S2E2 Echoes of Freedom: The Promises and Perils of Reconstruction
Episode 2: Echoes of Freedom: The Promises and Perils of Reconstruction
Reconstruction is a pivotal epoch in American history, characterized by a fierce struggle to redefine freedom and reconstruct a nation emerging from the ashes of the Civil War. As we delve into this intricate narrative, we will examine the tumultuous transition from the battlefield to the political arena, where formerly enslaved individuals sought to claim their rightful place in a society that had long denied them equality. The episode uncovers the ambitious promises of Reconstruction, juxtaposed with the heartbreaking betrayals that ensued, illustrating the era's dual legacy of both remarkable progress and grievous setbacks. We shall traverse through the various phases of Reconstruction—from the leniency of President Lincoln's 10% plan to the radical measures enacted by Congress, and ultimately to the disheartening collapse of these efforts amid violent backlash and political machinations. Join us as we unravel the complexities of this unfinished revolution, whose echoes continue to resonate in contemporary discussions surrounding civil rights and American democracy.
Takeaways:
- The epoch of Reconstruction emerged as a moment of revolutionary potential, juxtaposed with violent opposition, thus illustrating the duality of progress and regression in American history.
- The passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments fundamentally altered the landscape of citizenship and civil rights in the United States, yet implementing these rights faced fierce resistance.
- The tumultuous era of Reconstruction not only witnessed the rise of African American political participation but also saw the emergence of groups like the Ku Klux Klan, which sought to undermine these gains through terror and violence.
- The assassination of President Lincoln catalyzed a series of political upheavals that ultimately led to the unraveling of Reconstruction efforts, highlighting the fragility of democratic ideals in a post-Civil War nation.
- The Compromise of 1877 marked the termination of Reconstruction, leading to the re-establishment of white supremacy and the institution of Jim Crow laws, a betrayal of the promises made during this transformative era.
- The legacy of Reconstruction remains complex, as it embodies both significant achievements in civil rights and the tragic failures that allowed systemic racism to persist for generations thereafter.
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Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker A:Hello, y' all, it's me.
Speaker A:It's me.
Speaker A:It's Dr.
Speaker A:G.
Speaker A:Welcome back to star spangled Studies.
Speaker A:Last time, we witnessed the bloody climax of the Civil War.
Speaker A:But as the cannons fell silent, a new and equally profound battle began.
Speaker A:The fight to remake a nation, to define freedom and to determine the very soul of these United States.
Speaker A:This is the story of Reconstruction, an era of breathtaking possibility and heartbreaking betrayal.
Speaker A:An era whose echoes resonate to this very day.
Speaker A:This is the story of an unfinished revolution.
Speaker A:So the guns of the Civil War had barely cooled when the United States faced monumental challenges.
Speaker A:The south lay in ruins.
Speaker A: the Carolinas and Georgia in: Speaker A:Quote, some of the material was burned, I know, but miles and miles of iron have actually disappeared, gone out of existence, end quote.
Speaker A:This mirrored the collapse of the antebellum way of life.
Speaker A:Overall, the questions posed were immense.
Speaker A:As the textbook puts it, quote, how would these states be brought back into the Union?
Speaker A:Would they be conquered territories or equal?
Speaker A:How would they rebuild their governments, economies and social systems?
Speaker A:What rights did freedom confer upon formerly enslaved people?
Speaker A:These weren't just political dilemmas.
Speaker A:They were inquiries into American democracy and the meeting of freedom for 4 million plus newly emancipated African Americans.
Speaker A:At its heart, Reconstruction was a conflict, as the American yop reader describes it, quote, a moment of revolutionary possibility and violent backlash.
Speaker A:African Americans and radical Republicans pushed the nation to finally realize the Declaration of Independence and promises that all men were created equal.
Speaker A:Conservative white Democrats granted African Americans legal freedom, but little more.
Speaker A:This era forced discussions about American citizenship more than any before.
Speaker A:But as our textbook does note, quote, resistance continued and Reconstruction eventually collapsed.
Speaker A:In this episode, we will detail the rise and the fall of Reconstruction, its promises, the perils, and eventually the betrayal.
Speaker A:We'll journey through presidential Reconstruction, the shift to radical Reconstruction, the violent, and I mean violent opposition to it.
Speaker A: t Grant and the Compromise of: Speaker A:So let's go.
Speaker A:Even before the war had ended, President Abraham Lincoln had planned for this moment, this reunification, this Reconstruction.
Speaker A: was announced in December of: Speaker A:It offered pardons to Confederates who swore allegiance to the Union and accepted emancipation.
Speaker A: % of a state's: Speaker A:Lincoln justified this with his constitutional pardoning power.
