Part I: The Blue and the Gray, 1867 By: Francis Miles Finch BY the flow of the inland river, On the blossoms blooming for Whence the fleets of iron have all: fled, Under the sod and the dew, Where the blades of the grave- Waiting the judgment-day; grass quiver, Broidered with gold, the Blue, Asleep are the ranks of the Mellowed with gold, the Gray. dead: So, when the summer calleth, Under the sod and the dew, On forest and field of grain, Waiting the judgment-day; With an equal murmur falleth Under the one, the Blue, The cooling drop of the rain: Under the other, the Gray. Under the sod and the dew, These in the robings of glory, Waiting the judgment-day; Those in the gloom of defeat, Wet with the rain, the Blue, All with the battle-blood gory, Wet with the rain, the Gray. In the dusk of eternity meet: Sadly, but not with upbraiding, Under the sod and the dew, The generous deed was done, Waiting the judgment-day; In the storm of the years that are Under the laurel, the Blue, fading Under the willow, the Gray. No braver battle was won: From the silence of sorrowful Under the sod and the dew, hours Waiting the judgment-day; The desolate mourners go, Under the blossoms, the Blue Lovingly laden with flowers Under the garlands, the Gray. Alike for the friend and the No more shall the war cry sever, foe: Or the winding rivers be red; Under the sod and the dew, They banish our anger forever Waiting the judgment-day; When they laurel the graves of Under the roses, the Blue, our dead! Under the lilies, the Gray. Under the sod and the dew, So with an equal splendor, Waiting the judgment-day; The morning sun-rays fall, Love and tears for the Blue, With a touch impartially tender, Tears and love for the Gray.
1. What was the point of this poem. Find two quotes that prove your stance. ______2. Do you think this poem helped create a national unity? Why? ______Part II: A Letter “To My Old Master,” c. 1865 To my old master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee
Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found in your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin’s to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to back to the dear home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance. I want to know particularly what the good chance you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy—the folks call her Miss Anderson—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, “Them colored people were slaves” down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks, but; but I tell them it was no disgrace to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will better be able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again. As to my freedom, which you say I have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshall-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for clothing, and three doctors visits to me and pulling a tooth for Mandy and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adam’s Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for your generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the Negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer for his hire. In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rater stay here and starve – and die, if it come to that – than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life is now to give my children an education, and have them for virtuous habits. Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting me. FROM YOUR OLD SERVENT, JOURDON ANDERSON
Questions 1. What does Jourdon see as “fair” before he would consider going back to work for his old master? ______2. What is the tone of Jourdon’s letter. Why do you think the letter is written in this tone? ______3. What does Jourdon calculate as his backwages? Do you think he believes his former master would agree? If not, then why would Jourdon bother writing this letter? ______4. Does Jourdan’s letter suggest an obstacle to unity? Why? ______
Part III: Defining Reconstruction Reconstruction is a “loaded” word. That is, it carries preconceived notions with it. Is Reconstruction an accurate word for the period of history following reconstruction? First, look at the definitions below. Then for each “case” determine if it fits the definition of reconstruction. 1. reconstruction (noun) - the activity of constructing something again (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/reconstruction) 2. reconstruction (noun) Reconstruction is a type of new construction that reproduces the exact form and detail of a vanished building, structure or object, or a part thereof, as it appeared at a specific period of time.
1. Military Reconstruction Act Section 1 “….Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of American Congress assembled, That said rebel states shall be divided into [five] military districts and made subject to the military authority […] and for that purpose Virginia shall constitute the first district; North Carolina and South Carolina the second district…” Section 3 “…It shall be the duty of each officer assigned (to command a district) to protect all persons in their rights of person and property…to this end he may allow local civil tribunals to take jurisdiction of and to try offenders, or […] he shall have power to organize military commissions or tribunals for that purpose, and all interference under color of State authority under this act, shall be null and void.” Does the Military Reconstruciton Act fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one) YES NO
Defend your opinion: ______
2. “Multitudes bitterly opposed the schools” Congressional Report on the Freedmen’s Bureau
“When our armies entered the South two facts became apparent: first, a surprising thirst for knowledge among the negroes; second, a large volunteer force of teachers for their instruction. Without delay schools were successfully established and the earliest efforts to impart knowledge found the freedmen ready for its reception […]” “At the close of the war it is believed that 20,000 colored soldiers could read intelligently, and a much larger number were learning their first lessons.”
