Blacks, Carpetbaggers, and Scalawags: The Constitutional Conventions of Radical Reconstruction

Blacks, Carpetbaggers, and Scalawags: The Constitutional Conventions of Radical Reconstruction. By Richard L. Hume and Jerry B. Gough. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Uni- versity Press, 2008. xiv, 528 pp. #65.00, JSBN 978-0-8071-3324-8.)

In this impressive study of the constitutional conventions prompted by the Reconstruction Act of 1867, Richard L. Hume and Jerry B. Gough present a wealth of data on the 1,018 delegates who wrote new state constitutions guaranteeing political equality for African American men. From the election of delegates through votes on issues such as public education to ratification, the authors also reveal the political seeds of southern redemption. Contrary to the popular conception of Reconstruction politics as dominated by African Americans and corrupt northern whites (or carpetbaggers), Hume...