Description
This study of Civil War-era politics explores how German immigrants influenced the rise and fall of white commitment to African-American rights. Intertwining developments in Europe and North America, Alison Clark Efford describes how the presence of naturalized citizens affected the status of former slaves and identifies 1870 as a crucial turning point. That year, the Franco-Prussian War prompted German immigrants to re-evaluate the liberal nationalism underpinning African-American suffrage. Throughout the period, the newcomers' approach to race, ethnicity, gender and political economy shaped American citizenship law.
Table of Contents
Introduction: naturalized citizens, transnational perspectives, and the arc of reconstruction; 1. The German language of American citizenship; 2. The 'freedom-loving German', 1854–60; 3. Black suffrage as a German cause in Missouri, 1865; 4. Principal rising, 1865–9; 5. Wendepunkt: the Franco-Prussian War, 1870–1; 6. The Liberal Republican transition, 1870–2; 7. Class, culture, and the decline of reconstruction, 1870–6; Epilogue: the Great Strike of 1877; Appendix: voting tables; Bibliography.
