Based on eyewitness accounts, this book fully and graphically portrays the social conditions which existed in the South during the twelve year Reconstruction period following the downfall of the Confederate States of America. The author deals with such subjects as the oppressive military dictatorship to which the Southern people were subjected, the intrigue of the Loyal (Union) League, the tyranny of the Freedman’s Bureau, the corruption of the Carpetbagger Governments, and the rise of Southern secret societies such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camelia.