FOREVER FREE: THE STORY OF
EMANCIPATION & RECONSTRUCTION IN
THE UNITED STATES
By Eric Foner, with illustrations edited and
commentary added by Joshua Brown
PART ONE. AN HISTORIOGRAPHY
OF RECONSTRUCTION
How Everyday Americans Understood the Reconstruction,
1865 - 1877
Public Memory of Reconstruction
Instead of seeing the Reconstruction
Period as a time when AfricanAmericans won greater rights, the
Reconstruction is often viewed as a
“punishment” against white
Southerners. The “Radical”
Republicans sought to grant liberty,
citizenship, and voting rights to AfricanAmericans – and many Southern whites
considered this vindictive... When
African-Americans and a few Northern
whites were elected to office – with
Union guns behind them – according
to the popular Southern memory – the
former Confederates were outraged.
Since most Southerners sought to
preserve the slave system of social
hierarchy after the war, the newly won
freedom of former slaves was resented.
Resentful Southerners hate
Northerners and their
agencies – like the
Freedman’s Bureau – which
advocated for AfricanAmerican rights in the
aftermath of the Civil War.
Northerners who came to the
South to help the society
rebuild – land speculators and
financiers, yes, but also
teachers, clergymen, and
members of aid societies –
were often viewed as selfinterested, self-righteous, and
judgmental characters. They
were called “Carpetbaggers”
and it was commonly
supposed that they had come
to the South to take
advantage of white
Southerners during their time
of need.
Reconstruction
Reconstruction from Southerner’s Perspective
Groups like the Freedman’s
Bureau, which intervened to
provide food, shelter,
economic aid, and job
opportunities for newly free
African-Americans, were
portray by Southerners as
meddlers who encouraged
African-Americans to be lazy
and rebellious. In fact, fewer
than 1000 Freedman’s
Bureau agents were in the
South to begin with, and their
primary work was to prevent
black codes and
homelessness from causing
enormous harm to blacks in
the Deep South.
Because of the desire on the
part of Northerners and
Southerners alike to reunify
the nation in the aftermath of
the Civil War, it was
commonly related that both
sides had fought honorably
for what they believed was
right – and that both sides
had fought valiantly for a
“just cause.” This
interpretation of the war
simply left out the narrative
of African-Americans and the
role which they played in
fighting and winning the war
for the Union. AfricanAmerican slavery, which was
the most important cause of
the Civil War, was now a topic
which veterans tried to avoid!
The Desire to Reunite, Repair, and
Reconstruct after the Civil War
Film Portrayals of the Reconstruction
Distort the History of the Period
Film depictions of African-Americans during the Reconstruction
period made African-American characters seem simple or, worse
yet, unscrupulous.
D.W. Griffin’s “The Birth of a Nation”, which was screened in the
White House for then President Woodrow Wilson – a well-known
segregationist – invents a lie about mob rule by AfricanAmericans and portrays the Ku Klux Klan (a violent hate group
responsible for hundreds and perhaps thousands of murders
during the period) as an agency promoting order and good will attempting to protect Southern women from assault.
In “Gone with the Wind”, African-American characters are
distorted as well – loyal slaves like Mammy, embittered black
soldiers, evil scalawags, and punitive carpetbaggers are stock
characters in the film.
Both films were considered epic dramas and masterpieces when
they were released. And while the films were infatuating and
spectacular for audiences in their respective periods, they are
surely not good history.
D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation”
“Gone With the Wind”
W.E.B. DuBois: Black Reconstruction in
America, 1860-1880
Setting the Record Straight: The Historian W.E.B. DuBois’
publication, Black Reconstruction in America
• W.E.B. DuBois – the historian – published Black Reconstruction in
America in 1935, a first attempt to set the record straight. He is,
of course, better known for co-founding the NAACP and his book,
The Souls of Black Folk.
• His book, Black Reconstruction in America is subtitled, “An essay
toward a history of the part which black folk played in the
attempt to reconstruct democracy in America.”
