Civil Rights Movement(s)
1940s-1970s
African American Civil Rights
Context
• Jim Crow
• Segregation: de jure and de facto
• Disenfranchisement
Strategies
• Strategies: after WWII
• Legal
• Grassroots
• Legal/NAACP—
• Challenge constitutionality of legal
Legal
Strategies
segregation (Plessy v. Ferguson)
• Education: Oliver Brown vs. Board
of Education of Topeka, Kansas,
1954
Little
Rock, 1957
• Rosa Parks and the Montgomery
Bus Boycott, 1955
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
Grassroots
Strategies
• CORE/Freedom Rides, 1961
• Birmingham, 1963
• March on Washington, 1963
Rosa
Parks,
1955
Freedom
Rides,
1961
Freedom
Riders
Attacked,
Alabama,
1961
Birmingham,
1963
Birmingham,
1963
March on
Washington,
1963
March on Washington, 1963
March on Washington, 1963
Civil Rights Act, 1964
Voting Rights Act, 1965
Results
End of legalized segregation,
right to vote reinstated
Racial liberalism
Unfinished Work
• Continuing economic inequality
• Recall our discussion of race, housing, and wealth
• Continuing institutionalized racism
• We can see two glaring examples right now—police brutality and the
criminal justice system-–to name just two
• National myth of racism being “solved”
• Perpetuated by many in power and those with the privilege of whiteness,
that the Civil Rights movement solved the issue of racism in America and
created a “level playing field.”
• As historians we know this is simply not true
• Racism and racial privilege and oppression continue in many overt and
covert ways
Tweet,
2020
Backlash
Civil Rights Movements
• Women’s Movement
• Chicano/Latino Movement
• Native American Movement
• Asian American Movement
• LBGTQ Movement
• Student and Anti-War Movement
Chapter 12 Readings
•
•
Primary
•
2: Federal Government Calls Segregation an International Embarrassment
•
4: Supreme Court Rules that Segregation Causes Psychological Harm
•
6: Nation Horrified by Birmingham Church Bombing
•
10: Chicanas Assert a “Revolution Within a Revolution”
Secondary
•
Mackenzie and Weisbrot—Lyndon Baines Johnson and other white liberals used the top-down tools of their
government positions and of government power to push for enacting strong civil rights legislation.
•
MacLean—using provisions within federal law, women and women of color pushed for greater change based
on both race and sex. Even as ordinary people, they used windows of opportunity to make laws work for
them and to expand their personal and collective rights.
• “Family wage”—legal concept prior to civil rights that women did not need to be ensured good wages, job
security, or job advancement because they could depend on the incomes of their husbands.
• EEOC—Equal Opportunity Employment Commission was the federal agency tasked with enforcing civil rights
legislation—make sure states, employers, etc. complied with race and gender equality provisions.
• NOW—National Organization of Women; feminist organization founded to advance the rights of women,
particularly in areas of legal equality.
East LA
Walkouts
Analysis Paper #1
During the late 1800s America became a major attraction for immigrants who came to
America in hopes of prosperity, but many were dismayed to find that stories of success were not
as attainable as they believed. Although immigrants came from a vast amount of countries, many
faced the same struggles of feeling insecure, unwanted, harassed, and homesick. The documents
from a Chinese immigrant in America and from a Slovenian boy in his home country depict the
differences in the reality of life of immigrants in America and the perceived notion of success
and wealth. The essays “Coming and Going: Round- Trip America” by Mark Wyman and
“Permanently Lost: The Trauma of Immigration” by Victor Greene reiterate the struggles of
financial need that pulled immigrants to America and the despair that persuaded them to accept
the life in America that often destroyed their spirits and fooled others into migrating.
In the document by the Chinese immigrant worker Lee Chew he speaks on the unjust
treatment of Chinese immigrants who were constantly discriminated against as they attempted to
pursue their dreams of obtaining wealth. Lee recounts how as a child seeing success from those
who returned from America encouraged him to pursue the American dream just like people from
all over the world were being encouraged to do the same. To Lee and every foreigner to the US
that was filled with hope the American Dream was, “… to go to the country of the wizards and
gain some of their wealth…” (Chew 72). Those dreams quickly vanished when as a man Lee
experienced firsthand the brutal treatment of Chinese Immigrants in America. Through this
treatment Lee grew to feel resentment towards men of other races which created bias in the
recounting of his story where he interpreted Chinese men as being defenseless. In the document
Chew states, “… China is not a fighting nation..” (Chew 73), which further proved that Lee was
biased because he made the Chinese seem as mere victims which was not always the case. It also
serves to demonstrate that immigrants of different races were not united instead more chaos
erupted during this time because of the growing tensions within the immigrant communities.
This document demonstrates the hidden truth behind the deceit filled lies that were told to
hopeful immigrants upon beginning their journey to America.
A document written by a Slovenian boy best demonstrates the illusions that many people
were given by in the incredible success stories of immigrants in America, the success that very
few were able to obtain and everyone yearned for. In the document the boy states, “In America
everything was possible” (81), he like many others idolized the idea of going to America where
they could shake the hands of the president and be treated as citizens. This demonstrates that the
young boy was biased when it came to the topic of wealth in America because he had only heard
success stories, therefore he like many others did not realize the prejudice that immigrants faced.
This document which was written in 1909 came at a time where immigrants were wanted in
America to fill unskilled workers positions and these success stories caused a rush of immigrants
to immigrants to enter America.
When Immigrants rushed to America they soon realized that their new life was not as
they had intended it to be. In Victor Greene’s essay “Permanently Lost: The Trauma Of
Immigration” he talks about the different situations immigrants faced in America and how they
found a way to cope with these situations through music. Out of all the different nationalities he
spoke of the Chinese seemed to have the hardest time in America since they were, “… the first
immigrant group to suffer legally racial discrimination and prejudice…” (Greene 100). This
relates to the article written by Lee Chew where he recounts his experiences in America of being
victimized by others in America. Of course, this racial discrimination was kept hidden from the
ears of hopeful immigrants in order to not discourage them from making their journey. Another
important essay that distinguished immigrant life in America and the portrayal of America to
other countries is Mark Wyman’s essay “Coming and Going: Round-Trip to America”. In his
essay Wyman talks about how he believed that immigrants were accepting of their living and
working conditions because migrating for work was nothing out of the ordinary. Wyman
acknowledges that agents attempted to draw immigrants to America,” …pamphlets from
American railroads and state immigration bureaus bombarded the would-be immigrant with
statistics to support the agents’ claims” (Wyman 87). This demonstrates the tactics used on
immigrants which relates to the document written by the Slovenian boy because seeing the
wealth of the men who returned to their country was also another deceiving tactic used. The
essay further relates to Chew’s document because Chew was also an immigrant drawn to
America by the wealth of the men who returned to his land. Although both documents prove how
immigrants were drawn to America neither provides support for Wyman’s argument on how
immigrants knew and accepted their lifestyle in America.
Each document and essay is significant in retelling the truth about immigrant’s journey
and lives in America. The documents prove how immigrants were mislead into coming to
America and how many managed to overcome the discrimination and daily challenges they faced
in order to obtain money and return to the homeland. Lies and deceit brought people to a country
that seemed prosperous but in reality discrimination and prejudice along with horrible living and
working conditions is what awaited hopeful immigrants.
MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY SERIES
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Hurtado/Iverson, Major Problems in American Indian History, 3rd ed., 2015
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Continued on inside back cover
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Major Problems in
American History
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MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY SERIES
GENERAL EDITOR
THOMAS G. PATERSON
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Major Problems in
American History
Volume II: Since 1865
Documents and Essays
FOURTH EDITION
EDITED BY
ELIZABETH COBBS
Texas A&M University
EDWARD J. BLUM
San Diego State University
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Contents
P RE F A C E
xvii i
AB OUT T HE AUTHORS
xx
I N T R O D U C T I O N : H O W T O R E A D P R I M A R Y AN D
S E C O N D A R Y SO U R C E S
Chapter 1
xxi
Reconstruction
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
DOCUMENTS
1
2
3
1. William Howard Day, an African American Minister, Salutes
the Nation and a Monument to Abraham Lincoln, 1865 3
2. A Southern Songwriter Opposes Reconstruction, c. 1860s 5
3. Louisiana Black Codes Reinstate Provisions of the Slave Era,
1865 6
4. Congressman Thaddeus Stevens Demands a Radical
Reconstruction, 1867 7
5. Thomas Nast Depicts Contrasting Views
of Reconstruction 1866, 1869 9
6. Elizabeth Cady Stanton Questions Abolitionist
Support for Female Enfranchisement, 1868 10
7. Charlotte Forten Reflects on Teaching Among Southern
African Americans, 1863 11
8. Lucy McMillan, a Former Slave in South Carolina,
Testifies About White Violence, 1871 13
9. Francis Miles Finch Mourns and Celebrates Civil War Soldiers
from the South and North, 1867 14
vi
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vii
CONTENTS
ESSAYS
16
Douglas A. Blackmon Slavery by Another Name: The
Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War
to World War II 16
Edward J. Blum Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion,
and American Nationalism, 1865–1898 21
FURTHER READING
Chapter 2
30
Western Settlement and the Frontier
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
DOCUMENTS
32
33
33
1. Irish Vocalist Sings of Slaying the Mormon “King,” c. 1865
2. María Amparo Ruíz de Burton and Mariano Guadalupe
Vallejo Contemplate Marriage Between Mexicans and
Yankees, 1867 35
34
3. Katie Bighead (Cheyenne) Remembers Custer and the Battle
of Little Big Horn, 1876 35
4. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Recommends Severalty and
Discusses Custer, 1876 37
5. Chief Joseph (Nez Percé) Surrenders, 1877 39
6. Chinese Immigrants Complain to Their Consulate, 1885
39
7. Historian Frederick Jackson Turner Articulates His “Frontier
Thesis,” 1893 41
8. An Ex-Slave Recalls Migrating Across the Prairie, 1936
ESSAYS
42
44
Patricia Nelson Limerick The Frontier as a Place of Ethnic and
Religious Conflict 44
Maria Montoya The Frontier as a Place of Global Competition
and Gender Redefinition 53
FURTHER READING
Chapter 3
61
Industrialization, Workers, and the New
Immigration 63
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
DOCUMENTS
64
64
1. Chinese Immigrant Lee Chew Denounces Prejudice in
America, 1882 65
2. The Wasp Denounces “The Curse of California,”
The Railroad Monopoly, 1882 67
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viii
CONTENTS
3. Poet Emma Lazarus Praises the New Colossus, 1883
67
4. Immigrant Thomas O’Donnell Laments the Worker’s
Plight, 1883 68
5. Unionist Samuel Gompers Asks, “What Does the Working
Man Want?” 1890 71
6. Jurgis Rudkus Discovers Drink in The Jungle, 1905 72
7. Chinese Excluded from Guatemala Ask for Help of the United
States, 1907 74
8. A Slovenian Boy Remembers Tales of the Golden Country,
1909 76
9. A Polish Immigrant Remembers Her Father Got the Best Food,
1920 77
ESSAYS
78
Richard White Creating the System: Railroads and the Modern
Corporation 79
Erika Lee Challenging the System: Chinese Evade the Exclusion
Laws 86
FURTHER READING
Chapter 4
94
Imperialism and World Power
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
96
97
97
1. Singer Sells Sewing Machines to “Modern” Zulus, 1892
DOCUMENTS
98
2. Singer Sells American Notions of Progress for Women,
1897 99
3. President William McKinley Asks for War to Liberate Cuba,
1898 100
4. Governor Theodore Roosevelt Praises the Manly Virtues of
Foreign Intervention, 1899 101
5. Filipino Leader Emilio Aguinaldo Rallies His People to Arms,
1899 102
6. The American Anti-Imperialist League Denounces U.S. Policy,
1899 103
7. Secretary of State William Hay Advocates an Open Door in
China, 1899 & 1900 104
8. A Soldier Criticizes American Racism in the Philippines,
1902 105
9. Congress Steers the Philippines Towards Autonomy,
1916 105
ESSAYS
106
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ix
CONTENTS
Paul A. Kramer Racial Imperialism: America’s Takeover of the
Philippines 107
Mona Domosh The Empire of Commodities: Russian Resistance
to American Economic Expansion 116
FURTHER READING
Chapter 5
123
The Progressive Movement
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
125
126
126
1. W. C. T. U. Blasts Drinking and Smoking, and Demands
Power to Protect, 1883 127
2. Utopian Edward Bellamy Scorns the Callousness of the Rich,
1888 128
DOCUMENTS
3. Black Educator Booker T. Washington Advocates Compromise
and Self-Reliance, 1901 129
4. NAACP Founder W. E. B. DuBois Denounces Compromise
on Negro Education and Civil Rights, 1903 132
5. Journalist Lincoln Steffens Exposes the Shame of Corruption,
1904 133
6. Reformer Frederic Howe Compares America and Germany,
1911 134
7. Sociologist William Graham Sumner Denounces Reformers’
Fanaticism, 1913 136
8. English Suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst Recalls American Role
Models, 1914 137
9. Cartoon Contrasts Virtuous Women’s Suffrage with Corrupt
Boss Rule, 1915 138
ESSAYS
139
Michael MCGerr Class, Gender, and Race at Home: The
American Birthplace of Progressivism 139
Daniel T. Rodgers American Progressivism in the Wider Atlantic
World 147
FURTHER READING
Chapter 6
155
World War I and the League of Nations
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
DOCUMENTS
156
157
157
1. Nobel Prize Winner Bertha Von Suttner Calls for Collective
Security, 1905 158
2. President Woodrow Wilson Asks Congress to Declare War,
1917 159
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x
CONTENTS
3. Senator Robert M. La Follette Passionately Dissents, 1917
161
4. A Union Organizer Testifies to Vigilante Attack, 1917 162
5. Wilson Proposes a New World Order in the “Fourteen Points,”
1918 163
6. An Ambulance Surgeon Describes What It Was Like “Over
There,” 1918 165
7. Egyptian Leaders Cheer On Woodrow Wilson, 1919 166
8. A Negro Leader Explains Why Colored Men Fought for
America, 1919 167
9. Cartoonists Depict Congressional Opposition to the League of
Nations, 1920 168
169
Jan Schulte-Nordhult Woodrow Wilson: Out-of-Touch
Dreamer 170
ESSAYS
Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman Woodrow Wilson: Man of His
Times 178
FURTHER READING
Chapter 7
186
Crossing a Cultural Divide: The Twenties
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
DOCUMENTS
187
188
188
1. The Governor of California Tells of the “Japanese Problem,”
1920 189
2. Radio Broadcast: “Modern Church Is No Bridge to
Heaven,” 1923 190
3. Defense Attorney Clarence Darrow Interrogates Prosecutor
William Jennings Bryan in the Monkey Trial, 1925 192
4. Arizonian Elías Sepulveda Feels Caught Between Worlds,
1926–1927 193
5. Margaret Sanger Seeks Pity for Teenage Mothers and Abstinent
Couples, 1928 195
6. The Automobile Comes to Middletown, U.S.A., 1929
7. Young Women Discuss Petting, 1930
ESSAYS
197
198
199
Paula S. Fass Sex and Youth in the Jazz Age 200
Edward J. Larson Fundamentalists Battle Modernism in the
Roaring Twenties 209
FURTHER READING
219
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xi
CONTENTS
Chapter 8
The Depression, the New Deal, and Franklin
D. Roosevelt 220
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
221
221
1. President Herbert Hoover Applauds Limited Government,
1931 222
DOCUMENTS
2. The Nation Asks, “Is It to Be Murder, Mr. Hoover?” 1932 223
3. Communist Party Leader Prophesizes a Soviet America,
1932 225
4. President Franklin D. Roosevelt Says Government Must Act,
1933 227
5. W. P. Kiplinger Tells “Why Businessmen Fear Washington,”
1934 228
6. California Evangelist Louis Bauman Warns of the Antichrist,
1937 230
7. Social Security Advisers Consider Male and Female Pensioners,