Speaker A:His vision from his second inaugural address was, quote, with malice toward none, with charity for all.
Speaker A:Let us strive on to bind up the Nation's wounds.
Speaker A:But radical Republicans in Congress found Lincoln's plan far too lenient.
Speaker A: In: Speaker A:Black Americans as well.
Speaker A:Lincoln pocket vetoed this bill, highlighting early divisions and visions for Reconstruction.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:This, as one of our sources notes, quote, intensified political divisions and altered the course of Reconstruction, end quote.
Speaker A:Many historians believe Lincoln's political skill might have led to a better outcome, but of course, we'll never know.
Speaker A:What we do know is actually what happened afterwards, which was.
Speaker A:Vice president Andrew Johnson, a Tennessee democrat, took office upon Lincoln's death.
Speaker A:He was a unionist, but he was also an unapologetic racist and a states rights advocate.
Speaker A: Johnson declared in: Speaker A:These states have not gone out of the Union, therefore Reconstruction is unnecessary.
Speaker A:His plan was what he called Restoration, which required southern governments to nullify their secession ordinances.
Speaker A:They had to repudiate confederate debts, and they had to ratify the 13th Amendment.
Speaker A:He ended up pardoning most Confederates, including over 13,000 wealthy planters who applied in individually, giving them back their money and land.
Speaker A:The Miller center historians have stated.
Speaker A:Historians view Andrew Johnson as the worst possible person to have ever served as president at the end of the American Civil War.
Speaker A: black codes beginning in late: Speaker A:These aimed to re establish antebellum power relationships and control black labor.
Speaker A: he Mississippi black codes of: Speaker A:And often they were hired out to their former enslavers.
Speaker A:One provision of this stated, every freedman, free negro and mulatto shall have a lawful home or employment and shall have written evidence thereof.
Speaker A:South Carolina's code prohibited black people from most occupations besides being farmers or servants without a hefty tax, and mandated that the terms master and servant were in labor contracts.
Speaker A:These codes criminalize black leisure and limited their mobility as well as their abilities to marry and to own firearms.
Speaker A:Now, scholar Douglas Blackmon has called this slavery by another name, and he's not lying when he says that the freedmen's Bureau, which we'll talk about in a bit, tried to counteract these codes, but they themselves had limited power.
Speaker A:And that's mostly politics is why this defiance galvanized northern Republicans, setting up a clash between the President and the Congress over how Reconstruction would go forward.
Speaker A:The end of the war brought legal freedom for African Americans, but the meaning of that and how far that freedom went was heavily contested.
Speaker A:How do we know this?
Speaker A:Well, we had to make three amendments and create the Freedmen's Bureau in order to counteract the resistance.
Speaker A: t, which was ratified in late: Speaker A:This amendment declared neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted shall exist within the United States.
Speaker A:Section 2 of the 13th Amendment gave Congress enforcement power.
Speaker A:Lincoln knew his Emancipation Proclamation needed constitutional permanence.
Speaker A:Radical Republicans like Charles Sumner wanted broader equality language, but moderates opted for focusing on abolishing just slavery itself.
Speaker A:Senator James Harlan argued slavery inherently destroyed families and property rights for those enslaved.
Speaker A:Opponents cited property rights and states rights as an argument against it.
Speaker A:The punishment for crime clause became a loophole, as historian M.
Speaker A:Keith Claybrook notes, allowing Southern states to use and enact black codes to effectively re enslave African Americans through systems like convict leasing slavery by another name.
Speaker A: d been established earlier in: Speaker A:Now Congress created the Freedmen's Bureau to help nearly 4 million newly freed African Americans navigate a world in which contracts and labor and housing and marriage and so forth, worlds that were alien to them.
Speaker A:This was headed by General Oliver O.
Speaker A:Howard, and it provided not only education, but but food and medical care as well.
Speaker A:So successful that it even established over a thousand schools, most of them in the South.
Speaker A:Freed people showed an immense desire for education.
Speaker A:Charlotte Fortin, a black teacher, wrote this, quote, I never before saw children so eager to learn.
Speaker A:The Bureau also mediated the labor contracts and offered legal aid, as in the case of John Dennis, who whose children were recovered from force.
Speaker A:Apprenticeship.
Speaker A:After Bureau investigations, the Bureau helped to reunite families that had been torn apart by slavery.
Speaker A:However, the Bureau was critically underfunded.
Speaker A:It was understaffed, and it faced fierce Southern white opposition.
Speaker A:Its biggest failure was its inability for land redistribution.
Speaker A:And that had a lot more to do with the politics at play.
