Eric Foner - Re DuBois On Reconstruction

RECONSTRUCTION REVISITED
Eric Foner In thepast twenty years,fewperiodsofAmerican have been thesubhistory ject of so thoroughgoing a reevaluation as Reconstruction. in large Inspired measureby theriseand fallof the "SecondReconstruction"-the revolution in race relationsof the 1960s-historians have produceda flood of works reexamining the political,social, and economic experiences of black and white Americansin the aftermath of the Civil War. Yet one prominent historian recently declaredthatthestudyofReconstruction todayconfronts a 1forhistorians ofthemostserious "crisis proportions," have failedto produce of Reconstruction a coherent modern either as a specific portrait timeperiod or as theeffort of Americansocietyto come to terms withtheresults of the Civil War and theconsequencesof emancipation. For much of thiscentury, Reconstruction was dominated historiography thatportrayed by a "traditional" interpretation theyearsfollowing theCivil War as ones ofunrelieved in politicaland social life.2 sordidness In thisview, vindictive Radical Republicans fastened black supremacy upon thedefeated South, unleashingan orgy of corruption presidedover by unscrupulous carpetbaggers, traitorous scalawags,and ignorant freedmen. Eventually, the whitecommunity of the South overthrew thismisgovernment and restored Home Rule (a euphemism forwhitesupremacy). The heroesofthestory were President AndrewJackson, whose lenient Reconstruction plans were foiled who restoredhonest by the Radicals, and the self-styled "Redeemers," in anti-Reconstruction government. Originating propaganda of southern Democratsduring the1870s,thisviewpoint achievedscholarly in legitimacy the work of the Dunningschool earlyin thiscentury and reacheda mass Claude Bowers'sbest-selling publicthrough workof fiction as masquerading history, The TragicEra. of a handfulof surviving Exceptfor the criticisms Reconstruction participants, thistraditional interpretation receiveditsfirst in sustained critique the1920sand 1930s.Howard K. Beale,influenced by theBeardiancontention thattheCivil War era witnessed theconsolidation of nationaleconomicand politicalpower in the hands of northeastern shunnedtheprevicapitalists, of the ously dominantrace issue in favor of an economic interpretation politicsof the Johnson Beale did not challengethe tradiadministration.
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as a tragic era; tionalists' characterization of radical Reconstruction appraisal appeared in the simultaneously, however, a more sympathetic worksof theblack historians A. A. Taylor and W.E.B. DuBois, and white scholarsFrancisSimkins and RobertWoody.3Butnot untilthe1960s,under was the full force of this the impact of the Second Reconstruction, Modernrevisionism radically reinterpreted Reconstruction "revisionism" felt. of and aspirations nationalReconstruction politics,and placed theactivities was Johnson blacks at thecenter stageof thedrama in theSouth. President and now portrayed whereashis abolitionist as a stubborn, racistpolitician, motives,emerged as idealistsin Radical opponents, acquittedof vindictive the the best nineteenth-century reformtradition.As for the freedmen, in South pioneeringwork of Joel Williamson depicted Reconstruction forblacksin political, Carolinaas a timeofextraordinary economic, progress and social life.Revisionism attention to thepositive accomplishalso directed in the mentsof Reconstruction of publicschool systems -the establishment for to includethefreedmen, South and theexpansionof nationalcitizenship the more unsavoryaspects of the example-while tendingto understate period,such as pervasivecorruption. had been completely By the end of the 1960s, the old interpretation thevillains,and if reversed. Southern freedmen were theheroes,Redeemers " it was because change did not go far enough. the era was "tragic, and a goldenopporReconstruction appearedas botha timeofrealprogress, lost forthe South and the nation.4Yet, as is so oftenthe case with tunity a series of negative historicalrevisionism, the end resultwas essentially The Reconstruction were not as bad as theyhad governments judgments.5 been portrayed; was a myth;the Radicals were neither "black supremacy" If it of thefreedmen nor agentsof northern capitalism. cynicalmanipulators as "the blackoutof was no longerpossible to characterize Reconstruction honestgovernment," no alternative versionof the qualityof politicaland traditional social lifein theseyearsemergedto replacethe now discredited view. Even in the mid-1960s,moreover,the more optimistic assumptionsof view by thosewho took a skeptical manyrevisionist writers werechallenged of theentire that, Reconstruction enterprise. C. Vann Woodward contended to fromthe outset,racial prejudiceseverely northern efforts compromised assist the freedmen. August Meier argued that,in contrastto the Second 6 Duringthe1970s, thefirst was fundamentally "superficial." Reconstruction, thismode of thought to virtually everyaspectof theperiodby was extended of historians. Insteadof what may be called a "postrevisionist" generation as a secondAmericanRevolution (as seeingtheCivil War and itsaftermath intobarbarism CharlesBeardand his disciples did), a regression (Bowersand
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REVIEWS IN AMERICAN HISTORY / December1982
the traditionalists), or a revolutionary impulsethwarted (the revisionists), postrevisionist writers questionedwhethermuch of importance had hapand ideologyhave pened at all. Recentstudiesof politics,social structure, betweentheOld and New South. been united by a singletheme-continuity Summing up thepast decade's writing, Woodward observedthathistorians now understood "how essentiallynonrevolutionary and conservative Reconstruction reallywas." 7 of therevisionists, have reached recent writers Building upon thefindings in emphasis.EricMcKitrick, conclusions different and LaWanda rather John had challenged the traditionalnotion that Cox, and other revisionists Radicals dominated thepost-Civil War Congresses, emphasizing insteadthe in drafting Reconstruction guiding hand of moderate Republicans legislation. in They did not doubt,however,thattheselaws markeda majordeparture In the1970s,MichaelLes Benedict American and race relations. politics used of moderateRepublicansto challengethe idea of Radical the prominence insteadhow federal Reconstruction itself, emphasizing policywas guidedby thegoal of "preserving theConstitution" and minimizing changesin federalstaterelations. ReconstrucSimilarly, Michael Permanarguedthatnorthern tionstrategy in favorof seeking eschewedradicaldepartures thecooperation of southernwhites,and was therefore extremely vulnerableto southern obstructionism. A similar emphasisinformed themassivestudyof theGrant whichsuggested administration's Reconstruction policyby WilliamGillette, that the North'scommitment to the freedmen had neverbeen particularly in 1877, Gillette strong.The