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Ulysses S. Grant At Appomattox Analysis

695 Words3 Pages

Dr. Elizabeth Varon’s lecture portrayed the complex legacy of Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9th, 1865 in the context of what it symbolized for the South, the North, and African Americans, what it’s practical implications were, and how it differs from our modern rendering of the event into folklore. Depending on their allegiance to the Union or to the Confederacy, people perceived the events that transpired at Appomattox very differently. Dr. Varon first addresses Lee and the South’s view of Appomattox a restoration of peace, with no obligations for the South to repent or change their ways. It was a noble defeat in the eyes of the Confederates in which Lee “had not stooped his proud head one …show more content…

When Andrew Johnson succeeded Lincoln as president on April 15th, 1965, he betrayed what Grant viewed as the “promise of Appomattox” through amnesty and rapid Reconstruction of the South that neglected reform of Southern lifestyle. Southerners pushed back against any attempts to change their way of life, citing the “remain undisturbed” term of surrender, insisting that any forced change was inherently punitive. Grant was extremely disappointed by this wasted opportunity to push change upon the South. He began to favor black suffrage in order to keep Southerners from thinking they could control the nation. Likewise, African Americans were disappointed by the lack of change they saw in the years following Appomattox. Initially they saw the event as a symbol of hope that their rights and their liberation where finally secure . They had served as Union soldiers who played an instrumental role in defeating the Confederacy, so naturally they believed that they had earned their freedom undeniably. Although slavery itself was abolished, living as a black person in the Jim Crow South was slavery by another name. African Americans were still bound to serving white men through labor contracts, marriage restrictions, anti-enticement laws, and many other discriminatory terms of the Black Codes that sprang up all throughout Southern states after passage of the war amendments. Many African …show more content…

Varon frames her analysis of the legacy of Appomattox as contrasting the mythical story that people make the event out to be. In folklore, Lee gracefully represented the proud gentility of the South and Grant the mud-splattered working man of the North, and together they reunified the North and the South. In reality, it was vastly more complex, layered, and open to interpretation than stories make it out to be. Even an event as iconic as Appomattox remains rich with questions of motives and implications and deserves extensive historical

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