Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/32817 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation. Author: Vries, Mark Leon de Title: The politics of terror : enforcing reconstruction in Louisiana’s Red River Valley Issue Date: 2015-04-23 The Politics of Terror Enforcing Reconstruction in Louisiana’s Red River Valley Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof.mr. C.J.J.M. Stolker, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op donderdag 23 April 2015 klokke 16.15 uur door Mark Leon de Vries geboren te Amsterdam in 1981 Promotor Prof. Dr. A. Fairclough (Universiteit Leiden) Overige Leden promotiecommissie Prof. Dr. R. Follett (University of Sussex) Prof. Dr. R.V.A. Janssens (Universiteit van Amsterdam) Prof. Dr. C.A. van Minnen (Roosevelt Study Center, Middelburg ) Dr. A.M. Wilson (Leiden University College) Dr. E.F. van de Bilt (Leiden University) Dr. D.A. Pargas (Leiden University) Dit Proefschrift is tot stand gekomen met dank aan subsidie van NWO in het kader van het project Democratization and political terrorism: The formation and destruction of the two- party system in the Red River Valley of Louisiana, 1865-1878 . Table of Contents Table of Contents Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................... 7 Abbreviations and conventions: .................................................................................................. 10 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 15 Which Reconstruction’s Failure? ............................................................................................... 18 From Morality Play to Moral Ambiguity: The Historiography of Reconstruction .................... 21 Why the Red River Valley ......................................................................................................... 26 Some Theoretical Considerations: Political Violence and Southern Legal Culture .................. 30 2. Shaping the Peace ..................................................................................................................... 35 Defeated, Yet Defiant ................................................................................................................. 37 Status Quo Ante ......................................................................................................................... 46 Persecuting the Victors ............................................................................................................... 54 Buffalo Soldiers in Dixie ............................................................................................................ 62 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 72 3. Between Too Much and Not Nearly Enough ......................................................................... 74 A Promise Betrayed ................................................................................................................... 78 With Few Acres and No Mules .................................................................................................. 88 The Law of the Land ................................................................................................................ 100 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 114 4. Towards a ‘Reign of Terror’ ................................................................................................. 116 Simmering Tensions ................................................................................................................. 117 Rehearsal for Terror ................................................................................................................. 128 The Organization of Terror ...................................................................................................... 135 ‘An Everyday Occurrence’ ....................................................................................................... 143 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 156 4 Table of Contents 5. Implementing Equality .......................................................................................................... 158 Federal Retreat ......................................................................................................................... 160 Governing in the Shadow of Terror ......................................................................................... 169 All Politics is Local .................................................................................................................. 179 The Limits of Equal Justice ...................................................................................................... 189 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 195 6. Bulldozing the ‘Usurpers’ ...................................................................................................... 197 Escalation ................................................................................................................................. 199 Power Vacuum ......................................................................................................................... 204 ‘Peacefully If Convenient, Forcibly If Necessary’ ................................................................... 214 The Government’s Last Stand .................................................................................................. 224 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 234 7. Towards ‘Redemption’ .......................................................................................................... 236 Balancing Terror and Politics ................................................................................................... 237 An Electoral Farce .................................................................................................................... 242 The Banditti Backlash .............................................................................................................. 253 The Final Push .......................................................................................................................... 268 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 275 8. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 277 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 285 Secondary Literature ................................................................................................................ 285 Primary Sources ....................................................................................................................... 297 Dutch Summary .......................................................................................................................... 303 Curriculum Vitae ....................................................................................................................... 308 5 Acknowledgments Acknowledgments First and foremost I would like to thank Adam Fairclough, my supervisor, whose research project on the Red River Area made this thesis possible in the first place. Your supportive feedback and constructive criticism helped me to both sustain the necessary effort and sharpen my thinking and my writing. Moreover, you always encouraged an enthusiastic as well as pragmatic approach to doing research. For those lessons I am, perhaps, most grateful of all. The Leiden History Institute is a true scholarly community. I worked closely with fellow researchers in my project, Sabrina Otterloo and later David Ballantyne, who provided detailed and knowledgeable feedback that few others could. Senior staff at the institute always generously shared their time and expertise. I would like to particularly thank Joost Augusteijn, Henk Kern, Patrick Dassen, and Eduard van de Bilt, of the General history section, who helped me to develop over the past years as both a researcher and an educator. My fellow PhD colleagues were always ready to help with advice and feedback, but perhaps more importantly with some welcome distraction during our numerous 12:30 lunches. Beyond the walls of Leiden, the Roosevelt Study Center, provided an invaluable venue for meeting other Americanists both from within the Netherlands and abroad. Kees van Minnen, Hans Krabbendam, Giles Scott-Smith, Dario Fazzi, and Leontien Joosse do an incredible job to ensure that American Studies has a permanent home in the Netherlands. The quarterly graduate seminars supervised by Hans offered an ideal opportunity to share my work with other Dutch PhD candidates working in the field: Albertine Bloemendal, Laura Visser- Maessen, Jorrit van der Berk, Maarten