finalcollapse of Reconstruction demonstrated, formalized a steadyretreat the1870s.8 merely throughout Thus, postrevisionist writers insistedthe impactof the Civil War upon Americanlifewas less pervasivethan had once been believed. Important studiesof thepostwarpolityby Harold Hyman and MortonKellerargued that the initialbroadeningof the powers of postwar national and state governments proved extremely short-lived, as localism,individualism and racism -persistent themes of nineteenth-century American life -quickly reasserted themselves.9Studies of the previously neglected northern to itstraditional Democrats have portrayed a groupclinging evenin ideology the face of what its National Chairman,AugustBelmont, called "themost disastrous epoch in the annals of the party."As fornorthern Republicans, and the JamesMohr did discerna parallelbetweenRadical Reconstruction policiesadoptedby New York Republicans between1865 and 1867 on such issuesas stateregulation of thepolice, fire,and healthaffairs of New York of thestate'sblacks. But fewstudiesof other City and theenfranchisement northern statesfoundmuchevidenceof internal radicalism. In most,thepat-
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tern seemed to follow that outlined by Felice Bonadio for Ohio: the of a breedof partypolitician by politicalradicalism little affected emergence in thepreservaexclusively forthatmatter), and interested (or any ideology, tionand successof thepartyitself.10 ratherthan change,and on the moderate A similarstresson continuity recent studiesof theSouthdurof Republican policies,has defined character thatthe Civil War signaled Challenging the contention ing Reconstruction. theeclipseof theold planterclass and therise to power of a new entrepreneurial elite, social histories of localities scattered across the South and that planterssurvivedthe war with theirlandholdings demonstrated itshouldbe noted, social prestige moreor lessintact.(The areas investigated, military action.)11Long-standing were ones whichlargelyescaped wartime intrastate sectionalism-the tension, for example, between westernand ReconstrucNorthCarolina-was shownto have strongly influenced eastern whichappeared majorstatestudies And thethree tionpoliticalalignments.12 in Louisiana, Florida,and Mississippi duringthe 1970s on Reconstruction improved had significantly offered little reasonto believethatReconstruction thelot of thefreedmen.13 policytoward Nor did historians of the1970sfind muchto praisein federal in traditional Bureau, criticized the emancipatedblacks. The Freedmen's as a sincere accountsforexcessiveradicalismand regarded by revisionists of thefreedto ameliorate thelegal, educational, and economicplight effort of study as a practitioner men, emergedin William McFeely'sinfluential to forceemanworking hand in glove withtheplanters racial paternalism, werereinfindings McFeely's cipatedblacksback to workon theplantations. forcedby Louis Gerteis'sexaminationof wartimeArmy policies toward ofrevisionist had writing, blacks.In the1960sWillieLee Rose, in a landmark (a typicallyAmericanamalgam of portrayedthe Sea Island experiment and pursuit of economic profit) as a rehearsal for humanitarianism allowed blacks to achieve a real Reconstruction which,despitelimitations, of measureof controlover theirlives. Gerteisargued that the experience P. Banksestablished blacksin Civil War Louisiana,whereGeneralNathaniel resembled a labor system thatcritics shapedReconstruction slavery, charged ofthe studies thanevents on theSea Islands.More recent farmorepowerfully Bureau'sefforts at medicalcare forblacks and its legal work concludethat Leon federalpolicy failed to meet the pressingneeds of the freedmen. of two decades of Litwack'sBeen in the Storm So Long, a culmination reflects theCivil War, fully on theblack experience and after during writings thesepostrevisionist a remarkable arrayofsources,Litconclusions. Utilizing in favorof portraying a kaleidoscopeof black wack eschewedgeneralization
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whites, one themestood out: responsesto emancipation.But regarding and stateauthorities wereequallyindifferent to thefreedmen's federal, Army, oftheReconstruction era were Evenpreviously unchallenged achievements of schoolsforblacks to searching The establishment now subjected criticism. associationsand thecreation missionary by federal authorities and northern in theSouthwereonce hailedas of state-supported commonschool systems Now a seriesof studies indicted northern thefinest legacyof Reconstruction. orderand inculcate"middleforseekingto stabilizetheplantation teachers for and respect values like thrift, self-discipline, temperance, class" northern If thecritique a familiar note,it was because it represented struck authority. of education so promisouthward of the"socialcontrol" an extension theory comofnorthern reform. Likenorthern nentin recent discussions educational of monschools,black educationin theSouthwas increasingly seenas a form to createa disciplined and docilelaborforce.'15 cultural an effort imperialism, Ifany assumption likeDunningand revisionists rangunitedtraditionalists ofReconstrucitwas theessential radicalism ingfrom DuBois to Williamson, from a fundamental departure previous tion.Postrevisionism thusrepresents on continuity liesin emphainterpretations. The greatadvantageof itsstress part of southernand sizing that Reconstruction was, in fact, an integral as has often nationalhistory, ratherthan some kind of bizarreaberration, been portrayed. the postrevisionist predecessors, Yet, like theirrevisionist The denialof changedoes writers have failedto producea modern synthesis. of a turbulent era.16 not in itself providea compelling interpretation ofReconstruction Whether a convincing overallportrait based on postrevisionistpremises can be constructed is, indeed,open to question.LaWanda for"presentism" writers -that is, usingtoday'sstanCox has chidedrecent of thepast. The reevaluadards to judge theattitudes and accomplishments tionof freedmen's to view the education,to take one example,seemedoften thelens of the1960s. One studycriticized northern educators 1860s through forlackinga commitment to "blackpower and pride"-rallyingcriesof the of thefirst.17 Second Reconstruction but not necessarily major concerns of land reform Centralto postrevisionist literature is thefailure which,it northern commithas beenargued,bothexemplified theabsenceofa genuine mentto thefreedmen, thatthepolitical and ensured gainsachievedby blacks of the would be fragile and transitory. Withoutdenigrating theimportance land question,it may be suggested thatthe failureto provideblacks with acresand a mule"has loomed so largein recent literature thatpolitics "forty offas and social life,and even therealmof labor, have been largely written arenas of conflict and accomplishment. Moreoever,thepreciserelationship betweenthefreedmen's subordinate economicstatusand theultimate failure
14 aspirations.
