America in Reconstruction
after the Civil War
History Book Club
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Wednesday, March 30, 2022. Reconstruction, 1865-77 Abraham Lincoln had a clear picture of what should be done after the end of the War Between the States, but his assassination meant that Andrew Johnson, the Democrat who succeeded him, would be President. Read about this dangerous, murderous time in our history as we sought to regain the 11 Confederate States in the Union. Read about the growth of white supremacist organizations, and the different ways that America handled the end of slavery, and welcoming (?) millions of newly freed Africans to America. [Proposed by Mary Beth Smith]
A Dangerous Stir: Fear, Paranoia and the
Making of Reconstruction;
Mark Wahlgren Summers, A Dangerous
Stir: Fear, Paranoia and the Making of Reconstruction; Chapel Hill, NC:
University of North Carolina Press, 2009., New York: Random House; 2019
Heather Cox
Richardson, The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor and Politics in the
Post-Civil War North, 1965-1901 (2001)
America
has just gone through a war, south vs. north, with 620,000 dead. The end of the
war meant freedom for nearly four million slaves, but then what?
b. How to incorporate the seceded states back into the Union?
Fear ruled the
country, and a careful, skillful minority of slaveholders set the stage for
secession, so that when it finally happened, in state after state, the majority
of whites, mostly not slaveholders, were caught up in the frenzy, with tales of
rampaging slaves and invading Northerners.
Shortly
after the November 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, came the rumors of angry
mobs breaking into New York banks,
and seizing the ports of New York and Brooklyn, and the Governor of Virginia
leading a “rakehelly” mob over the Potomac into Washington. Actual
secession of southern states, after all the rumors, was out in the open, for
all to see.
People today are uncertain about the
invasion by Russia in Ukraine and the possibility that it might grow into world
war, scientific indicators of global warming, inflation, the remaining threat
of a pandemic, and the widening gap of one political party seemingly bonded to
a past president and still not accepting the election of the President by the
other party. The party not in power
today is systematically changing the balloting and vote management mechanism
systems in states where they are in the majority, in hopes that they can win
back their majority. We are still
recovering from a violent attack of the nation’s Capitol by mobs which included
many who were openly in white supremacist organizations. It is depressing to
consider how many Americans still do not consider Blacks as entitled to equal
rights.
Rutherford
B. Hayes 1877-81
As we look back at the process of Reconstruction, which was abruptly stopped after the negotiated electoral victory of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, what if it would have been continued until its goal was accomplished?
The 1860 election brought secession,
Fort Sumter and war. The 1864 election,
taking place as the Union saw its way to victory, pitted Lincoln and his
Democrat vice presidential candidate Andrew Johnson against former Union
General George McClellan, a War Democrat, and George Pendleton. Lincoln won
handily, becoming the first president to be reelected since Andrew Jackson in
1832.
Lincoln was assassinated less than
two months into his second term, and less than a week after General Robert E.
Lee surrendered the Confederate army at Appomattox Court House. Lincoln was succeeded by Andrew Johnson, who
then had to deal with Reconstruction.
After the war, there were continual
reports and warnings of rampaging Negro mobs all over the defeated South. The press did much to spread rumors and
created continual turmoil. It is a testimony to the times that most reports of
rabid, bloodthirsty, heavily armed blacks marching on white towns and wreaking
havoc ended with scores of blacks killed and perhaps one or two whites wounded.
If you’ve followed the national
discourse these days you might appreciate the perceptions Americans in 1867
gained, each subject to enormous alteration, depending on whether you were a
poor white Southerner, a former plantation owner, a newly freed
African-American, a northern Radical Republican, a northern Copperhead, War
Democrat or Peace Democrat, or a Lincoln Republican.
Many northerners understood that it
was in the country’s best interest that the former Confederacy was given
generous treatment.
Andrew Johnson was impeached by
Congress in a process that began in February 1868 with 11 articles, the most
important was a charge of violating the Tenure of Office Act. He was
acquitted on that charge and two others, then the Senate dismissed the remaining
eight articles without trial. After it was over, it looked so ludicrous, so
hollow and cheap. Years later, commentators were still writing: “There has
rarely been a more amusing episode…nor a better illustration of the way an
incident of really trifling importance can be worked up by the effects of
unscrupulous politicians, supported by unscrupulous newspapers, so as to wear
the look of irretrievable disaster.” Nation, 1875.
The national election of 1868
was between Republican Ulysses S. Grant and Democrat Horatio Seymour. Texas,
Virginia and Mississippi had not yet re-entered the Union, so their votes were
not counted. This was the first election for newly freed slaves. Grant won
overwhelmingly.