1938 231
8. John Steinbeck Portrays the Outcast Poor in The Grapes of
Wrath, 1939 232
234
David M. Kennedy FDR: Advocate for the American People
ESSAYS
Matthew Avery Sutton FDR: The Anti-Christ
FURTHER READING
Chapter 9
235
244
253
The Ordeal of World War II
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
255
256
256
1. American Missionaries Speak Out About the Rape of Nanking,
1937 257
2. Nurses Rush to Aid the Wounded on the U.S. Naval Base in
Hawaii, 1941 258
DOCUMENTS
3. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill Reacts to Pearl
Harbor, 1941 259
4. Roosevelt Identifies the “Four Freedoms” at Stake in the War,
1941 261
5. Canadian-Japanese Mother Writes About Her Coming
Internment, 1942 263
6. Office of War Information Shows What GIs Are Fighting for:
“Freedom from Want,” 1943 264
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xii
CONTENTS
7. An African American Soldier Notes the “Strange Paradox” of
the War, 1944 265
8. A Gunner Fears His Luck Is Running Out, 1944 266
9. Senator Lyndon Johnson Defends a Mexican American Killed
in Action, 1949 268
ESSAYS
269
Ira Katznelson Fighting Fear—and for Civilization Itself
John Morton Blum G.I. Joe: Fighting for Home 276
FURTHER READING
Chapter 10
269
284
The Global Cold War and the Nuclear Age
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
DOCUMENTS
285
286
286
1. French Leader Charles de Gaulle Warns the United States,
1945 287
2. Independence Leader Ho Chi Minh Pleads with Harry Truman
for Support, 1946 288
3. Diplomat George F. Kennan’s Telegram Advocates
Containment, 1946 289
4. Secretary of Commerce Henry A. Wallace Questions the
“Get Tough” Policy, 1946 290
5. Sir Winston Churchill Warns of an Iron Curtain, 1946 292
6. The Truman Doctrine Calls for the United States to Become
the World’s Police, 1947 293
7. Americans Struggle to Make Sense of Nuclear Destruction:
Atomic Cake vs. Godzilla, 1948 and 1954 294
8. Senator Joseph McCarthy Describes the Internal Communist
Menace, 1950 295
9. New York Times Expresses Horror at Soviet Tanks in
Budapest, 1956 296
ESSAYS
297
Walter Lafeber Truman’s Hard Line Prompted the Cold War 298
Mark Atwood Lawrence Cold War Vietnam: A Mistake of the
Western Alliance 306
FURTHER READING
Chapter 11
319
The Postwar “Boom”: Affluence and
Anxiety 320
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
321
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xiii
CONTENTS
DOCUMENTS
321
1. New Yorker Cartoon Contrasts the Perfect Life with the
Cold War, 1947 322
2. Senator Kenneth Wherry Pledges to Expel Homosexual
“Security Risks,” 1950 323
3. Senate Committee Investigates the Harms of Comic Books,
1954 324
4. Good Housekeeping: Every Executive Needs a Perfect Wife,
1956 326
5. Harlem Disc Jockey Counters Racist Opposition to Rock ’n’
Roll, 1956 327
6. Egyptian Youth Rock Out, 1957
327
7. Life Magazine Identifies the New Teenage Market, 1959 328
8. Newspaper Survey: Are You a Conformist or a Rebel?,
1959 329
9. Feminist Betty Friedan Describes the Problem That Has No
Name, 1963 330
ESSAYS
332
Elaine Tyler May Men and Women: Life in the Nuclear
Cocoon 332
Glen Altschuler Children: “All Shook Up” 340
FURTHER READING
Chapter 12
347
“We Can Do Better”: The Civil Rights
Revolution 348
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
349
DOCUMENTS
349
1. The United Nations Approves a Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, 1948 350
2. Federal Government Calls Segregation an International
Embarrassment, 1952 351
3. French Caribbean Psychiatrist Frantz Fanon Writes of “Black
Skin, White Masks,” 1952 353
4. The Supreme Court Rules That Segregation Causes
Psychological Harm in Brown v. Board, 1954 355
5. Southern Congressmen Protest Supreme Court Decision,
1956 356
6. Nation Horrified by Birmingham Church Bombing, 1963
7. ACLU Lawyer Philip Hirschkop Argues for Freedom of
Marriage, Loving vs. Virginia, 1967 358
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357
xiv
CONTENTS
8. Indians Offer $24 in Trade Beads for Alcatraz Island, 1969
360
9. Federal Court Defends Rights of the Disabled, 1971 361
10. Chicanas Assert a “Revolution Within a Revolution,”
1972 362
363
G. Gavin Mackenzie and Robert Weisbrot The Liberal Hour: Top
Down Determination 364
Nancy MacLean Doing the Job of Change from the Bottom
Up 369
ESSAYS
FURTHER READING
Chapter 13
376
The Sixties and Vietnam
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
378
379
379
1. A South Vietnamese Farmer Explains Why He Joined the
Liberation Movement, 1961 (1986) 380
DOCUMENTS
2. Students for a Democratic Society Advance a Reform Agenda,
1962 381
3. California Governor Ronald Reagan Warns of a Welfare State,
1964 382
4. Undersecretary of State George Ball Urges Withdrawal from
Vietnam, 1965 383
5. Draftee Sebastian A. Ilacqua Recalls Coming Back to
“The World,” 1967 (1995) 385
6. Poster: Folk Singer Joan Baez and Her Sisters Say Yes to Men
Who Say No, 1968 387
7. Rock Band “Country Joe and The Fish” Lampoons Middle
Class Values and the Vietnam War, 1968 387
8. Yippies Face Down the House UnAmerican Activities
Committee, 1968 388
9. Vice President Spiro Agnew Warns of the Threat to America,
1969 389
10. Carl Wittman Issues a Gay Manifesto, 1969–1970
ESSAYS
390
391
Kenneth Cmiel Sixties Liberalism and the Revolution in
Manners 391
Frederik Logevall Johnson’s War: Flawed Decisions, Terrible
Consequences 399
FURTHER READING
407
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CONTENTS
Chapter 14
The Emergence of the New Right
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
DOCUMENTS
xv
408
409
409
1. Country Singer Merle Haggard Is Proud To Be An “Okie
From Muskogee,” 1969 410
2. Senate Airs Dirtiest Secrets of Cold War, 1975
411
3. Republican Activist Phyllis Schlafly Scorns Feminism,
1977 413
4. Californians Lead Tax Revolt, 1978 414
5. Reverend Jerry Falwell Summons America Back to the Bible,
1980 415
6. President Ronald Reagan Defines the Cold War in Religious
Terms, 1983 417
7. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Applauds American
Policy, 1985 419
8. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop Argues for Extending
American Values to AIDS Victims, 1987 421
9. Sierra Club Attacks Reagan and Calls for “Reconstruction,”
1988 423
ESSAYS
424
H.W. Brands Liberalism: A Passing Phenomenon
424
Paul Boyer Evangelical Conservatism: A New
Phenomenon 432
FURTHER READING
Chapter 15
444
End of the Cold War and Rise of Terrorism
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
DOCUMENTS
445
446
446
1. Mikhail Gorbachev Declares Peace, and Unilateral Arms
Reductions, at the UN, 1988 447
2. President George H. W. Bush Pronounces the Cold War Over,
1990 448
3. Osama Bin Laden Declares Jihad Against America, 1998 449
4. Two Workers Flee the Inferno in the Twin Towers,
2001 450
5. President George W. Bush Articulates a New Defense
Strategy, 2002 453
6. ACLU Warns Against the “Patriot Act,” 2002 454
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xvi
CONTENTS
7. Senator Robert Byrd Condemns Post-9/11 Foreign Policy,
2003 455
8. Democratic and Republican Senators Urge President Obama to
Bring Troops Home, 2011 456
ESSAYS
457
Norman Graebner, Richard Dean Burns, and Joseph Siracusa RussianAmerican Cooperation Ended the Cold War 458
Geir Lundestad The Illusion of Omnipotence in a Complex
World 465
FURTHER READING
Chapter 16
473
Globalization and the Economic Challenge
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
474
475
475
1. A Unionist Blasts the Export of Jobs, 1987
DOCUMENTS
475
2. President Bill Clinton Calls for Reinvestment in America,
1993 476
3. Activists Demand “No Globalization Without Representation,”
1999 477
4. Latino Immigrants Create Multinational Soccer League in
St. Louis, 2008 478
5. The Great Recession Has Men Grinding Their Teeth,
2010 479
6. Pope Francis Denounces Trickle-Down Economics,
2013 480
7. President Barack Obama Calls Attention to Growing Inequality,
2013 481
8. Economist Robert Samuelson Blogs That Income Gap Is
Exaggerated, 2014 483
9. Tiger Mother Challenges Americans to Become More Chinese,
2011 484
ESSAYS
485
Walter Lafeber Michael Jordan and the New Capitalism: America
on Top of Its Game 486
Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum Globalization:
America Needs to Rethink Its Game 491
FURTHER READING
503
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Preface
History is a matter of interpretation. Individual scholars rescue particular stories
from the hubbub of human experience, analyze patterns, and offer arguments
about how these events reflected or reshaped human society at a given moment.
