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Hi, I’m Clint Smith, and this is Crash Course[br]Black American History.

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At the start of the Reconstruction era, the[br]country had been at war for 4 years and over

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700,000 people had lost their lives.

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In 1865, 700,000 lives was roughly 2% of the[br]entire population of the country.

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2% of the current US population, is over 6[br]million people.

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It’s a staggering amount of death.

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And after all of that death and destruction,[br]the US had to figure out a way to put itself

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back together.

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It had to grapple with what it meant for the[br]United States to be a country in which Black

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people were not enslaved, something the country[br]had quite literally never encountered before.

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This was new territory.

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After generations upon generations upon generations[br]of chattel slavery, Black folks were free.

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But what would that freedom look like?

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Would they be given the tools, the skills,[br]the education, and the resources to turn this

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freedom into something, or would this freedom[br]have an asterisk by it?

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Let’s find out.

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INTRO[br]In short, Reconstruction was a period following

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the Civil War that lasted from 1865 to 1877[br](though some scholars argue it began in 1863

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with the Emancipation Proclamation).

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During this time the country was attempting[br]to remake itself through a series of provisions,

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programs, and amendments that were, ostensibly,[br]meant to ensure that Black people had civil

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rights.

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But this was easier said than done.

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You have to remember that just because the[br]Confederates lost the war on the battlefield,

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doesn’t mean that their opinions changed[br]about who Black people were and where they

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belonged in the social hierarchy.

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W.E.B Du Bois, described this period as a[br]moment where "...the slave went free; stood

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a brief moment in the sun; then moved back[br]again toward slavery."

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Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.

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In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War,[br]there was a glimmer of hope for what a new,

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more egalitarian society might look like.

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Black people in the South had the Federal[br]Government on their side.

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And the idea was that the federal government[br]would intervene to ensure that Black Americans

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could transition into life as citizens as[br]safely and efficiently as possible.

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The thing is, emancipation fundamentally restructured[br]Southern life for both freed people and white

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Southerners.

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The former planters and enslavers lost their[br]source of labor and sometimes even their land.

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During the Civil War, Union General William[br]T. Sherman’s March to the Sea, a 285-mile

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trek through Georgia from Atlanta to Savannah,[br]left a large portion of the state burned to

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the ground and devastated by his scorched[br]earth, total war approach.

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Planters and confederate soldiers fled during[br]the rampage, leaving a lot of land empty and

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untended.

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Sherman intended to parcel out this land to[br]formerly enslaved people in Sherman’s Field

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Order No. 15.

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This is where the famous 40 acres and a mule[br]idea came from (though mules weren’t initially

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part of it).

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Sherman believed that redistributing the land[br]was important because it both punished Confederate

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land-owners for their role in starting and[br]sustaining the Civil War while also providing

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newly freed Black people with the land and[br]resources they needed to begin a new life

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in this post-emancipation South.

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Thanks Thought Bubble.

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Five days after Robert E. Lee surrendered[br]to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, effectively

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ending the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was[br]assassinated.

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Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s vice-president,[br]a Democrat, and a former enslaver, became

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the new president.

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Johnson believed the opposite of what General[br]Sherman proposed, instead of taking land from

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former Confederates and giving it to the freedman,[br]Johnson believed in pardoning Confederates,

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letting them back into the union and into[br]government without asking them for basically...anything.

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Johnson’s views were at odds with Congress,[br]which following the election of 1866, was

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controlled by the Republicans, who were at[br]that time the party of the left, and who had

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a large enough majority to pass legislation[br]and even override Johnson’s veto.

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These “Radical Republicans” as they were[br]known, led by Thaddeus Stevens, even impeached

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Johnson, though he avoided conviction by a[br]single vote in the Senate.

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The Reconstruction Amendments (the 13th, 14th,[br]and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution)

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were passed to establish Black Americans'[br]legal protections.

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The 13th Amendment of 1865 formally abolished[br]slavery across the whole of the United States.

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Many people get that confused with the Emancipation[br]Proclamation, but the proclamation, if you

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remember, only freed enslaved people in the[br]rebelling states.

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HOWEVER, it's super important to note a particular[br]clause in the 13th Amendment.

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The legislation reads: "Neither slavery nor[br]involuntary servitude, EXCEPT as a punishment

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for crime...shall exist within the United[br]States."

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And in fact, unpaid and underpaid labor remains[br]a frequently criticized aspect of mass incarceration

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today.

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The 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868, and[br]addressed citizenship.

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It reads, "All persons born or naturalized[br]in the United States, ... are citizens of

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the United States."

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It also says, "No state shall make or enforce[br]any law which shall abridge the [rights] of

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citizens of the United States ...nor deny[br]to any person within its jurisdiction the

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equal protection of the laws.”

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Seems pretty straightforward on paper, but[br]this amendment has not always been equally

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enforced, to say the least.

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Black people’s rights were definitely abridged[br]over time, and in many places these rights

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were completely, and violently, subverted.

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Last but not least: The 15th Amendment, passed[br]in 1870.

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This one gave Black men, though not women,[br]the right to vote.

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It reads: "The right of citizens of the United[br]States to vote shall not be denied or abridged

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by the United States or by any State on account[br]of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

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In order to enforce the three Amendments and[br]protect Black people's rights, the Freedmen's

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Bureau, a coalition of northern officials[br]and Union Soldiers, was set up throughout

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the South.

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Many southern states hated the idea of formerly[br]enslaved people having these rights, and having

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federal troops down there seemed like the[br]only way to make sure these rights were protected.

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The Freedmen's Bureau was tasked with helping[br]newly freed Black people make a life for themselves.

