Week 4 Lecture - Civil War and Reconstruction Era

Course Overview

• Week 1: Syllabus walkthrough
  • Course expectations and assignments.
• Week 2: Defining racism
  • Meaning and impact of racism.
• Week 3: Origins of slavery
  • Differences in punishments for house vs. field slaves.

Civil War

Causes

• Election of Abraham Lincoln (1860)
  • Elected without Southern support.
  • Abolitionists in the North, but North not free from racism.
• Divisions over slavery
  • Republican Party wanted to end slavery.
  • Economic ties to slavery: domestic and international implications.

Southern Secession

• South Carolina leads secession (Nov 10, 1860)
• Confederate States: SC, TX, LA, AR, MS, AL, GA, NC, VA, TN, FL.
• Reasons for Secession:
  1. Northern interference with slavery.
  2. Northern religious condemnation of slavery as sin.
  3. Northern support for abolitionists.
  4. Aid to fugitive slaves.
  5. Promotion of insurrections.
  6. Election of Lincoln.

War Outbreak

• Fort Sumter attacked (April 12, 1861)
  • Marked the start of the Civil War.
• Union vs Confederacy
  • Black men initially barred from military service.
  • Union uses knowledge from Underground Railroad to their advantage.

Lincoln's Position

Emancipation Proclamation

• Issued after Antietam victory.
• Freed slaves in Confederate territories.
• Allowed Black men to join Union military.

Reconstruction Era

Key Developments

• Freedmen's Bureau
  • Established to aid freed slaves.
  • Provided services like marriage, reuniting families, bank accounts.

Legislative Changes

• Reconstruction Amendments:
  1. 13th Amendment: Abolished slavery (except as punishment for crime).
  2. 14th Amendment: Citizenship and due process.
  3. 15th Amendment: Voting rights not denied based on race or previous servitude.

Social and Economic Changes

• Sharecropping
  • Economic system tying former slaves to landowners through debt.
  • Led to ongoing economic subjugation.
• Black Codes
  • Laws enforcing racial segregation and limiting Black freedom.

Black Progress

• Establishment of HBCUs.
• Rise of Black churches, particularly AME Church.
• Election of Black politicians during Reconstruction.

Challenges to Reconstruction

White Resurgence

• Ku Klux Klan: Established to combat Black progress.
• Hayes-Tilden Compromise (1877)
  • Ended Reconstruction.
  • Led to withdrawal of Union troops from South.
  • Allowed South to handle race relations, leading to Jim Crow laws.

Conclusion

• Reconstruction attempted to reunite the U.S. and integrate freed slaves.
• Resistance led to reimposing Black subjugation through laws and violence.
• Historical continuities into contemporary issues related to race and politics.