State of Rebellion: Reconstruction in South Carolina recounts the volatile course of Reconstruction in the state that experienced the longest, largest, and most dynamic federal presence in the years immediately following the Civil War. Richard Zuczek examines the opposition of conservative white South Carolinians to the Republican-led program and the federal and state governments' attempts to quell such resistance.

Contending that the issues that had driven secession - the relationship of the states to the federal government and the status of African Americans - remained essentially unresolved after Lee's surrender, Zuczek describes the Reconstruction period of 1865-1877 as a continuation of the struggle of 1861-1865, albeit one carried on by different means. He argues that Republican efforts failed primarily because of an organized, coherent effort by white Southerners committed to white supremacy.

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Zuczek details the tactics - from judicial and political fraud to economic coercion, terrorism, and guerrilla activity - employed by conservatives to nullify the African American vote, control African American labor, and oust Northern Republicans from the state. He documents the federal government's attempt to quash the conservative challenge but shows that, by 1876, white opposition to the Republican Party's program was so unified, widespread, and well armed that it passed beyond government control.

Calling the "Campaign of 1876" as much a military campaign as a political endeavor, Zuczek details the recapture of the state by conservatives and the pursuit of their own program of reconstruction, which lasted well into the twentieth century.