This means that other historians might select different stories, perceive different
patterns, and arrive at contrasting interpretations of the same time period or even
the same event. All scholars use evidence, but the choice and interpretation of
evidence are to some extent an expression of professional judgment. History is
not separate from historians.
The goal of Major Problems in American History is to place meat on this barebones description of how the study of the past “works.” Like most instructors,
we want students to learn and remember important facts, yet we also want to
make clear that historians sometimes disagree on what is important. And, even
when historians agree on which facts are noteworthy, they may disagree on what
a certain piece of evidence signifies. For example, scholars agree fifty-six men
signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, but they debate why these
colonists felt compelled to take that dramatic step—and others did not.
The two volumes that comprise this book bring together primary documents and secondary sources on the major debates in American history. The primary sources give students evidence to work with. They represent a mix of the
familiar and unfamiliar. Certain documents are a must in any compilation for a
survey course because they had a powerful, widely noted impact on American
history, such as Tom Paine’s Common Sense (1776) or President Roosevelt’s first
inaugural address (1933). We have also selected pieces that evoke the personal
experiences of individuals, such as letters, sermons, speeches, political cartoons,
poems, and memoirs. There are accounts from European explorers, pioneer
women on the frontier, immigrant workers, soldiers, eyewitnesses to the terrors
of World War I, and children in rebellion against their parents during the 1960s.
These documents often show conflicting points of view, from the “bottom up,”
the “top down,” and various layers in the middle.
xvii
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xviii
PREFACE
The secondary sources in these volumes fulfill a different goal. They expose
students to basic historical debates about each broad period. Sometimes we focus
on classic debates, combining very recent essays with seasoned pieces by eminent
historians who set the terms of discussion for an entire generation or more.
Other times we have selected essays that do not disagree openly—but show
that young scholars are sometimes of different minds about the most revealing
approach to a subject.
Our purpose is to make contrasts as clear as possible for students who are just
learning to distinguish interpretation from fact and to discern argument within
description. In addition, the essays often make direct reference to the primary
documents. This allows students to examine how the historian uses primary
documents—fairly, or not. The students, therefore, can debate the use of sources
and the differing historical conclusions to which they may lead.
Volume II, prepared by Elizabeth Cobbs in collaboration with Edward J.
Blum, begins with Reconstruction and ends in the second decade of the
twenty-first century. This volume examines some of the catastrophic and transformative events of the century, such as World Wars I and II. It looks as well at
the enduring themes of U.S. history, including the periodic waves of reform that
have defined the nation since its inception and the impact of changing technologies on workers, families, and industries. The transformation of gender expectations and race relations are highlighted throughout the volume.
This book follows the same general format as other volumes in the Major
Problems in American History series. Each chapter begins with a short introduction
that orients the student. After this, we include a section called “Questions to
Think About” to help students focus their reading of the subsequent material.
Next come seven to ten primary documents, followed by two essays that highlight contrasting interpretations.
Headnotes at the start of the documents and essays help readers identify key
themes and debates. These headnotes show how documents relate to each other
and how the essays differ in perspective. Each chapter concludes with a brief
“Further Reading” section to tempt readers into further research. In addition,
at the start of the volume, we give suggestions on how to read sources and critically analyze their content, points of view, and implications. This introduction
encourages students to draw their own conclusions and use evidence to back
them up.
New to the Fourth Edition
The fourth edition makes several changes to previous editions. We have retained
many documents and essays that reviewers told us worked well in their survey
courses, but each chapter has also been updated to reflect the latest scholarship
and replace excerpts that instructors found difficult to use. Recognizing that
America’s story is getting longer with time (and some instructors minimize attention to Reconstruction in the second half of the survey course), Chapters 15 and
16 now bring American history up through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
and the Great Recession that began in 2008. Heeding advice from professors
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xix
PREFACE
around the nation, the fourth edition incorporates more voices of everyday folk.
Lastly, in the biggest change, we have included at least one document in every
chapter that reflects globalization: the ways that the experiences of people in
other parts of the world affected or paralleled those of Americans. Documents
and essays in the fourth edition highlight the connections between domestic
and world trends, consistent with recent initiatives in our profession to internationalize U.S. history.
All content is also available in MindTap, Cengage Learning’s fully online,
highly personalized learning experience. In MindTap, students will practice critical thinking skills relevant to each primary and secondary source in every chapter. Learn more at www.cengage.com.
Acknowledgments
Many friends and colleagues have contributed to these volumes. In the fourth edition we particularly wish to thank John Putman and Andrew Wiese from San
Diego State University; Brian Balogh of the University of Virginia; Drew Cayton
at Miami University of Ohio; Mona Domosh of Dartmouth University; Rebecca
Goetz of Rice University; Paul Harvey of the University of Colorado, Colorado
Springs; Eric Hinderaker at University of Utah; Anthony Kaye of Penn State University; Bruce Levine of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Phil
Morgan of Johns Hopkins; Maria Montoya of Princeton University; Bruce Schulman of Boston University; Jason Scott Smith of the University of New Mexico;
James Stewart of Macalester College; and Matthew Avery Sutton of Washington
State University. We also wish to thank our students. They inspire and teach us.
For this edition, we received detailed and extremely helpful outside reviews
from Marc Abrams, Penn State University; Robert Bionaz, Chicago State University; David Brodnax, Trinity Christian College; Cara Converse, Moorpark
College; Todd Estes, Oakland University; Peter Kuryla, Belmont University;
Bernard Maegi, Normandale Community College; Todd Michney, Tulane University; Stephen Rockenbach, Virginia State University; and Robert Schultz,
Illinois Wesleyan University. Thomas G. Paterson, the editor of the Major Problems series, provided sound advice. We are obliged to our editor at Cengage
Learning, Alison Levy, for her kind encouragement, insightful recommendations,
and help in a pinch.
The life of the mind is exceptionally fulfilling, but it is happiest when set
within the life of the family. We wish to express our deep gratitude to our families, especially our children, to whom this book is dedicated.
E. C.
E. J. B.
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About the Authors
Elizabeth Cobbs, Professor and Melbern G. Glasscock Chair in
American History at Texas A&M University, has won literary
prizes for both history and fiction. Her books include American
Umpire (2013), Broken Promises: A Novel of the Civil War (2011),
All You Need Is Love: The Peace Corps and the 1960s (2000), and
The Rich Neighbor Policy (1992). She has served on the jury for
the Pulitzer Prize in History and on the Historical Advisory Committee of the U.S. State Department. She has received awards and fellowships
from the Fulbright Commission, Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars, Organization of American States, and other distinguished institutions.
She presently holds a Research Fellowship at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace. Her essays have appeared in the New
York Times, Jerusalem Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, China Daily News,
Washington Independent, San Diego Union, and Reuters. Her current projects include a history of women soldiers in World War I and a novel on the life of
Alexander Hamilton.
Edward J. Blum is professor of history at the San Diego State
University. A scholar of religion and race, he is the co-author of The
Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America (2012)
and the author of W. E. B. Du Bois, American Prophet (2007) and
Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism,
1865–1898 (2005). An award-winning author and teacher, Blum is
currently at work on a project that explores issues of radical evil
during the era of the Civil War.
xx
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Introduction: How to Read
Primary and Secondary Sources
College study encompasses a number of subjects. Some disciplines, such as mathematics, are aimed at establishing indisputable proofs. Students learn methods to
discover the path to a single correct answer. History is different. Unlike math, it
is focused much more on interpretation.
Historians study and analyze sources to construct arguments about the past.
They generally understand there is no “right” answer, even if some arguments
are more reasonable than others. They search less for absolute truth than for understanding. A historical imagination is useful in creating these interpretations.