• Dubois finds the Reconstruction to be a “splendid failure”
showing the potential of African-Americans to create a society
which celebrates virtuous goals – although undermined by the
power and force of racist whites of the era. To DuBois,
attempting to understand the Civil Rights struggle and the fight
for the franchise was simply impossible without an
understanding of the Reconstruction Period.
PART II. SLAVERY IN UNITED
STATES HISTORY: AN OVERVIEW
The Coexistence of Slavery and Liberty in an age of Individual
Liberty and Representative Government
Understanding Slavery as a Part of American History
• Slavery was never simply accepted, and a desire to create a just society was
•
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present in African-American communities long before the Civil War brought
Emancipation and an opportunity for freedom.
Even under the slave system, African-Americans found ways to exercise their
freedom and to protest their condition. Slaves on the plantations slowed
down their working pace, broke tools, and undermined the productivity of
the plantation to protest their condition of servitude.
Many slaves were allowed to work on their own plots of land during “free
time.” Religious celebrations and a uniquely African American culture
emerged on the plantation in this manner.
Slaves in urban areas frequently were able to acquire skills and make their
own money in public markets – some were able to purchase their own
freedom and establish profitable businesses in the process.
Just as importantly, slavery was an ever-present political issue in the United
States; it was always recognized as wrong and at odds with our basic values
as a representative democracy. It was in opposition to our beliefs as
articulated in the Declaration of Independence. Even the Founding Fathers
recoiled at the notion of slavery – leaving the word out of the Constitution
despite many references to the violent system itself.
George Washington
and Slavery
George Washington failed in
many ways to articulate an antislavery stance during his
lifetime. He initially refused to
allow slaves and free blacks to
serve in the Continental Army;
he presided over the
Constitutional Convention
which both protected and
empowered slaveholders in the
South; and he OWNED slaves,
which he kept even as he
accepted the Presidency in
1789. The flaws of Washington
are particularly manifest when
it comes to the issue of slavery
in America. He did, however,
make provisions in his will to
emancipate his slaves when his
wife passed away. (She
liberated them almost
immediately – fearing that
slaves anxious for freedom may
take her life.)
At Mount Vernon, George Washington held hundreds of slaves which
he kept even as he assumed the Presidency in 1789. His wife
eventually liberated them.
Thomas Jefferson
and Slavery
Thomas Jefferson, author of the
Declaration of Independence,
removed a passage from that
document which criticized the
British for maintaining slavery. He
held hundreds of slaves – even as
President – and had an affair with
Sally Hemmings, a slave presumed
to be the half-sister of his late
wife Martha.
Enslaved people, recognizing that
the language of liberty applied to
their own circumstances, used it
in an effort to win their own
liberty both during the
Revolutionary War period and
afterwards. Consider, for example,
the banner reading “DEATH OR
LIBERTY” which the slave Gabriel’s
followers planned to carry in their
failed rebellion of 1800 in
Richmond, VA.
Jefferson often compared the hypocrisy of slavery
to “holding a wolf by its ears” – he feared
maintaining slavery but also feared ending it.
Slavery: A System
Based Upon Violence
It is often asked, “Why didn’t slaves
fight back against their owners?”
They did, of course. Nevertheless, we
tend to associated slavery with
passive, harmonious, and orderly
work. Southern slave owners worked
hard to maintain this image of slavery
in the popular mind, and took pride
in their own “paternalism.” They
viewed slaves as inferiors but also as
dependents and usually sought to
maintain a strict hierarchy on their
plantations. But ultimately, what
kept slaves on the plantations doing
work – what allowed plantation
owners to sell children away from
their mothers – what allowed
overseers to whip and brutalize slaves
– was violence. Every slave
understood that the master could
take his or her life without any
practical legal consequence.
Robert E. Lee –
Slaveholder
Defenders of slavery like Robert
E. Lee contended that slaves
were only suited to agricultural
labor – that they were
intellectually deficient, and that
they were unable to acquire any
great intellectual ability. Some,
like Lee, claimed that by
enslaving African-Americans and
their ancestors Americans had
benefitted the enslaved because
they had thereby brought them
to Christianity, or that slaves
were treated better by their
Southern owners than Northern
industrial workers were by their
bosses. But enslaved men and
women had no hope for social
improvement under the slave
system. The race based,
hereditary system of slavery
meant that generations to come
would remain in slavery.
