Through the life of Benjamin Ryan Tillman (1847-1918), South
Carolina's self-styled agrarian rebel, this book traces the history
of white male supremacy and its discontents from the era of
plantation slavery to the age of Jim Crow.
As an anti-Reconstruction guerrilla, Democratic activist, South
Carolina governor, and U.S. senator, Tillman offered a vision of
reform that was proudly white supremacist. In the name of white
male militance, productivity, and solidarity, he justified lynching
and disfranchised most of his state's black voters. His arguments
and accomplishments rested on the premise that only productive and
virtuous white men should govern and that federal power could never
be trusted. Over the course of his career, Tillman faced down
opponents ranging from agrarian radicals to aristocratic
conservatives, from woman suffragists to black Republicans. His
vision and his voice shaped the understandings of millions and
helped create the violent, repressive world of the Jim Crow
South.
Friend and foe alike--and generations of historians--interpreted
Tillman's physical and rhetorical violence in defense of white
supremacy as a matter of racial and gender instinct. This book
instead reveals that Tillman's white supremacy was a political
program and social argument whose legacies continue to shape
American life.