People in the past thought and acted differently from how we do today. Their
views of science, religion, and the roles of women and men—to cite only a few
examples—were not the same as our views. When historians create an argument
about the past, they must imagine and investigate a world unlike the one we
now inhabit. They must use empathy and suspend judgment to develop
knowledge.
The problems in U.S. history on which this text focuses, then, are different
from math problems. They are a series of issues in the American past that might
be addressed, discussed, and debated, but not necessarily solved. This text provides readers with two tools to grapple with these problems: primary and secondary sources. A primary source is a piece of evidence that has survived from
the period. Primary sources may include pictures, artifacts, music, and written
texts. They have survived in a number of ways. Archaeologists uncover shards
of pottery and other interesting trash when digging up lost civilizations; ethnologists transcribe campfire stories; and economists numerically measure past behavior. Historians, however, generally scrutinize surviving written sources. This
volume by and large uses written texts, from political tracts to private letters to
cartoons. Some of the documents are transcriptions, that is, texts written by
someone who noted what another person said. Sometimes the texts are memoirs,
xxi
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xxii
INTRODUCTION
in which a person recounts an event they personally experienced long before.
On these occasions, you will see two dates: one that tells the year of the events
and a second in parentheses that tells the year in which the memoir was written.
Historians treat primary sources with caution. First of all, we consider whether
a source is really from the period under consideration. You might occasionally
read stories in the newspaper about paintings that had been attributed to famous
artists but were later discovered to be frauds by an unknown copyist. When the
fraud is discovered, the painting’s value plummets. The same is true of a primary
source. A letter alleged to have been written by George Washington clearly could
not reveal his innermost thoughts if it was forged in 1910. But we should also be
aware of the opposite: not all pieces of evidence have survived to the present. And
there may be inherent bias in one point of view surviving and another being lost.
The experiences of slaveholders, for example, were more commonly written and
published than those of slaves. Because slaves (and others, such as Native Americans) were rarely given the opportunity to publish their thoughts, they have bequeathed fewer written sources, many as transcriptions. As essential as transcriptions
are in reconstructing the past, we must be critical of them, too. Did the people
writing down the spoken words accurately set them to paper or did they edit
them and inject their own thoughts? In the case of memoirs, how much might
current events affect memories of the past?
Once we consider the validity of sources and understand that some were
more likely to survive than others, another reason to critique sources is that
they are not necessarily “objective” portrayals of the past. By nature, they are
points of view. Like anyone in a society, the writer of each primary source provides us with his or her viewpoint. It gives us a window through which to view
the world, complete with the blind spots of the author.
When we read about the American Revolution, for example, we will see
many different perspectives on the events leading up to the Declaration of Independence. Those who opposed independence saw events very differently from
those who supported the movement. We have often read about advocates of
independence who saw the British government as a threat to American freedom.
They believed the thirteen colonies would be better off as one independent nation. Americans for generations have viewed this as a truly heroic episode. But
others at the time did not think that independence was the correct course. A
substantial minority opposed independence because they felt more secure in the
British Empire. Countless members of Indian nations were suspicious of the intentions of the American “patriots” and remained loyal to the king. African
American slaves were often leery of the aims of their patriot owners. The fact
that people had different viewpoints allows us to grapple with multiple perspectives on the past.
When you are reading the documents in this volume, we urge you to look
at each one critically. We are certain that these are valid sources, not forgeries, so
your job is to ponder the implications of each document. Consider both the
document and its author. Who wrote or spoke the words in the document?
What was his or her reason for expressing those thoughts? Given the various
authors’ background and motivations, what were their perspectives and potential
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INTRODUCTION
xxiii
biases? How did they see the world differently from the way others did? And,
why do you think these different perspectives existed? Whose viewpoint do
you agree with most? Why?
It is not too much to say that the student of history is like a detective who
seeks clues to reveal the lives and events of the past.
In addition to primary sources, each chapter in this volume contains two
essays that represent what we call a secondary source. A secondary source is so
named because it is one step removed from the primary source. Secondary
sources are the work of historians who have conducted painstaking research in
primary documents. These essays represent some of their findings about the past.
You will notice that the writers do not necessarily reach similar conclusions as
one another. On the contrary, they illustrate differing opinions about which
events were important, why they occurred, and how they affect us today.
Hence secondary sources, like primary sources, do not provide us with uncontestable “truth” even when based on verifiable facts. Rather, historians’ conclusions vary just as your ideas about the documents might differ from those of
someone else in your class. And they differ for a number of reasons. First, interpretations are influenced by the sources on which they depend. Occasionally, a
historian might uncover a cache of primary sources heretofore unknown to other
scholars, and these new sources might shed new light on a topic. Here again
historians operate like detectives.
Second and more important, however, historians carry their own perspectives to the research. As they read secondary sources, analyze primary texts, and
imagine the past, historians may develop arguments that differ in emphasis from
those developed by others. As they combine their analyses with their own perspectives, they create an argument to explain the past. Personal point of view and
even society’s dominant point of view may influence their thinking. If analyzing
sources resembles working as a detective, writing history is similar to being a
judge who attempts to construct the most consistent argument from the sources
and information at hand. And historians can be sure that those who oppose their
viewpoints will analyze their use of sources and the logic of their argument.
Those who disagree with them—and that might include you—will criticize
them if they make errors of fact or logic.
The essays were selected for this text in part because they reflect differing
conclusions. For example, why did the United States intervene in World War
I? For decades, historians have given us a number of answers. Some have said
that Woodrow Wilson foolishly broke with a tradition of non-entanglement
dating back to George Washington. Others say that Wilson wisely recognized
that a changed world required changes in America’s international role.
Or what are we to make of the 1950s? Some historians have celebrated this
period as a flowering of American prosperity, unity, and democracy. Others have
noted that only whites could vote in many parts of the South, and McCarthyism
suppressed freedom of conscience and personal choice. Or how do we now
make sense of the Vietnam War, five decades after the first American troops
landed? Was it “a terrible mistake” that undermined confidence in the United
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xxiv
INTRODUCTION
States in the words of one of its architects, or was it, in President Ronald
Reagan’s words, a “noble cause”?
An important question left unanswered in all of these chapters is what you
think is the correct interpretation. In the end, you may not agree completely
with any of the essayists. In fact, you might create your own argument that
uses primary sources found here and elsewhere and that accepts parts of one essay
and parts of another. Once you do this, you become a historian, a person who
attempts to analyze texts critically, and is personally engaged with the topic. If
that occurs, this volume is a success.
When we discuss the discipline of history with friends and strangers, we typically get one of two responses. The first is something like “I hated history in
school.” The other is something like “history was my favorite subject.” Invariably the people who hated history refer to the boring facts they had to memorize. Those who loved history remember a teacher or professor who brought the
subject alive by imaginatively invoking the past.
As we have tried to show, history is not about memorizing boring facts but
rather an active enterprise of thought and interpretation. Historians are not rote
learners. Instead, historians are detectives and judges, people who investigate, interpret, and reimagine what happened. They study the past to understand the
world in which we live today. Facts are important, but they are building blocks
in a larger enterprise of interpretation.
In sum, our intent is to show how primary and secondary sources can aid
you in understanding and interpreting major problems in the American past.
We also aim to keep that group of people who hate history as small as possible
and expand that group who embrace history with passion. Frankly, the latter are
more fun.
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CHAPTER 1
Reconstruction
Many nations that have a civil war end up having more civil wars. The reasons for the
originating conflict are often unresolved. In the case of the United States, the epic struggle from 1861 to 1865 did not lead to another full-blown military encounter. Instead,
the states that had seceded were quickly reincorporated into the legal fold of the nation;
Confederate leaders and civilians were reconstituted as citizens; and the key political
problems that caused the war—slavery and its future in the territories and states—were
resolved. Three new constitutional amendments transformed the nation’s founding
document to make certain of this final point. The questions for Reconstruction were
many, but the central ones were how would the United States avoid another violent
war? What would be the status of people formerly owned by other people? What would
be the status of those who had committed treason against the government? How would
the nation develop economically and territorially into the West now that slavery was not
an option?
