This historical study focuses on the Conservative government of the state of South Carolina in the late 1800s. It provides an analysis of the general political methods and policies of the Conservatives, giving special attention to questions of race, economics and ideology. It describes the rise of Tillmanism, a movement led by the agrarian activist Benjamin Tillman. In his analysis of that movement, the author offers a new theory of the circumstances that led Tillman and his followers to overthrow the conservative regime in South Carolina.