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ofReconstruction has notbeenfully workedout. Economicintimidation was, it is true,employed againstblack voters, butfarmoreimportant in theoverthrow of Reconstruction was violence, preciselybecause other pressures proved ineffective. The idea thatpoliticalequalityis meaningless without economicindependence paradoxicallyleaves its advocates occupying much the same stance with regard to the black condition as Booker T. 18 Washington. Ironically, theentire offederal postrevisionist reevaluation policyon labor, and other education, whicharosefrom matters, thelaudabledesireto reinterprethistory fromtheblack point of view, ended up by returning blacks to theirtraditional statusas passive victimsof whitemanipulation. But if the Freedmen's Bureauservedonlytheinterests oftheplanters, whydid blacksso vociferously demandthatit remainin theSouth?Ifeducationservedsimply to promotesocial control, why did theblack community thirst after literacy and esteemthosewho could read and write?Littleconsideration has been given to the uses the freedmen may have made of the educationprovided themuchmaligned them, including virtues ofself-discipline, and temperance, thrift. Only when a betterappreciation is achieved of how the desirefor education was related to blacks' overall conception of the meaning of and of how black beliefs freedom affected Republican policycan therole of education in Reconstruction be fully understood.The point is that the postemancipation outcomewas shaped by blacks as well as whites,in ways historians have onlybegun to investigate. Ratherthansimplyemphasizing conservatism and continuity, a coherent of Reconstruction portrait musttakeintoaccountthesubtledialectic of conand changein economic,social, and politicalrelations tinuity as thenation For blacks, one might adjustedto emancipation. beginwithan observation made over forty years ago by the historian FrancisSimkins.While Reconstruction, Simkins wrote,was conventionally seenby whitesoutherners as an to "Africanize" the South, the exact oppositeappeared to be true: attempt tion of the blacks." Recentwork on the black experience makes it possible todayto pointto thecrucialchangesin black society wrought by emancipaof Simkins'sremarkis apparent,if by tion, and in each instancethe truth "Americanization" we understand of thechasmseparating a narrowing black lifefrom thatofthelarger whitesociety.Reconstruction witnessed thedemise of the quasi-communal slave quarterand its replacement by small tenant withindividual families distinct farms, occupying parcelsof land. It was the timeof theemergence of theblack church- previously the"invisible institution"-along with a host of black fraternal,benevolent, and selfimprovement Reconstruction of black organizations. saw thereconstitution
"Reconstructioncan be interpreted as a definitestep .
.
. in the Americaniza-
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out) ofblackwomen as it turned (temporary, lifewiththewithdrawal family of a distincwiththesuffrage, from fieldlabor, and theinstitutionalization, tionbetweenthepublicworld of men and theprivatesphereof women. In gave birthto themodernblack comtheseand otherways, Reconstruction the reflected whose roots lay deep in slavery,but whose structure munity, of emancipation.19 consequences in black lifemoreprofound Nowhere,however,was the transformation than in more striking of the black experience and the "Americanization" ofblackpolitical leadera broad reassessment politics.20The 1970switnessed ofblack by a new generation largely undertaken Reconstruction, shipduring was to rejecttheidea that of thisliterature scholars.The signalcontribution was simplya matterof black and white. Divisions among Reconstruction whiteshave long been knownto have shaped thecourseof Reconstruction; theblack to conflicts within it is now clear,mustalso be directed attention, colored men," as Nell Painter termed community.The "representative national black leaders, were upbraidedfor being cut offfromthe black Thomas to provideeffective politicalleadership. massesand therefore failing studyof Reconstruction recent themostinfluential Holt's Black Over White, conclusionsabout South black politics,reversedWilliamson'spioneering thefatalflawof Reconstruction politicswas that Carolina. For Williamson, and Republicanleaders were concernedonly with theirown constituents out to hostilewhites.For Holt, black leaders,largely incapableof reaching too little, wereconcerned from class of Charleston, thefree mulatto deriving in interested Primarily not too much,withtheneedsof theblackcommunity. civil rights and "basicallybourgeoisin theiroriginsand orientalegislation in paralleled ofland and labor. Holt'sconclusion, theall-important questions was, in a way, a David Rankin'sstudyof New Orleans black leadership, ofthe to thepersistent demandthatblacksbe placedat thecenter culmination thanpassive story.If indeedtheywere active agentsrather Reconstruction victims,then blacks could not be absolved of blame for the failureof fromslaveryof divisionsbetweenfree In its emphasison thepersistence contheincreasing reflected and slave, black and brown,thisnew literature in Reconstruction; and, like other cern with continuity and conservatism the vicworks, it is vulnerableto chargesof exaggerating postrevisionist historical changesthatdid occur. of ordinary timization blacks,and ignoring into theculture of Vicintegrated That thefreecoloredelitewas morefully slaves is clear. Yet thepoliticalsalience torianAmericathanthenewlyfreed of this fact is not. The vast majorityof blacks lived not in cities like werefewfree and New Orleansbut in theblack belt,wherethere Charleston blacksbefore thewar. We now know a good deal about black congressmen
Reconstruction.21
tion . . . [they] failed to act in the interestsof black peasants," especially on
