New Books in History Amanda Laury Kleintop, "Counting the Cost of Freedom: The Fight Over Compensated Emancipation After the Civil War" (UNC Press, 2025)
Oct 29, 2025
Amanda Laury Kleintop, an assistant professor of history at Elon University, dives into her book about the fight for compensated emancipation after the Civil War. She reveals how Southern demands for financial compensation were initially ignored, leading to significant historical ramifications. Kleintop discusses the legal battles surrounding Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment and how Lost Cause narratives have obscured the truth behind these compensation claims. Her deep archival research uncovers the complex relationship between race, reparations, and memory in America.
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Prewar Precedents Made Compensation Plausible
- Enslavers expected compensation because global and U.S. precedents often reimbursed slaveholders during emancipation.
- This legal and economic context made uncompensated emancipation politically and legally contested after the Civil War.
Loyalty Framed Who Might Be Compensated
- Republicans used loyalty distinctions to limit compensation to pro-Union enslavers during the war.
- Lincoln's policies (D.C. compensation, Enrollment Act enlistment bounties) kept compensation debates alive rather than ending them.
Louisiana's Committee Sought Federal Payback
- Louisiana's Unionist delegates abolished slavery but demanded federal compensation, creating a committee to pursue it.
- Delegates framed compensation as a reward for loyalty rather than only as a legal right.
