Rosen Hannah.

Terror on the Heart of Freedom: Citizenship, Sexual Violence, and the

Meaning of Race in the Post Emancipation South. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina
Press, 2009. 407 pages. $31.93 from Amazon.
Slavery is a well-known part of the American Civil War. However, the conditions that
slaves endured before the war and during Reconstruction is often untold. The legal practice of
slavery died with the end of the Civil War. However, the rampant racism and violence continued
for another one hundred years. In her book entitled Terror in the Heart of Freedom, author
Hannah Rosen describes the terror and violence that was unleashed on African Americans by a
conservative white middle and upper class that was bitter at the outcome of the Civil War.
Although Rosens book is sometime difficult to comprehend it is necessary accounts of the facts.
Rosens works is a spot interpretation of what racism actually is. For most, this entails
simply thinking that one race is superior to another one. It actually goes much farther than that.
Rosen breaks down the eternal thinking of Southern Whites when it comes to treatment of
African Americans. This way of thinking did not even recognize the basic human functions of
African slaves. Simply put, slave holding Whites did not even consider slaves of human origin.
Slaves were somewhere between financial commodity and whipping post. They were shed of
any human dignity or quality. This allowed land owners and slave drivers to commit
unspeakable horrors against African Americans. These instances often involved rape and
murder. It truly is a horrific stain on the United States. There are few instances in the history of
the world that match it cruelty and brutality.
The focus of Rosens work is in Memphis during the Reconstruction. This was the scene
of one of the first race riots after the Civil War. The riot started as a scuffle between white police
and black federal troops. It ended with right under fifty people dead and most of the black

owned infrastructure in Memphis destroyed by fire (Rosen p. 67). The accounts of the incident
were officially recorded by a Congressional Committee sent to unearth the facts of the riots. It is
in this Committee that African told of the accounts of sexual assault. This is an important event
because it is one of the first times African Americans could testify against whites in any capacity.
These brave women did this of course at their peril. However, their accounts of violence and
abuser were critical in shedding light on the past treatment of African Americans.
Rosen next pivots from the violence in Memphis to the racial tension in Arkansas Rosen
p. 88). African Americans in Arkansas during this time had a different kind of problem. The
state still had the same race problems as the other Southern States but the White population (at
least in Little Rock) had a high number of Unionists or loyal Republicans. This and with the
federal Reconstruction forces, allowed a certain number of African Americans to be named to the
State Constitutional Convention. There, the future of Arkansas as well as the future of African
American prosperity in Arkansas, would be decided. However, the proceedings were became
stalled over the question of interracial marriage. This where Rosen again paints an artful
description of how Whites, who were even in favor of Civil Rights, were still unable to grasp the
idea of full inequality for African Americans. This would soon become a moot point in the next
two years as Reconstruction ended. Federal troops left and Conservative Democrats returned
Arkansas to its old race based class system.
Rosens piece is truly an artful dive into how the United States handled race relations
after the Civil War. Although gritty and hard to read at times, it paints a picture that many
Americans never knew existed. It also paints picture of different parts of the South handled postwar race issues. For many, Memphis was one of the jewels of the Confederacy. As such, it
mimicked the slave owner and pro Confederate mentality of the region. However, in Little

Rock, Arkansas, there was a different feeling towards the same issue. Although these cities
handled race differently they were both tied together by the underlying being of white
supremacy.
Rosens work is an in depth look at largely unknown historical events that shaped the
racial landscape that we know today. It is also a tough but necessary look at how one race of
people can completely dehumanize another race of people. However, Rosen also points to the
resilience and bravery that the sexual assault survivors showed in the wake of the Memphis riots
as turning point on race in the U.S. This pieces also leads the reader into the next great battle on
race. The modern day Civil Rights movement.

Seth Steppe
University of Memphis