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thelocal leadership of and statelegislators, but thearduoustaskofanalyzing for black Reconstruction has barelybegun. Twelve countiesin Mississippi, but,exceptforBlanche example,elected black sheriffs during Reconstruction K. Bruceand John R. Lynch,who wenton to achievenationalreputations, presence affected we know virtually nothing about thesemen, or how their Delta. Those fewstudies thedailylivesofblacksand whites in theMississippi eventhosewho had been whichdo exist, however, indicate thatlocal leaders, free before theCivil War, often championed thesocial and economicaspirain their day tionsof their constituents and sometimes made a real difference to day lives.22 likefree and freed, blackand More importantly, theuse ofstatic categories of leadership brown,ignoresthe historical processby whichnew patterns politicalmobilization of the emerged during Reconstruction. The remarkable is one ofthemoststriking oftheperiod,and so too blackcommunity features is theemergence, withtheright to voteand thecreation ofUnionLeaguesand theRepublican party,of a new black politicalclass. In earlyReconstruction, to ministers, blacksturned ex-soldiers, free blacks,and menwho had, forone thempolitireason or another, achievedprominence as slaves, to represent most new mencame to thefore, cally.DuringCongressional Reconstruction, and often, prominently blackartisans, who possessedtheskill,independence, literacy thatmarkedthemas leaders,but who werestilldeeplyembeddedin thelifeof thefreedmen's wereuniquelysuited community. Such individuals to serveas a bridgebetweentheblack worldand thepublicpoliticalsphere dominated by whites.23 ofblack characterization Evenin SouthCarolinaand Louisiana,therecent leadersas "bourgeois" maybe open to question.The blackeliteofCharleston and New Orleans lacked captial and economic autonomy.William Hine to builda showsthatCharleston's blackleaderswereunableto raisethefunds The fewreally from thestatelegislature. a charter lineafter streetcar receiving wealthyblacks, Hine contends,avoided politics-their economicstanding was too dependent on close tieswithwealthywhitesto oppose thempolitithedichotomy betweenblack political If thedangerexistsof exaggerating setof falsepolar oppositesdominates another leadersand their constituency, civil vs. segregation, analysis of the contentof black politics.Integration thesedualisms nationalism vs. assimilation: vs. economiclegislation, rights have shaped writingon black thought.Only a few works, like Wilson Moses's The GoldenAge ofBlackNationalism, explorethecommonassumptions shared by nationalists and assimilationists, by movingfroma conthe underlying of specific issues to the languageof politicsitself, sideration historiographical paradigmsof political thought.25There is an interesting thevalue, indeed the pointhere. The past fifteen yearshave demonstrated
cally.24
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to bear on the studyof theAmericanpast the of bringing indispensability, of But by the same token,the insights derivedfromblack history. insights in new ways the of otheraspects of Americanlifecan illuminate students black experience. in thisregard are thestudiesofpoliticallanguageand Particularly relevant whichhave done so muchto recover culture by J.G.A. Pocock and others, thatblack Pocock's approach suggests of republicanthought.26 the history issuesor shouldbe analyzednotas a setof discrete in Reconstruction politics in theblack and from diverseelements to forge demands,but as theattempt a coherentpolitical response to the unprecedented Americanexperiences includedboth values emanating These elements situationof emancipation. from slavery and traditionalAmerican ideals, although often with a such as the dignityof labor, messianic black interpretation, specifically as citizensof the and, especially,the quest for fullincorporation religion, as thosemostcapable Perhapsblack leaderscan bestbe understood republic. of appropriating the available politicallanguage of Americansocietyand of thefreedmen. of theaspirations fromit an expression forging The work of J. Mills Thornton, Michael Holt, and Harry Watson as one paradigmof antebellum the vitalityof republicanism demonstrates thatfreeblacks It should occasion no surprise southern politicalthought.27 to learnedthislanguage.The extentto whichslaves absorbedit is difficult republicanideas about the nature of assess but during Reconstruction, citizenship suffused black political culture. Like northern Radical clause,a provision, guarantee blacksfoundin theConstitution's Republicans, of a reservoir as WilliamWiecekwrites,"almostDelphic" in its ambiguity, federalpower over the states,imposinga dutyupon Congressto eliminate withrepublican government.28 caste and class legislation as incompatible as a key organizingtheme of An emphasis on republicancitizenship civil involvedin treating thepitfalls underscores blackpolitics Reconstruction rightsand land reformas if they were somehow mutually exclusive. a model of polityand society. all, simultaneously was, after Republicanism ofproductive on ownership propwithitsemphasis The republican tradition, helpedblacks of personaland politicalindependence, ertyas theguarantor both the demand for equalitybeforethe law and the pervasive legitimize also reveals citizenship to thequestforrepublican desireforland. Attention forunderstanding of theintegration-segregation dichotomy thelimited utility If black economicand social lifewas markedby a the black experience.29 in thedemandforland and thewithdrawal forautonomy, reflected struggle by whites(a processmisintercontrolled from and social institutions religious -black as "acceptance"of legalizedsegregation) pretedby some historians heritage.30 absorbedinto theAmericanrepublican politicswas fully
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The Civil War transformed the black responseto Americannationality. Appeals to theideals ofAmerican politicalculture had beencommonplace in thatstrandof antebellum black protestdubbed "The Great Tradition"by VincentHarding. But this affirmation of Americanism had always been tempered by an understandable alienationborn of slaveryand racial injustice. As the conflict reshapedtheattitude of Americanintellectuals to their at least temporarily, an earlier alienationwithina society,submerging, renewedcommitment to the nation-state, so black spokesmen sacrificed an of Americaninstitutions in thequest forequal citizenship. edge of criticism in thecase of Frederick NathanHugginshas demonstrated thisconvincingly theambiguity of Douglass. The same Douglass who so brilliantly articulated the black conditionin his eloquentprewaraddress on the meaningof the Fourthof Julyto the slave could now supportthe Grant administration's schemeto swallow up Santo Domingo in thename of bringing theblessings of Anglo-Saxoncivilization to thenativesthere.31 Republicancitizenship, moreover, was what made the postemancipation of theUnitedStatesunique. The history of othersocieties which experience thetransition from underwent castsseriousdoubton the slaveryto freedom current In a comidea that AmericanReconstruction was "conservative." stands as a unique and dramaticexperiparativecontext,Reconstruction ment,the only instancewhen blacks, withina few yearsof emancipation, achieveduniversal manhoodsuffrage and exercised ofpolitical a realmeasure power.The comparative analysisofpostemancipation societies, indeed,may some of the problemswhich now afflict provideways of overcoming the sensedthattheexamples studyof Reconstruction. Certainly, contemporaries ofother societies shedlight on thecomplexsituation confronted in Americans theaftermath of their own Civil War. ThaddeusStevens theemanexamined cipationof theRussianserfs; whitesoutherners debatedthelessonsofHaitian and British Caribbeanabolition.ButfewAmerican historians have followed their example.32 There are, of course,dangersinherent in the comparative method,most of particular to slightthe distinctiveness notablythe temptation historical in the quest for overarching experiences generalizations.33 Nonetheless,a us to developa moresophisticated comparative understandanalysispermits ofemancipation ingof theproblem and itsaftermath. theend of Everywhere, for the scarce resources of plantation slaverywas succeededby a struggle slaves economies,paramountamong which was the labor of the former The desireamongfreedmen themselves. to own their own land and in other their and so ways establish autonomyseemsto have been all but universal, too was the effort of planters to forceblacks back to work as a dependent plantation labor force.34