Opposition to above (from the same document) “[…] Still, multitudes bitterly opposed the schools. Teachers were proscribed and ill-treated; school-houses were burned; many schools could not be opened, and others, after a brief struggle, had to be closed. Nevertheless, the country began to feel with moral power of this movement.” “[…] ‘Much opposition has been encountered from those who do not believe in the elevation of the negro […] It is the testimony of all superintendents that if military power should be withdrawn, our schools would cease to exist.’”
Does the Congressional Report on the Freedmen’s Bureau fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one) YES NO
Defend your opinion: ______3. 14th Amendment, Section 1 “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the U.S.; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Does the 14th Amendment, Section 1, fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one) YES NO
Defend your opinion: ______
4. 15th Amendment, Section 1 “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Does the 15th Amendment, Section 1, fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one) YES NO
Defend your opinion: ______
5. “Descriptions of the Ku Klux Klans” Frankfort, KY, Congressional Petition “The Legislature has adjourned; they refused to enact any laws to suppress Ku Klux Klan disorder. We regard them now as being licensed to continue their dark and bloody deeds under cover of the dark night. They refuse to allow us to testify in the state Courts where a white man in concerned […] We find that we have become the special object of hatred and persecution at the hands of the Democratic party […] we have been law abiding citizens, pay our tax and in many parts of the state our people have been driven from the poles, refused the right to vote. Many have been slaughtered while attempting to vote…”
Does the “Descriptions of the Ku Klux Klans”, fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one) YES NO
Defend your opinion: ______
6. Ku Klux Laws: “Certain Combination of Men Against Law Exist” Ulysses S. Grant “Whereas it has been satisfactorily shown to me that insurrection and domestic violence exist in several counties of the State of South Carolina, and that certain combinations of men against laws exist in many counties of said State known as “rifle clubs,” who ride up and down by day and night in arms, murdering some peaceable citizens and intimidating others, which combinations, though forbidden by the laws of the State, can not be controlled or suppressed by the ordinary course of justice; and Whereas it is provided in the Constitution of the U.S. that the U.S. shall protect every State in this Union […] against domestic violence; and Whereas […] by law it is provided that all cases of insurrection in any State or of obstruction to the laws thereof it shall be lawful for the President or of the executive to call forth the militia […] or the land and naval forces […] for the purpose of suppressing such an insurrection or causing the laws to be duly executed.”
Do the Ku Klux Laws fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one) YES NO
Defend your opinion: ______7. “A General Reestablishment of Order” Rutherford B. Hayes, 1877 “The discontinuance of the use of the Army for the purpose of upholding local governments in two States of the Union was no less a constitutional duty and requirement, under the circumstances existing at the time, than it was a much-needed measure for the restoration of local self-government and the promotion of national harmony. The withdrawal of the troops from such employment was effected deliberately, and with solicitous care for the peace and good order of society and the protection of the property and persons and every right of all classes of citizens.” Does President Hayes statement fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one) YES NO
Defend your opinion: ______8. “We Had Only Our Ignorance” Anonymous African-American “I felt that I was man enough to be working for myself and handling my own wages…unknown to my uncle or the Captain I went off to a neighboring plantation and hired myself out to another man […] The Captain came over to the new place and brought some kind of officer of the law. The officer pulled out a long piece of paper from his pocket and read it to my new employer. When this was done I heard my new boss say: ‘I beg your pardon, Captain, I didn’t know this nigger was bound out to you, or I wouldn’t have hired him.’ ‘He certainly is bound out to me,’ said the Captain. ‘He belongs to me until he is twenty-one, and I’m going to make him know his place.’”
Does “We Had Only Our Ignorance” fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one) YES NO
Defend your opinion: ______9. Giving the Negro Fair Play Frederick Douglass “With all the discouraging circumstances that now surround what is improperly called the Negro problem, I do not despair of a better day. It is sometimes said that the condition of the colored man today is worse than it was in the time of slavery. To me this is simply extravagance. We now have the organic law of the land on our side. We have thousands of teachers, and hundreds of thousands of pupils attending schools; we can now count our friends by the million […] The very resistance that we now meet on Southern railroads, steamboats and hotels is evidence of our progress. It is not the Negro in his degradation that is objected to, but the Negro educated, cultivated, and refined.” Does Frederick Douglass’ statement fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one) YES NO
Defend your opinion: ______
10. The New South Henry W. Grady “There was a South of slavery and secession—that South is dead. There is a South of union and freedom—that South, thank God, is living and breathing growing every hour….” “….As ruin was never before so overwhelming, never was restoration swifter. The soldier stepped from the trenches into the furrow, horses that had charged Federal guns marched before the plow, and fields that ran red with human blood in April were green with the harvest in June; women reared in luxury cut up their dresses and made breeches for their husbands, and, with a patience and heroism that fit women always as a garment, gave their hands to work […] ‘Bill Arp’ struck the keynote when he said: ‘Well, I killed as many of them as they did of me, and now I’m going to work.” “[…] The old South rested everything on slavery and agriculture, unconscious that these could neither give nor maintain healthy growth. The new South presents a perfect Democracy, the oligarchs leading in the popular movement a social system compact and closely knitted, less splendid on the surface but stronger at the core—a hundred farms for every plantation, fifty homes for every palace, and a diversified industry that meets the complex needs of this complex age […] the South has nothing for which to apologize […] her convictions were as honest as yours.” “[…] Now, what answer has New England to this message? Will she permit the prejudice of war to remain in the hearts of the conquerors, when it has died in the hearts of the conquered? […] If she does, the South […] must accept with dignity its refusal; but if she does not […] then will the prophecy of Webster […] be verified in its fullest and final sense, when he said: ‘Standing hand to hand and clasping hands, we should remain united as we have been for sixty years, citizens of the same country, members of the same government, united, all united now and united forever.”
Does Henry Grady’s statement fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one) YES NO
Defend your opinion: ______
Part IV: The Nadir [Lowpoint] of Race Relations: Redemption
The New South - Henry W. Grady “There was a South of slavery and secession—that South is dead. There is a South of union and freedom—that South, thank God, is living and breathing growing every hour….” “….As ruin was never before so overwhelming, never was restoration swifter. The soldier stepped from the trenches into the furrow, horses that had charged Federal guns marched before the plow, and fields that ran red with human blood in April were green with the harvest in June; women reared in luxury cut up their dresses and made breeches for their husbands, and, with a patience and heroism that fit women always as a garment, gave their hands to work […] ‘Bill Arp’ struck the keynote when he said: ‘Well, I killed as many of them as they did of me, and now I’m going to work.” “[…] The old South rested everything on slavery and agriculture, unconscious that these could neither give nor maintain healthy growth. The new South presents a perfect Democracy, the oligarchs leading in the popular movement a social system compact and closely knitted, less splendid on the surface but stronger at the core—a hundred farms for every plantation, fifty homes for every palace, and a diversified industry that meets the complex needs of this complex age […] the South has nothing for which to apologize […] her convictions were as honest as yours.” “[…] Now, what answer has New England to this message? Will she permit the prejudice of war to remain in the hearts of the conquerors, when it has died in the hearts of the conquered? […] If she does, the South […] must accept with dignity its refusal; but if she does not […] then will the prophecy of Webster […] be verified in its fullest and final sense, when he said: ‘Standing hand to hand and clasping hands, we should remain united as we have been for sixty years, citizens of the same country, members of the same government, united, all united now and united forever.”
1. Does Henry Grady’s statement sound like the South is willing to “reconstruct”? What major aspect of reconstruction is left out of his statement? ______
The Ideas of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois The Civil War resulted in freedom from slavery for millions of African Americans. Initially, the U.S. government helped freedmen adjust to life in the South by protecting them from Southern whites who wanted to put impudent or “uppity” blacks in their place. Southern whites, alarmed at the prospect of true equality, and concerned about the “purity” of white Southerners sought to keep blacks and white socially separated. The Supreme Court assisted by making the 14th, and 15th amendments virtually void. Black leaders responded in different ways. Ida B. Wells, for example, demanded equality, and organized a boycott of the Memphis trolley system. Other blacks took a more accommodating [cooperative] approach. One was Booker T. Washington, who founded the Tuskegee Institute who spoke frequently about how blacks should act and behave in the post Civil War world. He formed these theories after he witnessed the following among former slaves: “I found them [freedmen] living on fat pork and corn bread, and yet not infrequently I discovered in these cabins sewing machines which no one knew how to use, which had cost as much as $60, or showy clocks which had cost as much as $10 or $12, but which never told the time. I remember a cabin where there was but one fork on the table for the use of five members of the family and myself, while in the opposite corner was an organ for which the family was paying $60 in monthly installments. The truth that forced itself upon me was that these people needed not only book learning, but knowledge of how to live; they needed to know how to cultivate the soil, to husband their resources, to buy land, and build houses, and make the most of their opportunities." Washington was later invited to give a speech at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta. The audience was mostly white, and organizers were worried about inviting a black to speak. However, they also wanted to impress Northerners. Booker T. Washington soothed white fears when he delivered his speech, the “Atlanta Compromise”:
Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of our [former slaves’] new life we began at the top instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill; that the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than starting a dairy farm or truck garden… …Our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labour, and put brains and skill into the common occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful. No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities… …The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly [stupidity], and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing. No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized. It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges. The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera-house… …I pledge that in your effort to work out the great and intricate problem which God has laid at the doors of the South, you shall have at all times the patient, sympathetic help of my race…
Another black leader, W.E.B. DuBois delivered a scathing critique of Washington in his book, a collection of essays, published in 1903, and titled The Souls of Black Folk. DuBois was considered a Northerner, and was Harvard educated so his message did not carry the same weight as Washington’s:
To-day he [Booker T. Washington] stands as the one recognized spokesman of his ten million fellows, and one of the most notable figures in a nation of seventy millions. One hesitates, therefore, to criticize a life which, beginning with so little has done so much. And yet the time is come when one may speak in all sincerity and utter courtesy of the mistakes and shortcomings of Mr. Washington’s career, as well as of his triumphs, without being thought captious or envious, and without forgetting that it is easier to do ill than well in the world… …Mr. Washington distinctly asks that black people give up, at least for the present, three things, — First, political power, Second, insistence on civil rights, Third, higher education of Negro youth, — and concentrate all their energies on industrial education, the accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South. This policy has been courageously and insistently advocated for over fifteen years, and has been triumphant for perhaps ten years. As a result of this tender of the palm-branch, what has been the return? In these years there have occurred: 1. The disfranchisement of the Negro. 2. The legal creation of a distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro. 3. The steady withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro. These movements are not, to be sure, direct results of Mr. Washington’s teachings; but his propaganda has, without a shadow of doubt, helped their speedier accomplishment. The question then comes: Is it possible, and probable, that nine millions of men can make effective progress in economic lines if they are deprived of political rights, made a servile caste, and allowed only the most meagre chance for developing their exceptional men? If history and reason give any distinct answer to these questions, it is an emphatic No… …His doctrine has tended to make the whites, North and South, shift the burden of the Negro problem to the Negro’s shoulders and stand aside as critical and rather pessimistic spectators; when in fact the burden belongs to the nation, and the hands of none of us are clean if we bend not our energies to righting these great wrongs.
Sources "Booker T. Washington Delivers the 1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech." History Matters. George Mason Universtiy. 31 May 2007
1. How did the ideas of W.E.B. DuBois differ from those of Booker T. Washington? Choose two quotes to prove your answer is accurate. ______The Case of Ida B. Wells and Emmit Till
1. After watching the video on Ida B. Wells, answer the following questions: a. Who do you think Ida B. Wells supported – Booker T. Washington or W.E.B. DuBois? Give two examples from the video to back up your stance. ______
b. Was Ida B. Wells a practitioner of civil disobedience? Explain. ______
2. The events seen in the Emmitt Till video occurred in 1955. Whose vision of Reconstruction must have been adopted for an event like that to occur – Booker T. Washington’s or W.E.B. DuBois? ______