Reconstruction: Repairing Wounds, Opening Others, and Finding the Union Again

 Social Recovery and Discovery

1. 1. Military Situation
      1. year of free security in 1865 with two peaceful neighbors
      2. very rapid demobilization–return to traditionally small army and navy but send army troops west
      3. Army now considered a constabulary: “constable” to preserve peace and order (in S and W), not exactly fighting crime but preserving order
         1. Three ways: Reconstruction (over 10 yrs in South, new challenges of periphery radical white nationalist Ku Klux Klan and general unrest in former Confederacy), Labor Violence (Railroad Strike of 1877, factory bombings), and Indian Wars (direct conflicts with individual tribes and competing interest groups in the Western states, no large scale wars)
      4. black regiments and troops perform very well in military service, some stay in army and move west with other branches, see Buffalo Soldiers
         1. had access to equality under military law, respectability, higher wages
         2. source of political training and leadership
   2. Women during Reconstruction:
      1. Economic boost because (1) independence fostered during war, (2) huge loss of manpower especially in South, (3) new jobs available on large scale in hospitals, nursing homes, and Veterans’ clinics–personal care also and teaching field, (4) many southern women uprooted so see massive movement toward west for fresh start
      2. See movement of freedwomen into the home and domestic service rather than fieldwork, fit ideology of nineteenth century womanhood (separate spheres)
      3. Split in the Woman suffrage movement–suffrage agenda divided between state vs national vote by 1869, merge later as National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) with unified national platform but controversial, diverge from black suffrage and civil rights to pursue own ends. Frederick Douglass said it was the “time of the Negroes,” which effectively left out women of the 14th amendment which broadened voting rights.
   3. African Americans are now free from slavery: tremendous achievement in itself but also actively support the idea of the republican yeomanry concept (in short, that personal landowning and responsibilities foster democratic freedoms and provide an environment of free conscience) and the freedmen want to own lands.
      • confusion among white landowners about their lack of enthusiasm for continuing to work for them–felt betrayed, remember that relationship exists between all sides– but blacks wanted economic independence (in fact, more than the vote)
      • organizations like the Bureau of Freedmen, Refugees, and Abandoned Lands (abbreviated as Freedman’s Bureau) and black churches like the African Methodist Episcopal Church sponsored literacy and aid programs throughout the south for emancipated and free blacks—provided economic and social opportunities, promoted political activism. Northern influence for education later as part of female evangelist movement (Yankee schoolmarms now have jobs and urge self-help of freedmen while flooding south to volunteer and work as teachers
      • Priorities of the African American population (greatest strengths):

domination of church as center of African-American life (support, protection, faith, training ground politically and gave leadership roles)

family (legalization of marriages #1 concern, legitimizing children through bonded relationships and legal rights for married couples)

school/education (achieving literacy #1 issue, knowledge as power and stepping stone to success in business and financial stability)

• • • Tremendous rise in migration, freedom of movement! Rise of urban black communities: seek cities to find work, seek family members, escape drudgery of farm life, explore, test mobility, join community at large, comfort in free congregation amongst fellow blacks (shared experience and protection as well as interest in how other African Americans lived)

 Major Changes for Black Americans (Legally)

1. 1. 13th amendment: abolishes slavery or involuntary servitude (except as punishment in terms of criminal work) by preventing southern states from reestablishing slavery after war (passed and ratified 1865)–full emancipation
   2. Civil Rights Act of 1866 defined rights as citizens American born or naturalized, fed power overrules states rights
   3. 14th Amendment (passed 1866, ratified 1868): prohibited states from violating right of its citizens, all citizens equal before law, guaranteed right to vote to all male American citizens (notably says male citizens–at this point it now requires federal amendment for women to be able to vote and status is recognized in the woman suffrage movement; shifts the push for universal suffrage to a specific gendered initiative)
   4. 15th Amendment (passed 1869, ratified 1870): prohibits vote from being denied to American citizens based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude; basis for black voting rights in US as well as all other minorities like Mexican, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, etc who may have been denied suffrage based on race or ethnicity previously [Note this refers to citizens only, unnaturalized immigrants or illegal migrants do not qualify for voting rights]
   5. Civil Rights Act of 1875: prohibited racial discrimination on juries (not considered a fundamental right of citizenship until mid-20th C), public transport, and accommodation, provides basis and precedent for abolishing segregation by mid-20th C, rarely enforced which is the difference between de facto (customary, the “reality” of daily living) and de jure (legally required and enforced) regulation and behavior (this act was struck down by the Supreme Court later which spawned a decades long effort to eliminate segregation)