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as a struggle emerges ofemancipation theaftermath Fromthisperspective, and privileges, in whichtherights, and transformation, over class formation were defined.The degree of social role of a new class, the freedmen, upon slavesdepended achievedby theformer economicand social autonomy of the the connection including an elaborateseriesof power relationships, slave societyto the largerworld economyand to outside,usually former scarcity of land, and thedegreeto therelative colonial,politicalauthorities, which, despite abolition, the planter class retained its local political regime thetotalcollapseoftheplantation from ranged The results hegemony. planwithsurviving peasantries" of "reconstituted in Haiti to thecoexistence indenturedlabor in Trinidad and British tations employingimmigrant of Barbados. In every system plantation unchanged Guiana, to thevirtually intersociety,politics and economicswere thoroughly postemancipation twined.What makes theUnitedStatesunique is that,fora time,black sufmaster and former between former itself a battleground made thepolity frage slave. as a unique episode in a prolongedprocess of ViewingReconstruction of continuing to emancipation may shed new lighton a number adjustment literature was producedin the1970s debatesabout theperiod.A considerable South,and the of thepostbellum on thereasonsfortheeconomicretardation blacks. One school of thought, particularly dire povertyof southerners, solved the to southern development, neoclassicaleconomictheory applying problem by concluding that there was no problem. In a competitive determinedthe marketplacein which rational, calculating self-interest producedtheoptimalpossibehaviorof blacksand whitesalike, themarket ble result,given the economicresourcesof the South. By assumingwhat oughtto be the subjectof investigation-howmen and women did in fact as a sharecropping portrayed market -these writers respondto an expanding of both tenantsand landlords,freely rationalchoice servingthe interests fromboth groups,ratherthan the outcomeof into by individuals entered A somewhatdifferent of class and social power.35 changingrelationships approachwas thatof RogerRansomand RichardSutch,who also employed monopa neoclassicalmodelbut concludedthatbecause of local merchants' and the South became properly oly of creditthe marketfailedto function and worsening impoverishment. lockedintoa cycleofcottonoverproduction when functioning All theseworks,however,assumedthatthe freemarket, in a especially ofall social classes.The idea that, servestheinterests properly, was and inequality, themarket itself mayproducepoverty colonialeconomy, not considered.36 economicsbut not political thisliterature, by examining Most strikingly, survivaland conto whichtheplantation's economy,overlookedtheextent
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Instead, economicefficiency. had little to do withsuperior tinued dominance it dependedupon plantersmonopolyof societies, in mostpostemancipation rural economic resourcesand political power. Only a few writershave outcomewithinthe contextof class relations treated the postemancipation and politicaleconomy,most notablyJonathan Wiener,who describedthe inpost-Civil War Alabama. and merchants offreedom, planters, competition were of Reconstruction, afterthe overthrow Wienershowed how planters, at the expenseof other able to use the state to bolstertheirown interests emergednot simplyas a groups. His studyconcluded that sharecropping of individual resulting fromtheconflict matter choice,but as a compromise between planters'need for a disciplinedlabor force and the freedmen's contending demandforautonomy.Ronald L. F. Davis went even further, was less a compromisethan an unwillingconcession that sharecropping forcedupon reluctant by blacks' refusalto labor forwages under planters in associationwiththecrop lien, In timesharecropping, direct supervision.37 it offered became a byword for semipeonage.But duringReconstruction arrangements blacks a degreeof controlover theirtime,labor, and family underslavery.38 inconceivable in theaftermath of emancipation may also proChangesin class relations vide the key to unlockingthe experienceof that shadowy presence,the No ironyin thestudyof theSouth is moreproyeomanry. nonslaveholding of thisunstudied disregard caused by historians' foundthan the distortion South is is possibleuntilthenineteenth-century majority. And no synthesis understood as more than a storyof the blacks and theirmasters.We now know that the Civil War unleashed forceswhich swept the previously intothecottonkingdom, a transformawhiteupcountry subsistence-oriented tion which, as Steven Hahn explains, involved profound changes in The among white farmers.39 economic, social, and political institutions economic dislocationsspawned by the spread of cotton productionand to the tenancy among whitesmay in timeadd a new dimension agricultural as well as thelargely whiteRepublicanism traditional debate over southern movements in several southern Independent neglected post-Reconstruction states.It is now clear thatscalawags, as theiropponentscalled them,were whose loyaltyto theRepublicanpartyrested small farmers, predominantly to theplanter intraof prewarhostility on a combination regime, persistent in Butthechanging class relations statesectionalism, and wartime Unionism. of such politicalconthe whiteupcountry also underscore the importance and debtorrelief, cernsof Reconstruction which, as homesteadexemptions in stateslikeNorth fora time,attracted to theRepublican party manywhites Carolina and Georgia.40 of the white Like black suffrage, the size and political significance