Speaker A: raser told General Sherman in: Speaker A:Sherman issued field order number 15, promising 40 acres and a mule.
Speaker A:But this was largely reversed by President Johnson's Actions and pardons.
Speaker A:Freedmen on Edisto island, protested General Howard, quote.
Speaker A:General, we want homesteads.
Speaker A:If the government now takes away from them all right to the soil, we, we are left in a more pleasant condition than our former, end quote.
Speaker A: e Bureau ceased operations in: Speaker A:W.E.B.
Speaker A:du Bois called it, quote, one of the most singular and interesting of the attempts made by a great nation to grapple with the vast problems of racial social condition, end quote.
Speaker A:But noted that in its passing, quote, before its work is done, leaves a legacy of striving for other men, end quote.
Speaker A: which was ratified in July of: Speaker A:It defined citizenship and equality.
Speaker A:This amendment itself granted citizenship to, quote, all persons born or naturalized in the United States, ending and overturning the Dred Scott decision.
Speaker A:It barred states from abridging, quote, privileges or immunities while also denying, quote, due process of law or equal protection of the laws, end quote.
Speaker A:Representative John Bingham and Senator Jacob Howard intended it to nationalize the Bill of Rights.
Speaker A:Thaddeus Stevens argued, quote, unless the Constitution should restrain them, those states, and he means the Southern states, will all crush to death the hated freedmen, end quote.
Speaker A:And when he says freedmen, he means black people.
Speaker A:However, its promises, like the 13th Amendment, was limited by narrow Supreme Court interpretations, which we'll go over in a minute.
Speaker A: h was ratified in February of: Speaker A:It stated, the right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.
Speaker A:It was aimed at enfranchising black men.
Speaker A:But it was quickly circumvented by several tactics like literacy tests, poll taxes, intimidation and grandfather clauses.
Speaker A:The United States v.
Speaker A: Reese in: Speaker A:Another case of where the courts interpreted very narrowly how much or how little the freedom would be given.
Speaker A: struction, which begins about: Speaker A:But before we can talk about that, we do have to talk about the fact that when Southern states had been restored by Johnson and they started sending Congressmen and Senators back to Washington, when so many of those who showed up again to represent these states were former Confederates themselves, high ranking Confederates, including the Vice President of the Confederacy, Alexander H.
Speaker A:Stephens, Republicans in Congress refused to sit them and decided to openly challenge the President going forward.
Speaker A: blicans themselves, after the: Speaker A:And so they began to pass different acts to enable their vision of Reconstruction and overturn what Johnson was doing.
Speaker A: assed the Civil Rights act of: Speaker A:And that's going to happen a lot.
Speaker A:Johnson vetoes nearly everything.
Speaker A:And declaring that all persons born in the US were citizens with equal rights to contract, sue and own property.
Speaker A: The Reconstruction Acts of: Speaker A:States then had to draft new constitutions enfranchising and guaranteeing the franchise for black men and ratifying the 14th amendment.
Speaker A:Radicals like Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner envisioned a South transformed through Congressional Acts.
Speaker A:Stevens argued for black suffrage for justice and to ensure the Union Party ascendancy have not loyal blacks quite as good a right to choose rulers and make laws as rebel whites.
Speaker A:Sumner warned that President Johnson's obstruction would lead eventually to misrule and anarchy.
Speaker A:But Johnson's defiance really know no bounds and eventually he would be impeached or at least have an impeachment trial.
Speaker A:Johnson defied the Tenure of Office act, which was passed by Congress and radical Republicans to protect the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton.
Speaker A:And this would lead eventually to his impeachment.
Speaker A:And more information of this on the in your textbook, the House ends up charging him with high crimes and misdemeanors, mainly for removing Stanton, who has a position in the Cabinet, and cabinet positions can only be fired or removed by a President with Senate approval.
Speaker A:You can see how this lines up as a problem.
Speaker A:So House manager Benjamin Butler asked, quote, has the President the more kingly prerogative at will to remove from office all executive officers without any restraint whatsoever, end quote.
Speaker A:Johnson, in the end was acquitted by one vote in the Senate.
Speaker A:Senator James Grimes explained his acquittal vote, quote, I cannot agree to destroy the harmonious working of the Constitution for the sake of getting rid of of one acceptable president.
Speaker A:Though acquitted, Johnson's power was broken and Congress now directed Reconstruction, the era that we call Radical Reconstruction.
Speaker A:So Radical Reconstruction saw unprecedented black political involvement.
Speaker A:African Americans voted and held offices all the way from local levels to the very national levels, including senators like Hiram Revels and Blanche K.
Speaker A:Bruce from Mississippi.
