1 00:00:02,290 --> 00:00:04,080 Hi, I’m Clint Smith, and this is Crash Course Black American History. 2 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:10,030 At the start of the Reconstruction era, the country had been at war for 4 years and over 3 00:00:10,030 --> 00:00:13,139 700,000 people had lost their lives. 4 00:00:13,139 --> 00:00:20,170 In 1865, 700,000 lives was roughly 2% of the entire population of the country. 5 00:00:20,170 --> 00:00:24,610 2% of the current US population, is over 6 million people. 6 00:00:24,610 --> 00:00:26,910 It’s a staggering amount of death. 7 00:00:26,910 --> 00:00:32,370 And after all of that death and destruction, the US had to figure out a way to put itself 8 00:00:32,370 --> 00:00:33,390 back together. 9 00:00:33,390 --> 00:00:38,140 It had to grapple with what it meant for the United States to be a country in which Black 10 00:00:38,140 --> 00:00:45,600 people were not enslaved, something the country had quite literally never encountered before. 11 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:47,180 This was new territory. 12 00:00:47,180 --> 00:00:55,790 After generations upon generations upon generations of chattel slavery, Black folks were free. 13 00:00:55,790 --> 00:00:57,170 But what would that freedom look like? 14 00:00:57,170 --> 00:01:02,989 Would they be given the tools, the skills, the education, and the resources to turn this 15 00:01:02,989 --> 00:01:08,080 freedom into something, or would this freedom have an asterisk by it? 16 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:11,580 Let’s find out. 17 00:01:11,580 --> 00:01:21,210 INTRO In short, Reconstruction was a period following 18 00:01:21,210 --> 00:01:29,070 the Civil War that lasted from 1865 to 1877 (though some scholars argue it began in 1863 19 00:01:29,070 --> 00:01:30,930 with the Emancipation Proclamation). 20 00:01:30,930 --> 00:01:35,840 During this time the country was attempting to remake itself through a series of provisions, 21 00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:41,710 programs, and amendments that were, ostensibly, meant to ensure that Black people had civil 22 00:01:41,710 --> 00:01:42,710 rights. 23 00:01:42,710 --> 00:01:44,510 But this was easier said than done. 24 00:01:44,510 --> 00:01:49,150 You have to remember that just because the Confederates lost the war on the battlefield, 25 00:01:49,150 --> 00:01:53,800 doesn’t mean that their opinions changed about who Black people were and where they 26 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:55,680 belonged in the social hierarchy. 27 00:01:55,680 --> 00:02:03,009 W.E.B Du Bois, described this period as a moment where "...the slave went free; stood 28 00:02:03,009 --> 00:02:07,080 a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery." 29 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:09,259 Let’s go to the Thought Bubble. 30 00:02:09,259 --> 00:02:14,029 In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, there was a glimmer of hope for what a new, 31 00:02:14,029 --> 00:02:16,760 more egalitarian society might look like. 32 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:19,920 Black people in the South had the Federal Government on their side. 33 00:02:19,920 --> 00:02:25,510 And the idea was that the federal government would intervene to ensure that Black Americans 34 00:02:25,510 --> 00:02:30,609 could transition into life as citizens as safely and efficiently as possible. 35 00:02:30,609 --> 00:02:37,189 The thing is, emancipation fundamentally restructured Southern life for both freed people and white 36 00:02:37,189 --> 00:02:38,189 Southerners. 37 00:02:38,189 --> 00:02:44,439 The former planters and enslavers lost their source of labor and sometimes even their land. 38 00:02:44,439 --> 00:02:49,700 During the Civil War, Union General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea, a 285-mile 39 00:02:49,700 --> 00:02:55,340 trek through Georgia from Atlanta to Savannah, left a large portion of the state burned to 40 00:02:55,340 --> 00:03:00,579 the ground and devastated by his scorched earth, total war approach. 41 00:03:00,579 --> 00:03:06,620 Planters and confederate soldiers fled during the rampage, leaving a lot of land empty and 42 00:03:06,620 --> 00:03:07,620 untended. 43 00:03:07,620 --> 00:03:11,969 Sherman intended to parcel out this land to formerly enslaved people in Sherman’s Field 44 00:03:11,969 --> 00:03:13,310 Order No. 15. 45 00:03:13,310 --> 00:03:19,010 This is where the famous 40 acres and a mule idea came from (though mules weren’t initially 46 00:03:19,010 --> 00:03:20,249 part of it). 47 00:03:20,249 --> 00:03:25,309 Sherman believed that redistributing the land was important because it both punished Confederate 48 00:03:25,309 --> 00:03:30,309 land-owners for their role in starting and sustaining the Civil War while also providing 49 00:03:30,309 --> 00:03:35,989 newly freed Black people with the land and resources they needed to begin a new life 50 00:03:35,989 --> 00:03:37,650 in this post-emancipation South. 