Even before the Civil War ended, President Lincoln and congressional leaders puzzled over how best to reintegrate the people of the South into the Union. Before he was
assassinated, President Lincoln proposed a “10 percent plan,” which would have allowed a
state government to reestablish itself once one-tenth of those who had voted in 1860 took
an oath of loyalty to the United States. Radicals in Congress were appalled by the seemingly lenient plan and pushed through their own bill, which increased the proportion to
one-half of the voters who were required to swear that they had never supported secession.
Lincoln’s assassination cut short this increasingly scathing debate and drastically altered the
mood of Reconstruction.
Political disagreements over Reconstruction policy were vast, and the strategies advocated were so varied that Reconstruction took a crooked road. As approaches to rebuilding
the South shifted, the hopes among some to transform Southern society grew and then were
dashed. Despite important legal precedents that were made in the era, many of the social,
political, and economic conventions that had characterized antebellum society endured after
Reconstruction ended. Eventually, the racial system of segregation came to replace the system of slavery.
Although people differed on what was the best policy for Reconstruction, everyone
agreed that the Confederate states were in dire straits and the primary goal of
1
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2
MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Reconstruction was to reincorporate those states politically and socially into the Union.
The war had devastated the South: cities lay in ruins; two-thirds of Southern railroads
had been destroyed; and at least one-third of its livestock had disappeared. Likewise, the
abolition of slavery unalterably transformed Southern society at the same time that it
gave hope to people freed from their bondage. With Andrew Johnson, a Democrat before
the war, becoming president after Lincoln’s assassination, congressional Republicans
struggled to determine how Reconstruction would function. Johnson looked to placate
Southern whites, which infuriated many Republicans. After the Republican Party won
a resounding victory in the elections of 1866, Congress reconvened in 1867 and set out
to punish rebellious Southern whites while offering more rights and freedoms to African
Americans.
While politicians in Washington engineered Reconstruction, Southerners forged new
social conventions that would also be extremely important in the future. The lives of former
slaves changed dramatically changed, and freed women and men expressed their understanding of freedom in a variety of ways. Significantly, many African Americans played
important roles in the new Republican Party of the South, and by 1868 black men were
seated for the first time in Southern state legislatures. These political gains, however, were
short-lived. In spite of the electoral successes of African Americans, the Democratic Party
enjoyed increasing political success in the South as former Confederates eventually had their
political rights restored. Changes in the electorate in conjunction with intimidation shifted
the trajectory of Reconstruction once again as radical transformation was replaced with a
movement toward the white South’s goals for reclaiming the world they had known before
the Civil War.
When Reconstruction ended is hard to say. Perhaps it was when the last Southern
states reentered the union in 1870. Perhaps it was after the 1876 presidential election.
Perhaps it was not until 1898 when former foes fought together in the Spanish-American
War. If Reconstruction meant finding an equitable solution to the tragedy of slavery,
then perhaps Reconstruction is not yet over. In any event, interest in Southern problems
waned considerably in the North in 1873, when the nation was rocked by a financial
panic that led Americans into a depression lasting six years. Scandal and depression
weakened the Republican Party. Then the Supreme Court gutted much of the civil rights
legislation. In many ways, Americans of the twentieth century lived in the shadow of
Reconstruction, and it was for that reason that D.W. Griffith’s cinematic marvel The
Birth of a Nation (1915) was not a story of the American Revolution. It was a tale of
American Reconstruction.
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
What were the failures of Reconstruction and what were its successes? Why did
it collapse, to the extent that it did? How successful was the Union in reincorporating the Southern states and people? Did Reconstruction come to an end
primarily because the North abandoned it or because it was opposed by the
white South? How did African Americans feel about the possibilities and the
terrors of Reconstruction?
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RECONSTRUCTION
3
DOCUMENTS
The first three documents represent the diversity of feelings at the end of
the war regarding the federal government and rights for African Americans.
Document 1 is an oration given by William Howard Day, an African American minister, in 1865. Notice how—unlike African Americans before the
Civil War—he now celebrated the federal government. Day proclaimed the
Fourth of July as “our day,” the United States as “our nation,” and Washington, D.C., as “our capital.” In the South, though, many whites opposed the
federal government and wanted to keep former slaves as second-class citizens.
Document 2 is a song from the South where the white vocalist proclaims his
hatred for the federal government. In law, many Southern states enacted
“black codes” immediately after the war, one of which is given in document
3. This example from Louisiana in 1865 illustrates the many ways in which
the rights of “freedom” were abridged. The next four documents show contrasting agendas in the North. In document 4 Thaddeus Stevens, a Radical
representative in Congress, argues for passage of the Reconstruction Act of
1867 because he believes that only an unfaltering federal presence will prevent
“traitors” from ruling the South. Document 5 provides pictorial views of Reconstruction. On one hand, there is Andrew Johnson’s embrace of Southern
whites; on another, there is federal endorsement of difference and diversity.
Note in the Thanksgiving depiction how women and men of various backgrounds share a moment of social equality. In document 6, however, Elizabeth Cady Stanton draws attention to rights that went largely overlooked
during the era: women’s rights. The next two documents show frustrations
with the civil rights agendas of Reconstruction. Documents 7 and 8 show
the possibilities and perils of Reconstruction. The first showcases how efforts
to educate former slaves after the war brought some northern African American women to the South and how the experience altered their perspectives.
Document 8 is the testimony of a freed woman about the violence of the Ku
Klux Klan. The final document details sectional feelings at the end of the century. Document 9, “The Blue and the Gray,” expresses the hopes for North–
South reconciliation in the form of mutual love and respect for white Union
and Confederate soldiers.
1. William Howard Day, an African American
Minister, Salutes the Nation and a Monument to
Abraham Lincoln, 1865
… We meet under new and ominous circumstances to-day. We come to the
National Capital—our Capital—with new hopes, new prospects, new joys, in
view of the future and past of the people; and yet with that joy fringed, tinged,
Celebration by the Colored People’s Educational Monument Association (1865).
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4
MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
permeated by a sorrow unlike any, nationally, we have ever known. A few weeks
since all that was mortal of Abraham Lincoln was laid away to rest. And to-day,
after the funeral cortege has passed, weeping thoughts march through our hearts—
when the muffled drum has ceased to beat in a procession five hundred, aye, two
thousand miles long, the chambers of your souls are still echoing the murmur—and
though the coffin has been lowered into its place, “dust to dust,” there ever falls
across our way the coffin’s shadow, and, standing in it, we come to-day to rear a
monument to his blessed memory, and again to pledge our untiring resistance to
the tyranny by which he fell, whether it be in the iron manacles of the slave, or in
the unjust written manacles for the free….
Up to now our nation,… [t]he shout of the freeman and the wail of the
bondman have, I repeat, always been heard together, making “harsh discords.”
Hitherto a damning crime has run riot over the whole land. North and South
alike were inoculated with its virus. It has lain like a gangrene upon the national
life, until the nation, mortified, broke in twain. The hand of slavery ever
moulded the Christianity of the nation, and wrote the national songs. What
hand wrote the laws of the nation and marked this National District all over
with scars? What hand went into the Capitol and half murdered Charles Sumner,
nature’s nobleman?…
All the heroes of all the ages, bond and free, have labored to secure for us the
right we rejoice in to-day. To the white and colored soldiers of this war, led on as
they were by our noble President and other officers, in the presence of some of
whom I rejoice to-day, are we indebted, in the providence of God, for our present position. For want of time, I pass by any more detailed mention of the noble
men and their noble deeds. Together they nobly labored—together they threw
themselves into the breach which rebellion had made across the land, and thus
closed up that breach forever. And now, in their presence, living and dead, as
over the prostrate form of our leader, Abraham Lincoln—by the edge of bloodred waves, still surging, we pledge our resistance to tyranny, (I repeat,) whether in
the iron manacles of the slave, or in the unjust written manacles of the free….
It is related in the diary of one of the writers of old that when the slave trade
was at its height, a certain vessel loaded with its human freight started under the
frown of God and came over the billows of the ocean. Defying God and man
alike, in the open daylight, the slave was brought up from the hold and chained
to the foot of the mast. The eye of the Omnipotent saw it, and bye and bye the
thunders muttered and the lightnings played over the devoted vessel. At length the
lightning leaped upon the mast and shivered it, and, as it did this, also melted
the fetter which fastened the black slave to it; and he arising unhurt, for the first
time walked the deck a free man.
