Reconstruction: Competing Visions for the U.S., 1865-1892

Historical Overview: Reconstruction

Introduction to Reconstruction

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Reconstruction is broadly defined as three simultaneous efforts: bringing the eleven Confederate states that had seceded from the Union back into the United States; the abolition of slavery across the nation; and the introduction and protection of Black civil and political rights into federal, state, and local laws. Scholars are currently debating when exactly Reconstruction began and ended, as there were some places within the Confederacy that had essentially abolished slavery (through control of Union troops) and were beginning to be reincorporated before the close of the War. While some areas in the South that were under Union military control before the end of the Civil War in 1865 witnessed fits and starts of Reconstruction, it began across the entire South after General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox. The process of reincorporating the South into the nation without the institution of slavery involved the cooperation, negotiation, and opposition of people across the nation. Freedpeople steered the way for determining the meanings of freedom by voting, holding public office, working their own hours, obtaining an education, and reconstituting their families. Alongside Radical Republicans in Congress, they demanded laws that created and protected their civil rights. Many White Northerners and Southerners, on the other hand, opposed granting African Americans full rights and citizenship, creating strong pushback against Radical Reconstruction policies. In the case of the South, opposition to social, economic, and political equality often took the form of racial violence with the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. While every individual had a different relationship to Reconstruction and its varied meanings, there are four main categories of opinions: southern Black people, including the formerly enslaved; White Southerners; Radical Republicans; and, Conservative or Moderate Republicans in the North.

Freedpeople

Broadly speaking, freedpeople understood Reconstruction to be about civil rights and personal autonomy–a lived experience that meant different things to different people. Emancipation was a dramatic reversal of the institution of slavery in nearly every way possible. Freedpeople now had the ability to choose when they worked, what kinds of jobs they did (although this was often quite limited), where they did those jobs, and in some cases, they  even negotiated their pay. In contrast to slavery, when enslavers often ripped apart enslaved families with the stroke of a pen, freedpeople worked to find their loved ones; legally married their spouses , and felt secure that their partners and children would not be forcibly moved elsewhere in the country. Additionally, they enjoyed educational opportunities that enslavers had systematically denied them before the Civil War as Northerners worked to create schools for children and institutions of higher learning throughout the South. Many of the schools known today as Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs), including Howard University in Washington, D.C., Fisk University in Nashville, TN, and Hampton University in Hampton, VA, were founded by the Freedmen’s Bureau during Reconstruction and helped to grow the Black professional class. These schools were co-educational; Spelman College in Atlanta, GA was founded for Black women in 1881.

Perhaps most significantly, freedpeople gained the right to vote and hold office, and they led the charge to rewrite state constitutions. Political figures such as whitefield J. McKinlay, Charles McDuffie Wilder, James P. Mayes, Joseph Hayne Rainey, and John B. Wright spearheaded the effort to rewrite the State Constitution in South Carolina in 1868, for example. Formerly enslaved people also held offices in the national Senate and House of Representatives. In 1870, Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first Black Senator in the United States, while Blanche Bruce of Mississippi was the first and only senator to be formerly enslaved. These men joined representatives such as Robert Smalls, Joseph Rainey, Jefferson F. Long, Benjamin S. Turner, and Josiah T. Wells (among many others). 

Freedpeople were always active agents in their own experiences of freedom (even prior to legal emancipation with the 13th Amendment), and their encounters with freedom ranged from holding office to seemingly mundane activities such as wishing for gifts for Christmas. It was often in these seemingly small moments, such as wearing a dress made of good-quality material, that freedpeople experienced and witnessed their freedom. Freedpeople could choose their own clothes, partners, activities, and jobs. They could also choose to quit those jobs. In her book We Refuse, Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson describes the difficult and poorly paid work of Black domestics in the 1870s, and the joy freedwomen felt in the act of quitting a job or a task. She writes, “Slavery denied consent. Saying no was not possible, at least not without violent consequences. In a post-Emancipation world, Black joy was refusal; it was quitting–similar to flight.” (Kellie Carter-Jackson, We Refuse, 2024, p. 227) 

Radical Republicans

Radical Republicans were the most vocal and committed group of politicians dedicated to creating and protecting civil rights for Black Americans during Reconstruction. This group included freedpeople themselves, Northern Black Americans who obtained their freedom prior to the Civil War, Black leaders who were not formerly enslaved, and their white Republican allies (most of whom were former abolitionists). Some of the notable white Radicals included Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, John Fremont, and Benjamin Wade, among others. Senator Sumner, one of the most well-known Radical Republicans, led the charge to pass important legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Reconstruction Amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th), and the Enforcement Acts. The Enforcement Acts (also called the Ku Klux Klan Acts), were designed to allow the federal government to respond to acts of white violence and terrorism and protect Black Americans’ right to vote, hold public office, serve on juries, and receive equal protection of the laws. The laws made private acts of discrimination punishable under federal law.

