The South Carolina Scalawags in the Post-Civil War South

FAIN: FT-52211-04

Hyman S. Rubin III
Columbia College, South Carolina (Columbia, SC 29203-5949)

This study tells the story of the South Carolina scalawags--those native whites who joined the state's Republican party after the Civil War. For their collaboration with the freedmen (who comprised the great majority of the party) and with northerners, the scalawags were ostracized and attacked by most of white society. This study elucidates the scalawags' backgrounds, actions, and fates, while telling the familiar story of Reconstruction from an unfamiliar perspective, that of white southerners who broke ranks with their neighbors and supported the political rights of their black neighbors.