Part III. Slave Revolts, Uprisings, and the
Polarization of the US over Slavery
Nat Turner’s Rebellion wasn’t
the first slave revolt. Hundreds
of revolts had taken place over
the years – from the Stono
Rebellion and Denmark Vesey’s
uprising in South Carolina to the
Gabriel’s Revolt in Richmond,
Virginia in the year 1800. In
Haiti, a slave revolt against the
French had even resulted in the
an independent nation of former
slaves. But Nat Turner’s revolt
sent out alarm bells across the
South. The Southampton
Virginia exhorter had organized a
massacre – killing men, women,
and children – and then escaped
punishment for months. When
he was caught, he was hung,
then skinned. Virginians briefly
considered ending the slave
system, but instead chose to
violently punish the conspirators
and then create stricter laws
controlling slavery.
Nat Turner’s Rebellion of 1830,
Southampton, VA
SECTION IV. THE ANTEBELLUM
PERIOD : ENGENDERING WAR
How the United States was Polarized and Provoked into War
over the Issue of Enslaved Men and Women
Having run on the posturing
campaign motto “Fifty-Four
Forty or Fight!”, a barb intended
for English ears over the Oregon
Country, Polk was soon
embroiled in a dispute not with
England, but with our neighbors
to the South, in Mexico.
Desiring the resource rich land
of California, Polk quickly
provoked a war with Mexico,
defeated them, and demanded
the cession of Mexico’s
northwestern provinces. The
Mexican Cession of 1848
included California, as well as
most of the American
Southwest. But the rapid
expansion left Americans
reeling and anxious over the
future of slavery as pioneers
and settlers went forth.
James K. Polk, Texas, and the
Mexican-American War
THE COMPROMISE:
California entered the
Union as a free state.
The slave trade was
banned in
Washington, D.C.
Popular Sovereignty
would determine the
future of slavery in
Western Territories.
The Fugitive Slave
Law was made stricter
than ever, requiring
Northerners to aid in
the capture and
return of runaway
slaves from the South.
The Compromise of
1850
TIMELINE: Events of the
1850s Polarize Americans
over Slavery
1850 – The Compromise of 1850
left Southerners angry over the
decline of their influence in the
Congress – and doubtful that
slavery would be extended into the
West. Northerners were equally
outraged that they might be
compelled to participate in the
capture and return, indeed, the
enslavement of runaway
“property.”
1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe’s
novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin is
published, enraging Southerners
for it portrayal of slaveholders and
eliciting great, passionate support
for abolitionism among Northern
readers.
1854 – The Kansas-Nebraska Act
resolves that popular sovereignty
would determine the future of
slavery in the west. “Bleeding
Kansas” a microcosm and forerunner of the Civil War, breaks out
in the Kansas Territory.
John Brown’s
Raid on Harper’s
Ferry, VA
In 1858, radical abolitionist John
Brown and a handful of his followers
marched into Harper’s Ferry, VA
intending to provoke a slave rebellion
on a massive scale. Brown was a
veteran of the fighting in
Pottawatomie Creek in Kansas, and
had devoted his live to the destruction
of slavery. He vowed to purge the land
of the sin of slavery with blood, if
necessary. Although the uprising in
Harper’s Ferry was quickly put down,
the South was nonplussed by the
event. A white man had led slaves
into battle, openly advocating murder,
revolution, and bloodshed. And what
was worse in the eyes of most
Southerners, Brown was considered a
hero by many Northern abolitionists,
from Frederick Douglas to Ralph
Waldo Emerson, to William Lloyd
Garrison. Depictions of Brown as a
martyr and hero were inexplicable to
those who favored slavery, yet, they
persisted.
