Reconstruction: A Violent and Remorseless Revolution (PDF)

A VIOLENT AND REMORSELESS REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE A Second Revolution? What is the meaning of freedom? Who gets to decide how to reconstruct the nation? I. Presidential Reconstruction II. Black Reconstruction III. Radical Reconstruction Prologue: “What This Cruel War Was Over” Divided opinio...

A VIOLENT AND REMORSELESS REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE A Second Revolution? What is the meaning of freedom? Who gets to decide how to reconstruct the nation? I. Presidential Reconstruction II. Black Reconstruction III. Radical Reconstruction Prologue: “What This Cruel War Was Over” Divided opinion over war’s meaning Lincoln’s “Hard War”: War for reconciliation becomes war to destroy slavery Emancipation Proclamation, Jan. 1, 1863 Military strategy Only effective in occupied territory Creates opportunity for enslaved Sherman Field Order no. 15? Union victory promises a new vision of the nation: Equal opportunity Uniform rights Homogenous citizenship “Our new government…its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.” – Alexander Stephens, Vice President, “Confederate States of America,” 1861 I. Presidential Reconstruction 13th Amendment, 1865 Ends slavery nationally – with a loophole Power of enforcement in federal gov’t Andrew Johnson Pro-Union Democrat Vision for reconstruction: quick and generous Amnesty to former rebels through presidential pardon Return antebellum status quo undermines Republican vision Free labor vision vs. destruction of cotton economy Requirements for readmission: Ratify the 13th amendment Declare secession illegal Default on Confederate debts “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” “War Upon the Land” War and emancipation profoundly environmental processes: Drained labor, livestock, and fertilizer from farms Accelerated soil erosion and deforestation Outcomes partially shaped by weather, geology, geography War’s “devastation,” short lived, destruction of slavery much more transformational 2/3 of southern wealth; 2/5 of southern livestock destroyed Land use practices based on free labor King Cotton: incentivized expansion of Confederate Fortifications, Atlanta, 1864 cash crop Provisional Governments Premise of necessary inequality Former rebels retain voting rights, positions of political power Johnson frames aid to formerly enslaved as “perverse” activist gov’t Construct slavery by another name: 1. Black Codes Based on antebellum slave codes – bind former enslaved to white employers Enforced through policing: vagrancy laws 2. Sharecropping Coerce formerly enslaved back II. Black Reconstruction Contested meaning of freedom The Church African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Ultimate symbol of freedom The Family Formerly enslaved work to reunite families torn apart by slavery Vagrancy laws challenge mobility Freedmen’s Bureau, Mar. 1865 Ease transition to freedom: Discussion Board post: Based on Jourdon Anderson’s letter, what are some of the ways that newly-freed African Americans defined the meaning of their freedom? Can you list at least three examples? III. Radical Reconstruction Massive race riot in Memphis, Apr. 1866 White police attacked Black soldiers Undercut logic of Pres. Reconstruction Urgency of gov’t action Fourteenth Amendment, Apr. 1866 Congress refused to seat Southern delegates Est. birthright citizenship & equal protection Congress required ratification for readmission Military Occupation Reconstruction Act, 1867 Response to unrepentant Southern states Southern states reorganized into military districts Required new constitutional conventions Military courts, mandated black suffrage 0.5% – 80.7% voting Bold assertion of equality Biggest issue: enforcement and longevity Too few remaining soldiers Too much territory – rural areas left to planters Impeachment Tenure of Office Act Edwin M. Stanton, Sec. of War Coda: “Let us have peace” Ulysses S. Grant, 1868 Francis Blair (D): “restore white people to power.” Fifteenth Amendment, 1869 Universal male suffrage, regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Enforced through continued martial law Est. first generation of Black elected officials 30% of Southern delegates Reconstruction as “unfinished revolution”? U.S. Senate Hiram Revels (MS), 1870 Blanche Bruce (MS), 1875 Edward Brooke (MA), 1967 Thomas Nash, “The Union As It Was,” Harpers’ Weekly, 1874