CHAPTER 21—“The Furnace of Civil War” (1861–1865)
AP Focus
In the early stages of the war, Lincoln is disappointed with the performance of his generals, especially
those who commanded the eastern Army of the Potomac. General George McClellan, who despite
abundant resources at his disposal and an army larger than his foe’s, fails to capture Richmond, Virginia,
the capital of the Confederacy, in 1862.
The war provides both free blacks and runaway slaves the opportunity to take part in a personal crusade
to destroy slavery. Over 180,000 black men serve in the Union army.
In 1863, Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery in states in open rebellion.
The most important battle on North American soil is fought at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, when Union
forces repulse the Confederacy’s second and final major invasion of the North.
With the capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi, the North controls the Mississippi River, effectively dividing
the Confederacy.
The 1864 election in the North is a pivotal historical event; in the midst of a civil war, an election is held
to determine whether the incumbent administration will be reelected. It is, providing Lincoln a mandate
to continue the war, despite considerable opposition in the North. Interestingly, Lincoln’s Democratic
opponent is his former military commander, George McClellan.
Take note of the following:
1.
One of history’s most important naval battles occurred in 1862. Attempting to break the Union
blockade, the Confederacy sent into battle an ironclad ship, the Merrimack (or Virginia). It soon engaged
the North’s ironclad vessel, the Monitor, at Hampton Roads, Virginia. The battle was a draw, but from
that point on, wooden ships would be considered obsolete fighting vessels.
2.
The war settled the decades-old debate over whether the states or the federal government was
supreme; the compact theory, the foundation of nullification and secession, was repudiated.
Chapter Themes
Theme: The Civil War, begun as a limited struggle over the Union, eventually became a total war to end
slavery and transform the nation.
Theme: After several years of seesaw struggle, the Union armies under Ulysses Grant finally wore down
the Southern forces under Robert E. Lee and ended the Confederate bid for independence, as well as
the institution of slavery.
CHAPTER 22—“The Ordeal of Reconstruction” (1865–1877)
AP Focus
The Union victory is significant in transforming and diversifying the South’s production. It also
represents the defeat of the planter-slaveholder and the continued rise of the industrial capitalist.
In the aftermath of the war, especially in those southern states that reenter the Union under Johnson’s
lenient plan, Black Codes again segregate and subordinate the South’s blacks. Organizations, such as the
Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camellia, use violence and intimidation to deny blacks access
to institutions, such as voting, that would improve their lives. Blacks are reduced to a form of slavery
without chains, in that they are economically dependent and subservient to the owner of the land on
which they are sharecroppers.
President Johnson wrangles with the Radical Republicans over who will administer Reconstruction. The
conflict is not resolved until Johnson is impeached. He barely survives the trial by the Senate, but the
Radical Republicans dominate until he leaves office.
Under the Radical Republicans, the South is placed under military rule in order to enforce blacks’ rights
and prepare states for readmission to the Union. Take note of the map and table in The American
Pageant (13th ed., p. 491/14th ed., p. 525), which show the order of readmission.
One legacy of Reconstruction is the passage of three amendments: the thirteenth (abolishing slavery),
the fourteenth (defining citizenship rights), and the fifteenth (defining voting rights).
Take note of the following:
1.
Lincoln premised his lenient Reconstruction plan on the belief that the southern states had not
seceded but had been pulled out of the Union by their political, economic, and military leaders.
2.
Even though Reconstruction lasted little more than a decade, it provided blacks and their white
supporters with valuable experience in establishing grassroots civil rights movements and developing
organizational skills. When Reconstruction ended in 1877, blacks were reduced to a state of political and
economic subordination and social submissiveness in a nation that, constitutionally at least, had granted
them citizenship rights.
Chapter Themes
Theme: Johnson’s political blunders and Southern white recalcitrance led to the imposition of
congressional military Reconstruction on the South. Reconstruction did address difficult issues of reform
and racial justice in the South and achieved some successes, but was ultimately abandoned, leaving a
deep legacy of racial and sectional bitterness.
Theme: During Reconstruction, the Constitution was strengthened with the Fourteenth (citizenship and
equal protection of the laws) and Fifteenth (black voting rights) Amendments, but it was also tested with
the conflicts between the president and Congress that culminated in an impeachment process.
Theme: Southern resistance to Reconstruction began immediately with the sending of ex-rebels to be
seated in Congress and continued with the creation of violently oppressive groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
Although forced to make some concessions, Southern Redeemers successfully outlasted the
congressional Reconstruction efforts.
CHAPTER 23—“Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age” (1869–1896)
AP Focus
The post–Civil War era is rife with corruption, graft, and influence-peddling. Corruption is rampant at the
local and state levels as well. The infamous New York City political party machine, known as the Tweed
Ring, for example, bilks the city and state out of millions of dollars.
In an attempt to clean their own house, the Republicans take steps to lower the protective tariff, which
many consider unreasonably high and beneficial to specific industries. In addition, to address the
problem of nepotism and favoritism in attaining government employment, the Republicans pass modest
civil-service reform legislation, such as the Pendleton Act.