      PROBLEMS & STRUGGLES:

      White supremacy among groups such as the Ku Klux Klan were a backlash to these constitutional rights and racial unrest: originally an attempt to prevent, violently if necessary, the voting of black men, especially prone in the south for three reasons: racism rampant between former slaveowners and their former slaves, fear of disfranchised white male electorate competing with free black voters, and – albeit minor – continuing myth of the black rapist (in short, the racist idea that all black men seek to have sex with idealized white women so had to protect white womanhood)

      “Myth of the Lost Cause” vs honoring the dead –respect for men who fought and died for honor and their cause, ex. General Lee admired by N and S because desirable traits as leader and hero, often at odds with navigating racial divides and emerging New South relationships, devastation of an American region seeking solace and re-entry to the Union

      • Some of this reflected the bitter losses and huge death toll of loved ones, as many within the same families fought on both sides of the Civil War.
      • The commemoration efforts of many southern ladies aid societies (usually widows or mothers of dead Confederate soldiers and sailors) sought acknowledgment of the losing side as still lost Americans. Conversely, those outside the South and the victorious Northern and Western Americans viewed those Confederate deaths as justice or even irrelevant as the war was over.
      • Genuine racism existed in the mix as well, wherein former slave owners and sympathizers to the eradicated slavery system viewed themselves as superior based on race (a divisive factor which most of the modern world rejects), lead to uneven application of the law and racial disputes/discrimination
      1. Northern political factions began defining the New South as “superior in race relations” (in terms of having more experience with the African American population).
         • That these relations were decidedly skewed and could come with elements of white supremacy was not a concern to some northerners as they shared many of the same views about the “other” in a majority white society—essentially, some Americans in this period believed in racial superiority principles of “keep them separate, keep them down, keep them controlled” and that separate but equal was both right and fair.
         • This would be challenged by both practical living and reformers who recognized the inherent inequality of two standards within the law. Ironically, efforts to secure civil rights for all would also spur efforts to achieve gender equality (women’s right to vote, married women’s property rights, retaining citizenship even if marry non-US citizen, female jury service, etc).
      2. Northern business interests cultivated commercial ties with the defeated but still land and resource rich southern states of the former Confederacy. Northern and Western entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the new source of free labor and often desperate financial plight of southerners of every class and race. If that meant ignoring segregation and discrimination, then commerce would win the day so it is inaccurate to equate the South as solely racist and other areas of the USA as exempt from such thinking.

