Our final week explores the Civil War and its legacy. We will discuss the events of the war, its immediate aftermath, and recent commemoration.
Reading: Clark, Chap. 6
Points of Entry:
The Civil War:
Civil War Battlefields:
Reconstruction Era:
List and analyze 2 quotes from the reading. What are some of the arguments? How are they related to the larger themes of the week discussed in class?
Additional Questions:
Could the Civil War have been avoided? What would the U.S. look like if compromise was reached?
What would the U.S. look like if Reconstruction was fulfilled and not ended in 1877?
What does recent commemoration of the Civil War say about its legacy?
What are your final thoughts for the class?
“As in the revolution, both union and confederate economies relied substantially on women’s and family labor to maintain production on farms and in homes when men were absent on war service.” (259)
ReplyDeleteHere, Clark demonstrates the importance of women during the time of war when the men aren’t present. Women are forced to do jobs they are normally not permitted to when men are present and are thrown into them when they are not. Women’s roles during the civil war carried over during later wars including the world wars when women took up many jobs that need be filled during men’s war service.
“Having substantially resisted plantation wage labor but failed to obtain significant land reform, former slaves found themselves compelled by 1867-1868 to accept other means of earning livelihoods from the land.” (277)
Clark explains how the slaves, now free, resisted staying and working for plantations for wage due to their treatment there in the past. He goes on to explain how they were almost treated the same as when they were slaves because of their inability to acquire jobs. In extreme cases some were forced to kill for their food and suffered therefor.
“The revolution was arrested in mid-course.” (Clark, 279)
ReplyDeleteAlthough slaves were freed at the conclusion of the Civil War, they were still held in economic bondage. Without education, land, property, money or any means of obtaining these necessities, the African Americans were forced to remain at their plantation prisons. Additionally, Black Codes enforced regulations on the former slaves, essentially causing the Southern social structure to remain unchanged. Although African Americans did have some freedom of bargaining, and nearly 5% owned their own farms, most became tenant farmers to the wealthy white landowners of the south and became indebted to them as the demand for cash crops decreased (Clark, 277). I find it interesting how Radical Republicans pushed for Southern land to be redistributed and removed from the ownership of plantation owners, claiming that every former slave should receive “forty acres and a mule.” (272)
“Early Southern military successes increased Lincoln’s reliance on his Radical Republican and abolitionist supporters and forced him, reluctantly at first, to make slavery a military issue in the war.” (265)
In relationship with the Radical Republican’s views on reconstruction I wonder what a post – Civil War south would have looked like if Lincoln had lived through his second term. Would the revolution have been “arrested in mid-course” or would Lincoln have worked to create more opportunities for the newly freed African Americans? How far would Lincoln have gone to please the Radical Republicans that had carried him through the war? Although the Emancipation Proclamation was widely a political move, it also served as a “military necessity.” (266) Knowing that freedom lay waiting for them across Union lines, many slaves escaped during the Civil War, causing the South to lose precious man-power. This is merely speculation, but I believe that without the Emancipation Proclamation the Civil War would have taken much longer to win.
"The difficulties faced by planters, farmers, and their families pales beside those faced by most of the 3.9 million newly freed slaves," (272). In the words of Frederick Douglass, African-American abolitionist, the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 may have freed the slaves, but the document did not fulfill any other needs. The former slaves often went without food, shelter, or even property. Two of John Locke's guaranteed rights were denied in this case and one can make a case for a third violation. There was an absence or lack of food as stated earlier; this limits one's right to life. The former slaves probably were not happy with being denied food either. Last, I believe Clark was trying to point out that the freed slaves had their overall freedom STILL denied to them because there was a lack of jobs available. Thus, the African Americans were limited in freedom until the end of the Civil War, but even during the Reconstruction period, the Southern elites made things so that the free slaves would still be subject to the same level of cruelty, only for a paycheck and not for free.
ReplyDelete"Proclaiming slave emancipation enabled the North to capitalize on its demographic strength while emphasizing the South's social weaknesses," (266). With the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the North gained more troops within the army. The South did not have this advantage since slaves were forced to make industry and supply successful for the Confederacy rather than bolster the Confederate army. Although races were still divided in the Union army and black soldiers were paid substantially less than their white counterparts, this was an important step in the realization that African Americans should be citizens with just as much rights as any one else.
