Sherman & Total War
Yes, we're starting Reconstruction by going back to some stuff that happened in the Civil War. This is because Sherman's March to the Sea does a good job of setting the stage for just how much reconstruction needs to happen in the south. Reconstruction had to happen in four different arenas:
- physical - The South was wrecked. Homes, businesses, farms, roads, railroads, everything needed to be rebuilt.
- economic - With no enslaved labor, the South needed to replace plantation agriculture.
- social - Four million previously enslaved people, now freedpeople, needed to be incorporated into society.
- political - Confederate governments had to be removed and replaced by ones that were part of the Union.
General William Tecumseh Sherman decided to get classical when he proposed his "scorched earth" policy to Lincoln. The idea was to use Roman military tactics (think Carthage) to crush the spirit of the Confederacy. Called "the March to the Sea," he proposed invading Atlanta and then marching to the port town of Savannah and then North, to Richmond. Sherman's plan had a strange humanity to it, because his goal was to end the war more quickly. Remember, Grant and Lincoln figured the Union had the Confederacy so out-manned that they didn't need to win the battles, they just had to keep showing up and fighting until the South ran out of military aged men. Sherman's use of what came to be known as total war is important to history because he brought this idea from the classical period into the modern era, where it has been regularly used, for example with the dropping of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in WWII.
Quiz Short Answers:
On the "Ending the Civil War" open note pop quiz, one of the options for the short answer was the following; Was Sherman's March to the Sea justified? Use evidence from class to support your position. Here are two solid short answers, written by your classmates, that received full credit.
1. I think Sherman's March to the Sea was not justified. Even though he wrote in his letter to the Mayor of Atlanta, "I want peace, and believe it can now only be reached through union and war." Sherman wanted to become friends with them afterwards. However, I don't know that he actually meant these words. The letter was written in September 12, 1864 but the turning point at the battle of Gettysburg happened before that, so the Union was already winning the war. Also, I think he was using words to make the South feel bad because he said, "...and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace." In conclusion, I don't think he is justified because he could have only attacked Atlanta and the Union still would have won the Civil War.
2. I believe that Sherman's March to the Sea was justified because he was only trying to end the brutal and horrific war that had been going on for over 4 years. Sherman warned the citizens of Atlanta in his letter and said that he would destroy the ability for inhabitants to live there. In the last paragraph of his letter he wrote "I want peace, and believe it can now only be reached through union and war." Sherman was explaining that he did not want this war to go on any longer and the way to end it was with total war. He even said that everyone could start their lives over again afterward. Sherman only wanted to stop the violence, even if he had to sacrifice certain things. It was justified because it was coming from good intentions. He did care about the people in Georgia. So many casualties had already happened and he just didn't want any more lives to be lost.
1. I think Sherman's March to the Sea was not justified. Even though he wrote in his letter to the Mayor of Atlanta, "I want peace, and believe it can now only be reached through union and war." Sherman wanted to become friends with them afterwards. However, I don't know that he actually meant these words. The letter was written in September 12, 1864 but the turning point at the battle of Gettysburg happened before that, so the Union was already winning the war. Also, I think he was using words to make the South feel bad because he said, "...and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace." In conclusion, I don't think he is justified because he could have only attacked Atlanta and the Union still would have won the Civil War.
2. I believe that Sherman's March to the Sea was justified because he was only trying to end the brutal and horrific war that had been going on for over 4 years. Sherman warned the citizens of Atlanta in his letter and said that he would destroy the ability for inhabitants to live there. In the last paragraph of his letter he wrote "I want peace, and believe it can now only be reached through union and war." Sherman was explaining that he did not want this war to go on any longer and the way to end it was with total war. He even said that everyone could start their lives over again afterward. Sherman only wanted to stop the violence, even if he had to sacrifice certain things. It was justified because it was coming from good intentions. He did care about the people in Georgia. So many casualties had already happened and he just didn't want any more lives to be lost.
