This brutally honest titled book by Thomas J. DiLorenzo strengthens research surrounding the idea that Abraham Lincoln used slavery as an excuse to begin the Civil War. DiLorenzo portrays Lincoln as a man who manipulated his people into a war, ignored the principles of freedom, equality and states’ rights, and destroyed the original union of the Founding Fathers. Therefore it is not impossible to believe that this new image of a man could have influenced the beginning of a war not primarily with the honorable intentions so widely publicized but with other ideas that promoted the North’s own advantage and power over the Union. In fact, this honored president seems to have been painted by history into more of a heroic character of fantasy than…
Carol Anderson is a professor at Emory University, who teaches African American History. Through post-Reconstruction racial terror, to the extraordinary legal efforts by officials to block African Americans from fleeing repression, she discovers the ideas of white rebellion from anti-emancipation revolts. She consistently makes connections to present day actions by legislative and judicial across the country that has criminalized and suppressed blacks and their right to vote. In her book “White Rage” Anderson lists white Americans’ long efforts to hinder African American progress. She mentions the hateful response to Obama’s victory alongside a list of difficulties that have followed African American steps to success stretching back to the Civil War and emancipation.…
Robert Smalls, a brave slave who had escaped under the noses of the confederate soldiers, had strived to achieve equal rights for all races his whole life. Once he became a politician, he tried to encourage other black people to vote with him, but white people were strongly against this. Robert Smalls had masterminded an escape, he had become a pilot in the Union’s navy, and was one of the first black people to become a politician in South Carolina. But what he wanted most was equal rights, and though he had to work against the angry white citizens, he never gave up. After helping resolve the conflict of slavery, Robert Smalls tried to prove to the white citizens that black citizens were equal by making speeches and campaigns, but the whites…
In Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction, author Eric Foner analyzes the traditional understandings of the Reconstruction period immediately following the American Civil War. Foner begins by explaining that such traditional understandings came from white Southerners who blamed their misfortunes on greedy Northerners and inept African Americans. Rather than agreeing with such traditional understandings, Foner attempts to overthrow such beliefs by arguing in favor of African Americans. Particularly through their development of beneficial institutions, their creation of new economies, and their contributions to both local and national governments.…
• “Radical” Republican phase of reconstruction—Republican congress sought to secure ex-slaves rights w/variety of institutions: Freedman’s Bureau and using martial law.…
“In 1857, the highest court in the United States held that blacks in America possessed no rights, could never become citizens of the United States, and that Congress was powerless to abolish slavery.” (Kaczorowski, p. 45) Was this true? Could slavery really never be abolished? In his article “To Begin the Nation Anew: Congress, Citizenship, and Civil Rights after the Civil War”, Robert J. Kaczorowski shows the process of the abolishing of slavery in the United States. Kaczorowski discussed the reactions of the Republicans, Democrats, and the Federal Judges on the major political issues of the Civil War, specifically: slavery, civil rights, and who had authority to enforce a solution? While providing information on these topics, he describes the different roles of 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, and the Civil Rights Bill of 1866, some of the many decisions that helped form an exceptional nation.…
Abraham Lincoln, a man renowned for his involvement in the civil war and the reconstruction that followed the war’s lambasted segregation of brotherly blood, held an ideology regarding reconstruction that he wished to be upheld nationally. Lincoln’s bias, with its roots in the core of early humanistic values and union preservation, called for the national synthesis of the North and the South in the presence of benevolent and humanitarian efforts that would strive to “bind up the nation’s wounds.” However, regardless of Lincoln’s idealistic view of reconstruction, the events that followed his assassination, whether they were of political or social affiliation, generally served to contradict Lincoln’s peaceful philosophy on a grand scale.…
Among the events of world history, the Civil War in the USA is one of the central places. Due to this sombre and mourning event, the current population know the names of Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, Ulysses S. Grant, who stood at the head of armies of the northerners; know the names of General Robert E. Lee, who led the armed forces of the slave owners, fanatic Lincoln's assassin named John Wilkes Booth. It is known, how the war ended and who won it. This creates an extremely dramatic history of this war. It is associated with not only the names of the characters, personifying two warring camps, but many battles, sea battles, the most urgent political debate, skillful diplomatic game, and the Union Confederation (during the war, the North and South of the USA were called). It was seeking to obtain the support of the European powers (South) or, on the…
There are varying historic interpretations of the period of Reconstruction and whether it proved promising for African Americans. Some historians such as William A. Dunning suggest that the southerners were the victims of Reconstruction and a growing population of African Americans formulated ‘Negro Rule’ whereas others contradict this with the Post-Revisionists claiming that the period was ‘non-revolutionary’ and conservative in terms of black independence.…
In search for a reunion, many white American’s chose to obscure the Civil War’s racial demonstrating how the effort toward racial Reconstruction ultimately gave way to racial segregation. Blight identifies three overall versions of the Civil War memory: the reconciliationist, white supremacists, and emancipationist. Then he focuses on topics like decoration days, literature, and politics to explore how memories changed over time. Drawing on a wide variety of primary sources of literature, speeches, and memoirs directly related to the study he was able to reinforce his work. From an article from Charleston Daily Courier to the hearings from the KKK, he conducts research in every detail.…
Why the War Came: The Sectional Struggle over Slavery in the TerritorieLincoln Reconsidered: Essays on the Civil War Era: David Herbert ...…
The white defenders of their “heritage” argue that the Civil War was not about slavery, but it was about their states’ rights and “Southern independence.” Orlando Sentinel columnist Charley Reese has gone so far as to assert that the Confederacy was fighting for “liberty. ”The Civil War was not meant to end slavery, but to defend…
This resistance indicates the South’s attempt to maintain pre-war social dynamics and limit African American political power, reinforcing the desire to preserve antebellum political and social structures. This resistance shows the necessity of federal intervention during Reconstruction, as it directly responds to the South’s resistance to change. Cliff Notes provides a deeper understanding of the complexities and challenges of this historical…
Throughout this chapter, Howard Zinn, discusses the perpetual oppression of African Americans had before, during, and after the civil war. In the beginning, he brings to life the issues that initially sparked the discord between the two halves of America. In addition, he refers to attempts made by the early rebels, who were determined to make an impact on the abolition movement in America. However, he claims they never materialized to any real change for the two ways of lives. Then, when a newly elected President came to office, who had clearly expressed his opinions on the continuation of slavery, real and tangible changes began to occur.…
With the era of American Reconstruction in America during the mid to late 1800’s came a sense of opportunity and hope for its people. America was on the move as nation, railroads being built faster than ever and the freedmen looking to find their niche in society. Although in the beginning the government provided support for these new citizens, efforts toward reconstruction faded as the years passed. Those efforts faded to a point where they were all but nonexistent, and with the unwritten Compromise of 1877, what feeble efforts that were left of reconstruction were now all but dead. Politically, reconstruction failed to provide equality by pulling Federal troops from the South, allowing former Confederate officials and slave owners to return to power. Socially, it allowed those political figures back into power which allowed state legislatures to pass “Black Codes” quicker, insuring that the lives for freed blacks would not improve. Economically, the government’s poor regulation of the South allowed for the creation of another form of slavery, otherwise known as the sharecropping system. Thus, the actions of the American government during Reconstruction did not ensure equal rights to all freedmen.…