This faction of the Republican Party opposed the Reconstruction policies of more moderate Republicans, such as President Andrew Johnson, whom they even impeached in 1868. (This first-ever impeachment trial of a U.S. President lasted two months and had an audience of Senators, diplomats, and members of the public. See a ticket to the trial from April 6, 1868.) These political leaders were joined by many everyday Americans, especially African Americans in the North and South, and their ideas about equality were pictured in political cartoons by artists such as Thomas Nast and appeared in Harper’s Weekly, a national magazine. Nast, for instance, vehemently opposed Johnson’s Reconstruction plans, and detested the white South’s exploitative ideas and practices.

Conservative or Moderate Republicans in the North

Conservative and Moderate Republicans included figures such as Andrew Johnson, who were hesitant (or even overtly opposed) to granting African Americans full rights and citizenship, and whose main goal tended to be the reconstitution of the states as quickly and easily as possible. They often voted against measures that would grant civil and political rights to freedpeople, either on the grounds of wanting to restore peace and harmony as fast as possible, or on racist principles (and often both). Moderates and Conservatives pioneered a memory of the War focused on reconciliation (bringing together the North and South), which, over time, became based on the South’s vision of the War: the Lost Cause. Reconciliation focused on the coming together of men and women on both sides of the War, reconstituting the nation, and attempting to forget the horrors of the past in an effort to move forward in society. This, of course, washed away the centrality of slavery to the Civil War, and the fight for Black civil rights. 

White Southerners

Most white Southerners hoped for a Reconstruction that did not terminate the institution of slavery, and they were quick to push back (often through violence) against any laws or actions that threatened their racial hierarchy. The Ku Klux Klan, for instance, used vigilante violence to try to prevent freedpeople from voting, running for office, and engaging in social activities alongside white people. Members of the KKK used such violence to try to reinstate and reinforce the racial hierarchy which had characterized the antebellum South. These vigilantes, often former enslavers, slave traders, and other participants in the institution of slavery used tactics including lynching, sexual violence, burning of homes and property, and brutal beatings to instill fear in Black Americans. As a result, Black citizens would risk their lives by engaging in activities such as voting. Radical Reconstructionists, understanding the threats that this vigilantism posed to freedpeople’s rights, passed a series of laws–the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871–that attempted to punish those individuals who threatened to take away rights provided by Reconstruction laws and amendments either through violence or the passing of racist laws.

During Reconstruction, white Southerners not only faced a total reorganization of their social hierarchy, but also the humiliation of a military and ideological defeat by the Union army. In response, Southerners, especially white women, were quick to construct a memory of the Civil War (and later, of Reconstruction itself) that ignored the role played by slavery and enhanced the ideas of States’ Rights and valiant soldiers on both sides of the War. This misleading vision of the War was termed the Lost Cause, and according to this story, the South’s real win was over the “bayonet rule” (the terminology used by the white South to describe their perspective about Northern involvement in the region after the Civil War) of Reconstruction. More specifically, this myth explained the end of Reconstruction and the creation of Jim Crow as how the South redeemed itself after its loss of the Civil War. Many Southern artists, especially Adalbert Volck, created a visual language for the Lost Cause which painted Northern Reconstructionists as violent monsters who wished for total equality among the races. 

While white Southerners actively tried to limit the reach of Reconstruction, moderate Republicans like Andrew Johnson largely failed to punish former Confederates for their armed rebellion against the nation. Johnson in fact granted former Confederates a blanket pardon, allowing them to vote, hold public office, and regain their lost property (excluding enslaved people). Even military and political leaders, after applying for – and receiving – individual pardons, lived with little fear that their acts of treason would face any harsh penalties.

Civil War Memory

Scholars have noted four main visions, or memories, of the Civil War: the Lost Cause, Emancipationist, Unionist, and Reconciliationist. The use and misuse of these public memories after the Civil War had profound consequences on the ways in which topics such as race were viewed throughout the late-19th and early-20th centuries. 