PART V. THE CIVIL WAR AND
AFRICAN-AMERICANS EMANCIPATION
How African-Americans Liberated Themselves During the
Course of the United States Fratricidal War
The Goal of the
Union, 1861
Students of American History
realize that Abraham Lincoln’s goal
at the start of the Civil War was to
reunify the Union. He did not seek
to end slavery, and indeed, four
states and the District of Columbia
all allowed slavery during the
course of the Civil War. When Fort
Sumter was attacked, when Lincoln
called for 75,000 volunteers to
defend the nation, and even as the
fighting of the war continue
through 1862, the only goal Lincoln
articulated was the preservation of
the Union. And yet, enslaved
African-Americans themselves
knew that war had an more
meaningful imperative. They
viewed the event as a Biblical
struggle for liberty. And most took
steps to gain their own freedom,
expediting the process.
When the war began, AfricanAmericans viewed it as a war
for their own liberation.
Despite pronouncements to the
contrary and despite an effort
at the start of the conflict to
return slaves to their masters in
the South, blacks consistently
fled to the Union lines and
surrendered themselves to the
US Army. By the end of 1861,
Union General Benjamin Butler,
stationed at Fort Monroe near
Hampton, VA, began to accept
African-Americans as
“contraband of war.” Soon,
African-Americans flocked to
the encampment, worked in its
barracks, and founded
“contraband schools” to
educate themselves. Even if
the Union soldiers and
government were not ready to
admit it, the war would be
about the emancipation of
enslaved people – the slaves
themselves would insist upon
it!
General Benjamin Butler and “Contraband”
at Fortress Monroe, Hampton, VA, 1861
The Emancipation
Proclamation
The start of the Civil War went
poorly for the Union Army, as it
was dealt defeat after defeat by a
better prepared Confederate
military. Lincoln, as an act of
military necessity, decided to
liberate the slaves. He believed
(1) that liberating slaves in the
South would cripple the area
economically, and (2) that AfricanAmericans serving in the Union
Army would help the cause of the
nation. And yet, even at this
point, the war was not exclusively
about ending slavery. Indeed,
Lincoln did not free the slaves in
the Union’s border states, and he
did not free the slaves in parts of
the South which were not actively
in revolt – places, for example,
like Princess Anne County, VA!
The Gettysburg
Address
Perhaps more than any other
speech, the Gettysburg Address
defines the changes in the goals of
the Union during the Civil War.
The brief address, which was
delivered on November 19, 1863
to dedicate the national cemetery
on the site of the battlefield,
redefined the purpose of the war.
Lincoln’s speech was not well
received, as it was short and the
anxious crowd sought to hear more
from the President. Yet, upon
further review, it is treasured as
part of our national creed.
The “new birth of freedom” Lincoln
invokes is a clear reference to the
emancipation of enslaved people
and the resolve to maintain our
nation’s representative democracy
“of the people, by the people, for
the people.”
The Role of African-American Soldiers in the Civil War
Close to 200,000 African
American soldiers fought on the
side of the Union during the Civil
War, and many died for the cause
of liberty and the emancipation of
their people. From the onset of
the war, African-American leaders
like Frederick Douglass had
petitioned President Lincoln to
allow black soldiers into combat.
There had been many problems
along the way. Many whites did
not believe African-American
soldiers could perform their
duties under fire. Even when
troops were enlisted, they
received only 62% of the wages
whites drew. Yet, they came to
serve their nation and to fight for
their own liberation. The most
famous of the regiments to form
was the 54th Massachusetts
Colored Regiment, led by white
abolitionist William Gould Shaw.
The regiment performed dutifully
along the South Carolina coast,
liberating parts of the regions
before meeting catastrophe at
Fort Wagner on the Atlantic
shoreline.
