The period of reconstruction has been among the most difficult concepts in history to understand. It could be because most history classes botch its explanation, reducing the period to the three amendments passed or the union coming together again. It could also be that this time is notably debated, with many seeing it in the light of the “lost cause”. With that being said When Baseball Went White by Ryan A. Swanson illustrates reconstruction through the rising popularity of baseball in both the South and the North. His reason for writing the book is to analyze how segregation and political friction between the Union and the newly defeated South tie together. He also lets the reader know through the introduction that he uses Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Richmond to explain his thesis due to their high African-American populations and baseball clubs. Each section of the book has three chapters, focusing on one of the three cities. The first part covers the years following the end of the war when sectionalism was as strong as ever, and no reconciliation was wanted by the South.
It is explained through these chapters (covering Washington D.C. and Richmond) that there were disparities between the rise of baseball clubs between the two regions. The North used it as a way to help smooth tensions while the South used it to show that they would not be getting rid of their way of life, but preserving it through Southern white superiority on the field. Chapter One discusses Washington D.C. and the creation of the National Base Ball Club. DC was special as it was considered to be in the middle of the North and South and had many free African Americans before the war ended. The city still did not care for universal suffrage, which meant that “separate but equal” existed on and off the field, even in the place where the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments were born. Even though black suffrage was still off the table for some of the Union, the South still did not want to meet them on the field, which is explained in Chapter Two (Richmond) when hostilities broke out between the Richmond Base Ball Club and the Union Club when the Richmond club refused the Unions challenge. Going forward with the book, I want to know more about how black teams were able to begin using the same fields and how they overcame Southern hostilities.
