Tragic failure of Reconstruction

Criteria for success:

Reconcile Southerners to defeat

Reestablish state governments/representation

Punish the south?

Role of freedmen in society

(Radical spectrum inc. Stevens/Sumner)

Reintegrate South into national economy (textile-munitions-textile)

Disabled/widows/orphans (n/s split)

Political viability – if you lose power, you can’t implement any plan

No plan giving rights to Freedmen is viable due to economic interests.

Eric Foner: Reconstruction

Beardian - Review approaches to historiography

Affective Teaching:

Literacy Tests?

Group plan activity set up for failure?

Why be affective. Can Caucasians understand the tragedy of Reconstruction intellectually?

Pair plan summaries: Lincoln/Johnson/Congress

Lincoln’s death: political opportunity

Charity/No malice

Ten percent

Secession null since unconstitutional

Unclear on Freedmen

No A.H.H. Stevens

Johnson: Psychology/temperment

Poor white from Tenessee: Virulently racist

Enjoys pardoning upper class plantation owners who must grovel for his indulgence

Whistle-stop tour – Swing ‘Round the Circle

Impeachment

Marginilization (Clinton comparison)

Reign of the Major Generals

13/14/15 Amendments

State suicide theory - Hypocritical

Radicals use majority’s desire to punish the South to advance Freedmen’s rights

Various motivations of Radicals. Some believe in equality. For most, it is tactical because Blacks will vote Republican.

Confederate debt?

Conflicting Goals of Electorate

Reinforce that we live in a Democracy

Without re-election, no plan can succeed

Most Evangelical radicals of North satisfied with end of slavery; do not desire equality

Goals of Middle Class/Capitalist Class of North

Get cotton flowing as necessity for strong economy

Lower taxes

Scale back power of government (no seizure of property)

Goals of factory workers (Healy’s class review: Proletariat)

Get cotton flowing as necessity for strong economy (read: jobs)

Do not want Blacks to compete for labor: will drive down wages

Wages of whiteness

Goals of Northwest farmers:

Get cotton flowing as necessity for strong economy (so North can afford to buy grain)

Do not want Blacks to grow food crops as supply/demand will drive down prices

Lower taxes

Scale back power of government (no seizure of property)

Goals of Union veterans/widows/orphans

Benefits for themselves (higher government expenditure)

Punishment of south (also part of other Northern groups to a greater or lesser extent)

Goals of plantation owners

Maintain social hegemony

Preserve wealth

Have Union pay Confederate war debt

Need a labor source to grow cotton (force blacks to work, slave or not)

Preserve religion of the South

Low taxes

Goals of poor whites:

Control blacks (fear from Turner’s rebellion) and protect white women and children from rapine violence

Revive economy; repair destruction of South (make Union pay)

Preserve white supremacy (wages of whiteness)

Preserve Southern religion

Preserve power of plantation class as traditional leaders

Have Union pay for Confederate veterans, widows, orphans

Goals of Confederate veterans/widows/orphans

Pensions for themselves

Seething rage over the destruction and loss of life – somewhat undirected

Freedmen’s goals:

LAND: If land: what will they grow?

Want to farm: food, not cotton

(failure of 40 acres and a mule)

Access to education

Freedom to create own religion

Reunite with/build family

Move for jobs?

Economic threat to factory workers, factory owners, Northwestern farmers. High taxes needed to support occupation of South.

Erodes support for reconstruction. Further eroded by increased emphasis on material wealth during the birth pangs of the gilded age.

Southern resistance – outlasts the occupation (Cultural resistance to invading force. Can one make an analogy with Iraq?)

Forrest/KKK: cultural roots of cross-burning and lynching

Compare to Sons of Liberty

Jury nullification

Scalawags – traitors to the race?

Loss of radical power

Election of 1876

Compromise (Finishes work of Medill Tariff Act in linking Republicanism with big business.

Redeemer governments

Black Codes

Vagrancy

Evasions of 15th Amendment

Literacy Test - Poll Tax - Grandfather Clause

Plessy v. Ferguson: Separate but equal: Jim Crow is constitutional until Brown v. Board in 1954