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.