Speaker A:They established public school systems, a major achievement, one we still see today.
Speaker A:We boys stated at the time, quote, it is fair to say that the Negro carpet bag governments established the public schools in the south, end quote.
Speaker A:Albion Tourjee, a carpetbagger judge, praised these governments for abolishing barbarous forms of punishment and expanding rights across the South.
Speaker A:Now Historian Eric Foner called it a revolution and it was revolutionary.
Speaker A:Reconstruction was the first time that this country tried to be an interracial democracy.
Speaker A:But that came at a cost.
Speaker A:And that cost was a violent backlash to radical Republican efforts to ensure freedom.
Speaker A:When I say that the progress under radical Reconstruction provoked a ferocious violent backlash, I don't know if I can stress that enough.
Speaker A:Your textbook goes into this in detail and so I won't go into it in too much detail, but I wanted to at least go over some of the violence and where it all established stemming from.
Speaker A:So let's begin with the Ku Klux Klan and other terror groups that are formed during Reconstruction in response to reconstruction.
Speaker A: KK was formed in Tennessee in: Speaker A:Klansmen used violence and a lot of it.
Speaker A:There were whippings, there was arson and there was murder.
Speaker A:Abram Colby, who was a black Georgia legislator, testified about being whipped.
Speaker A:Quote, they took me to the woods and whipped me for three hours or more.
Speaker A:They said I had voted for Grant, end quote.
Speaker A:General J.J.
Speaker A: reynolds reported in: Speaker A:These weren't just two incidences.
Speaker A:In fact, there was an entire congressional hearings about all of these.
Speaker A:But I'll get to those in a moment.
Speaker A:There was also large scale massacres that served as brutal displays of white supremacist power.
Speaker A: was in New Orleans, which in: Speaker A:And a white mob, including police officers, attacked black supporters and delegates, killing about 34 African Americans.
Speaker A:And three of those delegates.
Speaker A:General Sheridan called it, quote, an absolute massacre perpetrated without the shadow of a necessity, end quote.
Speaker A: In Memphis Also in: Speaker A:46 black people were killed, women were raped and black churches and schools were burned down and destroyed.
Speaker A:Francis Thompson testified, quote, they drew their pistols and said they would shoot us and fire the house if we did not let them have their way with us, end quote.
Speaker A: And lastly in Colfax in: Speaker A:A white mob attacked black Republicans at the Grant Parish Courthouse.
Speaker A:They set it on fire and and executed prisoners and anyone trying to escape.
Speaker A:Many shot in the back.
Speaker A:Estimates range from 62 conservatively to well over 150 black men murdered.
Speaker A:Survivor Levi Nelson testified, quote, they told us to stack up our arms and they wouldn't hurt us.
Speaker A:Irwin shot him down.
Speaker A:They set the course out on fire, end quote.
Speaker A: assed the enforcement acts in: Speaker A:But the Supreme Court decision weakened federal power to stop this.
Speaker A: terhouse cases which began in: Speaker A:The United States v.
Speaker A: Cruikshank in: Speaker A:This one had to deal with the Colfax massacre itself.
Speaker A:And it ruled that the 14th Amendment applied only to state actions, not to individuals, making it harder to prosecute KKK members or any members of a group not associated with the government.
Speaker A:And in the United States v.
Speaker A:Reese, which I had mentioned earlier, it ruled that the 15th Amendment didn't grant an affirmative right to vote.
Speaker A:It only prohibited denial on specific grounds, allowing other disenfranchisement methods that we will see.
Speaker A:Chief Justice Waite wrote on the 14th Amendment.
Speaker A:This does not confer the rights of suffrage upon anyone.
Speaker A:So the violence of the era played a significant role in not only shaping Reconstruction and the Reconstruction efforts, but eventually would help bring its downfall.
Speaker A:With all of this violence happening and things in the south not looking great, a presidential election was upon us.
Speaker A:Ulysses S.
Speaker A: Grant, who was elected in: Speaker A:Grant supported the 15th amendment and upon its ratification, he urged the newly enfranchised to make themselves worthy of their new privilege and the more favored race.
Speaker A:And he mentions the white race to, quote, withhold no legal privilege of advancement to the new citizen, end quote.
Speaker A:He signed the Enforcement Acts and used federal troops in the Department of Justice, which was new at that time, to suppress the kkk, particularly where it was.
Speaker A: in South Carolina In March of: Speaker A:I urgently recommend such legislation as shall affect secure life, liberty and property, end quote.
Speaker A:But Grant's presidency overall was marred by scandals like the Credit Mobilier scandal.
Speaker A:This involved railroad construction fraud, implicating Congressmen and even vice presidents under Grant like Schuyler, Colfax and Henry Wilson.