Our ship of state, the Union, has for eighty years gone careering over the
billows; our slave has been chained to our mast in the open daylight, and in
the focal blaze of the eighteen centuries gone by, and we have hurried on in
our crime regardless alike of the muttering of the thunder and the flashes of
the lightning, until in one devoted hour the thunderbolt was sped from the
hand of God. The mast was shivered; the ship was saved; but, thank God, the
slave was free….
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RECONSTRUCTION
5
2. A Southern Songwriter Opposes Reconstruction, c. 1860s
O, I’m a good old Rebel,
Now that’s just what I am,
For this “Fair Land of Freedom”
I do not care at all;
I’m glad I fit against it–
I only wish we’d won,
And I don’t want no pardon
For anything I done.
I hates the Constitution,
This Great Republic too,
I hates the Freedman’s Buro,
In uniforms of blue;
I hates the nasty eagle,
With all his brags and fuss,
The lyin’, thievin’ Yankees,
I hates ‘em wuss and wuss.
I hates the Yankee nation
And everything they do,
I hates the Declaration
Of Independence too;
I hates the glorious Union –
‘Tis dripping with our blood –
I hates their striped banner,
I fit it all I could.…
Three hundred thousand Yankees
Is stiff in Southern dust;
We got three hundred thousand
Before they conquered us;
They died of Southern fever
And Southern steel and shot,
I wish they was three million
Instead of what we got.
“O, I’m a Good Old Rebel,” c. 1860s.
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6
MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
I can’t take up my musket
And fight ‘em now no more,
But I ain’t going to love ‘em,
Now that is sarten sure;
And I don’t want no pardon
For what I was and am,
I won’t be reconstructed
And I don’t care a damn.
3. Louisiana Black Codes Reinstate Provisions
of the Slave Era, 1865
Section 1. Be it therefore ordained by the board of police of the town of Opelousas.
That no negro or freedman shall be allowed to come within the limits of the
town of Opelousas without special permission from his employers, specifying
the object of his visit and the time necessary for the accomplishment of the
same….
Section 2. Be it further ordained, That every negro freedman who shall be
found on the streets of Opelousas after 10 o’clock at night without a written
pass or permit from his employer shall be imprisoned and compelled to work
five days on the public streets, or pay a fine of five dollars.
Section 3. No negro or freedman shall be permitted to rent or keep a house
within the limits of the town under any circumstances, and any one thus offending shall be ejected and compelled to find an employer or leave the town within
twenty-four hours….
Section 4. No negro or freedman shall reside within the limits of the
town of Opelousas who is not in the regular service of some white person
or former owner, who shall be held responsible for the conduct of said
freedman….
Section 5. No public meetings or congregations of negroes or freedmen
shall be allowed within the limits of the town of Opelousas under any circumstances or for any purpose without the permission of the mayor or president of
the board….
Section 6. No negro or freedman shall be permitted to preach, exhort, or
otherwise declaim to congregations of colored people without a special permission from the mayor or president of the board of police….
Section 7. No freedman who is not in the military service shall be allowed
to carry firearms, or any kind of weapons, within the limits of the town of Opelousas without the special permission of his employer, in writing, and approved
by the mayor or president of the board of police….
Condition of the South, Senate Executive Document No. 2, 39 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 92–93.
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RECONSTRUCTION
7
Section 8. No freedman shall sell, barter, or exchange any articles of merchandise or traffic within the limits of Opelousas without permission in writing
from his employer or the mayor or president of the board….
Section 9. Any freedman found drunk within the limits of the town shall
be imprisoned and made to labor five days on the public streets, or pay five dollars in lieu of said labor.
Section 10. Any freedman not residing in Opelousas who shall be found
within the corporate limits after the hour of 3 P.M. on Sunday without a special
permission from his employer or the mayor shall be arrested and imprisoned and
made to work….
Section 11. All the foregoing provisions apply to freedmen and
freedwomen….
E. D. ESTILLETTE,
President of the Board of Police.
JOS. D. RICHARDS, Clerk.
Official copy:
J. LOVELL,
Captain and Assistant Adjutant General.
4. Congressman Thaddeus Stevens Demands a
Radical Reconstruction, 1867
…. It is to be regretted that inconsiderate and incautious Republicans should
ever have supposed that the slight amendments [embodied in the pending
Fourteenth Amendment] already proposed to the Constitution, even when incorporated into that instrument, would satisfy the reforms necessary for the security of the Government. Unless the rebel States, before admission, should be
made republican in spirit, and placed under the guardianship of loyal men, all
our blood and treasure will have been spent in vain. I waive now the question
of punishment which, if we are wise, will still be inflicted by moderate confiscations, both as a reproof and example. Having these States, as we all agree,
entirely within the power of Congress, it is our duty to take care that no injustice shall remain in their organic laws. Holding them “like clay in the hands of
the potter,” we must see that no vessel is made for destruction. Having now no
governments, they must have enabling acts. The law of last session with regard
to Territories settled the principles of such acts. Impartial suffrage, both in
electing the delegates and ratifying their proceedings, is now the fixed rule.
There is more reason why colored voters should be admitted in the rebel States
Thaddeus Stevens, speech in the House (January 3, 1867), Congressional Globe, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 37, pt. 1, 251–253.
This document can also be found in Radical Republicans and Reconstruction, ed. Harold M. Hyman (Indianapolis, Ind., and
New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967), 373–375.
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8
MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
than in the Territories. In the States they form the great mass of the loyal men.
Possibly with their aid loyal governments may be established in most of those
States. Without it all are sure to be ruled by traitors; and loyal men, black and
white, will be oppressed, exiled, or murdered. There are several good reasons
for the passage of this bill. In the first place, it is just. I am now confining my
argument to negro suffrage in the rebel States. Have not loyal blacks quite as
good a right to choose rulers and make laws as rebel whites? In the second
place, it is a necessity in order to protect the loyal white men in the seceded
States. The white Union men are in a great minority in each of those States.
With them the blacks would act in a body; and it is believed that in each of
said States, except one, the two united would form a majority, control the
States, and protect themselves. Now they are the victims of daily murder.
They must suffer constant persecution or be exiled. The convention of Southern loyalists, lately held in Philadelphia, almost unanimously agreed to such a
bill as an absolute necessity.
Another good reason is, it would insure the ascendancy of the Union
party. Do you avow the party purpose? exclaims some horror-stricken demagogue. I do. For I believe, on my conscience, that on the continued ascendancy of that party depends the safety of this great nation. If impartial suffrage
is excluded in rebel States then every one of them is sure to send a solid rebel
representative delegation to Congress, and cast a solid rebel electoral vote.
They, with their kindred Copperheads of the North, would always elect the
President and control Congress. While slavery sat upon her defiant throne,
and insulted and intimidated the trembling North, the South frequently divided on questions of policy between Whigs and Democrats, and gave victory
alternately to the sections. Now, you must divide them between loyalists,
without regard to color, and disloyalists, or you will be the perpetual vassals
of the free-trade, irritated, revengeful South. For these, among other reasons,
I am for negro suffrage in every rebel State. If it be just, it should not be denied; if it be necessary, it should be adopted; if it be a punishment to traitors,
they deserve it.
But it will be said, as it has been said, “This is negro equality!” What is negro equality, about which so much is said by knaves, and some of which is believed by men who are not fools? It means, as understood by honest
Republicans, just this much, and no more: every man, no matter what his race
or color; every earthly being who has an immortal soul, has an equal right to
justice, honesty, and fair play with every other man; and the law should secure
him those rights. The same law which condemns or acquits an African should
condemn or acquit a white man. The same law which gives a verdict in a white
man’s favor should give a verdict in a black man’s favor on the same state of facts.
Such is the law of God and such ought to be the law of man. This doctrine does
not mean that a negro shall sit on the same seat or eat at the same table with a
white man. That is a matter of taste which every man must decide for himself.
The law has nothing to do with it.
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9
RECONSTRUCTION
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZC4-4591]
5. Thomas Nast Depicts Contrasting Views
of Reconstruction, 1866, 1869
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MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-85882
10
6. Elizabeth Cady Stanton Questions Abolitionist
Support for Female Enfranchisement, 1868
To what a depth of degradation must the women of this nation have fallen to be
willing to stand aside, silent and indifferent spectators in the reconstruction of the
nation, while all the lower stratas of manhood are to legislate in their interests,
political, religious, educational, social and sanitary, moulding to their untutored
will the institutions of a mighty continent….
