A Short History of Reconstruction [Updated Edition]

by Eric Foner

Clearly, the First Redemption belied the idea that Southern Democrats acquiesced in the democratic and free labor revolutions embodied in Reconstruction. And in pursuit of power, the opponents of Reconstruction launched a campaign of violence that confronted Republican governments with a challenge to their very physical survival. It is a measure of how far change had progressed that the reaction against Reconstruction proved so extreme.