The post civil war era was an extremely complicated time for the United States: the Radical Republicans, Democrats, and newly freed blacks were all influential groups at the time, and the Southern states were attempting to recover both socially and governmentally after their defeat in the civil war. Due to the complex nature of the period, historians have long debated what Reconstruction truly incorporated. In the Article ‘New View of Reconstruction,’ the author Eric Foner evaluates historians ever-changing view on the topic of Reconstruction; criticizing the traditional interpretation and questioning its scholarly legitimacy. Foner instead asserts that Reconstruction was a failure: not due to black political dominance thrust upon the southern …show more content…
This is because the Blacks were the “central participants in the drama of reconstruction.”(165) Therefore, by ignoring their testimony, historians thereby sacrificed all scholarly objectivity; thus creating an interpretation of reconstruction that was extremely biased. According to Foner, this bias was the result of southern whites attempting to preserve their traditional way of life. In fact, he believes that the traditional novelistic portrait of reconstruction-depicting southern whites as heros-was so popular because it “accorded with the political and social realities of the first half of the century.”(165) Foner believes that Reconstruction served as a way for southerners to recreate their society of white supremacy, and the traditional interpretation of this period stood as an indictment of the ideals inherited from pre-civil war society. Due to the flawed nature of this interpretation, its “demise was inevitable.”(165) As a result, scholars soon began reevaluating the traditional interpretation, later rejecting it as a whole. The most “monumental” early revaluation, …show more content…
Post Civil War Reconstruction was an extremely complicated endeavor, and was further complicated by the presence of freed slave population. According to Du bois, Reconstruction was “a situation which would make it difficult under any circumstances to reconstruct a new government and a new civilization. Add to all this the presence of four million freedmen and the situation is even more complicated.”(Du Bois) The South not only had to fix their broken society, but also were burdened with supporting the freedman population. Because of this, granting equality for all of the freedman would have been very difficult. Nevertheless, Foner is still correct. The reason being that southerners never made an effort to construct a society based on
From segregation and voting laws to sharecropping, reconstruction did not turn out to be the success it had the potential to be. Many years later, we are
The book “Redemption; The Last Battle of The Civil War,” written by Nicholas Lemann focuses on one major politician during the reconstruction time period. Lemann illustrates the life of people in the south and the trials that the “Negros” faced. The conclusion of the civil war was supposed to be the end of racism and slavery, but white southerners continued to find ways to get around the new laws that were put into place. They created and passed “black codes” which, as the author says, “…legislated the freed slaves into a condition as close to their former one as it was possible to get without actually reinstituting slavery. ”(34)
The bitterness the southerners and northerners felt towards each other did not subside even after the Civil War ended, and this comes into vivid detail in Suzy Barile’s (great-great-granddaughter of Ella Swain and Smith Atkins) Undaunting Heart: The True Story of a Southern Belle & A Yankee General. The novel is a historical account of the tumultuous courtship and marriage of Ella (from North Carolina) Smith (from Illinois) and the scandal that preceded and followed them. The book’s most timely message is the historical aspects of the rebuilding of a country -- two sides, North and South, still steeped in the still remaining feelings of hostility centered around the violence of the War and the ending of slavery.
Avoiding the native racism of the Dunning School, he retains its “broad interpretive framework. ”As agreeing the revisionists’ depiction of Reconstruction as a revolution, he distributes the post-revisionists’ idea that it was “incomplete” unsuccessful, but he discovers evidence of genuine, long-term change in its legacy. Foner achieved in his self-appointed goal through a soft, careful, coherent, one which is researched, dispassionately and engrossingly
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
Washington and DuBois in the Reconstruction Era The Reconstruction Era began in the years following the Civil War in which many African-American slaves finally achieved freedom after centuries of slavery. The Civil War brought about freedom to approximately four million slaves but also brought about a new set of challenges and struggles that the African-American community would have to face. The Reconstruction Era, also known as the Radical Reconstruction, occurred during the years of 1865 and 1877, in which many freed African Americans struggled to assimilate into society while also being faced with numerous societal and economical limitations.
