Term Paper on "African-American History the Reconstruction Era"

Term Paper 10 pages (3128 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

African-American History

The Reconstruction Era after the Civil War is one of the most divisive periods in American history. Healing the wounds between the victorious North and the conquered South caused rifts from the smallest farm all the way to Congress and the Presidency. Had the results of the Reconstruction Era brought about a fair and productive division of land in the South following the Civil War, it may have had long-lasting and far-reaching effects. Giving newly freed citizens a share of the spoils of war might have given them a greater chance at an equal footing in society and could have headed off years of racial and economic oppression. Such a division did not occur on any meaningful level because of the lingering resentment of southern farmers, the inability of northerners to force their policies on the southerners, and the belief that formerly enslaved people would not be able to manage and run their own farms anyway.

The unfortunate and untimely death of President Lincoln just as the war ended altered history. Lincoln may have been able to more gracefully unite North and South than his successors were able to do. He began planning for reunification before the war even ended. His belief in the evils of slavery may have led him to divide up southern land and give it to newly freed people as a way to amend the wrongs that had been done to them. He also felt a noble purpose that extended beyond the end of the war. In his famous Gettysburg Address, he said, "It is...for us the living...to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced" and "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom" (Current, 1967, p.285). Lincoln may very well have succeeded in healing the wounds of the nation better than his successor President Johnson. Plagued by arguments over how to clean up the mess from the Civil War, Johnson even faced impeachment from a divided and divisive Congress.

If a postwar leader had managed to prevail upon the southern states by using federal power in order to divide up land and make redress to formerly enslaved people, what might have happened to the course of American history? The financial empowerment and social equity that might have been enjoyed by the former slaves may have prevented a hundred year battle to gain civil rights. Jim Crow laws, segregation, racism, and economic inequality may have never existed or may have existed with less pervasiveness. The economy of the south would have been quicker to heal if newly freed slaves began working the land for themselves with the zeal of a landowner. The promises of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments would have had more meaning and power in a land where free people of either color were working side by side with a measure of financial and social equality.

Why didn't the positive step of redistributing the land occur? The upheaval of the southern economy and infrastructure coupled with the fact that leadership was scarce is one plausible explanation. Another explanation is that even Northerners did not believe the newly freed slaves were equipped for such a change. They believed that "the blacks had come from a high culture in Africa but had been forcibly deprived of their arts and crafts...they were not fitted for a world where material plenty depended on a mastery of figures, contracts, and...directions because most were illiterate. Left to themselves they would be the prey of sharpers and exploiters. Left to their old masters -- it was believed in the North -- they would soon be tricked into a slavery under some other name" (Smelser & Gundersen,1978, p.125). Disorganization, failed leadership, and a sad lack of faith in the newly freed slaves prevented the nation from finding out what might have happened had Reconstruction unfolded differently.

5) The Civil War is largely known for being a war over the issue of slavery. However, the causes behind the war are more complicated than a moral dispute over the issue of enslavement. The Northern position was, of course, that enslaving other human beings was wrong on moral and ethical grounds and that the practice should be stopped. The Southern states were dependent upon the forced labor of the enslaved Africans in order to sustain the system of agriculture and the backbone of their economy. They, of course, did not take the Northern view of the morality of a profitable practice. The disagreement of both sides over slavery was only part of the equation, though. The issue of states' rights, the admission of slave and free states to the union, and the sense of inevitability of conflict all fueled the eventual secession of the Southern states and caused the first shots of the war to be fired in a war that would eventually end slavery.

The slavery question had long been a topic of dissension between North and South. "From the time of the First Congress, petitions to abolish slavery or ameliorate it were submitted. In the earliest instances they met with forceful opposition only from the representatives of South Carolina and Georgia. The thoughtful eighteenth-century southern leader generally regarded slavery as an evil, but a dying one, which might safely be left to wither in silence" (Smelser & Gundersen,1978, p.95). Clearly, neither side pursued a showdown over the issue, but still "the Congress and state legislatures found the slavery question a perennial source of vexation" (Smelser & Gundersen, 1978, p. 95). The House of Representatives received many petitions from abolitionists who wanted the Congress to end slavery, but the House chose to table all such petitions from 1837-1844. Such a reluctance to deal with the question of slavery may be partially explained by the words of Henry Clay in which he explains that he "did not think the Congress could overthrow slavery in any place where it already existed" (Smelser & Gundersen, 1978, p. 96). Continuing discussions over the issue, challenges such as the fugitive slave problem, and the admission of slave or free states to the union continued to keep the question of slavery in the forefront of national politics.

The election of President Lincoln in the fall of 1860 was the spark that set off the secession of the southern states. Lincoln was clearly no friend to slavery and believed that it was a moral evil. Despite this belief, though, he did not see a clear mandate to fight a civil war over slavery alone. Lincoln continued to insist that the Civil War was a war to preserve the Union. In a famous letter to Horace Greeley, Lincoln explained his position regarding slavery and his goals. He says, "I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution...If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it...What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union..." (Current, 1967, p. 215). As the war continued, though, Lincoln's rhetoric began to shift away from speaking of the Civil War as a war to restore the union and toward a moral argument regarding the freedom of enslaved people. The timing of his January 1, 1863, Emancipation Proclamation indicates the shift of his war ideology. The two issues of preserving the union and addressing slavery had already been linked for years, and it became clear that they both had to be solved with decisive military victory.

4) Although African slaves who were brought to the United States represented many different nations in their native land, the newly enslaved people developed a common culture out of the hardness of slavery. The common culture developed by slaves in the antebellum South included religion, family, folk tales, songs, and a common belief and hope that someday they or their children might be free. "Antebellum black slaves created several unique cultural forms which lightened their burden of oppression, promoted group solidarity, provided ways for verbalizing aggression, sustaining hope, building self-esteem, and often represented areas of life largely free from the control of whites" (Blassingame, 1972, p.105).

Religion was a very important part of the common culture that developed among the enslaved people. The hope for a better life either in the future or after death spurred the faith with which the people turned to religion. "The slave found some hope of escape from the brutalities of his… READ MORE

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