Architect of the New South: The Life and Legacy of William Mahone

• Main Author: Anderson, Heath M
• Format: Others
• Published: VCU Scholars Compass 2019
• Subjects: William Mahone; The Readjuster Party; Reconstruction; The New South; Race Relations; Collective Memory; Military History; Political History; Social History; United States History
• Online Access: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/5887; https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7005&context=etd

In Virginia following the Civil War, white and black people formed complex and shifting alliances based on their own self-interests that cut across the lines of established political parties. In this turbulent atmosphere, William Mahone forged a new biracial political coalition called the Readjuster Party in order to transform Virginia’s economy so that it would be competitive in the years to come. Chapter One argues that Mahone’s experience as a soldier and railroad man gave him the political clout needed to enter politics and an industrial vision for Virginia’s future that was markedly different from many of his contemporaries. Chapter Two argues that William Mahone’s leadership of the Readjuster Party, and its advocacy of universal male suffrage and economic reform, created a new political center in Virginia and demonstrates that the actions of both white and black people cannot be viewed as a monolith in the postwar era. Chapter Three demonstrates how William Mahone’s political career was excluded from white Virginians’ narrative of Reconstruction following his death because it provided a historical example of African American suffrage and an attempt to establish fair elections that clashed with Virginia’s established white supremacist social order.