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South Carolina Scalawags tells the familiar story of Reconstructionfrom a mostly unfamiliar vantage point, that of white southerners whobroke ranks and supported the newly recognized rights and freedomsof their black neighbors. The end of the Civil War turned SouthCarolina's political hierarchy upside down by calling into existencewhat had not existed before, a South Carolina Republican Party, andputting its members at the helm of state government from 1868 to1876. Composed primarily of former slaves, the burgeoning party alsoattracted the membership of newly arrived northern carpetbaggersand of white South Carolinians who had lived in the state prior tosecession.