Truncated Occupation and Political Violence in the Postbellum American South

• In Event: Historical Legacies of Violence in Democracies

Abstract

How can governments in racially divided societies protect vulnerable populations from violence after large-scale internal conflict? When the majority is bent on perpetuating its power and privileges in the prevailing racial hierarchy, benevolence by government interveners is unlikely to curb societal support for violence against the racial minority. There is thus no alternative to using military coercion to quell insurgent violence. However, failing to maintain a long-term coercive apparatus can exacerbate violence by triggering revenge dynamics among the dominant group, particularly in communities that were once occupied by troops of the subordinate minority. Our analysis of white supremacist violence in the postbellum U.S. South substantiates these claims. Importantly, we show that racial revenge dynamics produced differential spikes in post-occupation violence against Black citizens: counties that had previously been occupied by Black troops witnessed higher incidences of racial violence for many decades than comparable areas that had not seen such occupation. Our study has implications for scholarship on counterinsurgency, post-conflict peacebuilding, and political violence in democracies.

Authors

• Joshua Byun, Boston College

• Hyunku Kwon, University of Chicago