One of the most hotly debated issues in the historical study of race
relations is the question of how the Civil War and Reconstruction
affected social relations in the South. Did the War leave class and race
hierarchies intact? Or did it mark the profound disruption of a
long-standing social order?
Yankee Town, Southern City examines how the members of the southern
community of Lynchburg, Virginia experienced four distinct but
overlapping events--Secession, Civil War, Black Emancipation, and
Reconstruction. By looking at life in the grog shop, at the military
encampment, on the street corner, and on the shop floor, Steven Elliott
Tripp illustrates the way in which ordinary people influenced the
contours of race and class relations in their town.