The 54th Massachusetts Colored Regiment
In January of 1865, General William
Tecumseh Sherman responded to a
group of African-American
freedmen’s request for land. The
group, known as the Savannah
Colloquy, was symposium of leaders
in the African American community
who had once met with Sherman
and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
regarding the future of the newly
freed black population of South
Carolina. They sought liberty, which
they defined as the ability to inherit
the fruits of their own labor. They
needed land, and Sherman was
willing to accommodate their
request. Largely because he felt the
freedmen following his army had
become a bit of a burden, he
promised each slave family in the
South Carolina community forty
acres of land – and a broken down
mule from his own army. The
promise was not meant to inspire
anything but local change, but it was
quickly vested with great power.
Even to this day, Spike Lee’s Forty
Acres and a Mule Filmworks
celebrates the promise – the broken
promise, one must remember, of
Sherman’s Field Order #15.
Sherman’s Field Order #15
PART VI. THE RECONSTRUCTION
Conflict Between the Formerly Enslaved and the
Confederate Social Hierarchy Following the Civil War
The Black Codes
• Most states required that African-Americans sign yearly labor
contracts with local whites – and those who refused could be
arrested for vagrancy. Often, the punishment for vagrancy was
a fine, and if the African-American in question could not pay
the fine, his labor would be auctioned off to a white landowner
who could. Slavery?
• Courts could declare poor families incapable of providing for
their children and assign those children as unpaid laborers to
local white families.
• Blacks were not allowed to sit on juries in trials against white
defendants.
• Blacks were not allowed to move freely, work freely, or
participate freely in civil society.
Northerners were outraged
at the Black Codes, and
responded by increasing the
powers and responsibilities
of the Freedman’s Bureau
to intervene and protect
the rights of African
Americans. According to
Foner, “The Chicago
Tribune, the leading
Republican newspaper of
the Midwest [declared]:
‘We tell the white men of
Mississippi that the men of
the North will convert the
state of Mississippi into a
frog pond before they will
allow such laws to disgrace
one foot of soil in which the
bones of our soldiers sleep
and over which the flag of
freedom waves!”
The Freedman’s Bureau Intervenes
Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan
By far the most lenient of plans for
Reconstruction, Abraham Lincoln’s
Ten Percent Plan would never be
articulated in full – for he was
assassinated. The principle points
of the plan, however, were clear:
 Once 10% of a Southern State’s
population had declared loyalty
to the United States, they could
form a new state government
and apply for re-entry into the
Union.
 Every state must ban slavery.
 While most Confederate soldiers
would be granted amnesty, no
Confederate government leaders
or top military officials could
represent the state in
governmental positions.
Andrew Johnson was both a
Democrat and a
Southerner; Lincoln had
picked him as Vice
President in 1864 just to
show his goodwill toward
the Southern States. When
Lincoln was murdered,
Johnson was very
unpopular! Radical
Republican leaders in
Congress did not trust him,
especially after he vetoed
the extension of the
Freedman’s Bureau and the
Civil Rights Act of 1866.
Bad blood ensued, and
within two years, Johnson
found himself being
impeached before
Congress. Meanwhile, the
Congress attempted to take
complete control over the
Reconstruction process.
Andrew Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction,
“Restoration”
The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
• In 1867 and 1868, the Congress accused
Andrew Johnson of committing “high
crimes and misdemeanors” for firing a
member of his own cabinet, violating the
Tenure of Office Act – a completely
unconstitutional measure created just for
the occasion.
• In February of 1868, he was put on trial
before the Senate, which came just one
vote shy of removing him from office.
• After 1866, however, Johnson was
completely ineffective as President of the
United States – Radical Republicans had
taken control of both houses of Congress,
and were able to pass both laws with or
without his approval – simply overriding
the President’s veto power when
necessary.
Radical Republicans in Charge, and African American
Enfranchisement
Radical Republicans are often portrayed as men and women eager to punish
ex-Confederates. Indeed, many harbored animosity towards Southerners.
More importantly, however, Radical Republicans sought equal rights under
the law for the formerly enslaved African-Americans living in the South.
Among the accomplishments of the Radical Republicans:
 The 13th Amendment, ending slavery in the United States.
 The 14th Amendment, providing citizenship rights for all persons born in the
United States, with the exception of Native American Indians.
 The 15th Amendment, which provided voting rights for African American
men.
