Reconstruction Era

[C Darwin]

Why am I in my mid-thirties and just learning that during The American 'Reconstruction' Era, former white Confederates were denied the right to vote or hold office?

 

[Guest]

I was never taught this either. Where can we read more about it?

 

[C Darwin]

[url]http://www.america.gov/st/educ-english/2008/June/20080610221 935eaifas0.7083688.html[/url]

snip

Johnson issued pardons that restored the political rights of many Southerners. By the end of 1865, almost all former Confederate states had held conventions to repeal the acts of secession and to abolish slavery, but all except Tennessee refused to ratify a constitutional amendment giving full citizenship to African Americans. As a result, Republicans in Congress decided to implement their own version of Reconstruction. They enacted punitive measures against former rebels and prevented former Confederate leaders from holding office. They divided the South into five military districts administered by Union generals. They denied voting rights to anyone who refused to take a loyalty oath to the Union. And they strongly supported the rights of African Americans. President Johnson tried to block many of these policies and was impeached. The vote fell short, and he remained in office, but Congress would continue to wield enormous power for the next 30 years.

The divisions and hatreds that had led to the Civil War did not disappear after the fighting stopped. As Southern whites regained political power, Southern blacks suffered. They had gained their freedom but were prevented from enjoying it by local laws denying them access to many public facilities. They had gained the right to vote but were intimidated at the polls. The South had become segregated and would remain so for 100 years. The postwar Reconstruction process had begun with high ideals but collapsed into a sinkhole of corruption and racism. Its failure deferred the struggle for equality for African Americans until the 20th century, when it would become a national, not just a Southern, issue.

 

[Tired old White]

Actually most of the Jim Crow stuff was mandated by the Yankee Administrators during reconstruction. Back in the 50's when Thurgood Marshall was arguing civil rights cases for the NAACP he avoided using the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment because he felt it might be overturned because it was not ratified in compliance with the Constitution. In the Pre-war South there was segregation but it was mostly except in cases of marriage determined by whether you a free man or not. So on a train the free people white and black road in the passenger cars and the slaves road back with the live stock.

 

[Tired old White]

An excellent book on this subject is "The South Was Right" by Dr. Donnie Kennedy. I once received an A in a history course by documenting some of the more surprising fact presented in this book. This exercise turned me into a "Unreconstructed Rebel". At the time I was doing this I was sure I would proof that Dr. Kennedy's book was a collection of B_ll Sh-t. In the end I was angry at the government for stealing my heritage and history from me.

 

[Run Stuffing LB]

Whites have rights? Obviously you guys need to spend more time in front of your jew-tubes, stat.

The so-called "legacy of slavery" stems from jewish attacks on White Southerners after the War for Southern Independence. It's the same old story of using the negro as a weapon against us, but back then Whites would still band together and fight for common interests. Now, we lay down and die but that is going to change in the days to come.

 

[celticdb15]

I hope so Run Stuffing LB

 

[Deus Vult]

Why am I in my mid-thirties and just learning that during The American 'Reconstruction' Era, former white Confederates were denied the right to vote or hold office?

This may have been glossed over when you learned about Hayes-Tilden? The Compromise of 1876 that more or less ended Reconstuction (for the moment).

If some of you would not mind, please tell what exactly you were taught in school (especially in the non- southern states) about the Reconstruction period. What was Reconstruction described as? Was the military occupation of southern states characterized as benevolent? What mention of Carpetbaggers?

In the 1970s and early 1980s, I learned very little on these subjects. All the realities and implications were glossed over. Of course, I went to underachieving public schools just outside New Orleans, which is unlike the rest of the South in nearly every way.