 Political Reconstruction: The Pains of Progress and Re-Integration

1. 1. Through the various phases of reconstruction, 1865-1867 Presidential Reconstruction, 1867-1870 Congressional Reconstruction a.k.a. Military or Radical Reconstruction, 1870-1874 Counter or Republican Reconstruction, and 1874-1877 Redeemer Reconstruction or Redemption, ultimately all efforts failed to create a solution to racial prejudice and ethnic tension in such an intense decade of upheaval. On the other hand, the supremacy of the union was preserved and the standard of rights at the national level was enhanced through federal amendments 13, 14 and 15 (arguably, three of the most dramatic changes to the Constitution since the Bill of Rights).
   2. Greatest period of success for black Americans and their newly guaranteed rights comes in the earliest period, from 1865 to 1875, compared to the remainder of the 19th century for several reasons:
      • literacy and education at an all time high
      • could vote
      • hold political office
      • opened businesses
      • mobility to travel at will
      • independent farmers or property ownersHowever, most political and economic accomplishments/successes in this period came from already middle class and free African Americans, not freedmen, as these individuals were in the best position to take advantage of these new opportunities whereas freedmen were more focused on daily living and survival in a newly free society.
   3. After 1875 and subsequent financial crises in the 1890s, regression and increase in segregation for much of the South and black Americans would foster inequalities:
      1. 1. increase in racial violence and divisive black/white segregation
         2. black codes or Jim Crow laws designed to classify rights based on race
         3. disfranchisement occurred through poll taxes, literacy tests, and property requirements
            a. Problem with this latter issue arose though, because it excluded many landless poor whites thus the “grandfather clause” was created to help—meaning that anyone’s grandfather who was free before 1865 could vote, effectively burdening African American voting with financial or education requirements in one fell swoop.
            b. Other variations, such as Florida’s 1885 Constitution, also helped poor white males by exempting amputees and war veterans from the poll tax, which pretty much included all white male southerners, so it drove a wedge between potential allies based on socio-economic class rather than racial differences.

            Over time, these discriminatory practices were eliminated and true universal suffrage (right to vote based on citizenship alone) was achieved nationwide in the 1960s. It was a hard fought battle by Americans of every race, as the types of discrimination and racism tended to vary by region and majority/minority group. Ex. While segregation by black/white in the South gets much attention, other regions had problems such as anti-Asian laws in Western states such as California and Oregon, exclusionary nativism against Irish and Italians in the Northeast and Midwest and tribal rights of sovereignty vs federal authority. This is the reason national laws to combat regional bias and discriminatory legal codes was necessary to secure constitutional rights regardless of race/ethnicity, creed or color. You will be exploring these challenges in upcoming modules so keep this theme of striving for equality in mind.

         4. erosion of black male power and increase in separation of black families due to social tensions and job stress
            a. rise in importance of black mothers and grandmothers as mainstay of family but unfortunate marginalization of black fathers to destabilize the black American family
            b. sharecropping/crop lien system created a debt-cycle for the new freedman farmers/landowners, although this fate is shared with white males also
         5. revival of states rights as court cases interpret amendments negatively for blacks, legal segregation begins to entrench.Most historians argue that continuity in the power structure and politics followed the old south into the new, legal changes were made but behavior lagged behind (attitudes must change before reality/daily living does and social expectations typically adapt slowly in most cultures). Thus, American society in the end of the 1800s mirrored much of the antebellum years in segments of the population and former Confederate states, except that slavery was outlawed and activists would continue challenging the status quo to reach more equal access to American ideals for all.

 Reconstruction Considered as a Whole

1. 1. Tremendous biological and psychological damage to the nation’s identity—over 600,000 men killed out of a total population of 33 million with as much or more maimed or permanently debilitated from injuries. Those deaths resulted in the loss of future offspring and human labor, uneven sex ratios as women briefly outnumbered men and thus did not marry/remarry, and influx of new male immigrants/families seeking to fill employment openings.
   2. Brutality of war carries into some racist and violent feelings in late nineteenth century (frustration, fear of the unknown, anger over loss, limited economic access to land) and resistance to change
   3. South recovers economically far more quickly than its social development, and even that economy was dominated by Northerners and industry (South characterized by low wages, unskilled labor force, mass poor of all races, illiteracy, patriarchalism, white supremacy, racial tension—essentially, the southerners became a second class citizenry to the Union as a whole so a great deal of infighting occurred within that fractured group to ensure that white southerners stayed on top)
   4. North must reunite national government but to do so elevates the federal authority to new heights that originated in Civil War, state authority (bastion of Southerners view of their constitutional rights) subsumed to the national government
      1. emergence of national level possessing expanded authority and new set of purposes, including unprecedented commitment to the ideal of national citizenship whose equal rights belonged to all Americans regardless of race (while failing in many ways, the foundation was set and allowed for growth toward equality through the efforts of many reformers over time)
      2. prevailing idea that advancement is based on individual merit and laissez faire government, which conflicts with new national power–must find common ground so explained as “Social Welfare” responsibility