Fractured Freedoms

“A highly anticipated and important contribution to the scholarship on this tumultuous and contentious period in U.S. history. David T. Ballantyne offers original insights and bold conclusions that deserve careful consideration.” ~John C. Rodrigue, author of Freedom’s Crescent: The Civil War and the Destruction of Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley

“Louisiana was at the heart of Reconstruction, and Rapides Parish and Alexandria on the Red River were at the heart of Louisiana. In Fractured Freedoms, David T. Ballantyne has thoroughly and carefully untangled the story of shifting political alignments, halting efforts toward interracial democracy, and the powerful forces arrayed against those efforts.” ~Bruce E. Baker, coeditor of Remembering Reconstruction: Struggles over the Meaning of America’s Most Turbulent Era

“In this deeply researched study of central Louisiana, David T. Ballantyne reminds us of Reconstruction’s many successes—and its ongoing importance to American political history in the twenty-first century. A must-read for all scholars of Reconstruction.” ~Carole Emberton, author of Beyond Redemption: Race, Violence, and the American South after the Civil War

“In Fractured Freedoms, David T. Ballantyne has given us a thought-provoking reinterpretation of Reconstruction. Focusing on Rapides Parish in the geographic center of Louisiana, he shows how Reconstruction was not an inevitable failure but rather a political experiment—in biracial democracy, no less—that might have transformed the South. Deeply researched and elegantly written, this is a compelling and moving story.” ~Adam Fairclough, author of Bulldozed and Betrayed: Louisiana and the Stolen Elections of 1876