A devastating depression hits the nation in 1873, adding to the already significant political woes of
President Grant and his Republican Party.
Farmers begin organizing in response to their economic woes; they form the Grange.
Take note of the following:
1.
An effect of the Civil War, the weakening of the Democratic Party during this period, would have
a long-term effect. Indeed, only two Democrats were elected president between 1860 and 1912.
2.
While he himself was honest to a fault, President Grant’s administration was riddled with
political figures who viewed their position in government as a means to acquire ill-gotten wealth. Some
people who were not government officials found ways to penetrate the federal government to benefit
themselves. For example, financial speculators Jay Gould and Jim Fisk cornered the gold market. Their
unscrupulous acts were uncovered, but not before ruining many unsuspecting investors and
businessmen and further tarnishing the already tainted Grant administration.
3.
With the end of Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws brought a new form of subordination and
degradation for southern blacks. Relegated again to a position of dependence, many former slaves
turned to sharecropping, one of the few options open to them. Millions of blacks scratched out a
meager existence while locked into a system that made them indebted to the owners of the land on
which they worked. In many cases, those landowners were their former masters. The maps in The
American Pageant (13th ed., p. 512/14th ed., p. 548) show how this new dependency worked.
Chapter Themes
Theme: Even as post–Civil War America expanded and industrialized, political life in the Gilded Age was
marked by ineptitude, stalemate, and corruption. Despite their similarity at the national level, the two
parties competed fiercely for offices and spoils, while doling out “pork-barrel” benefits to veterans and
other special interest groups.
Theme: The serious issues of monetary and agrarian reform, labor, race, and economic fairness were
largely swept under the rug by the political system, until revolting farmers and a major economic
depression beginning in 1893 created a growing sense of crisis and demands for radical change.
Theme: The Compromise of 1877 made reconstruction officially over and white Democrats resumed
political power in the South. Blacks, as well as poor whites, found themselves forced into sharecropping
and tenant farming; what began as informal separation of blacks and whites in the immediate postwar
years evolved into systematic state-level legal codes of segregation known as Jim Crow laws.
CHAPTER 24—“Industry Comes of Age” (1865–1900)
AP Focus
Enormous immigration, mass production, and the presence of low-skill jobs drive down workers’ wages.
A catalyst for postwar industrial and economic expansion is the railroad industry, which not only
facilitates trade, commerce, and transportation, but also makes locomotive production a major industry.
The government plays a major role in the industry’s development and importance by providing the
companies with millions of acres of free land—a giveaway, some say.
By the turn of the twentieth century, important industries necessary to the health and prosperity of the
nation and its citizens are controlled by economically and politically powerful trusts and other types of
business combinations, which undermine the foundation of capitalism: competition.
The Gilded Age is dominated by key industrialists and financiers. So enormous are their own wealth,
control of business capital, and political influence that many refer to them as Robber Barons. See the
political cartoons in The American Pageant (13th ed., pp. 536, 537, 539, 542, 543/14th ed., pp. 572, 576,
578, 579). Many aspects of the Gilded Age pertain to the AP theme Economic Transformations.
Take note of the following:
1.
Justifications for the enormous disparity in wealth were expressed in philosophy, literature, and
the social and behavioral sciences. One novelist, Horatio Alger, established a format for his works of
fiction that repeatedly expressed the same theme: industry, self-discipline, sacrifice, and hard work
ultimately lead to financial success, regardless of the obstacles. Culture is an AP theme.
2.
Industrial development was uneven, especially in the South. Some industries, such as textile
production, flourished while others, such as the steel industry, lagged behind those of the North.
3.
Industrial development had a human toll, as many laborers, including women and children,
worked long hours under oppressive conditions for very low wages. Not surprisingly, many workers
attempted to unionize in order to engage in collective bargaining. Most capitalists refused to recognize
the legitimacy of the unions and balked at even the thought of negotiating. Often-intense and costly
strikes, such as the Railroad Strike of 1877, shaped the period. It is important to note that President
Hayes called out the army to suppress the Railroad Strike, a harbinger of what was to come, as business
interests and the federal and state governments allied in their opposition to organized labor. Economic
Transformations, including labor and unions, is an AP theme.
Chapter Themes
Theme: America accomplished heavy industrialization in the post–Civil War era. Spurred by the
transcontinental rail network, business grew and consolidated into giant corporate trusts, as epitomized
by the oil and steel industries.
Theme: Industrialization radically transformed the practices of labor and the condition of the American
working people. But despite frequent industrial strife and the efforts of various reformers and unions,
workers failed to develop effective labor organizations to match the corporate forms of business.
Theme: With the concentration of capital in the hands of a few, new moralities arose to advance
justifications for this social and economic phenomenon. A “survival of the fittest” theory emerged, a
popular theory based on the thought of Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner, which argued
that millionaires were products of natural selection. Another theory known as the “Gospel of Wealth”
argued that well-to-do societies had to prove themselves morally responsible.