The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901

336 Pages·2001·1 MB·english

by  Heather Cox Richardson

The Death of Reconstruction

The Death of
Reconstruction
Race, Labor, and Politics in the
Post–Civil War North, 1865–1901
Heather Cox Richardson
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge,Massachusetts
London,England
Copyright©2001bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
FirstHarvardUniversityPresspaperbackedition,2004
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Richardson,HeatherCox
ThedeathofReconstruction : race,labor,andpoliticsinthepost–Civil
WarNorth,1865–1901 / HeatherCoxRichardson.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-674-00637-2(cloth)
ISBN0-674-01366-2(pbk.)
1.Reconstruction—Publicopinion. 2.Freedmen—SouthernStates—
Publicopinion. 3.AfricanAmericans—Civilrights—Publicopinion.
4.Publicopinion—NortheasternStates. 5.UnitedStates—Politicsand
government—1865–1900. 6.RepublicanParty(U.S. : 1854–)—History—
19thcentury. 7.UnitedStates—Economicconditions—1865–1918.
8.AfricanAmericans—Civilrights—History—19thcentury. 9.Working
class—UnitedStates—19thcentury. 10.NortheasternStates—Race
relations. I.Title.
E668.R5 2001
973.8—dc21 2001024212
For
RobertFrancisPontrelli,
MarshallAmbrosePontrelli,
and
EvaKatharinePontrelli

Contents
Preface ix
Prologue:TheViewfromAtlanta,1895 1
1 TheNorthernPostwarVision,1865–1867 6
2 TheMixedBlessingofUniversalSuffrage,1867–1870 41
3 BlackWorkersandtheSouthCarolinaGovernment,
1871–1875 83
4 CivilRightsandtheGrowthoftheNational
Government,1870–1883 122
5 TheBlackExodusfromtheSouth,1879–1880 156
6 TheUn-AmericanNegro,1880–1900 183
Epilogue:
BookerT.WashingtonRisesUpfromSlavery,1901 225
Notes 247
Index 303

Preface Preface
Preface
Inmyfirstbook,TheGreatestNationoftheEarth,Iexploredhowfreela-
borideologyshapedeconomicandpoliticalpoliciesintheNorthduring
the Civil War. Legislation on banking and currency, taxation, agricul-
ture, and railroads reflected the belief that man’s God-given ability to
createvaluewiththelaborofhisownhandswasthetruebasisofwealth
and prosperity. This theory also molded Republican attitudes toward
slavery,whichbydefinitionwastheantithesisoffreelabor.
Free labor ideas changed the view that most Republicans had of the
freedpeople,the4millionAfrican-Americansliberatedbythewar.Rac-
ism had been rampant before the conflict. Most virulent among Demo-
crats,racistattitudeswerewidelysharedevenbyRepublicansastolerant
andbenevolentasAbrahamLincoln.Butthewaryearschangedthoseat-
titudes. In 1861, Republicans believed that black workers were inferior
towhites;by1865,theindustriousnessoffreedworkersmigratingNorth
and the heroism of the nearly 200,000 African-Americans who fought
for the Union armies convinced Republicans that blacks were not the
dull, animal-like creatures of racist myths. With their drive to educate
themselves and their children, their desire to work their own land, and
theireagernesstosaveforthefuture,theyseemedtobeidealworkersof
the free labor model, who would rise and prosper through hard work.
Most of the legislation of the early Reconstruction period—the Freed-
men’s Bureau Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Thirteenth, Four-
teenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution—was intended
tofosterandextendthefreelaborideologyamongAfrican-Americans.
Yet despite their initial postwar support for freedpeople, Northerners
had turned against African-Americans by the turn of the century. By
1900,theNorthwatchedcomplacentlyaslynchingandviolenceterror-
ized Southern blacks, as one Southern state after another disfranchised
African-Americansandinstitutedarigoroussystemofracialsegregation
ix