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And they had a few ways of doing this:[br]They legally recognized marriages between

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formerly enslaved people.

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Before, many enslaved people would have unofficial[br]ceremonies, so actions like “jumping the

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broom” would be the only signifiers of lifelong[br]commitment.

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Now, as citizens, states would recognize their[br]marriage.

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Additionally, the Bureau helped to reunite[br]families who had been separated during slavery.

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Which over the course of 250 years had split[br]apart millions of people.

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So, post emancipation, the Bureau took testimonies[br]of enslaved people and checked records of

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relocated individuals to bring families back[br]together.

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But in one of its main roles, securing work[br]contracts, the Bureau proved to be… not

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so great.

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Many Black Americans were forced into contracts[br]to become sharecroppers or tenant farmers,

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which is to say they would grow crops for[br]a landowner in exchange for room and board.

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So while they were allowed to keep some of[br]their crops for themselves, technically, they

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weren’t paid a wage or salary for their[br]work, and many of them were pushed right back

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into the clutches of the enslavers they had[br]seemingly just escaped.

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Additionally, the Freedman’s Savings Bank,[br]which was ostensibly created to help the formerly

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enslaved after emancipation, shut down within[br]less than a decade and the money of tens of

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thousands of depositors equaling nearly 3[br]million dollars essentially disappeared.

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More than half of the accumulated black wealth[br]by 1874 disappeared through the mismanagement

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of the Freedmen’s Savings Bank.

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Just gone.

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Still, the Bureau did a pretty good job in[br]assisting Black Americans in their pursuit

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of formal education, something that Black[br]people had been advocating as central to the

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possibility of upward mobility.

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Historian James D. Anderson argues that the[br]freed slaves were the first Southerners "to

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campaign for universal, state-supported public[br]education."

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The Freedman’s Bureau helped set up schools[br]for Black people of all ages.

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According to historian James McPherson, by[br]1870, there were more than 1,000 schools for

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freedmen in the South.

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Bureau initiatives also allowed African Americans[br]to gain political power.

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An important outgrowth of the 15th Amendment[br]was an influential Black voting bloc that

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translated into real political power.

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In the years following the Civil War leading[br]to the turn of the century, twenty-two Black

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people were elected to Congress, two of which[br]were Senators: Hiram Revels and Blanche Kelso

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Bruce from Mississippi.

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And it wasn’t just nationally.

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Black people were voted into office in state[br]legislatures across the South.

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According to McPherson, at the beginning of[br]1867, no African American in the South held

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political office, but within just a few years[br]"about 15 percent of the officeholders in

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the South were Black—a larger proportion[br]than in 1990".

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Many of these newly elected politicians had[br]been soldiers in the Union army.

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According to historian Eric Foner, "for black[br]soldiers, military service meant more than

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the opportunity to help save the Union, more[br]even than their freedom and the destruction

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of slavery as an institution.

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For men of talent and ambition, the army flung[br]open the door to advancement and respectability.”

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One of the main subjects of conversation among[br]new Black politicians surrounded the 14th

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and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution[br]and whether there was room for women in politics.

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According to Historian Martha Jones, "Black[br]women moved in from the margins during this

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debate...They insisted that an intersectional[br]analysis, one that simultaneously took up

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race and gender, was required if organizations[br]such as the Equal Rights Association expected

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to move forward in the postemancipation era."

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It was clear that Black women existing at,[br]in Jones’s words, "the nexus of sex and

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color" had a unique perspective and set of[br]experiences, that were making clear that Black

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freedom should include freedom for all, Black[br]people, not just the men.

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As Black education and political power flourished[br]in the late 1860s and early 1870s, African

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Americans faced white supremacist opposition.

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Much of this violence was tied to the formation[br]of the Ku Klux Klan, led by former Confederate

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general Nathan Bedford Forrest who served[br]as the first Grand Wizard of the organization

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from 1867 to 1869, before Ulysses S. Grant[br]led an effort that largely wiped them out

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by 1872… at least temporarily.

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And even though the organization of the Klan[br]was gone, for the moment, violence against

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Black people was still growing.

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The presidential election of 1876 was tenuous.

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Democrat Samuel Tilden of New York earned[br]184 electoral votes, which was one less than

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required.

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Republican Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio got[br]165.

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However, election results in Louisiana, Florida,[br]and South Carolina were disputed.

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Alongside an elector issue in Oregon, these[br]20 Electoral Votes would decide the election.

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In what became known as the Compromise of[br]1877, Hayes was elected president on the condition

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that the remaining Union soldiers would be[br]withdrawn from the South.

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This meant that there was no more federal[br]protection for Black Americans in the South.

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Millions of Black people now felt completely[br]and thoroughly abandoned.

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By the end of the 19th century, 2,500 Black[br]people would be lynched throughout the South,

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more than a hundred Black men and women per[br]year.

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Sometimes people say that Reconstruction failed,[br]but it would be more accurate to say that

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it was violently overthrown.

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It did not fail to succeed because Black people[br]were incapable of governance, as some 20th

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century historians and famous films like The[br]Birth of a Nation seemed to suggest, it failed

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to succeed because white southerners did everything[br]they could to thwart Black mobility and opportunity.

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The US could have gone in a different direction,[br]it could have provided land, resources, and

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opportunity to millions of Black people to[br]begin to build a life for themselves after

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250 years of bondage, some resources that[br]would have at least attempted to account for

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the generations of exploitation that Black[br]people suffered in this country.

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But a different choice was made, and we’re[br]still feeling the impact of that today.

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Thanks for watching, I’ll see you next time.

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Thought Cafe.

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