Upheaval in Charleston

April 11, 2011
In 1886 an earthquake devastated Charleston as thoroughly as one did San Francisco 20 years later. South Carolina historians Williams (A Devil and a Good Woman) and Hoffius (co-editor, The Landscape of Slavery) present a vivid account of the disaster and the political aftermath. Civic leaders, including the book's hero, Frank Dawson, the pugnacious but progressive editor of the city's leading newspaper, organized to provide relief. Although widely praised for his effort, Dawson had influential enemies who thought blacks were benefiting disproportionately from the relief effort. Antiblack violence was encouraged by the rising populist, viciously antiblack movement, led in South Carolina by Ben Tillman. Then in a bizarre incident, a neighbor infatuated with his French au pair murdered Dawson in 1889. Elected governor in 1890, Tillman pushed through strict Jim Crow laws. The authors make an unconvincing claim that the quake formed a turning point in the oppression of Southern blacks, but deliver a solid history of an obscure disaster and an enlightening portrait of a Southern city in the final stages of snuffing out black gains from Reconstruction. Illus.; map.

July 1, 2011

Williams (English, Trident Tech Coll.; A Devil and a Good Woman, Too: The Lives of Julia Peterkin) and Hoffius (coeditor, Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art) describe the major earthquake that crushed Charleston, SC, in 1886 and share stories culled from a gamut of sources, including former slaves and Confederate soldiers, in this exploration of the struggle of blacks and whites to coexist a generation after the Civil War. One figure who tried to bring people together was Francis Warrington Dawson, but his three years of peacemaking efforts ended with his murder. His killer was tried and ultimately walked free. While the destruction caused by the earthquake creates a fitting backdrop for those dangerous times, the authors do not demonstrate that the natural disaster was the springboard for the political events that transpired. They do, however, excel at revealing Charleston's dirty politics. VERDICT This is a tale of upheaval, in terms of both the earthquake and the politics, as the issue of segregation and Jim Crow became increasingly pressing. Recommended for those who appreciate books on natural disasters, American history, and the secret goings-on of the political world.--Krista Bush, Shelton Public Sch., CT

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