Between Slavery and the Want of Railroads: Reconstruction in WNC

The Western Office of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources will host a virtual program entitled, “Between Slavery and the Want of Railroads: Reconstruction in WNC”.

To register and attend via Zoom, click this registration link.  If questions please call (828) 250-3105, email jeff.futch@ncdcr.gov, or visit https://www.ncdcr.gov/about/history/western-office. 

This virtual presentation will examine how reconstruction unfolded in western North Carolina, a region with a smaller Black population, fraught wartime loyalties among whites, and a developing economy. A vibrant biracial Republican Party emerged in the mountains during Reconstruction and its opponents could only overcome it by violence and a renewed push for the mountain region’s integration into the broader national economy.

Speaker: Dr. Steven Nash is an Associate Professor of History at East Tennessee State University. He earned his master’s degree in history from Western Carolina University in 2001 and his PhD from the University of Georgia in 2009. He is the author of Reconstruction’s Ragged Edge: The Politics of Postwar Life in the Mountain South (2016), which received the Weatherford Award for Nonfiction from Berea College and the Appalachian Studies Association. He also serves as president of the Mountain History and Culture Group, a non-profit support group for the Zebulon B. Vance Birthplace State Historic Site in Weaverville, North Carolina.