Aiken County

"This study of the only county in South Carolina founded in 1871, during Reconstruction, has an educational aim to present a frank report of a trying time which has been covered up. . . . Nowhere in South Carolina can local scholars of history find an in depth look at the kind of history every student, black and white, should have available. ¶ "Americans need to look again at the black men of Reconstruction politics, their families, and their uphill battle against violence and prejudice"--Pref., p. xi.