Week Four: The Civil War and Reconstruction Era

Overview

• Transition from understanding racism and slavery to diving into Civil War and Reconstruction.
• Importance of knowing terms like institutional racism.
• Overview of the previous weeks:
  • Week 1: Syllabus walkthrough
  • Week 2: Meaning and impact of racism
  • Week 3: Origins and impact of slavery

Civil War

Causes

• Election of Abraham Lincoln (1860):
  • Elected without Southern support.
  • Northern abolitionists pressured the government.
  • Republican Party aimed to end slavery (different from today's GOP).
• Economic Implications:
  • Slavery intertwined with U.S. economy domestically and internationally.
  • South's agricultural economy vs. North's industrial.
• Secession of Southern States:
  • South Carolina seceded (Nov. 10, 1860).
  • Formation of Confederate States of America.
  • President Jefferson Davis.

Politics and Warfare

• Lincoln’s indecisive stance on slavery.
• Fort Sumter attack (April 12, 1861) instigated by South Carolina.
• African Americans crucial for Union military success.
  • Harriet Tubman's involvement.

Key Events and Policies

• Emancipation Proclamation:
  • Utilitarian tool, not purely moral.
  • Allowed Black men into Union military.
• General Sherman’s Special Field Order 15 (1865):
  • "40 acres and a mule" promise.
• Freedmen's Bureau:
  • Established in 1865 to aid formerly enslaved people.
  • Focused on education, job placement, legal support.

Reconstruction Era (1865-1885)

Goals and Achievements

• Reuniting the nation and integrating freed slaves into society.
• Reconstruction Amendments:
  • 13th Amendment: Abolished slavery.
  • 14th Amendment: Citizenship and equal protection.
  • 15th Amendment: Voting rights regardless of race.
• Black autonomy:
  • Establishment of HBCUs and Black churches.
  • Growth of Black political participation.

Challenges

• Economic Systems:
  • Sharecropping and crop lien systems entrapped freedmen economically.
  • Black codes restricted freedoms.
  • Convict leasing became a new form of forced labor.
• Racial Violence and Opposition:
  • Formation of the Ku Klux Klan (1865).

End of Reconstruction

• Hayes-Tilden Compromise (1877):
  • Rutherford B. Hayes becomes president.
  • Union troops withdrawn from the South.
  • Led to the rise of Jim Crow laws.
• States’ Rights vs. Federal Oversight:
  • Decreased federal intervention facilitated Southern racial policies.

Conclusion

• Reconstruction's end marked by increased racial violence and the onset of the Jim Crow era.
• Significant historical continuities in terms of racial dynamics and political compromises.