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  • Atlanta, Cradle of the New South: Race and Remembering in the Civil War Aftermath by William A. Link
  • Kaylynn L. Washnock
Atlanta, Cradle of the New South: Race and Remembering in the Civil War Aftermath by William A. Link. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013. Pp. 251.)

Providing a thorough investigation of the “Phoenix City” and how it struggled to shape the memory of the Civil War, Atlanta, Cradle of the New South is a most welcome addition to studies on Atlanta’s role as the birthplace of Henry Grady’s New South. William A. Link casts Atlanta as exceptional, due to the city’s wartime experience, yet also representative of the efforts to reconstruct the postbellum South. The maintenance of a racial system that preserved white supremacy was crucial to postwar renewal and the social construction of what is known as the New South. Link demonstrates that “this contradictory concept—involving rosy progress combined with caste-based subordination—was created and marketed from postwar Atlanta, which represented a path for development” (3).

Although Link is concerned with the war’s aftermath, he begins with the familiar story of Atlanta’s destruction in 1864 by the invasion of General William T. Sherman’s forces. The vivid memory of Yankee invaders, Link claims, [End Page 103] directly shaped the vision of Atlanta’s wartime past. During the late 1860s, the Union army and Freedman’s Bureau provided African Americans some degree of protection; however, Southern whites saw both entities as enemy intruders seeking to destroy the fragile racial hierarchy. Throughout the 1880s, Grady’s boisterous promotion of the New South repeatedly stressed the antebellum racial status quo, yet when Sherman returned to Atlanta during the Cotton Exposition he expressed great concern and predicted a race crisis. Between the Ku Klux Klan’s perpetuation of vigilante justice and the violent murder of George Ashburn—a Republican “scalawag”—racial tensions continued to mount despite Grady’s promise of “racial peace” in the New South.

Perhaps of greatest significance is Link’s discussion of the African American response to the whitewashed narrative. Link utilizes prominent speeches and newspapers articles to demonstrate that “Black Atlantans actively contested the monolithic white vision of the South’s past and future” (173). In particular, he recognizes the centrality of enclaves of black autonomy such as the interdenominational abolitionist American Missionary Association (AMA) and Atlanta University. Both provided racial equality, educational opportunities, and leadership training. Black institutions, such as these, “extended the education and cultural legacy of northern abolition into the twentieth century to create a new kind of black cultural freedom” (199). Atlanta University’s “We Are Rising” rally cry epitomized the strides toward black cultural, political, and economic independence. Nevertheless, even the African American community presented contrasting views. While Booker T. Washington’s 1895 “Atlanta Compromise” speech advocated black progress, W. E. Du Bois and the Niagara Movement saw this as too accommodating. Link marks the culmination of this nearly half-century struggle to assign meaning to the Civil War and the New South with the 1906 outburst of violence during the Atlanta Race Riot.

Overall, Link shows that Atlanta’s vibrant post–Civil War African American community crafted an empowering view of the war and emancipation which challenged the white vision of the New South that had systematically eliminated issues of race. Despite its slender size, at just under 200 pages before notes, Atlanta, Cradle of the New South incorporates an impressive array of sources. Link makes use of archives from Tulane, Emory, Duke, Atlanta University, and the Atlanta History Center. Records from the Southern Historical Collection, Southern Claims Commission, and Freedman’s Bureau are also included along with a series of maps, graphs, and illustrations. Link’s meticulous account of Atlanta illuminates the larger national debate that occurred in late nineteenth century to define the meaning of the Civil War and its consequences. Atlanta, Cradle of the New South contains many important contributions that advance the study of Civil War memory, [End Page 104] post-emancipation African American communities, and Atlanta that should not be overlooked.

Kaylynn L. Washnock
University of Georgia
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