“Women’s labor made an essential contribution to the war effort on both sides” (Pg 259)
ReplyDeleteBefore reading this I only assumed that women played an essential role in the World Wars, providing for the family when the male went off to war. I had no idea that they played such a big role in the north and south. Women in this period were exploring different aspects of the work force, which lead to women becoming leaders in the cities or in the work force. Many of them became nurses and helped out the side they were on. But I did hear outside this course that women also healed many men from both sides. Although they were enemies they all had the same common ground, they were Americans. They came to North America to live a better life.
“Recruiting black soldiers also secured the North an advantage that the South could scarcely seek for itself” (Pg 267)
This quote explains one of the biggest aspects that contributed to the many factors that helped the North defeat the South. African Americans were able to fight for their rights. Even though African Americans fought for their rights it was still a long time before they actually received them. Like Stephanie said “they were still held in economic bondage and they were forced to remain at their plantation prisons because they had nowhere else to go. It takes many years to develop a new lifestyle that is not so dependent on slaves, in this case African Americans.
"Proclaiming slave emancipation enabled the North to capitalize on its demographic strength, while emphasizing the South's social weaknesses." (p. 266)
ReplyDeleteIt can be argued that the North had a leg up throughout the entire war, just as Clark's quote above can be argued. Coming before the end of the war, the proclamation had a resounding effect on the events of the next several years.
“As in the revolution, both union and confederate economies relied substantially on women’s and family labor to maintain production on farms and in homes, when men were absent on war service.” (p. 259)
It's important to weigh not only the impact of the effort on the battlefield, but also the people behind the scenes, when examining a war. Clark does this by emphasizing the workings of the economies behind the forces in the Civil War and it makes you wonder how things would have turned out if the North and the South relied on other types of economies.
The election of Abraham Lincoln was the stepping stone to the south's idea of succession. The Southern states believed since Lincoln was against slavery his new amendments would lead to freedom of all slaves. The South's economy was based on slavery so they naturally were against the presidency. Many did not know that Lincoln did not actually intend on stopping slavery in the states that already had them. He just wanted to stop the spread of slavery further into the new western states. However this conflicted with the strategy of the south. to extend slavery and in relation their economy to newer western states.
ReplyDelete"When Lincoln's election marked the unambiguous rejection of that strategy, secession seemed, to politicians and their supporters determined to preserve slavery, the most logical alternative (251).
This lead to the division in the North and South which ultimately lead to the Civil War.
However terrible this war was it brought a new appreciation for the work of women. Women were expected to take over their homes and farms and families. Women of the North can be held responsible for the continual and sometimes increasing state of the economy.
"Some economic historians credit women and Children's more intensive work on farms during the war with raising the overall level of farm productivity during the 1860's (260)."
Women being under appreciated at this time were seen to be partially responsible for the success of the North in the Civil war.
"Proslavery advocates trumpeted the advantages for whites of living in a society where they shared a status, however unevenly divided, that made them distinct from the racially determined underclass below them, and into which they could not fall." (239)
ReplyDeleteSound familiar? Conservatives? Liberals? The power structure remains because no one wants to "fall" a social class. As long as capitalism remains in place, the rich get richer, while the poor aspire for the riches, and get poorer. However, revolution is possible. Once the working class identifies the problem, there will be a revolution. Hopefully one that is actually a follower of Marxist theory; where the government seizes to exist once equilibrium is reached.
"Yet the war also, more subtly, helped concentrate tendencies already evident beforehand--toward social division, the creation of distinct middle and working classes, and the emergence of corporate ownership of industry and finance that would further the urban and industrial transformation of the country in the later nineteenth century. " (250).
Did regional divide create sectional divide? Moreover, did emancipation allow whites to dual out policies under their own terms as opposed to a slave insurrection (where like in Haiti the victorious slaves made citizenship under ex-slave depreviations) constituting their own laws?
I believe that a slave revolution would have occured in the United States if the Civil War would not have happended. I am still waiting for the marginalized to wake up, and have a peaceful sociopolitical revolution.
600,000 dead soldiers in the Civil War, is freedom really free if it is born from the lack of it?
"In Economic terms, the destruction of slavery and its replacement by new labor arrangements made some activities difficult or impossible."(279)
ReplyDeleteThe South was going to have to find new means of income, because now that slavery was banned that took away their entire economy. This also hurt the north as well, they had to be very delicate and not step on people's toes too much. They knew that they needed the south's economy even though they were against slavery. That is why the war is known to be "keeping the union."
