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Tax-exempt? | For Free Press and Equal Rights Republican Newspapers in the Reconstruction South Abbott first traces the origins of the southern Republican press from its lone stronghold in antebellum northwest Virginia to its wartime expansion in the wake of the Union Army's occupation of such far-flung places as Key West, Florida, and Port Royal, South Carolina. Abbott then discusses the challenges of establishing and sustaining a Republican press where the most likely readership-freed slaves-was usually illiterate and too poor to subscribe, much less to contribute advertising revenue. Looking at the different ways white and black editors faced common problems from ostracism and libel to vandalism and physical assault, Abbott also discusses the mixed blessings of patronage, by which Republican officials steered printing business to their party organs. Abbott's state-by-state, year-by-year analyses look at the fluctuating number of southern Republican papers in terms of their distribution in rural/urban and anti/pro-Republican areas. For Free Press and Equal Rights reveals a wealth of information about papers ranging from the Visitor of Hot Springs, Arkansas, which lasted less than a year, to the Union Flag of Jonesborough, Tennessee, which ran from 1865 to 1873. It makes a number of new and important points about political patronage and the publishing process, race and print culture, Republican ideology and rhetoric, and our first amendment rights. Richard H. Abbott (1936-2000) was a professor of history at Eastern Michigan University and the author of The Republican Party and the South and Cotton and Capital. John W. Quist is an associate professor of history at Shippensburg University. He is the author of Restless Visionaries. January 2004 ISBN 0820325279 cloth • $39.95 272 pp. • 6 x 9 in."Richard Abbott's For Free Press and Equal Rights identifies an important niche in the era of Civil War and emancipation-that of the Republican press during Reconstruction. The research is excellent and original, by a historian with a lifetime's worth of knowledge in the field. No one has explored this important issue in such depth before. John Quist is to be congratulated for helping the late Professor Abbott's last project come to full fruition." —Heather Cox Richardson, author of The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901"Some of the most important historical monographs achieve their status not by pioneering conceptual innovation but by shedding light on previously neglected episodes or phenomena. A classic example is Robert S. Starobin's Industrial Slavery in the Old South. In For Free Press and Equal Rights, Richard H. Abbott does for Reconstruction-era Republican newspapers what Starobin did for industrial slavery. . . . Abbott has made a generous gift to historians. His Herculean research has filled in one of the final remaining lacunae in the history of Reconstruction. Moreover, he has portrayed with humanity an oft-overlooked group who nobly tried to bridge the post Civil War South's racial chasm." —Chad Morgan, History: Reviews of New Books"[A] thorough and informative study . Abbott is nothing if not meticulous, often summarizing events state-by-state to suggest the full sweep of the Republican press's history in the postwarSouth. . A scholarly work of the first order . Abbott sheds new light on the critical role that the press played in this history. Moreover, his careful research in a long-neglected field makes this work invaluable for scholars interested in the political history of the Reconstruction era."-Steve Tripp, Civil War Book Review"[T]horough and readable . Those with an interest in nineteenth-century journalism can appreciate this comprehensive study regarding the Republican press in the South during Reconstruction. It establishes a sound historical context in which both white and black newspapers labored."-Aleen J. Ratzlaff, American Journalism "Abbott addresses a neglected topic of Reconstruction history and adds to our understanding of southern Republicanism and journalism history. "-Carl R. Osthaus, The Journal of American History "The late historian Richard H. Abbott has made a significant contribution in this study examining Republican newspapers in the Reconstruction South. Until now the topic has been almost entirely neglected. Abbot uncovers a far-ranging and significant, if ultimately doomed, regional newspaper press that attempted to spread Republican ideology and the newly formed party. . . . This is an extremely useful and well researched book."-William Warren Rogers, Jr., The American Historical Review "Abbott has done his homework. He seems to have read every southern Republican newspaper extant and includes a valuable appendix of Republican newspapers arranged by state. He also seems to have read every dissertation and thesis on this arcane subject and has delved into the papers of government officials who dealt with the press and of those few editors who left papers ... More to the point, Abbott reminds us that a partisan press is a key component of a democratic society. Perhaps this is a lesson we have forgotten."-Charles F. Ritter, Journal of Southern History "An important contribution both to southern and journalism history, Abbott's For Free Press and Equal Rights is also testimony to Abbott's rigorous and powerful scholarship and Quist's careful editing."-Robert Wheldon Whalen, The North Carolina Historical Review "For Free Press and Equal Rights: Republican Newspapers in the Reconstruction South, is a work of first-rate scholarship that will benefit students of the postwar period and nineteenth-century politics and journalism ... This book is and will remain vital to the study of Reconstruction."-Michael S. Green, Arkansas Historical Quarterly "Abbot does much to rescue the Republican press from obscurity ... [and he] ensures that hereafter unionism will have a place in southern history."-Georgia Historical Quarterly "Few scholars have done more than Richard H Abbott to further our understanding of the history of the Republican Party in the Reconstruction South ... this is a fine book and a major boon for Reconstruction scholars seeking to understand the broader role of southern republican newspapers in their research."-H-Net "Abbott's work is thorough and groundbreaking, and should inspire further examination of the Republican press in individual states and more studies of individual editors."-Civil War History |
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