Book Review

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Book Review | The Journal of American History, 86.1 | The History Cooperative

Who Killed John Clayton? Political Violence and the Emergence of the New South, 1861-1893. By Kenneth C. Barnes. (Durham: Duke University Press, 1998. xii, 203 pp. Cloth, $49.95, isbn 0-8223-2058-4.)

This is a gem of a monograph, well researched, written in plain English, and a work whose broad import extends beyond one county or one state. In fact, it highlights an ugly side of the New South that got thrust down a memory hole in the twentieth century. 1

     Nearly a century later, rumors of events in Conway County, Arkansas, moved the author, a native son of the county, to track down the story when he returned to the nearby University of Central Arkansas. With a background mainly in European history, Kenneth C. Barnes has become well acquainted with the history of his homeland. 2

     At the time of the Civil War, Conway County was a microcosm of the state, recently settled for the most part, with cotton plantations along the Arkansas River and small farming in the rolling hills to the north. Divided over secession, Conway remained polarized in its loyalties during the war, a microcosm of the whole nation. "The Civil War," Barnes writes, "made killing into a culture." 3

     During Reconstruction, Republicans governed the county 1868-1872, during which time a black militia actually terrorized the local Ku Klux Klan. But the Democrats took over in 1872, although Republicans remained contenders for nearly two decades. . . .

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