Although Democrats continually
feared that he would try to become an Emperor, his was a rather slipshod,
bungling, ham-handed and corrupt administration for eight years.
The three major amendments that were passed shortly after the Civil War are the reconstruction amendments that were the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments.
Being born in East Texas 69 years
after the war, I grew up in the segregated South. As a child I remember lots of
talk about black people and the need to “keep them down.” When I was a teenager, I heard of classmates
who would go “nigger knocking”. A car full of drunk white boys would drive
through the black part of town and, when they passed a Black walking by, they’d
whack him with a 2x4.
Governors in some states organized
to wipe out Klan-like raids and killings. In Texas a Southern Unionist, Edmund
J. Davis, who had been a Union general in the war, was elected as a
“Reconstruction Governor” and served one term, 1870-74. He organized the state
police and arrested suspects by the thousands.
The Klan in Texas never recovered. [Although now a particularly violent
group in Vidor TX shows up in the news occasionally.] Texas today still has a lot of racism.
The Reconstruction was poorly done,
because of the vengeance of Radical Republicans; ignorance of many; built-in
tendency toward racial hatred; a poorly informed electorate; media often eager
to twist the reporting of news in their direction; greed; and incompetence on
many levels of leadership.
A Black man was elected President of
the United States in 2008 and governed for eight years. His two terms were seen by many to be
honorable and positive.
What many Americans did not
see was that millions of our fellow Americans seemed to despise the very idea
of a Black man as president. Their
latent feelings were activated by a man who knew just the right words to
provoke resentment, fear and suspicion.
That man rode to victory on a tide
of negative thoughts and fears, and openly played to white supremacists.
For four years America had a president
who openly encouraged a following that thrived upon white supremacy, suspicion,
fear and hatred of outsiders, particularly non-whites, and would-be immigrants
from Latin America and Muslims.
-end-
Ukraine in 8th to 13 centuries. (Washington Post)
Wednesday, April 27, 2022. History of Ukraine and the
Dnieper and Don Rivers. "Believe
me, you will acquire immortal fame such as no other sovereign of Russia ever
had," said Grigoriy Potemkin, a
prominent adviser to Catherine the Great, when offering the empress counsel in 1780 on plans to
wrest Crimea away from Ottoman suzerainty. "This glory will open the
way to still further and greater glory." Events in 2022 cast a
spotlight on Russia and Ukraine. Read any book that explores the rich history
of this fertile land north of the Black Sea and south of Russia. [Proposed by Mary Beth Smith]
Henry Ford
Wednesday, May 25, 2022.
Immigrants to America who have made a difference. Read and tell us
the story of an immigrant to the U.S. who has brought a wondrous addition to
his/her new nation. Perhaps the newcomers started a family of creative
Americans; perhaps they themselves made important advances. Look at Henry Ford,
Albert Einstein, Sergey Brin, Audrey Hepburn, Chinua Achebe, Cary Grant, Irving
Berlin, Nikola Tesla, more. [Proposed by Mary Beth Smith.]
Lincoln
Assassination
Wednesday, June 29, 2022. Assassinations and executions of leaders. Read the stories of how famous people were assassinated
and what came after. From modern times--- Anwar Sadat, Olaf Palme, Yitzhak
Rabin, Aldo Moro, Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, or Presidents Lincoln,
Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy, or Franz Ferdinand, King of Albania, Nicholas
II of Russia, or earlier-- Henry VI, James III, Henry III, Julius Caesar.
[Proposed by Janos Posfai]
Ironclad USS Monitor, 1862
Wednesday, July 27, 2022. Game changing maritime
inventions. Read about the days of
ships propelled by sail, oars, coal or oil, paddle wheelers, steam engines, or
warships like dreadnought, submarines, aircraft carriers, or torpedoes,
propellers, chronometers, sextants, etc. [Proposed by Janos Posfai]
Wednesday, August 31, 2022. How Should We Deal with China? Let's dig into the history of China and try to learn how
the United States should approach China, in terms of human rights, trade
policy, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Global Warming, Nuclear Weapon Proliferation,
autonomous weapons, public health, and much more. We are tremendously
interdependent: should we continue to view China as an Opponent? [Proposed
by Bruce Frederick]
Ethel
and Julius Rosenberg
Wednesday, September 28, 2022. Trials of historical significance. Read about the Nuremberg
War Crimes Trials (1945-46), or the Trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1951),
Burning of the Reichstag trial (1933), or the Trial of Galileo Galilei (1633), Martin Luther and the Diet of Worms,
(1521) (not what it sounds like), the Trial and Death of Socrates by Plato (399
BC), or many more. [Proposed by Janos Posfai]