Identity and Freedom
Looking at the poem "Two Names, Two Worlds," we discussed the difficulty in finding your place when there are many parts of who you are, especially if those parts seem opposed to one another. A number of classes used the information in the poem to create an identity chart for Jonathan and played with how his attributes could be represented, which were connected or related, and which were not explicitly stated in the poem, but could be inferred from Jonathan's references. Here is the audio of the poem, which we used in class. It is performed by three members of the current 10th grade class.
Names were especially important in the Reconstruction Era. As 4 million people came out of slavery, after the ratification of the 13th Amendment, most never had formally recognized surnames, or last names. Choosing a name and what they would be called was one of the first ways these newly emancipated freedpeople exercised their freedom. For some, this was a difficult process to navigate. We read one account to illustrate the many players who might influence someone's decision about their name then answered comprehension, inferring, and thematic questions about the reading.
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Freedom
Remember when we learned about the fact that race is a social construct back in the Colonialism unit? It's coming back into play. (Well, actually, it's been in play for all of American history.) If race is a social construct that we use (and we do), then how are we all equal as Jefferson suggested in the Declaration of Independence. We're not treated equally. Just to get a sense of how strongly these unequal views were held at the start of Reconstruction, you read the "Are All Men Created Equal?" reading and answered these questions.
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Freedpeople had to figure out what it meant to be free. We looked at four different documents to see how different groups of freedpeople defined or understood freedom during Reconstruction. Below are the documents we used and the chart to take notes about each of them.
- Savannah Freedpeople Express their Aspirations for Freedom
- What the Black Man Wants
- Letter from Jourdan Anderson: A Freedman Writes his Former Master
- South Carolina Freedpeople Demand and Education
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The Freedmen's Bureau
The Freedmen's Bureau was established by Congress before the end of the Civil War to help freedpeople assimilate to free life in the United States. We looked at this letter by Rufus Saxton, who worked in one of the Freedmen's Bureau Offices, to freedpeople in his district to get a sense of what the Freedmen's Bureau was about.
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Next, you looked at illustrations about the Freedmen's Bureau to infer some of the tasks that agency took on.
(We discussed why these are not photos. Photographs require a camera. Both photos and illustrations are in the category of images, so both could be called images, but not all images are photos.)
(We discussed why these are not photos. Photographs require a camera. Both photos and illustrations are in the category of images, so both could be called images, but not all images are photos.)
The Freedmen's Bureau worked to protect families by providing legal wedding ceremonies for freedpeople and helped reunite families sold apart by slavery. They provide resources like food, housing, and medical care to BOTH freedpeople and poor White people, often referred to as refugees because they had been displaced by war, and especially Sherman's March to the Sea. The most lasting legacy of the Freedmen's Bureau is usually considered to be the many schools they set up for freedpeople, including some HBCUs, like Howard University. Last, the Freedmen's Bureau worked to resolve conflict. You read in the Saxton letter about the "council of 3" to settle disputes between freedpeople and white people. They also would go with freedpeople to negotiate contracts, help them find work, and check in to make sure freedpeople's employers were abiding by their contracts.
However, the Freedmen's Bureau was very controversial. We used the image below to try to paraphrase the point of view of those who disapproved of the Freedmen's Bureau. Many classes saw parallels between the rhetoric used in this political cartoon and some of our modern politics, especially around social welfare programs and the topics you have been covering in English.
Earlier this month, The Atlantic published an article about the economic research about this mentality. It's fairly long, but if you are at all interested in economics or social policy (things the government does to help people) it's worth a read. The Atlantic Magazine is known for being particular left leaning, but this article does a good job of walking through the idea that government assistance for poor people makes people lazy or less likely to work as it shows how each part of the argument is wrong.
Radical Reconstruction
Radical Reconstruction was one of the early parts of Reconstruction. The Federal Government was heavily involved since the states needed to recreate their state governments to be part of the United States again. While great progress was made (this was the period in which Black people were most proportionally represented in all aspects of government in US History, including modern time) these changes came with a negative social backlash. We learned about both of these using the History Alive! texts and completing the graphic organizer.
