Civil Wars and Civil Beings: Societal Construction, Reconstruction, and Post-Reconstruction in Perry County, Alabama, 1860-75

FAIN: HB-232176-16

Bertis Deon English
Alabama State University (Montgomery, AL 36104-5732)

Writing and research toward the publication of a book about racial cooperation in Reconstruction-era Perry County, Alabama.

"Civil Wars and Civil Beings" is a scholarly book manuscript about Perry County, Alabama, during the Civil War era. Reconstruction is foremost. Unlike neighboring places in the Black Belt, one of the South’s most violent areas during Reconstruction, Perry County experienced few major economic, political, or racial clashes following Confederate defeat. Nostalgic whites threatened several activist blacks and white Republicans in Perry, but only a handful of individuals were hanged, maimed, shot, whipped, or killed in the county due to prejudice. Instead, whites and blacks in Perry usually developed the types of relationships and institutions that helped African Americans enjoy citizenship. This occurrence was uncharacteristic for Alabama and the remainder of the South from 1865 through 1874, the orthodox years of Alabama Reconstruction.

Associated Products

Civil Wars, Civil Beings, and Civil Rights in Alabama's Black Belt (Book)
Title: Civil Wars, Civil Beings, and Civil Rights in Alabama's Black Belt
Author: Bertis D. English
Abstract: In his fascinating, in-depth study, Bertis D. English analyzes why Perry County, situated in the heart of a violence-prone subregion of Alabama, enjoyed more peaceful race relations and less bloodshed than several neighboring counties. Choosing an atypical locality as central to his study, English raises questions about factors affecting ethnic disturbances in the Black Belt and elsewhere in Alabama. He also uses Perry County, which he deems an anomalous county, to caution against the tendency of some scholars to make sweeping generalizations about entire regions and subregions. English contends Perry County was a relatively tranquil place with a set of extremely influential African American businessmen, clergy, politicians, and other leaders during Reconstruction. Together with egalitarian or opportunistic white citizens, they headed a successful campaign for black agency and biracial cooperation that few counties in Alabama matched. English also illustrates how a significant number of educational institutions, a high density of African American residents, and an unusually organized and informed African American population were essential factors in forming Perry County’s character. He likewise traces the development of religion in Perry, the nineteenth-century Baptist capital of Alabama, and the emergence of civil rights in Perry, an underemphasized center of activism during the twentieth century. This well-researched and comprehensive volume illuminates Perry County’s history from the various perspectives of its black, interracial, and white inhabitants, amplifying their own voices in a novel way. The narrative includes rich personal details about ordinary and affluent people, both free and unfree, creating a distinctive resource that will be useful to scholars as well as a reference that will serve the needs of students and general readers.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/civil-wars-civil-beings-and-civil-rights-in-alabamas-black-belt-a-history-of-perry-county/oclc/1195550913&referer=brief_results
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 97808173206
Copy sent to NEH?: No

Prizes

C. Calvin Smith-Wali R. Kharif Book Award
Date: 2/16/2021
Organization: Southern Conference on African American Studies

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