Reconstruction era removed civilian governments in the South, and placed the former Confederacy under the rule of the U.S. Army. The army conducted new elections in which the freed slaves could vote, while whites who had held leading positions under the Confederacy were temporarily denied the vote and were not permitted to run for office. In ten states, coalitions of freedmen, recent black and white arrivals from the North (carpetbaggers), and white Southerners who supported Reconstruction (scalawags) cooperated to form Republican biracial state governments. They introduced various reconstruction programs including: funding public schools, establishing charitable institutions, raising taxes, and funding public improvements
A Night to Surrender during the Regency era, in the remote seaside community of Spindle Cove. Local woman Susanna Finch has turned the village into a retreat for young ladies who do not quite fit into society. Men are, for the most part, not welcome, so that the ladies can be free to be themselves. Their quiet haven is disrupted with the arrival of the novel's hero, Lieutenant Colonel Victor "Bram" Bramwell. As the new Earl of Rycliff, Bram has inherited a rundown castle on the edge of the village. As rumors fly that Napoleon might invade England, Bram has been assigned to journey