Reconstruction and the
Legacy of Slavery
·
(Note: Print out the documents from the assigned (not
recommended) documents on this page and bring them to class. I suggest that you
read this material in the designated order. You will not be able to understand
the documents as well if you read them before the lecture and text material. Be
sure to print out the documents and
bring it to class . In what way does the reading help you to understand
the conflicts and controversy that existed in the past? What significance do you see for issues we
confront today?
Read before January 19 class: Lecture outline from class Comments
from Jan 19 class
o
Give Me
Liberty, 548-572 --be able to discuss what Foner’s main
argument in about Reconstruction
o
There
Was Never Any Pay-day For the Negroes”:
Ex-slave Jourdon Anderson Demands Wages , 1865
o
Voices of
Freedom, 3-14 -- notice the questions Foner asks after
each document. Be able to address those questions, or ask questions about the
documents. You need to refer to Give Me Liberty to get some of the context
Questions
to consider to focus your readings
·
What different views about the meaning of slavery did various groups
bring to the issue of how to Reconstruct the nation after the Civil War? How
was power wielded to expand or to constrict freedom during the period. What, in
your opinion, was the most important development during this period?
·
How have the
readings changed your perspective on the period after the civil war? If you were required to teach a high school
or grade school class about the subject, what points do you think are most
significant, and why? How do these points challenge common notions of what
happened in the past or allow you to reconsider these notions?
·
How have the
readings indicated the experiences of ordinary people during this time? Are any
of those experiences surprising? Who held power during the period you read, and
how did they wield it to shape the country’s agenda?
·
What would you have
done to Reconstruct the nation? Why? Would your idea have worked better? Why
didn’t your idea happen?
--I
will allow some time to get to some of these questions at the start of the Jan
24th class, because they overlap with some of the issues raised from
reading for that date. However, remember that you can respond to questions that
weren’t addressed on the webboard. However, try to bring substance, evidence,
to inform your opinion.
Read Before
January 24 class: end of reconstruction
·
Give Me
Liberty, 572-584
·
“Hell
Itself: A Georgia Peon Remembers”, 1904;
·
W.E.B. DuBois
Describes Racial Prejudice in Philadelphia, 1899
·
White Women Protest the Hiring of
Black “Wage-Slaves”
Try to connect the issue of
power as related in these documents with the discussion from Foner about the
reasons for the end of Reconstruction. What happened to allow white racial
dominance in the late 19th century? Discuss the specifics of how
power was asserted in each of the documents you read.
Recommended Websites:
· Special Field Order 15 (Sherman’s order that prompts the We Demand Land document)
·
Chronology
of Emancipation During the Civil War
·
Black Regiments of
the Civil War
· Freedman’s Bureau Archive Documents from The Freedmen’s Bureau—see what kind of labor contracts were secured for freed slaves after the war was over
· Example of “Jim Crow” law from the late 19th century From the Gilda Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition—this website is a treasure of other documents beyond this subject—lots of documents and links
·
Works
by W.E.B. DuBois available on-line Includes the famous Souls of Black
Folks
·
Compare the impeachment of President Johnson in 1868 to that of
President Clinton in 1999 Historian Eric Foner’s analysis of
the merits of impeachment, and at the bottom there are links to other sites
·
Killing
the Messenger: Ida Wells-Barnett Protests a
Postmaster’s Murder in 1898 (lynching in the south as an everyday
occurrence)
·
A New York Sewing Woman Protests
Wages and Working Conditions, 1863
·
Testimony from Victims of New
York’s Draft Riots, July, 1863
·
Photo of ex-slaves
scarred back, a sign of slave resistance –photographed in 1863
·
Louisiana
Planters to the Commander of the Department of the Gulf, January 14, 1863
Writing to Union General Nathaniel P. Banks,
sugar planters lamented the effect of slave flight and Union military
occupation on plantation operations.
·
Plantation
Regulations by a U.S. Treasury Agent, February 1864 [image (86K)] A broadside announced the rules governing the employment of black
laborers on plantations in Union-occupied Louisiana.
·
Sherman’s
Special Field Order 15 January 15, 1865 Intending chiefly to disencumber his mobile
army of the fugitive slaves who followed in its train, General William T.
Sherman reserved a swath of land along the south Atlantic coast for settlement
exclusively by former slaves, promising the settlers "possessory
title" to small tracts. (this is the basis for the We Demand Land document
claims)
·
Freedman’s
Bureau Archive Documents from The Freedmen’s Bureau—see what kind of labor
contracts were secured for freed slaves after the war was over
·
Freedmen
and Southern Society First hand accounts
of life after slavery, and much more—click on the “documents” hyperlink to
access sample documents
·
Fountain Hughes Recalls His Life
in Slavery and Freedom, Baltimore, 1944
·
When We Worked on Shares, We
Couldn’t Make Nothing”: Henry Blake Talks About Sharecropping after the Civil War (document)
·
The South’s Recovery: Who Paid the
Price of Success?
·
“Almost Broken Spirits”: Farmers
in the New South -- commodity
production affected white and black farmer
·
A Year’s Wage for Three Peaches: A
Black Man Tells of Exploitation in the Late 19th century South –fear of the
chain gang