For many years, history told only the perspectives of white segregationists, for whom white supremacy was the cultural norm and black freedom a threat.  How the South Won the War uses the actual words and voices of witnesses and "freedmen"--and women--to present the experiences of black Americans during this time, as African American communities across the South struggled to make real the promise of freedom, equality and political suffrage.  It puts black-, and white supremacist- perspectives in context, exploring the cultural and psychological values that allowed the terrorists and society at large then--and some today--to rationalize domestic terrorism.