"But the North held together despite its divisions."(264)
The North was having issues with some people still having the mindset of white supremacy. States like Ohio and Illinois were divided by racism and there were people that were abolitionists who were against African-Americans having equal rights. Although they were divided about whether or not they should be equal, they were unified on that fact that slavery had to go and to keep the union together.
“The civil war achieved the scale it did in part because the social structures of both the North and he South permitted the initial recruitment of large numbers of soldiers without inevitably disrupting the core activities of their respective economies.” (257)
ReplyDelete“The 620,000 soldiers who died of wounds or disease still amount to more than all the U.S. military deaths in all the nation’s other wars combined.” (264)
Both of these quotes focus on the magnitude of the civil war. The amount of people involved was very large which made anything that happened appear on a larger scale. Utilizing over a million people for a war within their own nation seems mind boggling, but it also shows the importance of what was at stake, slavery. The clash of ideas that we have talked about for weeks that led to the civil war shows that the war could not have been avoided. Sure there are certain ideas that could have lessened the magnitude but I believe that the war was going to happen and could not have been avoided. The war gave the states a chance to clear out all their pent up ideas. If a compromise was reached, the United States would still look the same except a few less people would have died. Slavery would still ultimately be gone and the economies of the North and most importantly the South would have had to change. The reconstruction when talking about a war this large would have changed America today. The blacks needed jobs and their rights were not secured especially after Lincoln was killed. If the reconstruction had kept going, I think former slave owners would have found the loopholes for labor still but the rights of the freed African Americans would have been in place long before they were in the United States. The fact that over 100 years later, we still recognize the civil war probably more so than the signing of the constitution, it shows the impact that the civil war left. So many people were directly involved and it marked the United States history as a changing point and a move towards the freedoms that America had sought after for so long.
"Confederates' hopes of foreign intervention in there favor also came to nothing" pg. 264
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the most important factors of the war. The south was a major player in the global economy with all the exports they produced. In fact it was very surprising that there was no intervention on their behalf, because of how much they exported. If the south had help from other countries we might be two separate countries today.
" For on thing, proclaiming slave emancipation enabled the north to capitalize on it's demographic strengths while emphasizing the south's social weaknesses" pg. 266
The book goes on to say that this led to recruiting of black people into the army. Also with the union recruiting them now it would give the union a significant advantage over the south in terms of size of army and gave the north a new cause for the war.
“As the Civil War dragged on over three then four years, and as morale sagged, the number of desertions from both armies rose” (pg 263)
ReplyDeleteWhile there was a great deal of pride and fuel behind the original battle, this line suggests that as the war drug on the hatred and cause that started the feud was significantly diminished. This lack of forces severely crippled the confederacy, as the war got longer. I think this is a significant idea because potentially changed the outcome of the civil war and therefore changed the identity of our nation. Since the Union won we were able to reconstruct the United States so that we could live together in harmony. This task was not easy but if the tables were turned and the North suffered a crippling number of desertions then we may not have an America at all but rather a fragmented land struggling with opposing views.
“Tobacco and cotton cultivation adapted more easily to the new labor systems” (pg 280)
While reconstruction changed the ways of plantation owners with the introduction of sharecropping, some of the cash crops continued to thrive while others such as rice struggled with the transformation in economic structure. While the South no longer had a stranglehold on economic power as it once did, many owners still continued to do well. The introduction of sharecropping not only changed life for the plantation owners, but also for the freed African Americans who were trying to find ways to make an honest wage in a still largely segregated society.
“As the war wound on, and units were reorganized or decimated by casualties, connections between recruitment and locality weakened; on both sides, military service became a more “national” experience.” Pg 257
ReplyDeleteIn this quote by Clark, he is trying to explain that there were many casualties and instead of those just hitting communities, it was affecting the entire nation. The United States were all experiencing this, and everyone knew that they had to suit up for war because their country needed them even though they were fighting each other.
“As in the revolution, both Union and Confederate economies relied substantially on women’s and family labor to maintain production on farms and in homes while men were absent on the war service.” Pg 259
In this quote, Clark is trying to explain that while the men were off at war, women ultimately saved the economy. They took the men’s place in factories and they kept the country going while everyone was at war. Not only did women help, but also so did their family. This means that children went to factories too and helped women work and keep the economy healthy.
