by Ira Berlin
Ira Berlin examines the economic and social upheaval that reshaped the American South between 1865 and 1920. Using plantation records, personal correspondence, and government documents, Berlin traces how former enslaved people, white landowners, and new labor systems collided in the decades following emancipation. The book reveals how sharecropping emerged from the ruins of slavery, how freed families fought to stay together while seeking economic independence, and how changing agricultural practices drove millions of African Americans toward Northern cities. Berlin shows how the Great Migration grew from local struggles over land, wages, and freedom in the rural South. The work illuminates the human stories behind vast demographic shifts that remade American society.
Genres: 20th-century, african-american, biography-memoir, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-drama, social-change
Setting: American South
Period: 1865-1920
15 pages · Hardcover · LexisNexis
Content warnings: slavery