The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War
Van Gosse
University of North Carolina Press
In this meticulously researched book, Gosse offers a sweeping reappraisal of the formative era of American democracy from the Constitution's ratification through Lincoln's election. This book traces a First Reconstruction of Black political activism following emancipation in the North -- from the NorthEast to the MidWest, Black men operated as voting blocs, denouncing the notion that skin color could define citizenship.