SUGGESTED READING
CH A PTER 15
BOOKS
Bottoms, D. Michael. An Aristocracy of Color: Race and Reconstruction in Califor-
nia and the West, 1850–1890 (2013). A study of changing race relations, and
definitions of race, in the western states.
Butchart, Ronald E. Schooling the Freed People: Teaching, Learning, and the Struggle
for Black Freedom (2010). Relates the efforts of black and white teachers to
educate the former slaves and some of the conflicts that arose over the
purposes of such education.
Downs, Gregory. Declarations of Dependence: The Long Reconstruction of Popular
Politics in the South, 1861–1908 (2011). Traces the changing ways black and
white southerners sought aid and protection from the government during
and after the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Downs, James. Sick from Freedom: The Deadly Consequences of Emancipation
(2012). How disease shaped the experience of freedom and how the Freed-
men’s Bureau and other agencies sought to cope with widespread illness
among former slaves.
DuBois, Ellen C. Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent
Women’s Movement in America, 1848–1869 (1978). Explores how the split
over the exclusion of women from the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend-
ments gave rise to a movement for woman suffrage no longer tied to the
abolitionist tradition.
Edwards, Laura. Gendered Strife and Confusion: The Political Culture of Reconstruc-
tion (1997). Considers how issues relating to gender relations affected the
course of southern Reconstruction.
Fields, Barbara J. Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland during the
Nineteenth Century (1985). A study of slavery and emancipation in a key
border state.
Foner, Eric. Nothing but Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy (1983). Includes
a comparison of the emancipation experience in different parts of the
Western Hemisphere.
Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 (1988).
A comprehensive account of the Reconstruction era.
★ A-1