An investigative study of the post-emancipation American South that maps demographics of the Black Belt and analyzes political, economic, and social relations between formerly enslaved people and white Southerners. It surveys how legal citizenship collided with local resistance, describes conditions and aspirations of Black communities and the anxieties and strategies of whites, evaluates proposed remedies from political accommodations to removal, and argues for a controversial program of organized emigration as the only radical solution. Chapters combine reportage, statistical appendices on population and race, and reflections on caste, northern slavery, and population growth to present practical and moral questions facing both races.