 The establishment and continuation of the Freedman’s Bureau, which
created schools and provided assistance securing jobs and basic needs for
the formerly enslaved.
 Laws which reversed the Black Codes of the Southern States and fought
against hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, which grew to prominence in the
South following the Civil War.
Providing African American Suffrage was the
key to success for Radical Republican leaders.
Although today we consider
suffrage a basic right of all
American adults, at the time of
Reconstruction there were large
portions of the population who
were considered citizens but
unable to vote. Traditionally,
there had been property
requirements in order to vote,
women had been forbidden the
franchise, and states had been
able to decide for themselves
which citizens could participate
in elections and which could not.
But after the Civil War, African
American leaders quickly
recognized that the right to vote
was essential to participation in
American society as equals. As
Eric Foner writes, “In a society
that had made political
participation a core element of
freedom, the right to vote
inevitably became central to the
former slaves desire for
empowerment and autonomy.”
Abolitionist and government
appointee Frederick Douglas
explained it this way: “Slavery is
not abolished until the black
man has the ballot!”
The Fifteenth Amendment
After the Civil War was the first
time African Americans had
been given the franchise on a
wide scale, and the first time
that they had been able to run
for elected office. By the late
1860s, many African-American
leaders ran for public office
successfully, including local,
state, and national offices. In
the South Carolina state
legislature, the majority of
delegates elected to office were
African-Americans, and states
from South Carolina, to
Mississippi, to Louisiana sent
black officials to Congress.
Many of these leaders were
able to transform the way
Americans thought about the
African-American population
through their efforts.
Nevertheless, racism and
threats were an ever-present
threat for African-American
leaders.
African Americans are elected to office.
Senator Hiram Revels
(R) Mississippi
Senator Hiram Revels had
been born a free man in
North Carolina and traveled
around the United States
quite a bit during his lifetime.
His most prestigious job
before the Civil War had been
as a schoolmaster in
Baltimore, MD. But after the
Civil War, he joined the
Freedman’s Bureau, which
brought him to Mississippi.
From there, he rose to social
prominence. As many
newspapers and historians
have noted since, Revels,
when sworn into office in
1870, took the seat once
vacated by Confederate
President Jefferson Davis.
Senator Blanche K.
Bruce (R) Mississippi
Blanche K. Bruce had been born
as a slave near Farmville, Virginia
– perhaps the son of his owner.
He had been privileged as a
slave, allowed to learn how to
read and write by a tutor in the
family who also worked with his
half-brother. He had left his
master at the start of the Civil
War and become a school
teacher in Samuel Clements
(Pseudonym: Mark Twain)
hometown of Hannibal,
Missouri. From there, he moved
to Mississippi, where he invested
in a plantation, and worked as a
tax collector for Bolivar County.
He rose to prominence through
diligence and hard work, and
was elected to the United States
Senate in 1875.
Eric Foner describes Robert
Smalls: “In May of 1862, in one of
the Civil War’s most celebrated
acts of individual daring and
bravery, Robert Smalls, the slave
pilot of the Confederate navel
vessel the Planter, brought on
board his family and several other
slaves, disguised himself as the
captain, guided the ship out of
the harbor of Charleston, South
Carolina, and surrendered it to
Union forces. The feat won for
Smalls an officer’s commission in
the Union navy and a reward of
$1500, which he later used to
purchase land in Beaufort, South
Carolina, his place of birth.
During Reconstruction, Smalls
would become one of the most
powerful political leaders of the
state. He served five terms in
Congress in the 1870s and 1880s,
and as late as 1913 he held the
position of collector of customs in
Beaufort. Only when President
Woodrow Wilson swept most of
the remaining black appointees
from office did Small’s long
political career come to an end.”
Congressional Representative Robert
Smalls, (R) South Carolina
President Ulysses S. Grant, 1869 - 1877
• Although often condemned as a poor manager of his own
•
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•
government and a corrupt leader, Ulysses S. Grant was very devoted
to the cause of freedom and the preservation of the Union’s
established goals.
