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David Blight Race And Reunion Sparknotes

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Despite the many years after the Civil War ended in 1865, the war’s significance was still great enough to have caused such controversy with the public over its meaning. In David W. Blight’s Race and Reunion, the meaning of the war changes throughout the period of Reconstruction not due to the misconception of it solely, but due to what we wanted to interpret from the war (or rather, what we remembered from the war that eventually changed over time). Blight argues, “I am primarily concerned with the ways that contending memories clashed or intermingled in public memory, and not in developing professional historiography of the Civil War” (Blight, Prologue). With this being said, the meaning of the Civil War changed through what people felt and …show more content…

Their expectations of the outcome of the Civil War linked to their hope for a chance of reconciliation and freedom just as much as ay other white man. They knew exactly what they were fighting for, and because of this, the meaning for them became just as significant and meaningful. However for the blacks during this time period, their understanding of the significance of the war contributed to how it eventually changed during the period of Reconstruction when Blight says, “These black soldiers had no trouble defining the meaning of freedom and the war; they were only beginning the long struggle to protect the memory of their story… ” (Bailey, Chapter 1 p. 24). In Bailey’s statement, the meaning of the Civil War changed for blacks and was somewhat different from a white’s because of their basic placement in society that separated them due to their different meanings/purposes for the war. Black men fought for their rights while the white men fought for reunion and reconstruction, therefore leaving each with a different meaning from the war, and each carrying their own remembrance of the …show more content…

In the end, the emancipationist vision of the Civil War won out because African Americans were the most affected after the war as they slowly, but steadily, stepped a little more into the light of freedom. With race being such a big and controversial issue back then, it was enough for this vision to change over time as well,

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