"Throughout the first three years of the war the north experienced more serious disunity than the white south." Pg 263
ReplyDeleteThis quote shows how the civil war was a battle that really was not decided until the very end. For much of the war it appeared that the industrially lacking south was just going to walk all over their brethren to the north. The tide of the war turned very late and it was something that in all actuality could have gone either way.
"One sixth of the Union troops and one quarter of the Confederate troops lost their lives." Pg.265
This quote show just how deadly this war was to the american soldiers. These soldiers werent dying right away either. Many times wounds from battle would be the cause of death. This is still the war with the most loss of American lives in US history. The number of people that died and the generations that were partly wiped out had a great impact on the separating nation.
"States' rights were safe in their hands; all they sought to restrict was the individual rights of slaveholders to own human property wherever in the United States they chose, and to uphold the rights of nonslave states to exclude them" (251)
ReplyDelete- This quote analyzes how state issues and rights were well underway to being restricted. Particularly, the aspect of a human being deemed property was one of the restrictions that was estimated to be put into effect along with nonslave states restricting slaveholders from bringing slaves to their states.
"Recent accounts of antebellum Southern attitudes have not merely exposed the underlying dominance of slavery in these issues but have also attempted to resolve the apparent paradox of the South's opposition to Lincoln by redefining its traditional emphasis on states' rights" (251)
-This quote emphasizes the attitudes held by Southerners towards slavery. The South had strong opinions about Lincoln and the way he re wanted to run the states. Slavery was highly used in the South and went against what Lincoln was aiming to accomplish.
Union victories in gettysburg and vicksburg, in july 1863 marked the end of confederate hopes.."(264)
ReplyDeleteThis passage shows that in the frost 2 years of the civil war the South had significant victories that gave them hope in winning the civil war. The victory in atlanta was not only the turning point in the war but also a turning point in the election of lincoln
"recrusting bacl sodiers aslso secured the north"(267)
this shows that not only were they trying to abolish slavery, the north was doing anything it could to over power the south who in the beginning of the war stood a chance in winning
“Many New Englanders and upper Midwesterners, including supporters of the abolition movement, opposed Texas annexation on the grounds that it would add a slaveholding state and potentially increase the power of the south in national affairs” (Clark, 207).
ReplyDelete-Clark is describing how controversial slavery was within the United States during this time. Clark is explaining that even for the people that didn’t support slavery and knew it was wrong would rather avoid the argument with all of the slave supporters then actually address the issue at hand. This quote ties in with the themes we have been discussing in class because this quote shows how Americans wanted to expand as a nation, but since Americans disregarded human rights while building America as a nation, they come into contact of issues as a result.
“One state court even held that a master’s killing of his slave could not be murder because a conviction for murder required proof of intent, and no man would intentionally destroy his own property” (Clark, 236).
-Clark is describing how whites were punished at all when it came to misconduct when dealing with slavery. Even though whites did not see slavery as wrong in the south, some slave-owners did get punished for punishments that were too harsh. Even the punishment for misconduct was that one of their slaves would be killed, because the most detrimental action could be losing slave, which would decrease your revenue and profits. This quote ties in with the themes we have been discussing in class because slaves were not viewed as citizens, or even human beings in the eyes of the government, they were viewed as property.
-The civil war could not have been avoided because it was necessary for America to reach some type of agreement about the issue of slavery. If the compromise was reached it is possible that slavery may still be present to this day, but without some type of war Americans would not be able to realize the importance of the issue of slavery and how it was tearing the country apart.
-If Reconstruction was fulfilled it would have caused even more turmoil between the north and the south. It was hard enough for the southern plantation owners to handle the thought of there being free slaves and a good amount of the slaveholders did not follow the laws of reconstruction and rejected the civil war despite the government’s ruling.
-Recently Americans finally the civil war as a crucial moment of the United State to initiate putting an end to inequality. Obviously the civil war did not single-handedly eliminate racial inequality in America, but was the first stepping-stone to make the process possible.
-My final thoughts for the class are that human rights regarding the different races within America were a common theme. The course started by addressing the issues of Native Americans and their process of dealing with English settlers and eventually developed into the issues of African slaves that were taken from African and into captivity.