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experience apartfrom thatof postemancipation yeomanry setstheAmerican other countries.But Hahn's work also reemphasizeshow, as in other in the class relations in an attempt to redefine societies, thelaw was employed of interest in of slavery.In recent years,there has been an increase aftermath to economic change and the impact of the judicial the law's relationship MortonHonvitz,forexample, on property rights and class relations. system private Northredefined how legal changesin the antebellum demonstrated propthetraditional whilerestricting in theinterests ofcorporations property of small-scale owners.Some work along theselineshas already ertyrights studiesof the coercivelabor been done forthepostwarSouth, particularly repealed during legislation enacted during PresidentialReconstruction, withmodifications, upon Redemption. Republicanrule,and thenreenacted, of laborers,regulating vagrancy,barringthe "enticement" Laws punishing liens, and makingbreachesof contractpunishableunder the agricultural to use thepowerofthestateto solidify the criminal an effort law, all reflected to theseand less studied plantation's controlover its labor force.Attention incidenceof taxation,the use of convictlabor, issues such as the changing picofhunting and fishing revealsa vastlydifferent rights, and theregulation interlude portrayed tureof RepublicanReconstruction thantheconservative between standsas a uniquemoment literature. Reconstruction in muchrecent two periodswhen thelaw was moldedwithone idea in mind-to maintain theplanter class,it did notdestroy economy.IfReconstruction theplantation into place of a comprehensive legal code meantto did preventthe putting in theplanters' interests. Even shape thepoliticaleconomyof emancipation was of Republicangovernments to enact labor controlmeasures therefusal itselfa significant departurefromthe patternin otherpostemancipation to reopenthat To takefullaccountof issueslike theseit will be necessary in question,therole of economicmotivesand influences strangely neglected Beardianviews of politics.In reactionto inherited shapingReconstruction between as littlemore than a conflict Reconstruction politicalalignments revisionistwriterslike Irwin Unger, Robert industryand agriculture, Sharkey,and Stanley Coben insistedthat therewas no simpleeconomic politics and no unifiedRadical economic explanationfor Reconstruction Powell pointsout,thesescholars "proved But,as Lawrence policyor interest. duringthe period, not that only that therewere many economicinterests there were none." Yet recent writingscontinue to avoid discussion of both thenationaland southern within economicinterests party, Republican and the impact of profoundchanges in Americaneconomic enterprisetherapidexpanof thenationalrailroadnetwork, thecompletion including frontier-onthe sion of factory and the openingof themining production,
societies.41
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oftheparty's evolution southern workon theSouth, policy.42 The bestrecent however,reminds us thattheshape of thesouthern economyand thefuture role of blacks withinit, were centralpoints of political conflictduring Reconstruction. What Mark Summers calls the "gospelof prosperity"-the idea of a New South developing along linesmarkedout by theurbanizing, industrializing North-animatedsouthern Republican politics, inspiring both theextensive whose detailshave so often railroadschemes baffled historians, and the vision of a societyfreedfromthe dominanceof the plantation, in whichsocial advancement would be open to all on the basis of individual not inherited merit, caste distinctions.43 Here,ofcourse,was a visionwhichwas notto be. Yet itarosefrom a sociinwhichthefoundaofsocial relations etyinwhichall forms werein turmoil, tionsof thesocial and politicalorderwere,fora time,open fordiscussion, in whichseemingly trivial between black and whitebecame testsof encounters racialand classpower.Petty to yieldthe incidents-thefailure of a freedman sidewalk or to address a formeremployerwith the proper deferencesparkedseemingly irrational acts of violence.Indeed,theverypervasiveness of violencein thepost-Civil War South may be considered an indication of how highwerethestakesbeingfought over.44 Reconstruction's promisecertainly exceededitsaccomplishments. Yet so longas Reconstruction survived, so too did thepossibility of further change,a prospectonlyforeclosed with Redemption and, later,thefinalimplementation of segregation and disfranchisement. the outcomeof the postemancipation If, in retrospect, struggle appears all but inevitable,it is equally certainthat Reconstruction transformed thelivesof southern blacksin ways unmeasurable and in by statistics areas unreachable by law. It raisedblacks'expectations and aspirations, redefinedtheir statusin relationto thelargersociety,and allowed space forthe creationof institutions that enabled them to survive the repression that to survive followed.Itslegacydeserves as an inspiration to thoseAmericans, black and whitealike, who insistthat the nation live up to the professed ideals of itspoliticalculture.
1. August Meier, An Epitaph for the Writingof Reconstruction History?"Reviews in AmericanHistory9 (March 1981): 87. 2. Surveysof theReconstruction literature includeBernard A. Weisberger, The Dark and Bloody Groundof Reconstruction Historiograpy," Journal 25 (November of Southern History 1959): 427-47; and Richard 0. Curry, The Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877: A CriticalOverview of RecentTrends and Interpretations," Civil War History20 (September 1974): 215-28. 3. John R. Lynch, Some HistoricalErrors ofJames FordIThodes," Journal of NegroHistory 2 (October 1917): 345-68; Howard K. Beale, The CriticalYear? (New York: HarcourtBrace, 1930); Alrutheus A. Taylor, The Negro in South Carolina During the Reconstruction (Washington: The AssociationfortheStudyofNegroLifeand History, 1924); W.E.B. DuBois, Black Reconstruction in America (New York: S. A. Russell, 1935); FrancisB. Simkinsand
