In this Book
- Well-Nigh Reconstructed: A Political Novel
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: The University of Tennessee Press
summary
In 1882 William Simpson Pearson, writing under the pseudonym Brinsley Matthews, published Well-Nigh Reconstructed, a thinly disguised autobiographical novel excoriating the enormous societal changes that had beset the former Confederacy during Reconstruction. Pearson’s work was especially notable in that the author was a onetime Radical Republican and supporter of Ulysses S. Grant’s bid for the presidency.
Echoing Pearson’s own disillusionment with the Radical Republicans, the novel’s protagonist, Archie Moran, comes to see Radical Reconstruction as an attempt to turn the South into a carbon copy of the North, and through a series of encounters involving corrupt carpetbaggers, greedy politicians, and the Klan trials of the late 1870s, Moran grows weary of politics altogether and resigns his Republican Party affiliation. For Pearson and his doppelganger, Moran, Reconstruction became a vast breeding ground for corruption.
Featuring an extensive introduction by historian Paul D. Yandle, who sets the political and regional scene of Reconstruction North Carolina, this reissue of Well-Nigh Reconstruction will shed new light on the ways in which sectionalism, regionalism, and the embrace of white supremacy tended to undermine the recently reconstituted Union among Appalachian residents.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Introduction
- pp. xi-lxxvi
- A SUGGESTION TO THE NORTH
- pp. 5-6
- CHAPTER I. Introduced To You
- pp. 7-19
- CHAPTER IV. The Serpent Enters
- pp. 32-41
- CHAPTER VIII. Reconstruction Justice
- pp. 72-85
- CHAPTER X. A Gentlemanly K. K.
- pp. 94-99
- CHAPTER XI. K.K. That Were Not Gentlemen
- pp. 100-114
- CHAPTER XIV. A Very Young Man's Letter
- pp. 134-137
- CHAPTER XVI. The Weightiest of Reminders
- pp. 146-151
- CHAPTER XVIII. Ravenscroft Under a Cloud
- pp. 160-167
- CHAPTER XIX. The Cloud Blackens and Bursts
- pp. 167-170
- CHAPTER XX. A Court Organized to Convict
- pp. 171-176
- CHAPTER XXI. Conviction Without a Court
- pp. 176-185
- CHAPTER XXIII. En Route
- pp. 195-205
- CHAPTER XXV. From the Same to the Same
- pp. 209-211
- CHAPTER XXVI. A Couple of Ca-Sa's
- pp. 212-219
- CHAPTER XXVII. Tit For Tat
- pp. 220-228
- CHAPTER XXVIII. New Friends
- pp. 228-233
- CHAPTER XXIX. Faithful Unto Death
- pp. 234-244
- CHAPTER XXX. A Sweeter South
- pp. 244-251
- CHAPTER XXXI.
- pp. 251-260
- CHAPTER XXXII. The Fatted Calf
- pp. 260-271
- CHAPTER XXXIII. Hands All 'Round
- pp. 271-279
Additional Information
ISBN
9781572337374
Related ISBN(s)
9781572337213
MARC Record
OCLC
707068787
Pages
356
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-11
Language
English
Open Access
No