Grant’s Administration suffered from corruption, particularly
corruption related to the rapidly expanding railroads, but his
devotion to equal rights under the law for the formerly enslaved
never wavered.
Under Grant, soldiers continued to occupy the South, the Freedman’s
Bureau continued to advocate for the formerly enslaved, and laws
were passed to prevent domestic terrorism by groups like the Ku Klux
Klan.
The 15th Amendment was passed while Grant was President.
The Transcontinental Railroad was completed under the leadership of
President Ulysses S. Grant, as well.
PART VII. A SUMMARY VIEW OF
THE RECONSTRUCTION
Alternatives, Perspectives, Compromise, Abandonment, and
the Failed Legacy of the Reconstruction
Unfortunately, conditions among
poor people in the South did not
improve economically as quickly as
many had supposed they would.
The United States government
refused to simply give away land to
the formerly enslaved – or to poor
whites for that matter. Most of the
plantation in the South were not
immediately profitable, and having
to pay labor costs in a post-slavery
economy undermined their
profitability. And thus, the
sharecropping system emerged.
Poor farmers would work the land
of a larger plantation owner, and
pay rent for their living
arrangements by handing over a
portion of their crop to the owner.
Generally, the tenant farmer
(sharecropper) was never able to
pay off their rent, pay for their
tools and satisfy their basic needs
without falling into debt – and the
cycle of poverty continued.
Sharecropping and Poverty
Faced with a lack of economic
opportunity in the South, and
confronted with the arbitrary
danger of hate groups like the
Ku Klux Klan, many AfricanAmericans chose to emigrate
from the region. For some,
organized pilgrimages towards
Caribbean or African
destinations were pursued.
But many other African
Americans set forth towards
the West. They called
themselves ‘Exodusters’ –
invoking the images of Old
Testament Israelites – who
escaped slavery(The Pharaoh
V. the Confederacy) , crossed a
great body of water (Red Sea
V. Mississippi River), and
sought to sustain themselves
in a desert-like region (Land of
Canaan V. Kansas)by hard work
and steadfast faith in God.
“Exodusters”
Many African-American men
decided to join the United States
military, a choice which was
difficult given the open racism
and discrimination which thrived
in that organization. Some black
soldiers were stationed in the
South during the Reconstruction,
but more were sent to points
West, where they were
employed in forts along the
Frontier. Clearing the railroads,
maintaining telegraph wires, and
protecting settlers – often by
fighting against Native
Americans – were their principle
duties. The irony that black
soldiers would risk life and limb
to fight against Native Americans
for the benefit of white settlers
who discriminated against and,
indeed, oppressed both groups
has been much written about.
Bob Marley’s famous song,
“Buffalo Soldier” address the
topic as well.
Buffalo Soldiers
The Accomplishments of African American Leaders During
Reconstruction
• Legal gains passed through national and state governments which
•
•
•
•
ended slavery, provided citizenship rights, and granted the franchise
to black men were all articulated – even if they were denied
regionally in the South.
An imperfect wage system had been established for AfricanAmerican works, and land ownership had been achieved by close to
one in seven of the formerly enslaved.
Black Churches were organized and became the center of many new
communities.
The Freedman’s Bureau schools organized by African-Americans
inspired the public school system (for both whites and blacks) across
the entire South. Although these schools were segregated, in most
places, they were the first of schools to be established at all.
African American men participated in government as both voters and
elected officials.
The Compromise of 1877
• In 1876, the Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes and the
Democratic candidate Samuel Tilden were in a bitter contest
characterized by violence on both sides.
• While Tilden had won more popular votes in the election, the
Electoral College votes needed for victory were not secured by
either man.
• Disputed election returns in South Carolina, Louisiana, and
Florida forced Congress to investigate the issue.
• The Compromise, or Bargain of 1877 resulted from this inquiry.
The Compromise of 1877
The corrupt bargain that was struck in 1877 resulted in Rutherford
Hayes becoming President of the United States. Not every aspect of
the agreement came to fruition, but the basics of the agreement did.