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of North (Chapel Hill: University RobertH. Woody, South Carolina DuringReconstruction Carolina Press, 1932). and ReconstrucAndrewJohnson includeEricL. McKitrick, 4. Major worksof revisionism of Chicago Press, 1960); LaWanda Cox and JohnH. Cox, Politics, tion (Chicago: University Principle,and Prejudice 1865-1866 (Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1963); W. R. Brock, An forEquality M. McPherson,The Struggle AmericanCrisis(London: St. Martin's,1963); James Press, 1964); JoelWilliamson,AfterSlavery (Chapel (Princeton, N.J.: PrincetonUniversity Hill: University of NorthCarolina Press, 1965); Hans L. Trefousse,The Radical Republicans (New York: Knopf, M. Stampp,The Era ofReconstruction (New York: Knopf,1969). Kenneth at its highpoint of influence. revisionism 1965) summarized in Willie Lee Rose, Slavery and Freedom (New York: 5. This point is made effectively OxfordUniversity Press, 1982), pp. 100-01. 6. C. Vann Woodward, "Seeds of Failurein Radical Race Policy,"AmericanPhilosophical Society Proceedings 110 (1966): 1-9; August Meier, "Negroes in the First and Second Reconstructions of the South," Civil War History13 (June1967): 114-30. Nation, New Republic,March 17, 1979, 7. C. Vann Woodward, reviewof The Confederate p. 26. A Compromise ofPrinciple (New York: Norton,1974), "Preserving 8. Michael Les Benedict, Journalof American the Constitution: The ConservativeBasis of Radical Reconstruction," and the Waite Federalism:Reconstruction History61 (June1974): 65-90, and "Preserving Court," Supreme Court Review (1978): 39-79; Michael Perman, Reunion WithoutCompromise (New York: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1973); William Gillette,Retreatfrom Press, 1979). Reconstruction 1869-1879 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University 1975); Morton 9. Harold M. Hyman, A More PerfectUnion (Boston: Houghton,Mifflin, Press, 1977). A similararguKeller,Affairs of State (Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard University of Illinois mentwas made in PhilipS. Paludan, A Covenant WithDeath (Urbana: University Press, 1975). 10. JoelH. Silbey,A RespectableMinority (New York: Norton,1977); EdwardL. Gambill, Conservative Ordeal (Ames: Iowa State UniversityPress, 1981); JeromeMushkat, The DickinN.J.: Fairleigh Reconstruction of theNew York Democracy,1861-1874 (Rutherford, a new son University Press,1981). LawrenceGrossmandid discern(and perhapsexaggerated) departurein Democraticracial attitudesduringthe 1870s in The DemocraticParty and the of IllinoisPress, 1976). On the North,see JamesC. Mohr, The Negro (Urbana: University Radical Republicansand Reformin New York DuringReconstruction (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1973); Mohr, ed., Radical Republicans in the North (Baltimore:Johns Hopkins UniversityPress, 1976); Eugene H. Berwanger, The West and Reconstruction (New of IllinoisPress,1981); FeliceA. Bonadio, Northof Reconstruction (Urbana: University York: New York University Press, 1970). Two indispensableworks that shed lighton the Beyond Equality (New York: Knopf, generaldecline of radicalismare David Montgomery, Press, 1967); and Ellen DuBois, Feminismand Suffrage(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University 1978). 11. C. Vann Woodward, Originsof theNew South (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UniverWiener,Social Originsof the New sityPress, 1951). Criticsof Woodward includeJonathan South 1860-1885 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978); Dwight B. Billings, of North Carolina Jr.,Plantersand the Making of a 'New South' (Chapel Hill: University in the Reconsidered:Change and Continuity Press, 1979); and JamesT. Moore, "Redeemers Democratic South, 1870-1900," Journalof Southern History 44 (August 1978): 357-78. "Antebellum are Lee W. Formwalt, PlanterPersistence: persistence" Amongstudiesof "planter SouthwestGeorgia-A Case Study," PlantationSociety in the Americas 1 (October 1981): Nelson and in LargeLandholdings, of Emancipation 410-29; and A. JaneTownes, "The Effect 45 (August1979): 403-12. James Goochland Counties,Virginia," of Southern History Journal Roark's Masters without Slaves (New York: Norton, 1977) argues that the planterclass afterthe Civil War. declinedin power and prestige 12. WilliamT. Auman and David D. Scarboro,"The Heroes ofAmericain Civil War North Carolina," NorthCarolina HistoricalReview 58 (Autumn1981): 327-63.
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13. Joe Gray Taylor, Louisiana Reconstructed, 1863-1877 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Nor Is It Over Yet (Gainesville:University Presses H. Shofner, University Press,1974); Jerrell of Florida,1974); WilliamC. Harris, The Day of the Carpetbagger (Baton Rouge: Louisiana more fullywithMississippi'sconservative State University Press, 1979). Harrissympathized Adelbert RepublicanGovernor James L. Alcornthanwithhis radicalsuccessor Ames. This was failedto consultthe Ames Papers at SmithCollege, in which partlybecause he inexplicably numerouslettersfromlocal black officialsdetail the devastatingimpact of Alcorn's conciliatory policy towardMississippiDemocratson the Republicanpartyand its black constithistories of Reconstruction in Alabama, uency. There are stillno modernand comprehensive Arkansas,Georgia, Tennessee,Texas, and, most strikingly, South Carolina. 14. William S. McFeely, Yankee Stepfather (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, Conn.: GreenwoodPress, 1968); Louis S. Gerteis,From Contrabandto Freedom(Westport, 1973); Willie Lee Rose, Rehearsal for Reconstruction (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1964); Donald G. Nieman, To Set the Law in Motion (Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus International, 1979); Todd L. Savitt,"Politicsin Medicine:The GeorgiaFreedmen's Bureauand theOrganizationof HealthCare," Civil War History, 28 (March 1982): 45-64; Leon F. Litwack,Been in theStorm So Long (New York: Knopf,1979). More favorableviews of theBanks labor system appeared in PeytonMcCrary,AbrahamLincolnand Reconstruction Univer(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton of sityPress, 1978); and LaWanda Cox, Lincolnand Black Freedom(Columbia: University South Carolina Press, 1981). 15. Important recent workson black educationin Reconstruction includeRobertC. Morris, Reading,'Riting, and Reconstruction of Chicago Press,1981); Jacqueline (Chicago: University of North Carolina Press, 1980); Jones,Soldiers of Lightand Love (Chapel Hill: University Ronald E. Butchart, Blacksand Reconstruction Northern Schools, Southern (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980); KennethB. White, "The Alabama Freedmen's Bureau and Black Education:The Myth of Opportunity," Alabama Review 34 (April 1981): 107-24. For a critique of northern education,see Michael B. Katz, The Irony of Early School Reform(Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968); Stanley K. Schultz, Samuel Bowles, and Herbert Gintis,Schoolingin CapitalistAmerica (New York: Basic Books, 1976). 16. The recent collectionofessayseditedby Otto H. Olsen, Reconstruction and Redemption in theSouth (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University to Press,1980), does not even attempt sum up theconclusionsof theindividualcase studiesor draw out commonthemes or patterns. The essays all, however,reflect of southern an emphasison the timidity Republicansand the of Reconstruction moderation as a whole. 