The Emancipationist vision encompassed Black Americans’ complex and nuanced remembrance of their own experiences during the Civil War and beyond. Abolitionists and freedpeople alike understood the Civil War to be a war over slavery and emancipation, and their creation of holidays such as memorial days reflected this focus. These memorial days were the nation’s first multiracial, multiethnic commemoration, and served to maintain the memories of slavery and freedom across multiple generations. For example, the first Decoration Day, on which our national Memorial Day holiday was based, was held by Black Americans in Charleston, SC, in 1865. Freedpeople maintained the Emancipationist vision of the War well beyond Reconstruction, with later scholars, such as W. E. B. Du Bois, writing accurate histories of the time period in works such as Black Reconstruction (1935). The Juneteenth holiday commemorates June 19, 1865, when the Union Army marched into Galveston, Texas, and, having taken control of the area from the Confederacy, announced the freedom of all enslaved people there. Local freedpeople began celebrating Juneteenth in the immediate years afterward. In 2021, Juneteenth became a federal holiday. This emancipationist memory of the war stood directly in contrast to the Lost Cause, which predominated the white South for numerous generations.

The roots of the Lost Cause mythology can be found in the crisis of death that dominated the white Southern war experience. Like Black Americans and their abolitionist allies, white Southerners created their own memorial days in an effort to cope with loss on a profound scale. Elite women did much of the daily work of organizing these events, ostensibly keeping them apolitical in nature. Yet these memorial days, and the language utilized throughout, were entirely political. White Southerners simultaneously mourned the death of Confederate soldiers and of the institution of slavery by creating a narrative that the cause of the Civil War was states’ rights. Slavery, according to this myth, had nothing to do with secession or the War, particularly because enslaved people were “satisfied” with their place in society and the system of slavery itself was “benevolent” in nature. At the close of Reconstruction, the Lost Cause took on a more positive tone, as white Southerners celebrated their win over “bayonet rule.” This mythology reinforced institutions such as Jim Crow in later time periods, as the violent racial hierarchy was understood to be a replacement for slavery, and an improvement from the “dark period” of Reconstruction.

Although many white Northerners subscripted to the Emancipationist vision of the Civil War, many others, especially Union veterans, prioritized a Unionist vision. The Unionist memory prioritized ideas concerning the perceived superiority of the North’s politics, economy, and society, and many believed that defeating the Confederacy meant preserving the sanctity of republican democracies in the Western world. Although race was not as central to the Unionist vision as it was to the Emancipationist vision, this memory of the war was not nearly as virulently racist as the Lost Cause. Moreover, the consequences of this vision paled in comparison to the Lost Cause. 

The fourth kind of memory of the Civil War was the Reconciliationist vision. This vision took root during the War, when both sides had the need to mourn, commemorate, and memorialize the dead. Reconciliation was centered on the social, economic, and emotional recovery of the nation during and after Reconstruction, and because there was bitter disagreement about the experiences of Reconstruction and the cause of the Civil War, advocates of this vision banished slavery and race from the discussion. The result was an odd coalition between former enslavers (and their descendants) dedicated to creating and maintaining a strict racial hierarchy, and Northern Republicans who sought to support capitalism and thwart labor activism, cementing the Republican party’s abandonment of Black civil and political rights. Reconciliation, in other words, was on the terms of the white South, allowing for Jim Crow to thrive at the turn of the 20th century.

Close Reading Questions

In this source set, you may want to use all of the primary sources. Or, you may want to select just a few. For each primary source found on the "source set" tab, there are individual analysis questions to ask students to help them look at the source more deeply.

Source 1. Frederick Douglass’ 1865 speech, 'What the Black Man Wants'

• Douglass argues that giving Black men the right to vote is necessary for safety and peace in the South. What do you think he means by this statement?
• What is Douglass’ vision for Reconstruction and the future of the United States?

Source 2. Freedmen’s Bureau / Family Reunification

• What facts are presented about John Jordan and his son in each source?
• What opinions does McNulty (Freedmen's Bureau agent) hold of Jordan and the Freedman's Aid Society women teachers?
  • Why might these opinions matter?
• What is the purpose of each source?
• Considering John Jordan’s goal (reuniting with his son), what would be the opportunities and challenges of printing an Information Wanted ad in a Boston-based newspaper?

