In this deeply researched and gracefully written work, Patler explores the life of P. B. S. Pinchback (1837–1921), who was born to a formerly enslaved mother and a white planter father and went on to serve as governor of Louisiana. While Pinchback’s tenure as governor was brief—a mere 35 days—he remains one of the most prominent African American officeholders of the Reconstruction era.
Yet despite being a pivotal figure in the post–Civil War South, attempts to tell his story have been incomplete. From the powerful influence of a mother who had spent half of her life in bondage, to the ambiguity of racial identity in Pinchback’s life and world, to a political career that was as tumultuous and rich as any in American history, Patler’s humanizing portrait provides a more complex and complete picture of Pinchback’s life and of Reconstruction in Louisiana. Pinchback is a brief book that makes an immense contribution.
Nicholas Patler is a historian and the author of Jim Crow and the Wilson Administration: Protesting Federal Segregation in the Early Twentieth Century. He holds a master’s degree from Harvard University Extension School and Bethany Theological Seminary.
In this deeply researched and gracefully written work, Patler explores the life of P. B. S. Pinchback (1837–1921), who was born to a formerly enslaved mother and a white planter father and went on to serve as governor of Louisiana. While Pinchback’s tenure as governor was brief—a mere 35 days—he remains one of the most prominent African American officeholders of the Reconstruction era.
Yet despite being a pivotal figure in the post–Civil War South, attempts to tell his story have been incomplete. From the powerful influence of a mother who had spent half of her life in bondage, to the ambiguity of racial identity in Pinchback’s life and world, to a political career that was as tumultuous and rich as any in American history, Patler’s humanizing portrait provides a more complex and complete picture of Pinchback’s life and of Reconstruction in Louisiana. Pinchback is a brief book that makes an immense contribution.
Nicholas Patler is a historian and the author of Jim Crow and the Wilson Administration: Protesting Federal Segregation in the Early Twentieth Century. He holds a master’s degree from Harvard University Extension School and Bethany Theological Seminary.