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Abstract
This dissertation challenges the way historians think about interracial political movements in the post-Reconstruction South. It argues that, rather than the presumably inevitable “failure” of interracialism, these popular, working-class movements were overwhelmed by the power of concentrated capital. Focusing on Virginia’s Readjuster Party, the most successful interracial third party in the postbellum South, this dissertation draws attention to the economic powers threatened by Readjuster reforms. Against the recalcitrant opposition of bondholders, the Readjusters downwardly readjusted – hence their name – the state debt that had so long burdened Virginians. They next turned their attention to curbing the powers and abuses of railroad corporations. In both cases, the Readjusters insisted that Virginians would reign supreme, not bondholders and corporations. To overcome the increasingly successful revolution of the people, bondholders and railroads launched a counterrevolution of property to take back the state.
This new attention to the political economic opponents of the Readjusters overturns conclusions that the Readjusters “failed” because of an internal split along lines of race. In fact, they remained stronger than historians have allowed. And it was this very strength that struck such fear into their opponents that, before they overthrew the Readjusters, newly reorganized railroad corporations seeking legislative favor aided the Readjusters. It was only after the Readjusters imposed strict terms on these corporations that they turned against them and manufactured a small internal rebellion, the significance of which historians have entirely misunderstood. Instead of a white supremacist reaction against interracialism and the rising power of Black Virginians, Virginia’s Democratic and Republican Parties – respectively headed by a railroad president and vice president – joined forces to smother the interracial democracy that had proven overwhelmingly successful.