Dissertation Writers: The southern white counterrevolution, which sought to bring back “home rule,” used “states’ rights” discourse to undermine federal intervention in the region and restore white domination.
The Defeat of Reconstruction
1. While some northern whites celebrated the gains and protections that the government provided blacks during Reconstruction, southern whites were outraged by black political participation. For them, black political involvement represented a “base conspiracy against human nature.” These whites busied themselves planning a counterrevolution that would restore their power in the South.
2. The Democratic Party became the vehicle for southern whites to act out their counterrevolution to restore white supremacy in the South.
3. The southern white counterrevolution, which sought to bring back “home rule,” used “states’ rights” discourse to undermine federal intervention in the region and restore white domination. Southern whites engaged in a mission to oust blacks from political offices and restore their domination over land, black labor, and state and local government. This agenda was masked as an effort to restore fiscal conservatism, trim taxes, and cut state government functions and budgets.