Who Killed Reconstruction? “The blacks, as a people, are unfitted for the proper exercise of political duties…..” said a Boston newspaper in 1873 saying that the Africans-Americans were too dumb to be in Congress or any political office. Three years later, was the 100th year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. With the irony of the election of 1876 had officially crushed the African-American dream. In 1877, the Reconstruction efforts finally ended, so people were wondering who killed Reconstruction.
You can see how reconstruction was supposed to help the newly freed slaves while the definition of reconstruction says that it was, “ensuring the rights and protection of the newly freed African Americans,” (Terms to know, On reconstruction.) This shows how some of the intentions of reconstruction were supposed to help bring newly freed slaves safely into the society. The newly freed slaves would have been fond of the idea of being brought safely into the society. You can see this again when it says, “Presidential reconstruction began in 1865 with the ratification() passing of the thirteenth amendment freeing slaves, and continued lincoln’s signature of the bill that created the Freedmen's Bureau. The Bureau was to feed both black and whites in the south, establish schools to teach former slaves to read and write, help them find paying jobs, and shield them from discrimination,” (Stage One: Presidential reconstruction 1865 - 1866.)
The most powerful people in the south, the KKK were the only ones that could have helped with the reconstruction of the south were not helping matters, that is why there was not and big developments. The south only wanted white people in power because they thought that the freedman were not equal and unfit to be part of any governments. The south wouldn’t even allow the freedmen to attend and public events. In conclusion even though the North had taken the soldiers out of the south and had given up on the freemen, the south has had a lot more problems reconstructing and making the freedman equal.
Peter Schroeder Dr. Christopher Marshall Modern United States History 2/2/17 Writing Assignment 1: The African-American Experience with Reconstruction Reconstruction among the south refers to the point in time which the United States was attempting to establish a relationship between the union and the rebels. The Union had won the civil war, so the next step was to begin to mend the broken relationship between the north and the south. Though historians cannot agree on when it began, there is merit in saying that it started before the end of the Civil War. After victory, had been solidified for the Union, attention of President Lincoln turned towards reconstruction.
Although many attempts were made to prioritize freedom and equality for all, these values were undermined by racist Southerners who wouldn’t accept equality. In the end, Reconstruction had failed and former slaves endured another hardship akin to slavery. However, Reconstruction still could have prospered. There are multiple events that, if they had occurred, Reconstruction would not have failed. For example, had the government continued to fund the Freedmen’s Bureau, then the South would have legislated their discriminatory laws much later, if not at all.
The American civil war led to the reunion of the South and the North. But, its consequences led the Republicans to take the lead of reconstructing what the war had destroyed especially in the South because it contained larger numbers of newly freed slaves. Just after the civil war, America entered into what was called as the reconstruction era. Reconstruction refers to when “the federal government established the terms on which rebellious Southern states would be integrated back into the Union” (Watts 246). As a further matter, it also meant “the process of helping the 4 million freed slaves after the civil war [to] make the transition to freedom” (DeFord and Schwarz 96).
Reconstruction caused prejudice and inequality. To elaborate, the creation of the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Codes were both in the time period of reconstruction, which caused chaos and violence throughout the Union. One of the goals of reconstruction was to repair the economy in the South, because it depended on slavery, which was now illegal, due to the thirteenth amendment. The South’s economic system now depended on Sharecropping, which caused former slaves to be in constant debt and was unjust to the black society. The reconstruction time period, was a time of dispute between the Union.
Racism’s Impact on Reconstruction While the issue of slavery evidently contributed to the divide that resulted in the American Civil War, it is debated whether prevailing ideals of racism caused the failure of the era following the war known as Reconstruction. With the abolishment of slavery, many of the southern states had to reassemble the social, economic, and political systems instilled in their societies. The Reconstruction Era was originally led by a radical republican government that pushed to raise taxes, establish coalition governments, and deprive former confederates of superiority they might have once held. However, during this time common views were obtained that the South could recover independently and that African Americans
Americans need to sit down and consider all of the facts on this subject before forming an absolute opinion on the matter. For most historians, reconstruction has been considered America’s second birth. In his article, “Slavery