Thomas Nast, a famous cartoonist and illustrator in the late 1800s, created the picture below as well as a number of notable images representing what went on during Reconstruction. (He's also responsible for using the elephant and donkey as symbols for the Republican and Democratic Parties.) Reconstruction took a while to get off the ground. Lincoln had a plan, but he was assassinated before it could be put into place. President Johnson had a plan and started to enact it. This brief period is called Presidential Reconstruction, but it was short lived. A branch of the Republican party, the Radical Republicans led by Thaddeus Stevens, thought he was going too easy on the former Confederates. They took control of Reconstruction, so this period is often called Radical Reconstruction or Federal Reconstruction, because the federal government basically took control of the former Confederate States. Your book glosses over this period of history, so we are using the History Alive! text book for this part of our study. You used sections 2-4 of chapter 23 to complete this graphic organizer in class. Remember, you want to note not just the definitions, but any context that will help you keep track of the relationships between people and events. My key is posted to help you prepare for your test, as well as a PowerPoint (that we did not use in class) that reviews these key points.
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Many of you looked at the 14th Amendment in depth. Section One of the 14th Amendment is what defines birthright citizenship (that a person born in the US is automatically a US citizen) and the equal protection clause (that specifically says that everyone must be equal in the eyes of the law). After reading the Amendment, you did a gallery walk around the room where there were quotes about the 14th Amendment hanging up. You posted sticky notes on the quotes with summaries, questions, and connections you made to other material. Here are the quotes we used.
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Depending on the PARCC schedule, you may have taken a class period to do a laid back DBQ activity where you were given a packet of information about Radical Reconstruction. With a partner or group, you created a newspaper headline highlighting some aspect of Radical Reconstruction to show how this time period was extreme (hence the name). Most folks focused on the significant increase in African American representation in all aspects and levels of government. Below is the primary source document describing what it was like to be a freedman taking part in rewriting the state Constitution of Mississippi. There is also the image of the radical representatives in the legislature of South Carolina, and the four pages of statistics about African American representation in government.
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end of (federal) reconstruction
In 1877, Reconstruction changed dramatically. After the Amnesty Act and the Enforcement Acts were passed, the Compromise of 1877 ended federal involvement in Reconstruction. The rest was left to the states, who had successfully reestablished home rule. This spelled disaster for all the improvements made under Radical Reconstruction. To start looking at this portion of Reconstruction, you completed another set of guided notes on the second half of chapter 23 in the orange History Alive! text. You also did an image analysis of the Thomas Nast political cartoon posted below.
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While Reconstruction is technically still happening in the South, it was controlled by the states. As a result, Jim Crow laws took off and were deemed Constitutional by the Supreme Court in the Plessy v. Ferguson case. This is where we get the phrase "separate but equal." Many refer to this as the Jim Crow era and we watched a video, posted on the video page, that highlights this part of history, with particular attention to the actions African Americans took to push back against racist attitudes. Please, when you hear Jim Crow challenge yourself to think of something other than just water fountains. These laws were intended to keep groups of people apart to perpetuate the idea that white people were superior. Jim Crow laws effected every aspect of life; water fountains, bathrooms, movie theaters, entrances to public and private buildings, libraries, schools, parks, where you could live, who you could speak to... These laws effected the social norms and were significant in shifting the social construction of race to be even more exclusive and judgmental. The Plessy decision was finally overturned with the Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, KS decision in 1954.
Socratic Seminar - What Role should confederate symbols have today?
Given this history, we will end the unit with a Socratic Seminar about Confederate symbols. After Radical Reconstruction ended, these symbols -- the Confederate Battle Flag, names and likenesses of Confederate Generals, songs and stories that glorify the Confederate cause -- came to take on new meaning. They were used during Jim Crow to send a powerful message about white supremacy. Still, these symbols are part of our history. What role do you think they should serve and how should we treat these symbols today?
