, Civil War, American History

293 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Historian & writer. Kentucky born, Buffalo livin'. Lover of historical fiction, mysteries, and southern lit.

Reviews

[Kidada · Rating 5 out of 5]

Using a very diverse collection of archival material, Emberton throws needed light on Reconstruction by exploring the theme of redemption and how belief in it informed different Americans' sensibilities and actions as they attempted to make sense of the Civil War and its consequences. It pairs nicely with Doug Egerton's The Wars of Reconstruction and Caroline Janney's Remembering the Civil War.

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent look at citizenship, guns, and the role they played in Reconstruction era concepts of manhood.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I interviewed Professor Emberton for my library's Unpacking Our History video series.
You can check it out:

https://youtu.be/-3YljHYTq98