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Carter Library Presents Historian & Author For Free Lecture
James Alex Baggett to Discuss His book, "The Scalawags"
Atlanta, GA. (Mar. 30) - Atlanta historian and author James Alex Baggett will discuss his book "The
Scalawags: Southern Dissenters in the Civil War and Reconstruction" in a free lecture at the
Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum at 8 p.m., Friday, April 1st. The presentation is
sponsored by the Carter Presidential Library, The Georgia Center for the Book, The Atlanta
Journal- Constitution, Chapter 11 bookstores, Spoken Word Productions, Georgia Perimeter
College, the DeKalb History Center and Margaret Mitchell House and Museum.
In The Scalawags, James Alex Baggett profiles the lives of 742 white southern republicans or
scalawags; politicians who supported reconstruction and were considered traitors by many
southerners. Tracing their lives before, during and after the Civil War, Baggett is able to reveal the
personalities of the scalawags. In addition, Baggett contrasts them with more than six hundred
redeemer-Democrats who opposed and eventually replaced the scalawags.
The Alabama Review wrote, "Baggett's central analysis is very effective and much needed because
he is the first historian to go beyond a state or regional approach to analyzing scalawags in the
South. The Scalawags focuses primarily on the political elite that held state and national offices in
the South from 1865 to "redemption." In an effort to dissect stereotypes that southern Democrats
created to discredit scalawags, Baggett's central analytical tool is to compare them with the
"redeemers" who replaced them. Baggett finds that about one-third of Upper South and
southwestern scalawags owned slaves. By contrast, over half of southeastern scalawags owned
slaves. As a group, scalawags were only slightly less well off economically than redeemers."
Because of its scope and extensive research, "The Scalawags" is considered the definitive work on
the subject.
James Alex Baggett's lecture is free and open to the public.
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