51 00:03:37,650 --> 00:03:39,059 Thanks Thought Bubble. 52 00:03:39,059 --> 00:03:44,169 Five days after Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, effectively 53 00:03:44,169 --> 00:03:48,569 ending the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. 54 00:03:48,569 --> 00:03:54,029 Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s vice-president, a Democrat, and a former enslaver, became 55 00:03:54,029 --> 00:03:55,439 the new president. 56 00:03:55,439 --> 00:04:00,479 Johnson believed the opposite of what General Sherman proposed, instead of taking land from 57 00:04:00,479 --> 00:04:06,049 former Confederates and giving it to the freedman, Johnson believed in pardoning Confederates, 58 00:04:06,049 --> 00:04:10,349 letting them back into the union and into government without asking them for basically...anything. 59 00:04:10,349 --> 00:04:17,500 Johnson’s views were at odds with Congress, which following the election of 1866, was 60 00:04:17,500 --> 00:04:22,390 controlled by the Republicans, who were at that time the party of the left, and who had 61 00:04:22,390 --> 00:04:27,810 a large enough majority to pass legislation and even override Johnson’s veto. 62 00:04:27,810 --> 00:04:33,320 These “Radical Republicans” as they were known, led by Thaddeus Stevens, even impeached 63 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:37,941 Johnson, though he avoided conviction by a single vote in the Senate. 64 00:04:37,941 --> 00:04:43,700 The Reconstruction Amendments (the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution) 65 00:04:43,700 --> 00:04:47,530 were passed to establish Black Americans' legal protections. 66 00:04:47,530 --> 00:04:53,760 The 13th Amendment of 1865 formally abolished slavery across the whole of the United States. 67 00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:58,980 Many people get that confused with the Emancipation Proclamation, but the proclamation, if you 68 00:04:58,980 --> 00:05:02,690 remember, only freed enslaved people in the rebelling states. 69 00:05:02,690 --> 00:05:07,260 HOWEVER, it's super important to note a particular clause in the 13th Amendment. 70 00:05:07,260 --> 00:05:13,410 The legislation reads: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT as a punishment 71 00:05:13,410 --> 00:05:17,150 for crime...shall exist within the United States." 72 00:05:17,150 --> 00:05:24,300 And in fact, unpaid and underpaid labor remains a frequently criticized aspect of mass incarceration 73 00:05:24,300 --> 00:05:25,300 today. 74 00:05:25,300 --> 00:05:29,620 The 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868, and addressed citizenship. 75 00:05:29,620 --> 00:05:36,240 It reads, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, ... are citizens of 76 00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:37,240 the United States." 77 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:43,110 It also says, "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the [rights] of 78 00:05:43,110 --> 00:05:48,170 citizens of the United States ...nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the 79 00:05:48,170 --> 00:05:51,250 equal protection of the laws.” 80 00:05:51,250 --> 00:05:56,160 Seems pretty straightforward on paper, but this amendment has not always been equally 81 00:05:56,160 --> 00:05:58,900 enforced, to say the least. 82 00:05:58,900 --> 00:06:04,480 Black people’s rights were definitely abridged over time, and in many places these rights 83 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:07,650 were completely, and violently, subverted. 84 00:06:07,650 --> 00:06:13,410 Last but not least: The 15th Amendment, passed in 1870. 85 00:06:13,410 --> 00:06:17,050 This one gave Black men, though not women, the right to vote. 86 00:06:17,050 --> 00:06:23,840 It reads: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged 87 00:06:23,840 --> 00:06:30,690 by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." 88 00:06:30,690 --> 00:06:35,550 In order to enforce the three Amendments and protect Black people's rights, the Freedmen's 89 00:06:35,550 --> 00:06:40,480 Bureau, a coalition of northern officials and Union Soldiers, was set up throughout 90 00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:41,690 the South. 91 00:06:41,690 --> 00:06:47,390 Many southern states hated the idea of formerly enslaved people having these rights, and having 92 00:06:47,390 --> 00:06:52,880 federal troops down there seemed like the only way to make sure these rights were protected. 93 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:58,650 The Freedmen's Bureau was tasked with helping newly freed Black people make a life for themselves. 94 00:06:58,650 --> 00:07:03,450 And they had a few ways of doing this: They legally recognized marriages between 95 00:07:03,450 --> 00:07:05,380 formerly enslaved people. 96 00:07:05,380 --> 00:07:11,010 Before, many enslaved people would have unofficial ceremonies, so actions like “jumping the 97 00:07:11,010 --> 00:07:15,040 broom” would be the only signifiers of lifelong commitment. 98 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:19,830 Now, as citizens, states would recognize their marriage. 99 00:07:19,830 --> 00:07:25,040 Additionally, the Bureau helped to reunite families who had been separated during slavery. 100 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:30,040 Which over the course of 250 years had split apart millions of people. 101 00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:35,450 So, post emancipation, the Bureau took testimonies of enslaved people and checked records of 102 00:07:35,450 --> 00:07:38,290 relocated individuals to bring families back together. 103 00:07:38,290 --> 00:07:44,530 But in one of its main roles, securing work contracts, the Bureau proved to be… not 104 00:07:44,530 --> 00:07:45,530 so great. 105 00:07:45,530 --> 00:07:51,230 Many Black Americans were forced into contracts to become sharecroppers or tenant farmers, 106 00:07:51,230 --> 00:07:56,871 which is to say they would grow crops for a landowner in exchange for room and board. 107 00:07:56,871 --> 00:08:01,530 So while they were allowed to keep some of their crops for themselves, technically, they 108 00:08:01,530 --> 00:08:06,090 weren’t paid a wage or salary for their work, and many of them were pushed right back 109 00:08:06,090 --> 00:08:11,200 into the clutches of the enslavers they had seemingly just escaped. 110 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:15,800 Additionally, the Freedman’s Savings Bank, which was ostensibly created to help the formerly 111 00:08:15,800 --> 00:08:21,310 enslaved after emancipation, shut down within less than a decade and the money of tens of 112 00:08:21,310 --> 00:08:27,840 thousands of depositors equaling nearly 3 million dollars essentially disappeared. 113 00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:32,779 More than half of the accumulated black wealth by 1874 disappeared through the mismanagement 114 00:08:32,779 --> 00:08:36,110 of the Freedmen’s Savings Bank. 115 00:08:36,110 --> 00:08:37,769 Just gone. 116 00:08:37,769 --> 00:08:42,539 Still, the Bureau did a pretty good job in assisting Black Americans in their pursuit 117 00:08:42,539 --> 00:08:46,960 of formal education, something that Black people had been advocating as central to the 118 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:49,930 possibility of upward mobility. 119 00:08:49,930 --> 00:08:54,769 Historian James D. Anderson argues that the freed slaves were the first Southerners "to 120 00:08:54,769 --> 00:08:58,009 campaign for universal, state-supported public education." 121 00:08:58,009 --> 00:09:02,790 The Freedman’s Bureau helped set up schools for Black people of all ages. 122 00:09:02,790 --> 00:09:07,950 According to historian James McPherson, by 1870, there were more than 1,000 schools for 123 00:09:07,950 --> 00:09:10,029 freedmen in the South. 124 00:09:10,029 --> 00:09:13,809 Bureau initiatives also allowed African Americans to gain political power. 125 00:09:13,809 --> 00:09:18,980 An important outgrowth of the 15th Amendment was an influential Black voting bloc that 126 00:09:18,980 --> 00:09:20,809 translated into real political power. 127 00:09:20,809 --> 00:09:26,149 In the years following the Civil War leading to the turn of the century, twenty-two Black 128 00:09:26,149 --> 00:09:32,100 people were elected to Congress, two of which were Senators: Hiram Revels and Blanche Kelso 129 00:09:32,100 --> 00:09:34,670 Bruce from Mississippi. 130 00:09:34,670 --> 00:09:36,100 And it wasn’t just nationally. 131 00:09:36,100 --> 00:09:40,439 Black people were voted into office in state legislatures across the South. 132 00:09:40,439 --> 00:09:46,740 According to McPherson, at the beginning of 1867, no African American in the South held 133 00:09:46,740 --> 00:09:52,199 political office, but within just a few years "about 15 percent of the officeholders in 134 00:09:52,199 --> 00:09:57,690 the South were Black—a larger proportion than in 1990". 135 00:09:57,690 --> 00:10:02,170 Many of these newly elected politicians had been soldiers in the Union army. 136 00:10:02,170 --> 00:10:07,230 According to historian Eric Foner, "for black soldiers, military service meant more than 137 00:10:07,230 --> 00:10:12,540 the opportunity to help save the Union, more even than their freedom and the destruction 138 00:10:12,540 --> 00:10:14,600 of slavery as an institution. 139 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:20,889 For men of talent and ambition, the army flung open the door to advancement and respectability.” 140 00:10:20,889 --> 00:10:25,240 One of the main subjects of conversation among new Black politicians surrounded the 14th 141 00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:31,160 and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and whether there was room for women in politics. 142 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:35,249 According to Historian Martha Jones, "Black women moved in from the margins during this 143 00:10:35,249 --> 00:10:40,579 debate...They insisted that an intersectional analysis, one that simultaneously took up 144 00:10:40,579 --> 00:10:46,329 race and gender, was required if organizations such as the Equal Rights Association expected 145 00:10:46,329 --> 00:10:49,430 to move forward in the postemancipation era." 146 00:10:49,430 --> 00:10:55,579 It was clear that Black women existing at, in Jones’s words, "the nexus of sex and 147 00:10:55,579 --> 00:11:00,240 color" had a unique perspective and set of experiences, that were making clear that Black 148 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:04,809 freedom should include freedom for all, Black people, not just the men. 149 00:11:04,809 --> 00:11:11,110 As Black education and political power flourished in the late 1860s and early 1870s, African 150 00:11:11,110 --> 00:11:13,439 Americans faced white supremacist opposition. 151 00:11:13,439 --> 00:11:18,839 Much of this violence was tied to the formation of the Ku Klux Klan, led by former Confederate 152 00:11:18,839 --> 00:11:23,660 general Nathan Bedford Forrest who served as the first Grand Wizard of the organization 153 00:11:23,660 --> 00:11:30,439 from 1867 to 1869, before Ulysses S. Grant led an effort that largely wiped them out 154 00:11:30,439 --> 00:11:34,899 by 1872… at least temporarily. 155 00:11:34,899 --> 00:11:38,959 And even though the organization of the Klan was gone, for the moment, violence against 156 00:11:38,959 --> 00:11:43,360 Black people was still growing. 157 00:11:43,360 --> 00:11:45,619 The presidential election of 1876 was tenuous. 158 00:11:45,619 --> 00:11:52,600 Democrat Samuel Tilden of New York earned 184 electoral votes, which was one less than 159 00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:53,620 required. 160 00:11:53,620 --> 00:11:58,040 Republican Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio got 165. 161 00:11:58,040 --> 00:12:04,170 However, election results in Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina were disputed. 162 00:12:04,170 --> 00:12:10,310 Alongside an elector issue in Oregon, these 20 Electoral Votes would decide the election. 163 00:12:10,310 --> 00:12:16,639 In what became known as the Compromise of 1877, Hayes was elected president on the condition 164 00:12:16,639 --> 00:12:20,589 that the remaining Union soldiers would be withdrawn from the South. 165 00:12:20,589 --> 00:12:25,410 This meant that there was no more federal protection for Black Americans in the South. 166 00:12:25,410 --> 00:12:29,999 Millions of Black people now felt completely and thoroughly abandoned. 167 00:12:29,999 --> 00:12:35,509 By the end of the 19th century, 2,500 Black people would be lynched throughout the South, 168 00:12:35,509 --> 00:12:40,029 more than a hundred Black men and women per year. 169 00:12:40,029 --> 00:12:45,550 Sometimes people say that Reconstruction failed, but it would be more accurate to say that 170 00:12:45,550 --> 00:12:47,689 it was violently overthrown. 171 00:12:47,689 --> 00:12:51,980 It did not fail to succeed because Black people were incapable of governance, as some 20th 172 00:12:51,980 --> 00:12:56,370 century historians and famous films like The Birth of a Nation seemed to suggest, it failed 173 00:12:56,370 --> 00:13:02,699 to succeed because white southerners did everything they could to thwart Black mobility and opportunity. 174 00:13:02,699 --> 00:13:09,360 The US could have gone in a different direction, it could have provided land, resources, and 175 00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:14,560 opportunity to millions of Black people to begin to build a life for themselves after 176 00:13:14,560 --> 00:13:20,380 250 years of bondage, some resources that would have at least attempted to account for 177 00:13:20,380 --> 00:13:24,889 the generations of exploitation that Black people suffered in this country. 178 00:13:24,889 --> 00:13:31,980 But a different choice was made, and we’re still feeling the impact of that today. 179 00:13:31,980 --> 00:13:35,149 Thanks for watching, I’ll see you next time. 180 00:13:35,149 --> 00:13:38,999 Crash Course is made with the help of all these nice people and our animation team is 181 00:13:38,999 --> 00:13:40,180 Thought Cafe. 182 00:13:40,180 --> 00:13:42,040 Crash Course is a Complexly production. 183 00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:46,369 If you’d like to keep Crash Course free for everybody, forever, you can support the 184 00:13:46,369 --> 00:13:52,080 series at Patreon; a crowdfunding platform that allows you to support the content you 185 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:53,080 love. 186 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:55,329 Thank you to all of our patrons for making Crash Course possible with their continued 187 00:13:55,329 --> 00:13:55,589 support.