We just have to know how to shoot back, I reckon.’” These “nightriders” are early members of the nascent Ku Klux Klan, former Confederate soldiers unwilling to accept the changes wrought by the war, especially those ushered in by the Emancipation Proclamation. Asking questions now can get you killed quick enough. It’s less than a decade after the close of the Civil War, and despite the Union victory, the battle to shape the Volunteer State’s identity is very much ongoing.Īccording to one colonel, “‘Asking questions about nightriders in Tennessee in these times… used to be a fairly safe occupation. About a third of the way into Sebastian Barry’s startling and timely new novel, A Thousand Moons, two men of local influence have a conversation about the state of affairs in western Tennessee.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |