The question of why the victors in the civil war were unable to
refashion Southern society, to ensure full freedom for the former
slaves, has been asked by historians in a serious way since the 1960s.
Most have concluded that the North lacked the commitment to overcome
white Southern resistance and/or tired of the struggle by the late
1870s. A new book (2006) by Charles W. Calhoun, _Conceiving a New
Republic: The Republicans Party and the Southern Question, 1869-1900_,
is the latest look at the matter. Calhoun stresses the obdurateness of
the white southern "redemption" in waring down the northern commitment
to equal rights. He has a good chapter on the 1890 Lodge Elections Bill
(called the "Force" Bill by the southern Democrats), the one really
serious attempt from the mid-1870s until the Civil Rights Movement of
the 1960s to promote black voting rights. Part of the problem stems, I
think, from the 19th century concept of laissez faire as it applied to
government action. Along with federal protection of rights, a strong
Freedman's Bureau needed to operate for at least a generation after
emancipation to help provide the social, economic, and educational basis
to help to achieve full citizenship and overcome some of the impediments
of slavery.
Jim Hershman
[log in to unmask] wrote:
>Whether by generally non-violent means in Virginia, or by far more blatant
>tactics in the Deep South, Reconstruction was undone, as described by Lemann's
>book, Ayers's review, and most of the posters on this topic, from various
>points of view.
>
>Why it was allowed to happen? White Southerners had just gotten their clocks
>cleaned rather thoroughly, more so than any other Americans before or since.
>The North could have done anything it wished. Were whites in the North, and
>their government, able to win the war, but not prepared to win the peace, or
>willing to spend and sacrifice what that victory would have taken? From a
>certain perspective, it looks like they were unwilling to "stay the course," but
>chose to "cut and run." Or pehaps, they just did not care very much about the
>freedmen.
>
>Or pehaps the situation in the South (like Iraq) was unwinnable.
>
>I'm reminded of another war we lost. Sidney Lens dedicated The Forging of
>the American Empire (1971) "To the children of Vietnam, who are being murdered
>and maimed by my government--and yours."
>
>Michael B. Chesson
>U/Mass-Boston
>
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