To do a quick examination of this question, we watch the first 10 minutes of a speech given by Mitch Landrieu, then the Mayor of New Orleans, LA, about his decision to take down 4 Confederate monuments in the city. Here is the youtube video we used in class and the text of his speech. (We used this cell phone video because it is unedited. Unfortunately, the official video of this speech skips page 4 to "A piece of stone..." I suspect there were some technical difficulties while recording.)
With a partner or small group you read an UpFront article about the Confederate battle flag's history (posted below) and an infographic from the Southern Poverty Law Center showing when various symbols went up in US History.
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For homework, you listened to the first two parts of this episode of BackStory, a history podcast, called "Contested Landscape". This included the section called Monument Avenue (0:00-10:42) and Should They Stay or Go? (10:42-15:43). I also highly recommended listening to Seeds of Doubt (32:03-40:32) and the closing discussion (40:32 to the end).
Reconstruction Unit Test
Thursday, April 19 (F) or Friday, April 20 (CDE)
Your unit test will be held in your last class of the week. My keys to the guided notes and video notes have been posted to help you study. Some of you will have the chance to play Jeopardy in class before the test. Please, do not ruin the game by giving away all the answers in class if you choose to play ahead of time. Due to PARCC scheduling not every class will have the chance to play so I am posting it now.
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The following are student responses to the open response items on the test. Each of these received full credit.
1. What was so "radical" about Radical Reconstruction? Use specific examples from class in your answer.Radical Reconstruction, the time period directly following the end of the American Civil War, was called 'radical' for being a sudden and extreme jump in progress for the US. During Radical Reconstruction, the Military Reconstruction Act was passed, putting the South under martial law, keeping former Confederates from voting and requiring the southern states to create completely new and integrated state governments that were loyal to the Union. This particular part of the Military Reconstruction Act made it necessary to have freedpeople holding office. There needed to be black representatives in the states, and this caused a massive spike in black people running for and holding all kinds of office, at the local, state, and even federal level. For example, Hirim Revels was the first black Senator in US HIstory and was elected during Radical Reconstruction. This moment of freedpeople in government, above all, made Radical Reconstruction radical.
2. Explain how freedpeople moved in and out of the United States' Universe of Obligation during Reconstruction
Before the Civil War and Reconstruction, the US saw African Americans as property instead of people and they were most definitely not citizens. However, in 1865, the 13th Amendment was ratified. This Amendment ended slavery in the US and made enslaved people freedpeople. This was a jump from outside the Universe of Obligation, into the outermost ring. While in the 4th ring, the Freedmen's Bureau was created. It was an organization established by Congress prior to the end of the Civil War that helped freedpeople transition into society. Black codes, however, made the freedpeople move back a little because they prevented black people from being fully free. The Civil Rights Act of 1866, which ended the black codes by giving freedpeople the same rights as white people. This moved freedpeople inward in the Universe of Obligation as well as the 14th Amendment, which allowed any person born in the US a citizen and gave equal protection under the law to all citizens. They were later brought even further in because of the 15th Amendment, which allowed all men to vote and led to more involvement in the US government. But because Jim Crow laws segregated people by race, freedpeople started moving out. The Plessy vs. Ferguson trial said that "separate but equal" facilities were okay and made the Jim Crow laws spread even more. This moved freedpeople back a ring once again.
When the 13th Amendment was past, freeing enslaved people, freedpeople were probably on the outermost ring of the Universe of Obligations, because they had been enslaved all their lives and weren't even considered citizens. Also, black codes kept them at the bottom of the social order. Once black codes were made illegal by the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th Amendment was passed, black people started t move toward the inner rings. The Freedmen's Bureau helped black people get jobs, get an education, get food, and sometimes reunite with their families. Once the 15th Amendment was passed, lots of freed people voted black people into power, which caused freedpeople to move into the second or even the first ring, although some white Southern Democrats were angry about this because they believed black people belonged at the bottom of the social order. This anger led to groups like the KKK and the White League. Then the Amnesty Act was passed, which meant lots of previous Confederates were elected and put into office. This led to black people being taken out of power. When Reconstruction ended via the Compromise of 1877, money for education was cut from public schools so many shut down or required fees. The kept lots of black children from getting an education. Then literacy tests and poll taxes stopped lots of black people from voting. Last, Jim Crow laws determined to be constitutional due to Plessy vs. Ferguson, which allowed people to think that blacks were not as good or important as whites and split them up through segregation. These three things led freepeople to be pushed all the way out to the outer ring of the universe of Obligation once again.
3. Define the Freemen's Bureau and explain the controversy about it.
The Freedmen's Bureau was an organization put in place after the 13th Amendment, which put an end to slavery. It helped freedpeople find their families, get married, and begin an education. It also helped poor white refugees. Although the Freedmen's Bureau was helping many people begin a new life, there was controversy coming from Southern Democrats that thought black people were inferior. They said that the Freedmen's Bureau was too expensive and wasted taxpayer dollars that hardworking white people worked so hard to earn. They also said that the Bureau was wasting its time trying to help black people when they were a lost cause. To normalize their racism, they would say that black people were too lazy for this progress and the only thing they knew how to do was work on a plantation. Last, they thought that the organization should't do anything for freedpeople because then freedpeople wouldn't know how to do anything on their own and would never be independent.
The Freedmen's Bureau was an institution created to help poor white refugees and African Americans integrate themselves back into society after the Civil War. The Freedmen's Bureau helped by providing health care, giving out food, and helping find houses and jobs. Even though was the Freedmen's Bureau was doing was amazing, it was still costly. Many Southern Americans complained that they didn't want all of their tax money going to the Freedmen's Bureau. Also, many Southerners at this time didn't like the Freedmen's Bureau coming to the South and taking over. They wanted home rule. Last, some Southerners didn't believe that you were supposed to be educating black people. They thought that black people were lazy and should always be manual laborers because, based on the mudsill theory, that's what God put them on Earth to do.
During Radical Reconstruction, after the Civil War, an agency was established by the federal government to help poor white folks and newly freed black people whose homes were destroyed or families were separated. This was called the Freedmen's Bureau. The Freedmen's Bureau built schools and homes, gave medical care and food, and even reunited families separated by the Civil War. The controversy having to do with the Freedmen's Bureau rose when mostly Southern Democrats complained that their tax dollars should not be going to helping people they thought were subordinate and lesser beings. They believed that freepeople were lazy and that they should be working harder, like white people supposedly were, to gain the lifestyle that some white people had; that their government should not have to help them.
1. What was so "radical" about Radical Reconstruction? Use specific examples from class in your answer.Radical Reconstruction, the time period directly following the end of the American Civil War, was called 'radical' for being a sudden and extreme jump in progress for the US. During Radical Reconstruction, the Military Reconstruction Act was passed, putting the South under martial law, keeping former Confederates from voting and requiring the southern states to create completely new and integrated state governments that were loyal to the Union. This particular part of the Military Reconstruction Act made it necessary to have freedpeople holding office. There needed to be black representatives in the states, and this caused a massive spike in black people running for and holding all kinds of office, at the local, state, and even federal level. For example, Hirim Revels was the first black Senator in US HIstory and was elected during Radical Reconstruction. This moment of freedpeople in government, above all, made Radical Reconstruction radical.
2. Explain how freedpeople moved in and out of the United States' Universe of Obligation during Reconstruction
Before the Civil War and Reconstruction, the US saw African Americans as property instead of people and they were most definitely not citizens. However, in 1865, the 13th Amendment was ratified. This Amendment ended slavery in the US and made enslaved people freedpeople. This was a jump from outside the Universe of Obligation, into the outermost ring. While in the 4th ring, the Freedmen's Bureau was created. It was an organization established by Congress prior to the end of the Civil War that helped freedpeople transition into society. Black codes, however, made the freedpeople move back a little because they prevented black people from being fully free. The Civil Rights Act of 1866, which ended the black codes by giving freedpeople the same rights as white people. This moved freedpeople inward in the Universe of Obligation as well as the 14th Amendment, which allowed any person born in the US a citizen and gave equal protection under the law to all citizens. They were later brought even further in because of the 15th Amendment, which allowed all men to vote and led to more involvement in the US government. But because Jim Crow laws segregated people by race, freedpeople started moving out. The Plessy vs. Ferguson trial said that "separate but equal" facilities were okay and made the Jim Crow laws spread even more. This moved freedpeople back a ring once again.
When the 13th Amendment was past, freeing enslaved people, freedpeople were probably on the outermost ring of the Universe of Obligations, because they had been enslaved all their lives and weren't even considered citizens. Also, black codes kept them at the bottom of the social order. Once black codes were made illegal by the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th Amendment was passed, black people started t move toward the inner rings. The Freedmen's Bureau helped black people get jobs, get an education, get food, and sometimes reunite with their families. Once the 15th Amendment was passed, lots of freed people voted black people into power, which caused freedpeople to move into the second or even the first ring, although some white Southern Democrats were angry about this because they believed black people belonged at the bottom of the social order. This anger led to groups like the KKK and the White League. Then the Amnesty Act was passed, which meant lots of previous Confederates were elected and put into office. This led to black people being taken out of power. When Reconstruction ended via the Compromise of 1877, money for education was cut from public schools so many shut down or required fees. The kept lots of black children from getting an education. Then literacy tests and poll taxes stopped lots of black people from voting. Last, Jim Crow laws determined to be constitutional due to Plessy vs. Ferguson, which allowed people to think that blacks were not as good or important as whites and split them up through segregation. These three things led freepeople to be pushed all the way out to the outer ring of the universe of Obligation once again.
3. Define the Freemen's Bureau and explain the controversy about it.
The Freedmen's Bureau was an organization put in place after the 13th Amendment, which put an end to slavery. It helped freedpeople find their families, get married, and begin an education. It also helped poor white refugees. Although the Freedmen's Bureau was helping many people begin a new life, there was controversy coming from Southern Democrats that thought black people were inferior. They said that the Freedmen's Bureau was too expensive and wasted taxpayer dollars that hardworking white people worked so hard to earn. They also said that the Bureau was wasting its time trying to help black people when they were a lost cause. To normalize their racism, they would say that black people were too lazy for this progress and the only thing they knew how to do was work on a plantation. Last, they thought that the organization should't do anything for freedpeople because then freedpeople wouldn't know how to do anything on their own and would never be independent.
The Freedmen's Bureau was an institution created to help poor white refugees and African Americans integrate themselves back into society after the Civil War. The Freedmen's Bureau helped by providing health care, giving out food, and helping find houses and jobs. Even though was the Freedmen's Bureau was doing was amazing, it was still costly. Many Southern Americans complained that they didn't want all of their tax money going to the Freedmen's Bureau. Also, many Southerners at this time didn't like the Freedmen's Bureau coming to the South and taking over. They wanted home rule. Last, some Southerners didn't believe that you were supposed to be educating black people. They thought that black people were lazy and should always be manual laborers because, based on the mudsill theory, that's what God put them on Earth to do.
During Radical Reconstruction, after the Civil War, an agency was established by the federal government to help poor white folks and newly freed black people whose homes were destroyed or families were separated. This was called the Freedmen's Bureau. The Freedmen's Bureau built schools and homes, gave medical care and food, and even reunited families separated by the Civil War. The controversy having to do with the Freedmen's Bureau rose when mostly Southern Democrats complained that their tax dollars should not be going to helping people they thought were subordinate and lesser beings. They believed that freepeople were lazy and that they should be working harder, like white people supposedly were, to gain the lifestyle that some white people had; that their government should not have to help them.