"Robert Harrison provides new insight into grass-roots Reconstruction after the Civil War and into the lives of those of those most deeply affected, the newly emancipated African Americans"-- "In this book, Robert Harrison tells the dramatic story of Washington, DC, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction in the nation's capital and of the lives of those of the most deeply affected, the newly emacipated African Americans. Harrison describes the ways in which federal agencies such as the Army and the Freedmen's Bureau attempted to assist Washington's free population and shows how officials struggled to address the social problems resulting from large-scale black migration. The study sheds new light on the political processes that led to the abandonment of Reconstruction and the onset of black disenfranchisement"--