Author: msmith20

In 1865, President Lincoln’s last speech introduced his plan of Reconstruction for the US after the Civil War. Specifically, Lincoln addressed the state of Louisiana, which was the first former Confederate state to agree to the terms of Lincoln’s Reconstruction.

Lincoln was a man focused on reforming the Union and bringing the nation back together. This is reflected in his previous 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, by freeing slaves in Southern states to persuade the Confederate states to rejoin the Union. His efforts to continue the Reconstruction of the Union is reflected in his last speech. Interestingly, rather than addressing specifics of the Reconstruction plan, Lincoln’s speech emphasized that one should simply not acknowledge the previous existence of the Confederacy. Lincoln claimed that rather than acknowledging the prior separation, his plan for Reconstruction would run more smoothly without considering if states were in or out of the Union. This idea is highlighted in his statement, “Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad”(par. 4). Lincoln believed that to fully restore relations between the states it was simply easier to not acknowledge that they were ever separated.

Shortly after his Reconstruction speech, Lincoln was assassinated and was unable to watch his Reconstruction plans unfold, however, his successor, Andrew Johnson, attempted to carry on Lincoln’s Reconstruction plans.  Johnson worked toward continuing the plans for Reconstruction, but under his presidency the creation of ‘black codes’ and black violence and “fear mongering” was extreme in Southern states. Lincoln may have wished that the states would not acknowledge the divide of Confederacy and Union, but the separation was distinct and visible during the Reconstruction era.

In 1865 Abraham Lincoln gave a speech introducing the idea of Reconstruction, after the Civil War. The purpose of Lincoln’s Reconstruction was to smoothly reintegrate former Confederate states back into the Union, creating a formed and “re-united” United States. After Lincoln’s assassination, President Andrew Johnson took over the Reconstruction plan. Under Johnson’s presidency, violence toward free black Americans was prevalent. In this article, Kidada E. Williams addresses the lack of acknowledgement of the violence toward free black individuals that occurred in the Reconstruction era and, as a result, persists today.

Although former slaves were legally free in 1865, they still faced the same acts of violence, experienced in the age of slavery, during the Reconstruction era. During Reconstruction, White Southern conservatives feared that Republicans gaining power in the government would provide blacks with some power and voice in the government. In order to prevent equality between black and whites, conservative white individuals made an effort to establish fear within minority communities. During this era, the Ku Klux Klan, along with other white supremacy groups, played a large roll in establishing fear by killing and terrifying black communities. Psychological and physical trauma persisted through the infamous ‘black codes’, which were Southern state laws restricting basic civil rights from black individuals. During this time period, the Federal government did little to nothing to prevent the violence or civil rights atrocities against black Americans.

Lincoln’s intent for Reconstruction was to bring the Nation back together. Although states may have pledged their loyalty to the Nation and abolished slavery, Southern states continued to restrict black individuals from basic human rights. In present times, there is a lack of acknowledgement for the violence that occurred during this time period. The Reconstruction era was not a peaceful transition from slavery to freedom. Arguably, violence during the Reconstruction led to the violence that persists today. Recognizing and acknowledging the violence that occurred during the Reconstruction era is important to fully understand America’s past.

To many, it would seem unthinkable that one of our nation’s Founding Fathers was in fact a racist. Not only was Thomas Jefferson racist, but he wrote the document Notes on the State of Virginia promoting pseudoscience that claimed blacks were in fact lesser than whites. In his own words Jefferson claimed that these differences were ‘fixed in nature’. Jefferson not only created a distinction between blacks and whites, but he used these ‘differences’ to define race. Race, for Jefferson, was not only the color of one’s skin, but a hierarchical system of those who deserved rights and those who did not.

Jefferson penned this excerpt from Notes on the State of Virginia as an observational piece, similar to how a researcher may reflect on a naturalistic observation. Jefferson stated “It would be unfair to follow them to Africa… We will consider them here” (paragraph 3). In his book, Jefferson stripped away individuality by stereotyping black slaves as a group, while simultaneously dehumanizing black slaves by describing slaves in animalistic terms. Being black in America created the separation between lesser humans versus greater humans (whites). This excerpt from Jefferson’s book is important first, because it demonstrates how he justified slavery through stereotypes derived from pseudoscience. Secondly, because the hierarchical, social construction of race defined in books such as Jefferson’s (1783) can still be viewed today in current stereotypes of minority groups.