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Freedom on Trial: The First Post-Civil War Battle Over Civil Rights and Voter Suppression
The Confederacy lost the Civil War but quickly began to win the peace when a mysterious organization arose called the Ku Klux Klan. The Ku Klux, as it was then called, sought to restore white supremacy by terrorizing the formerly enslaved to prevent them from voting or owning firearms. To support Black resistance to the KKK’s campaign of murder and mayhem, President Ulysses S. Grant suspended the writ of habeas corpus in large portions of South Carolina and sent the famed 7th Cavalry to make mass arrests.
Grant’s new attorney general, the first former Confederate to serve in a presidential Cabinet and an ardent advocate for Black equality, Amos T. Akerman, aggressively prosecuted the Ku Klux in a series of sensational trials whose details of murder and rape shocked the nation and forced a reckoning regarding just how much the Civil War and the recently enacted Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution had changed America and its notions of citizenship.
Highlighting forgotten Black and white civil rights pioneers and weaving in the story of the author’s own great-grandfather’s crimes as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, Freedom on Trial tells a gripping story of a moment pregnant with promise when race relations in the United States might have taken a dramatically different turn. It is a story that also offers a sober lesson for those engaged in the ongoing work of fulfilling the American promise of equality for all.
Grant’s new attorney general, the first former Confederate to serve in a presidential Cabinet and an ardent advocate for Black equality, Amos T. Akerman, aggressively prosecuted the Ku Klux in a series of sensational trials whose details of murder and rape shocked the nation and forced a reckoning regarding just how much the Civil War and the recently enacted Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution had changed America and its notions of citizenship.
Highlighting forgotten Black and white civil rights pioneers and weaving in the story of the author’s own great-grandfather’s crimes as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, Freedom on Trial tells a gripping story of a moment pregnant with promise when race relations in the United States might have taken a dramatically different turn. It is a story that also offers a sober lesson for those engaged in the ongoing work of fulfilling the American promise of equality for all.
392 pages, Hardcover
First published November 15, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 11, 2020
This is an incredibly timely read — both to learn more about the history of systemic racism in America and what must be done about it.
Written with an engaging style and trenchant analysis, this book is a must for anybody wanting a deep dive into an oft-forgotten time period in American history.
Written with an engaging style and trenchant analysis, this book is a must for anybody wanting a deep dive into an oft-forgotten time period in American history.
January 24, 2021
From the Midwest Book Review: "A timely and timeless study, "Freedom on Trial: The First Post-Civil War Battle Over Civil Rights and Voter Suppression" is an impressively meticulous work of historical research and one that helps to explain current 2016-2020 voter suppression efforts by some southern states such as Georgia and Mississippi with respect to their black voters. Enhanced for academia with the inclusion of twenty-four pages of Notes, an eight page Bibliography, and a sixteen page Index, "Freedom on Trial" is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to community, college, and university library 19th Century American History collections in general, and Civil Right/Voter Suppression supplemental curriculum studies lists in particular. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, political activists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Freedom on Trial" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $19.99)."
January 30, 2021
Freedom on Trial tells the story of the post-Civil War trials of the first iteration of the Klu Klux Klan. The book documents the heroic efforts of African Americans as they attempted to create prosperous lives for their families. It describes the work of President Grant’s attorney general who prosecuted the Klan for its savage treatment of former slaves during the early years of reconstruction.
The author personalizes this story by writing about his great-grandfather’s participation in the Klan’s activities. This narrative aptly describes the legal and political nuances used to prosecute the Klan’s savagery while crafting an engaging story of resistance and opportunities lost in this country’s painful civil rights struggle.
Freedom on Trial is an extremely timely and relevant book. Now, more than ever, we need to understand our history to help inform us of the work we need to do to create a more just society. I am grateful for the author’s telling of this compelling story.
The author personalizes this story by writing about his great-grandfather’s participation in the Klan’s activities. This narrative aptly describes the legal and political nuances used to prosecute the Klan’s savagery while crafting an engaging story of resistance and opportunities lost in this country’s painful civil rights struggle.
Freedom on Trial is an extremely timely and relevant book. Now, more than ever, we need to understand our history to help inform us of the work we need to do to create a more just society. I am grateful for the author’s telling of this compelling story.
February 24, 2022
Reading anything about the post-Civil War era in the South is usually quite soul crushing. Freedom on Trial by Scott Farris has some triumph mixed in with the soul crushing. Not only that, Farris identifies one of his own family as a former KKK member who took part in some of the actions of the Klan in South Carolina. Lots of people avoid airing dirty family laundry. Farris leans right into it.
We know the basics. After the Civil War, the KKK was born and started terrorizing Black Americans and any White Americans (read: Republicans) who tried to stop them. The Klan took over most aspects of southern American life. Who is going to do something about it? Good ol’ Ulysses S. Grant of course! Well, and a few former Confederates it turns out.
Farris writes a detailed story, but it doesn’t drag. Some justice is found, and some is elusive. It may make you wish you could go back and create an anti-Klan force, but time travel isn’t available. Yet.
We know the basics. After the Civil War, the KKK was born and started terrorizing Black Americans and any White Americans (read: Republicans) who tried to stop them. The Klan took over most aspects of southern American life. Who is going to do something about it? Good ol’ Ulysses S. Grant of course! Well, and a few former Confederates it turns out.
Farris writes a detailed story, but it doesn’t drag. Some justice is found, and some is elusive. It may make you wish you could go back and create an anti-Klan force, but time travel isn’t available. Yet.
October 28, 2021
History repeats itself over and over again. A shocking look (at least to me) of life during the early days of reconstruction and how the south refused to accept the equality of freed slaves. This book is made especially interesting because of the connection to the author's great-grandfather, an early member of the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina.
May 8, 2022
Excellent telling of the original Klan through the stories of those that lived it.
November 2, 2020
Utterly readable and fascinating, even inspiring, history. What a wonderful, hopeful moment -- the Great South Carolina Ku Klux Trials -- even in the face of so much depravity and terror. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews