Reconstruction - Look Inside by Nomad Press

Judy Dodge Cummings Illustrated by Micah Rauch

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Contents

Map..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VI Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VII Introduction

The Past Informs the Present. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter 1

Rehearsal for Reconstruction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Chapter 2

Presidential Reconstruction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Chapter 3

Congress Takes a Stand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Chapter 4

Radical Reconstruction. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Chapter 5

High Crimes and Misdemeanors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Chapter 6

A Moment in the Sun.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Chapter 7

The Wheel of Progress Rolls Backward.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Chapter 8

The Legacies of Reconstruction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Glossary  Resources  Selected Bibliography  Index

MAP

WESTERN TERRITORIES

NORTH STATES “UNION” SOUTH STATES “CONFEDERATE”

BORDER STATES

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MAP

VII

TIMELINE April 12, 1861: The Civil War begins with the Battle of Fort Sumter. January 1, 1863: President Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation. December 8, 1863: President Lincoln announces the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction Act. March 3, 1865: The Freedmen’s Bureau is created. April 9, 1865: The Civil War ends when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. April 15, 1865: President Lincoln is assassinated. May 29, 1865: President Andrew Johnson announces his Reconstruction plan. November 1865: Mississippi becomes the first postwar state to enact a Black Code. December 6, 1865: The Thirteenth Amendment is ratified. December 24, 1865: The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is formed. April 5, 1866: The Civil Rights Act is passed over President Johnson’s veto. July 16, 1866: The Freedmen’s Bureau is expanded and its powers extended over President Johnson’s veto.

VIII

RECONSTRUCTION | TIMELINE

TIMELINE July 30, 1866: The New Orleans Massacre occurs. 1867: Reconstruction Acts are passed over President Johnson’s vetoes. July 28, 1868: The Fourteenth Amendment is ratified. November 3, 1868: Ulysses S. Grant is elected president. February 25, 1870: Hiram Revels is seated in the U.S. Senate as the first Black senator. February 3, 1870: The Fifteenth Amendment is ratified. December 12, 1870: Joseph H. Rainey is the first Black man elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. April 20, 1871: The Ku Klux Klan Act is passed. June 28, 1872: The Freedmen’s Bureau is abolished. March 1, 1875: Another Civil Rights Act is passed outlawing segregation in most public places and in transportation. March 4, 1877: Rutherford B. Hayes is inaugurated president. 1877: Federal troops remain in the South but have no authority to intervene in state decisions, effectively reducing the federal government’s power in the South.

TIMELINE

Introduction

The Past Informs the Present

What can we learn about the period of time called Reconstruction that will help today?

The period of Reconstruction after the Civil War has much in common with today’s world, including a collective wish to see more social, political, and economic equality. We also share many of the same challenges. By paying attention to history, people of the present have a better chance of affecting positive change.

A divided public. Lawmakers with competing visions for the future. Bold newspaper headlines about voting rights, citizenship, and domestic terrorism. While this may sound like the United States of today, these sentences describe the country between 1865 and 1877, during the era called Reconstruction. Similar to the present, Reconstruction was a time of division and turmoil, when Americans struggled to define freedom and determine who should get it. Reconstruction was a turning point in American history. During the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, the North and South had fought about two central questions. Should the United States remain one nation? Should enslaved people be freed? The North won the war. As a result, the 11 Confederate states of the South had to return to the Union on terms set by the North, while the 4 million enslaved people in the South were freed.

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These two momentous changes raised critical questions that would shape the country’s future. •

Should the Southern states be welcomed back with open arms or should they be punished?

PRIMARY SOURCES

Primary sources come from people who were • Should former slaves enjoy the same rights and eyewitnesses to events. freedoms as American citizens? They might write about • Should the federal government compensate the event, take pictures, former slaveholders for the “property” they had post short messages to to free? social media or blogs, or record the event for radio • Should the freed people be compensated for or video. The years of stolen labor? photographs in This book tells the story of how this book are nineteenth-century Americans tried primary sources, to answer these questions. As African taken at the From 2008 to 2018, Americans gained new political, time of the the United States spent economic, and social freedoms, the event. Paintings at least $40 million to moment felt ripe with the promise of of events are maintain Confederate true equality. However, the more Black statues, museums, usually not people asserted their new powers, the cemeteries, homes, and primary sources, libraries. Very few of more Southern whites resisted. By 1877, since they were these sites mention the the reforming spirit of Reconstruction often painted lives of enslaved people. was gone, and white supremacists long after the regained control in the South. event took place. What other primary sources can you find? Why are primary sources important? Do you Although Confederates lost the Civil War 150 years learn differently from ago, more than 1,700 Confederate markers dot the primary sources than from United States landscape from Florida to Washington secondary sources, which State. From 1924 to 2021, a statue of Confederate come from people who General Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) sat astride a did not directly experience horse in Emancipation Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. the event? When City Councilor Kristin Szakos suggested in 2012 that perhaps it was time to remove the statue from the park, people gasped.

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WHOSE HERITAGE MATTERS

The Past Informs the Present

White supremacists clash with police in Charlottesville, Virginia, 2017. Credit: Evan Nesterak (CC BY 2.0)

View the map of Confederate markers compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center at this website. In what area of the country are most of the Confederate markers located? What explains this?

public symbols Confederacy map

Szakos recalled in a 2013 interview, “I felt like I had put a stick in the ground and kind of ugly stuff bubbled up from it.” The statue of General Lee remained. However, by 2015, the issue of Confederate symbols in public places was being debated in communities across the South. People who wanted monuments and memorials removed and streets and schools renamed said the Confederacy represented white supremacy and had no place in modern America. Opponents of removal denied these markers were racist. They insisted the markers symbolized Southern heritage and should not be erased.

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In 2016, Charlottesville high school student Zyahna Bryant petitioned the city council to remove the Lee statute from the city center. “It makes us feel uncomfortable,” she wrote, “and it is very offensive.” The council voted to take down the statute, but opponents immediately sued and a judge issued an injunction blocking its removal. Charlottesville became a powder keg waiting for a spark. That explosion was ignited the morning of August 12, 2017. White supremacists dressed in combat gear and wielding Confederate flags rallied in Charlottesville to support keeping Lee’s statue in the park. They were met by hundreds of counterprotesters. At first, the two sides traded only verbal insults, but soon they were throwing punches. Virginia’s governor declared a state of emergency and the police and National Guard cleared the park. That afternoon, as throngs of counter-protesters marched peacefully toward the downtown, a car plowed into them from behind. The vehicle was driven by 20-year-old James Alex Fields, a white supremacist with a history of mental instability. Pedestrians screamed as bodies flew into the air. “It was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Robert Armengol, a student at the University of Virginia. One woman was killed and 34 people were injured.

The violence in Charlottesville was just one event in a series of dramatic confrontations over the fate of the hundreds of Confederate markers scattered throughout the United States. The nation’s inability to agree on what these symbols represent is just one reason why Americans need to better understand Reconstruction.

REACTION TO A MASSACRE It took a massacre for Southern communities to begin removing Confederate flags and markers from public places. In 2015, Dylann Roof killed nine Black people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historic Black church in Charleston, South Carolina. Following the murders, investigators discovered a website of Roof ’s that contained dozens of pictures of him visiting Confederate heritage sites and posing with the Confederate flag. News of his white supremacist views led to a nationwide movement to remove public commemorations of the Confederacy. State laws protect many of these markers. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, since the Charleston church shooting, 312 Confederate symbols have been removed or relocated from public spaces. However, more than 2,100 such symbols still remain.

The Past Informs the Present

WHAT WAS RECONSTRUCTION? The most important role in Reconstruction was played by emancipated slaves, known as freedmen and freedwomen, and their Black and white allies. Before the guns of the Civil War had even fallen silent, former slaves were carving out new lives. They adopted new last names, mounted searches for family members who’d Political power was the central struggle of Reconstruction. The story of this been sold off, staked claims to land, and era cannot be told without Republican learned to read and write.

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and Democratic lawmakers, both white people and Black. This was a period of high political drama— assassination, impeachment, and the rise of the Radical Republicans.

Northern Blacks and whites moved south to teach in freedmen schools. They help organize Southern Blacks politically and socially.

A scene from the Freedmen’s Union Industrial School in Richmond, Virginia

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At Reconstruction’s peak, Congress passed three constitutional amendments that abolished slavery, established the principal of equality for all persons, and prohibited racial discrimination in voting. For the first time in history, Black men went to the polls by the thousands to cast their vote, electing almost 2,000 former slaves and free Black people to federal, state, and local government. The Republican party worked to achieve an interracial democracy built on the ashes of slavery, while Democrats watched their power—built on the foundation of white supremacy—ebb.

Many parts of the South, including Atlanta, Georgia, were left in ruins after the Civil War.

However, Reconstruction is an inspiring story with a tragic ending. By the late 1860s, white supremacist groups had unleashed a brutal campaign of terror throughout the South. When an economic depression struck in 1873, the Republican Party grew more concerned with economic stability than racial equality. The Past Informs the Present

To help navigate the present, Americans must understand their past.

Reconstruction’s death knell was sounded when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a series of decisions that dismantled legal protections for African Americans. By the end of the 1890s, the Democratic Party had regained power in the South and constructed a system of racial segregation that lasted for decades.

WHY DOES IT MATTER? The Reconstruction era offers both hope and caution for modern America. The hope lies in the fact that for the brief window from 1865 to 1877, democracy expanded because Americans worked across racial lines to bring about positive change. A Visit from the Old Mistress (1876) by Winslow Homer (1836–1910)

RECONSTRUCTION | INTRODUCTION

The constitutional amendments passed during Reconstruction were not enforced, but they did not disappear. When the Civil Rights Movement expanded in the 1950s, activists based their fight for racial equality on the constitutional changes their forefathers and mothers had fought for a century earlier. Reconstruction is also a cautionary tale. White supremacy, violence, and indifference killed Reconstruction—problems on the rise again in the early twenty-first century. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, between 2015 and 2019, the number of hate groups in the United States increased 30 percent. According to an October 2020 survey, 61 percent of Americans believe the United States could be on the verge of another civil war.

America is once again deeply divided, and political conversations tend to be damaging and dysfunctional rather than reasonable and productive. Reconstruction was a pivotal period in American history, when the nation tried to remake itself into a more perfect union. The story of Reconstruction in the following chapters proves that if enough reformminded individuals work together, powerful and positive change can occur. But Reconstruction also illustrates how fragile democracy is, a vital lesson for twenty-first-century Americans.

KEY QUESTIONS • Why is it important to study history, including the controversial issues and events of the past? • Why do people disagree about removing Confederate statues? What is your opinion about the statues?

LAST RIDE In April 2019, Virginia State Judge Richard Moore ruled in favor of maintaining the statue of General Robert E. Lee. Moore stated that Lee’s statue in Charlottesville was a war memorial not a tribute to racism. Thus, it is protected by a 1997 state law that prohibits removing or altering such markers. However, in April 2021, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that war memorials erected before the 1997 law were not protected. This ruling has cleared the way for the city council to remove Lee’s statute. In July 2021, the statue was removed, along with one of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson (1824–1863).

TEXT TO WORLD Does your school have a mascot? Do you know of any controversy that has erupted over that mascot? Some organizations have changed their mascots to better reflect the values of today. What do you think of this?

The Past Informs the Present

Inquire & Investigate

Language evolves with every generation. Some words widely used 150 years ago to describe races and ethnicities are now considered inaccurate, inappropriate, and even offensive. For example, if you read primary sources from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, you’ll find lots of references to “colored people.” But that phrase does nothing to indicate race. The term “Negro” is another one that has fallen out of use as we’ve accepted it was used by white people to indicate the inferiority of Black people. Other terms are too offensive to even use in this book. Today, the preferred term is “Black people.” We also use “African Americans” when referring to Black Americans of African descent. As we learn more, we can do better with our language.

A MONUMENTAL HISTORY Monuments designed to honor places, events, or people stand in public places across the United States. Some, such as the Lincoln Memorial and the Statue of Liberty, are classic icons. Others, such as the 2,000-pound African Killer Bee located in Hidalgo, Texas, are less than traditional. Monuments are often controversial. What is honorable to one person may be offensive to another. Also, the meanings of monuments change as the culture around them evolves. What do monuments reveal about the history, culture, and values of your community?

• Ask adults, such as parents, teachers, and librarians, to help you make a list of all the historical monuments in your community. Choose one monument to investigate. • Develop a list of questions you want answered about this monument. Consider the following ideas. • When, why, and by whom was this monument erected? • What was going in U.S. history when the monument was dedicated? • Who owns the land on which the monument sits? • Who maintains the structure? • What do people today think about this monument?

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• Investigate the monument’s origins and present use. The internet is a handy place to start, but you can also interview your local historical society, librarian, or chamber of commerce. • Based on the answers to your questions, what does this monument reveal about the historical beliefs and values of your community? Have those values and beliefs changed over time? What evidence do you have of this change? • What is your opinion of this monument? Should it remain in your community, be removed, or be expanded or altered in some way to reflect deeper historical insights about the era in which it was erected? What might the consequences be for each action? • Design a pamphlet that reflects your opinion about the monument. The purpose of the pamphlet will depend on your opinion. If you think the monument should remain as is, you might design an advertisement to encourage people to visit. If you think the monument should be removed, your pamphlet might be a petition to the city government. Share your pamphlet with peers and see how their opinions compare with yours.

Inquire & Investigate

VOCAB LAB Write down what you think each word means. What root words can you find to help you? What does the context of the word tell you? amendment, discrimination, emancipate, heritage, racism, Reconstruction, and white supremacy Compare your definitions with those of your friends or classmates. Did you all come up with the same meanings? Turn to the text and glossary if you need help.

To investigate more, design and distribute a survey to assess community opinion about the monument. Analyze the results of the survey. Do the majority of people agree with your view of the monument? If not, how could you redesign your pamphlet to reflect popular opinion about the future of this public structure?

The Past Informs the Present

Inquire & Investigate

PARTY HISTORY We talk a lot in this book about the Democratic and Republican Parties as they existed during and right after the Civil War. But those parties are very different from the Democratic and Republican Parties we have today. In fact, in some ways, it can feel like the two parties switched many of their ideals. During Reconstruction, it was the Democratic Party that argued for states’ rights, strict voting laws, and a smaller role for the federal government— exactly what the Republican Party argues for today. While the Democrats were considered to be more conservative in the nineteenth century, today they are more liberal than the Republicans. In this activity, you’ll compare and contrast the positions of the two parties, then and now.

• Research and learn more about the Democratic and Republican Parties as they were after the Civil War and as they are now. What did they think was the job of the U.S. government? Who did they believe should make decisions that affected people’s everyday lives? Who was more conservative? Who was more liberal? To investigate more, research other political parties in the United States, such as the Green Party and the Libertarian Party. How do these parties differ in ideology? Do they hold the same values as they did when first formed?

• Create a series of four charts comparing the parties. One chart should focus on the Democrat and Republican Parties as they were during Reconstruction. Another should compare the way the two parties are now. A third should examine the Democratic Party during Reconstruction and the Democratic Party of today. And fourth should compare the Republican Party, then and now. • How similar are your four charts? How different are they? • What can they tell you about how the parties have changed in the past 150 years or so?