Fighting Chance ─ The Struggle over Woman Suffrage and Black Suffrage in Reconstruction America

"An important and riveting history of the struggle for women's rights in the Civil War era, which illuminates the tumultuous political context for the split between suffragists and abolitionists. Essential reading for anyone interested in women, race, and American politics in the nineteenth century."---Carol Faulkner, author of Lucretia Mott's Heresy: Abolition and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America

"Tackling one of the most difficult and debated stories in American history, Faye Dudden succeeds in clearing the deck and starting afresh. From a vast array of sources and with remarkable courage, she crafts something wholly new. None of us at work in this field comes through her hands unscathed, but more important, Fighting Chance will influence the history of Reconstruction for years to come."---Ann D. Gordon, Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, Rutgers University

Faye E. Dudden is Professor of History at Colgate University. Her previous books include Serving Women: Household Service in Nineteenth-Century America and Women in the American Theatre: Actresses and Audiences, 1790-1870, which won the George Freedley Memorial Prize.