"The Union as it was; The lost cause, worse than slavery," 1874, wood engraving by Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, courtesy of Library of Congress.

Unit Nine: Coercion, Paramilitary Terror, and Resistance explains how organized white violence played a crucial role in limiting black freedom and eventually overthrowing Republican governments in the U.S. South after emancipation. The Unit Nine educational documents listed on the left feature excerpts of various primary source documents and first hand accounts that demonstrate the impact of this violence in North and South Carolina.