 

[screamingeagle]

We were taught about the Reconstruction in High school over 30 years ago. We wondered how this subject was taught in the south. I joked that it was ignored. Maybe I was right!
The Reconstruction is controversial. No one can agree what happened. I was taught that mean Southerners kicked out the nice white people and were mean to the nice blacks.
The truth is a little more complex. In 1865, southeners were fed up with the confederate government and were eager to take the loyality oath and return to normal. This screwed up any plans for vengence. The union was not going to confiscate a plantation from someone who took the loyality oath, and wasn't much of a supporter of the confederacy, just to give it to freed slaves. The freedmen did not the land, they were fed up with farming.
Everybody presumed that when the slaves were freed, they would quickly return to Africa. It didn't happen.
Segregation happened because the union army wanted order, which could only happen when the two races were separated. The later court decisions just confired what was being done.
As a conquered people, the southern leaders got off easy. No war crimes trial or executions. In 1873, the vice president of the confederacy, Alex Stevens was elected to congress and served until 1882. In 1879, 90% of the southern representatives served in the confederate army- 18 were generals.

 

[Bronk]

Did you also know that the Japanese were not the only American citizens placed in concentration camps during WWII? Italian and German Americans were also interned, though you never hear about it.

Also, The South Was Right is a GREAT book. Used it often to defeat effite liberal/yankee snots.Edited by: Bronk

 

[Bronk]

As a conquered people, the southern leaders got off easy. No war crimes trial or executions.

Hold it. The reason Jefferson Davis, president of the CSA, was not tried was that the USA feared his defense which was that the South had a legal and moral right to succeed from the union. If Davis had been tried, he'd have put Lincoln and the war itself on trial and might have ignited a whole new debate about why the war was fought. The myths built up to defend the conflict would have been punctured and people would have been angry over thosands and thousands kill in a false crusade.

 

[Fightingtowin]

Why am I in my mid-thirties and just learning that during The American 'Reconstruction' Era, former white Confederates were denied the right to vote or hold office?

This may have been glossed over when you learned about Hayes-Tilden? The Compromise of 1876 that more or less ended Reconstuction (for the moment).



If some of you would not mind, please tell what exactly you were taught in school (especially in the non- southern states) about the Reconstruction period. What was Reconstruction described as? Was the military occupation of southern states characterized as benevolent? What mention of Carpetbaggers?
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In the 1970s and early 1980s, I learned very little on these subjects. All the realities and implications were glossed over. Of course, I went to underachieving public schools just outside New Orleans, which is unlike the rest of the South in nearly every way.

Graduated from a 90% white Michigan school eight years ago. I was taught that the Reconstruction was when the millitary was sent to the South to protect blacks and help them transition from slavery to freedom. During this time, I was taught that black people were doing alright, mostly because they were being helped by the government. After the Compromise of 1876, with the troops pulling out, black people went back to being oppressed and often forced into de facto slavery. Blacks did not begin to regain their rights until the Civil Rights movement.

Carpetbaggers were mentioned and we were told that Southerners did not like them. The occupation was described as benevolent.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

The occupation was described as benevolent.

Of course it would be, especiallyin Michigan. The whole reconstruction era wasbarely mentionedin my history classes in Louisiana in the early to mid 90s. They wouldn't want to tick us off with the truth now would they? The sad fact is that very little history, true or not, is being taught these days. Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[Average American]

If you would not mind, please tell what you were taught in school about the Reconstruction..

I wasn't taught much. From what I remember, Reconstruction was presented as a neutral footnote to the war.
I think as the years go by, little critical analysis of the Civil War is happening in public schools. It's presented simplistically & dogmatically as North-good guys, South-bad guys. None of the complexities of the Border States, the South's position on state sovereign power, the crimes & mistakes of Reconstruction. Critical study that could help kids understand & critique American government better, is now useless in a matrix where only memorizing for standardized testing matters.

Re: Jefferson Davis (from Bronk's comments in this thread). Yeah the Fed. government kinda had him in a Gitmo situation. He was initially imprisoned for the Lincoln killing.. when they couldn't find evidence to charge him on that, they indicted him on treason. Davis sat in prison for two years without ever going to a trial. Eventually he was bailed out, awaiting a treason trial that never came. Prosecutors were fearful they couldn't convict, and were anxious about reopening national debate on secession. He was punished by having citizenship rights withheld the remainder of his life. 1978, Davis' had his rights posthumously restored. In that act, he was holistically recognized as having 'served the US honorably as a soldier'. IMO, Davis' pre-Civil War record should never be forgotten, bcuz his American patriotism helps explain why he fought his revolution.