Fractured Freedoms: Reconstructing Central Louisiana

Ballantyne, David

Abstract

David T. Ballantyne’s Fractured Freedoms is a riveting history of central Louisiana from the 1860s to the 1890s, focusing on majority-Black Rapides Parish during Reconstruction. Using the region as a case study, Ballantyne reveals what is, in part, a rural Reconstruction success story, emphasizing the resilience of Black politics and the persistence of significant divisions among white residents that allowed the Republican Party to gain and maintain power there. It was only with the collapse of state-level Republican power in 1877 that Democratic forces in the parish were able to dismantle local Republican political control and gradually constrict Black freedoms.

Citation

Ballantyne, D. (2025). Fractured Freedoms: Reconstructing Central Louisiana. Louisiana State University Press

• Book Type: Monograph
• Publication Date: 2025-02
• Deposit Date: Mar 6, 2024
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Series Title: Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War
• ISBN: 9780807183038
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/761486
• Publisher URL: https://lsupress.org/9780807183038/fractured-freedoms/
• Contract Date: Feb 20, 2024