Source 3. Civil Rights Act of 1866

• How did this Act define citizenship?

Source 4. Political Cartoons on Black men voting

Nast’s Johnson opposes Black male suffrage, 1867

• Beside Johnson stands a man wearing an “Ex-CSA” hat, meaning that he had been part of the Confederacy during the Civil War. How would you describe Johnson and the Ex-CSA man?
• How would you describe the Black man who is voting?
• What message do you think is the illustrator Thomas Nast conveying in this cartoon?

Waud’s “The First Vote,” political cartoon,1867

• What can you infer about each of the Black men who are standing in line to vote? What evidence do you have from the image to support your observations?

Source 5. Giles’ Reconstruction lithograph, 1867

• What vision(s) for Reconstruction and the future of the United States do you see in this image?

Source 6. Black and white ‘radical Republicans’, 1868 South Carolina Legislature, composite photo

• This is a composite photograph, meaning individual photos of each person were cut and pasted onto a single sheet to create this group portrait. Its purpose was to instill fear into white Southerners. What does this image tell us about the vision many white Southerners had for Reconstruction and the future of the United States?
• In what ways can we see this image as documentation of the successes of Reconstruction? What vision for Reconstruction and the future of the U.S. might these Black politicians have had? 

Source 7. Disguises of the KKK photo, Hunstville, AL,1868-69

• How is this photo from 1868-1869 similar to / different from your ideas of how the KKK dressed?
• With what purpose did the KKK showing up at political rallies for Republican candidates before elections during Reconstruction?

Source 8. Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi photo and first speech on Senator floor, March 1870

• Senator Revels gave a speech about a specific bill that related to Georgia; however, in his speech he is also making a larger argument. Based on the excerpt, what argument is Revels making about Black southerners in his speech? About white southerners? About the federal government?
• What is Senator Revels’ vision for Reconstruction and the future of the United States?

Source 9. John Love’s student writing, Claflin School, Columbus, GA, 1874

• John L. Love was born in or around 1863 and likely did not have his own memories of slavery. How do you think he learned about the punishments for enslaved people who attempted to free themselves?
• What can this essay tell us about the ways in which freedpeople taught their children about slavery and the importance of its ending?

Source 10. Map of Hampton Institute (Hampton, VA) Black graduates’ teaching positions, March 1876

• What does this map tell us about the role HBCUs played in the work of Reconstruction during the 1870s?
• What vision for Reconstruction and the future of the United States did Black colleges and universities have?

Source 11. Pres. Hayes and his Cabinet photo and Daniel Chamberlain July 4, 1877 speech on Hayes’ southern policy

• What does Chamberlain argue the removal of troops will mean for Black people and the Republican party more broadly across the South?
• Why do you think many people see 1877 as the end of Reconstruction?

Source 12. Ida B. Wells’ 1892 Preface to Southern Horrors

• Why do you think Ida B. Wells called her book “Southern Horrors”?
• Wells published Southern Horrors in 1892, only months after the offices of the Memphis Free Speech newspaper, which she co-owned, had been burned down. What does Wells’ journalism tell us about the aftermath of Reconstruction? What do you think she wanted her book to achieve?

Applicable Standards

H/SS Standards

Content Standards

• Grade 5: Topic 5. Slavery, the legacy of the Civil War, and the struggle for civil rights for all
• Grade 8: Topic 5. The Constitution, Amendments, and Supreme Court decisions
• USH.I: Topic 5 the Civil War and Reconstruction: causes and consequences
• AP African American Studies: Unit 3 – the Practice of Freedom
• APUSH: Unit 5. Period 5. 1844-1877

Skill Standards

• Organize information and data from multiple primary and secondary sources.
• Analyze the purpose and point of view of each source; distinguish opinion from fact.
• Argue or explain conclusions, using valid reasoning and evidence.

C3 Frameworks

• D2.His.4.3-5. Explain why individuals and groups during the same historical period differed in their perspectives.
• D2.His.4.6-8. Analyze multiple factors that influenced the perspectives of people during different historical eras.
• D2.His.4.9-12. Analyze complex and interacting factors that influenced the perspectives of people during different historical eras

• D2.His.16.3-5. Use evidence to develop a claim about the past.
• D2.His.16.6-8. Organize applicable evidence into a coherent argument about the past.
• D2.His.16.9-12. Integrate evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past.