Speaker A:Another scandal, the whiskey ring scandal, involved distillers and the treasury officials evading liquor taxes.
Speaker A:Grant's private secretary, Orville Babcock, was implicated in that one.
Speaker A:Grant himself declared, quote, let no guilty man escape, end quote.
Speaker A:But his defense of his private secretary Babcock drew harsh criticism.
Speaker A:These scandals diminished the stature of the presidency and diverted energy needed for Reconstruction to something else.
Speaker A:As if all of this wasn't enough, the violence and the scandals, those were pretty bad on their own, don't get me wrong.
Speaker A: construction was the panic of: Speaker A: The panic of: Speaker A:And this shifted national focus again from civil rights for black persons and others in the south to the economic woes of a country facing high unemployment and inflation.
Speaker A:And this further weakened Republican power and desire to fight for those rights.
Speaker A:Northern commitment through the panic declined due to the persistent Southern violence, the political turmoil, the corruption scandals, and this now new depression on the horizon.
Speaker A:So, historically speaking, then, president Grant, who had been initially condemned for his time in office, is now actually viewed more positively by many historians for his civil rights efforts.
Speaker A:As one historian notes, quote, he fought to protect the rights of African Americans more than any other 19th century president, end quote.
Speaker A:Ron Chernow suggests that Grant, quote, deserves an honored place, second only to Lincoln for what he did for the freed slaves, end quote.
Speaker A:Yet his efforts in the end failed to secure lasting equality.
Speaker A:Grant admitted his misfortune to be called to the office without any political training, end quote.
Speaker A:And he apologized for many, quote, errors of judgment, not, not of intent, end quote.
Speaker A: nd eventually a compromise in: Speaker A:The election between Rutherford B.
Speaker A:Hayes and the Democrat Samuel J.
Speaker A: Tilden in: Speaker A:An electoral commission awarded all disputed votes to Hayes.
Speaker A:This is what happened afterwards.
Speaker A: The Compromise of: Speaker A:Hayes became president, and in return, federal troops were withdrawn from the south and a southern Democrat joined the cabinet.
Speaker A:And in the south, they were granted home rule.
Speaker A:This ended Reconstruction.
Speaker A:Republican governments in Louisiana and South Carolina quickly collapsed and redeemers consolidated power and accelerated black disenfranchisement and the creation of what we would call Jim Crow.
Speaker A:Frederick Douglass lamented the whole situation when he said, though freedom of speech and of the ballot have for the present fallen before the shotguns of the south, we need bait, no jot of heart or hope.
Speaker A:With Reconstruction now officially over and no more federal enforcement or army in the south, it was only a matter of time before redeemer governments would take over Southern states, restrict black rights, including the right to vote, and begin what we call Jim Crow.
Speaker A:So Reconstruction's legacy is one of an unfinished revolution.
Speaker A:It is dual.
Speaker A:It is a remarkable era of achievements, but it is also an era of tragic missteps and failures.
Speaker A:The 13th, 14th and 15th amendments fundamentally altered American law.
Speaker A:African Americans participated in government and established a public school system.
Speaker A:Yet land redistribution failed and federal commitment to black rights waned over time.
Speaker A:Violence was widespread and redeemer politics dismantled any of those gains, and all of them by the turn of the century.
Speaker A:And this led to what we call Jim Crow segregation.
Speaker A:That would take another 70 years before it would be overturned once more.
Speaker A:One historian has concluded, whether measured by the dreams inspired by emancipation or more limited goals of securing black rights as citizens, Reconstruction can only be judged as a failure.
Speaker A:The era's questions about citizenship, federal power and equality remain relevant even today.
Speaker A:From the enforcement of the rights of citizens to the stubborn problems of economic and racial justice, the issues central to Reconstruction are as old as the American republic and as contemporary as the inequalities that still afflict our society.
Speaker A:End quote.
Speaker A:The battle over Reconstruction's memories continues, but let's not forget what W.E.B.
Speaker A:du Bois what he said, the slave went free, stood a brief moment in the sun, then moved back again towards slavery.
Speaker A:End quote.
Speaker A:David Blight, a historian, notes quote Memory is often owned, history interpreted, end quote.
Speaker A:Reconstruction was an era of extraordinary hope and profound betrayal, an unfinished revolution whose understanding is vital for grasping America today and for us.
Speaker A:We cannot understand our world today until we understand how Reconstruction worked and the periods that followed.
Speaker A:So this is going to be quite an interesting ride from here.
Speaker A:Thanks for joining me on Star Spangled Studies.
Speaker A:I'll see y' all in the past sa.