While leading Democrats have been thus favorably disposed, what have
our best friends said when, for the first time since the agitation of the question [the enfranchisement of women], they have had an opportunity to
frame their ideas into statutes to amend the constitutions of two States in
the Union?
Charles Sumner, Horace Greeley, Gerrit Smith and Wendell Phillips, with
one consent, bid the women of the nation stand aside and behold the salvation
of the negro. Wendell Phillips says, “one idea for a generation,” to come up in
the order of their importance. First negro suffrage, then temperance, then the
eight hour movement, then woman’s suffrage. In 1958, three generations hence,
thirty years to a generation, Phillips and Providence permitting, woman’s suffrage
will be in order. What an insult to the women who have labored thirty years for
the emancipation of the slave, now when he is their political equal, to propose to
lift him above their heads. Gerrit Smith, forgetting that our great American idea
is “individual rights,” in which abolitionists have ever based their strongest
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Who Are Our Friends?” The Revolution, 15 (January 1868).
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RECONSTRUCTION
11
arguments for emancipation, says, this is the time to settle the rights of races;
unless we do justice to the negro we shall bring down on ourselves another
bloody revolution, another four years’ war, but we have nothing to fear from
woman, she will not revenge herself!…
Horace Greeley has advocated this cause for the last twenty years, but to-day
it is too new, revolutionary for practical consideration. The enfranchisement of
woman, revolutionizing, as it will, our political, religious and social condition, is
not a measure too radical and all-pervading to meet the moral necessities of this
day and generation.
Why fear new things; all old things were once new…. We live to do new
things! When Abraham Lincoln issued the proclamation of emancipation, it
was a new thing. When the Republican party gave the ballot to the negro, it
was a new thing, startling too, to the people of the South, very revolutionary
to their institutions, but Mr. Greeley did not object to all this because it
was new….
And now, while men like these have used all their influence for the last
four years, to paralyze every effort we have put forth to rouse the women
of the nation, to demand their true position in the reconstruction, they
triumphantly turn to us, and say the greatest barrier in the way of your
demand is that “the women themselves do not wish to vote.” What a libel
on the intelligence of the women of the nineteenth century. What means
the 12,000 petitions presented by John Stuart Mill in the British Parliament
from the first women in England, demanding household suffrage? What
means the late action in Kansas, 10,000 women petitioned there for the
right of suffrage, and 9,000 votes at the last election was the answer.
What means the agitation in every State in the Union? In the very hour
when Horace Greeley brought in his adverse report in the Constitutional
Convention of New York, at least twenty members rose in their places
and presented petitions from every part of the State, demanding woman’s
suffrage. What means that eloquent speech of George W. Curtis in the
Convention, but to show that the ablest minds in the State are ready for
this onward step.
7. Charlotte Forten Reflects on Teaching Among
Southern African Americans, 1863
Thursday, New Year’s Day, 1863. The most glorious day this nation has yet
seen, I think. I rose early—an event here—and early we started, with an old
borrowed carriage and a remarkably slow horse. Whither were we going?
thou wilt ask, dearest A. To the ferry; thence to Camp Saxton, to the celebration. From the ferry to the camp the “Flora” took us. How pleasant it was on
board! A crowd of people, whites and blacks, and a band of music—to the
Excerpt from “States” (Washington, 1872), printed in Dorothy Sterling. ed., Trouble They Seen: The Story of Reconstruction in the Words of African Americans.
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12
MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
great delight of the negroes. Met on board Dr. [Solomon] and Mrs. Peck and
their daughters, who greeted me most kindly. Also Gen. S. [axton]’s father
whom I like much, and several other acquaintances whom I was glad to see.
We stopped at Beaufort, and then proceeded to Camp Saxton, the camp of
the 1st Reg. [iment] S. [outh] C. [arolina] Vol [unteer]s. The “Flora” c’ld
not get up to the landing, so we were rowed ashore in a row boat. Just as
my foot touched the plank, on landing, a hand grasped mine and a well
known voice spoke my name. It was my dear and noble friend, Dr. [Seth]
Rogers. I cannot tell you, dear A., how delighted I was to see him; how
good it was to see the face of a friend from the North, and such a friend. I think
myself particularly blessed to have him for a friend. Walking on a little distance I found myself being presented to Col. Higginson, whereat I was so
much overwhelmed, that I had no reply to make to the very kind and courteous little speech with which he met me. I believe I mumbled something, and
grinned like a simpleton, that was all. Provoking, isn’t it? that when one is
most in need of sensible words, one finds them not. I cannot give a regular
chronicle of the day. It is impossible. I was in such a state of excitement. It
all seemed, and seems still, like a brilliant dream. Dr. R. [ogers] and I talked
all the time, I know, while he showed me the camp and all the arrangements.
They have a beautiful situation, on the grounds once occupied by a very old
fort, “De La Ribanchine,” built in 1629 or 30. Some of the walls are still
standing. Dr. R. [ogers] has made quite a good hospital out of an old gin
house. I went over it. There are only a few invalids in it, at present. I saw
everything; the kitchens, cooking arrangements, and all. Then we took seats
on the platform. The meeting was held in a beautiful grove, a live-oak grove,
adjoining the camp. It is the largest one I have yet seen; but I don’t think the
moss pendants are quite as beautiful as they are on St. Helena. As I sat on the
stand and looked around on the various groups, I thought I had never seen a
sight so beautiful. There were the black soldiers, in their blue coats and scarlet
pants, the officers of this and other regiments in their handsome uniforms, and
crowds of lookers-on, men, women and children, grouped in various attitudes, under the trees. The faces of all wore a happy, eager, expectant look.
The exercises commenced by a prayer from Rev. Mr. [James H.] Fowler,
Chaplain of the Reg. An ode written for the occasion by Prof. [John] Zachos,
originally a Greek, now Sup. [erintendent] of Paris Island, was read by himself,
and then sung by the whites. Col. H. [igginson] introduced Dr. [William]
Brisbane in a few elegant and graceful words. He (Dr. B. [risbane]) read the
President’s Proclamation, which was warmly cheered. Then the beautiful flags
presented by Dr. [George] Cheever’s Church were presented to Col. H.
[igginson] for the Reg. in an excellent and enthusiastic speech, by Rev.
Mr. [Mansfield] French. Immediately at the conclusion, some of the colored
people—of their own accord sang “My Country Tis of Thee.” It was a touching and beautiful incident, and Col. Higginson, in accepting the flags made it
the occasion of some happy remarks. He said that that tribute was far more
effecting than any speech he c’ld make. He spoke for some time, and all that
he said was grand, glorious. He seemed inspired. Nothing c’ld have been
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RECONSTRUCTION
13
better, more perfect. And Dr. R. [ogers] told me afterward that the Col. was
much affected. That tears were in his eyes.
8. Lucy McMillan, a Former Slave in South Carolina,
Testifies About White Violence, 1871
SPARTANBURGH, SOUTH CAROLINA, July 10, 1871.
LUCY McMILLAN (colored) sworn and examined.
By the CHAIRMAN:
QUESTION. Where do you live?
ANSWER. Up in the country. I live on McMillan’s place, right at the foot of
the road.
QUESTION. How far is it?
ANSWER. Twelve miles.
QUESTION. Are you married?
ANSWER. I am not married. I am single now. I was married. My husband was
taken away from me and carried off twelve years ago….
QUESTION. How old are you now?
ANSWER. I am called forty-six. I am forty-five or six.
QUESTION. Did the Ku-Klux come where you live at any time?
ANSWER. They came there once before they burned my house down. The way
it was was this: John Hunter’s wife came to my house on Saturday
morning, and told they were going to whip me. I was afraid of them;
there was so much talk of Ku-Klux drowning people, and whipping
people, and killing them. My house was only a little piece from the
river, so I laid out at night in the woods. The Sunday evening after
Isham McCrary was whipped I went up, and a white man, John
McMillan, came along and says to me, “Lucy, you had better stay at
home, for they will whip you anyhow.” I said if they have to, they
might whip me in the woods, for I am afraid to stay there. Monday
night they came in and...
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