SUNY Geneseo faculty member Justin Behrend’s just-published book “Reconstructing Democracy” examines how politically engaged former slaves established a new system of governance in the South after the Civil War.
Behrend, associate professor of history, argues that newly freedpeople created a new democracy in the Reconstruction era, one that replaced the oligarchic rule of slaveholders and Confederates with a system based on egalitarian principles and grassroots participation.
“In general, the political history of freedpeople has not received the attention that it deserves,” Behrend writes. “Beyond the political history of freedpeople after emancipation, the subject of democracy formation at the grassroots level has received little attention.”
Behrend contends that in the development of American democracy, only certain people have been historically considered “the people” in terms of governance, and the broad participation and impact of the emancipated freedpeople have been slighted.
Behrend has been on the Geneseo faculty since 2007. His research interests include 19th century U.S. history, African American history, Atlantic World slavery, and Southern history. His book was published by the University of Georgia Press.