Rutherford B. Hayes would become President of the United States.
Republicans in Congress promised not to intervene in the affairs of
Southern States, and to allow Democrats to claim control of the local
governments in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida.
Rutherford B. Hayes promised to appoint one Southerner to his
Presidential Cabinet.
Hayes also promised to provide federal aid to the Texas and Pacific
Railroad, which was creating a Southern Railroad route across the
West.
Finally, Democrats promised to respect the civil and political rights of
African American citizens.
Southern State Undermine the Voting Rights of
African-Americans
Southern states almost immediately resumed the practice of
creating black codes to control the movements and economic
opportunities of African-American citizens.
Voting restrictions were established as well, preventing
African-American men from exercising the franchise:
Literacy Tests and Poll Taxes prevented many AfricanAmericans from being eligible to vote.
Grandfather clauses allowed white citizens to vote – even if
they were illiterate or poor – as long as someone in their
families had previously voted. (Most enslaved persons had no
one in their “legitimate” families who had ever cast a ballot.)
The Practice of
Lynching and
Violence continues…
Mobs of angry whites would take
the law into their own hands
whenever African-American men
were accused of crimes in the South.
Since black men were not allowed to
testify against whites in court, and
because most of the high ranking
members of society – judges, police
officers, teachers, and sometimes
even ministers – participated in the
crimes, lynch mobs were generally
fearless of the law. Often, people
who had just committed heinous
crimes against humanity would stop
to have their portraits made by the
murdered person. In doing so, their
own dignity was the worst
corrupted. This practice continued
well into the 1960s, although some
very courageous individuals –
starting with Ida B. Wells-Barnett
and continuing across history to
men like Booker T. Washington and
Medgar Evers, spoke out bravely
against the practice.
“Jim Crow” Law
Segregate the South
“Jim Crow” was a character in a
popular minstrel routine
practiced during the mid to late
19th Century – a comedy
routine where white actors
would paint their faces black
and then act like buffoons and
dance wildly to ridicule African
Americans. “Jim Crow” laws,
though, were used to segregate
the South and to prevent any
sort of public interaction
between blacks and whites – in
schools, restaurants, public
parks, transportation systems,
and even bathrooms. The
Segregated South created by
Jim Crow laws was obviously
discriminatory, yet, it was
maintained as “social custom”
by white Southerners for nearly
a century.
Plessy V. Ferguson, (1896)
In the 1896 Supreme Court Case of Plessy
V. Ferguson, Homer Plessy sued a
commuter train company for violating his
rights by refusing to allow him to sit in a
first class seat alongside white customers.
The Supreme Court ruled that segregation
was legal in public facilities, so long as the
institutions were “separate but equal.”
This case would be used to justify
segregation and racist practices for the
next 58 years, before being overturned in
Brown V. Board of Education, Topeka, KS,
in 1954. A barrier on the gains made by
African-Americans during the Civil War
and Reconstruction had been established
which would persist until a second Civil
Rights Movement emerged a half century
later.
W.E.B. DuBois on Reconstruction
• Eric Foner, in Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction,
argues that many white Southern historians of the early 20th Century
considered the Reconstruction a “tragic era” of misrule and tyranny.
• Yet, “For DuBois, the tragedy was not that Reconstruction was attempted,
but that it failed. DuBois called it a “splendid failure,” since the era
demonstrated the capacity of African-Americans for the full enjoyment of
citizen’s rights. And, in the families, schools, and churches created or
consolidated after the Civil War, and in the constitutional amendments that
established the principle of legal and political equality regardless of race,
Reconstruction laid the foundation for future struggle.”
• One truly cannot understand the power of the Civil Rights Movement of the
1950s and 1960s without a proper understanding of the Reconstruction Era.
Moreover, the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th Century could not have
achieved its successes without the foundation which was constructed by
African-Americans in the years following the Civil War.
BASED ON THE BOOK FOREVER FREE: THE STORY OF
EMANCIPATION AND RECONSTRUCTION, BY ERIC FONER
Illustration edited and with commentary by Joshua Brown