17. Cox, Lincolnand Black Freedom,pp. 142-84; Butchart, Northern Schools, p. 113. Acresand a Mule (BatonRouge: Louisiana 18. On theland issue,see Claude F. Oubre, Forty StateUniversity Press,1978); and EricFoner,Politicsand Ideologyin theAge of theCivil War (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1980), pp. 128-49. In a numberof works,HermanL. Belz has stressed theimportance of equalitybeforethelaw forblacks,criticizing neorevisionist premises:see "The New Orthodoxyin Reconstruction Historiography," Reviewsin American History1 (March 1973): 106-13, A New Birthof Freedom (Westport,Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1976), and Emancipationand Equal Rights(New York: Norton, 1978). Problemsof blackswho did obtainland are detailedin ElizabethBethel, Promiseland (Philadelphia:Temple University Press, 1981). 19. FrancisB. Simkins,"New Viewpointsof Southern Reconstruction," Journal of Southern History5 (February 1939): 49-61. Changes in black social and culturallifeafter emancipation are treatedin Arnold H. Taylor, Travail and Triumph(Westport, Conn.: GreenwoodPress, 1976); and LawrenceW. Levine,Black Cultureand Consciousness(New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1976). On the black church,see Clarence G. Walker,A Rock in a Weary Land Arm(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press,1982); and forfraternal organizations, stead L. Robinson, "Plans dat Comed fromGod: Institution of Buildingand the Emergence Black Leadership in Reconstruction Memphis,"in Towardsa New South?,eds. OrvilleV. Burton and RobertC. McMath Jr.(Westport, Conn.: GreenwoodPress, 1982), pp. 71-102. On Herbert G. Gutman'sThe Black Familyin Slaveryand Freedom,1750-1925 family structure, of familystructure (New York: Pantheon, 1976) tends to stresscontinuity ratherthan the
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on therolesof menand womenwithin impactofemancipation and thesuffrage theblack family. Our understanding of the impactof emancipationon blacks will be greatly advanced by theforthcoming appearanceof theoutstanding multivolume collection, Freedom:A DocumentaryHistoryof Emancipation, editedby Ira Berlin,JosephP. Reidy and Leslie S. Rowland. 20. For example,see theserecent biographiesof black politicalleaders:Okon E. Uya, From Slavery to Public Service: Robert Smalls 1839-1915 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971); VictorUllman, MartinDelany (Boston: 1971); Peggy Lamson, The Glorious Failure: Black Congressman RobertBrown Elliottand Reconstruction in South Carolina (New York: Norton, 1973); PeterD. Klingman,JosiahWalls (Gainesville:University Presses of Florida, 1976); Loren Schweninger, James T. Rapier and Reconstruction (Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, 1978). 21. Nell I. Painter,Exodusters (New York: Knopf,1976); Thomas Holt, Black Over White of IllinoisPress, 1977). Among youngerblack scholars,conflicts (Urbana: University among blacks were emphasizedin ArmsteadL. Robinson, "Beyond the Realm of Social Consensus: for AmericanHistory,"Journalof AmericanHistory68 New Meanings for Reconstruction in Louisiana During (September 1981): 276-97; whereasCharles Vincent,in Black Legislators Reconstruction (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1976), took a rathermore positive view of black legislators.On New Orleans, see David C. Rankin, "The Origins of Black Leadershipin New Orleans During Reconstruction," Journalof SouthernHistory40 (August1974): 417-40. 22. See Vernon Burton, "Race and Reconstruction: EdgefieldCounty, South Carolina," Journalof Social History 11 (Fall 1978): 31-56; Edward Magdol, A Right to the Land and Local (Westport, Conn.: GreenwoodPress,1977); BarryA. Crouch, "Self-Determination Black Leaders in Texas," Phylon 39 (December 1978): 344-55; WalterJ. Fraser,Jr.,"Black in Tennessee," TennesseeHistoricalQuarterly34 (Winter1975): 362-82. Reconstructionists James W. Leslie's "Ferd Harris: Jefferson County's Black Republican Leader," Arkansas HistoricalQuarterly 37 (Autumn1978): 240-51, exemplifies what needsto be done in terms of local black leadership. in Richmond:WhiteReconstruction and Black Pro23. John T. O'Brien's "Reconstruction test,April-June 1865," VirginiaMagazine of Historyand Biography89 (July 1981): 259-81, of black political organization.Peter Kolchin, in FirstFreedom reveals the swiftemergence thechangesin politicalleadership and the Conn.: GreenwoodPress,1972), stresses (Westport, role of artisans.Robinson,in "Plans dat Comed from artisansplayeda prominent God," finds prominentpart in black political leadership in Memphis, while taking little role in the institutions of the black community. religious/benevolent Black Political Leadershipand the 24. William C. Hine, "Charlestonand Reconstruction: RepublicanParty,1865-1877" (Ph.D. diss., Kent State University, 1978). 25. Wilson J. Moses, The Golden Age of Black Nationalism,1850-1924 (Hamden, Conn.: Shoe StringPress, 1978). Anotherwork transcending traditionaldichotomiesis David A. of IllinoisPress,1976), Gerber'sBlack Ohio and theColor Line 1860-1915 (Urbana: University probablythe outstanding studyof blacks in a singlestatepublishedin the past decade. 26. See J.G.A. Pocock, The MachiavellianMoment (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1975); and Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic 1776-1787 of North Carolina Press, 1969), among numerousotherworks on (Chapel Hill: University republicanism. 27. J. Mills Thornton,III, Politicsand Power in a Slave Society (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978); Michael F. Holt, The Political Crisis of the 1850s (New York: Politicsand Community Wiley, 1978); HarryL. Watson, Jacksonian Conflict(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981). 28. ArticleIV, Section4: "The UnitedStates shall guaranteeto everyState in thisUnion a RepublicanFormof Government." See WilliamM. Wiecek, The GuaranteeClause of the U.S. Constitution (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1972). 29. Howard N. Rabinowitz'sRace Relations in the Urban South 1865-1890 (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1978) added a thirdelement,"exclusion,"arguingthatsegregation was perceived by blacks as a step forwardfrom being excluded altogetherfrom public facilities.
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of of social separationand politicalinclusionparallelstheexperience 30. This combination comparison, theblack-immigrant thatthatold chestnut, groups,suggesting manyimmigrant failthe "cultural so long as it is not employedsimplyto identify stillpossessessome vitality, as in Thomas Sowell, ings"whichsupposedlyaccountforblacks' slowerrateof advancement, EthnicAmerica (New York: 1981). 31. VincentHarding, There Is a River (New York: Harcourt,Brace, Jovanovich,1981); The InnerCivil War (New York: Harper and Row, 1965); Nathan I. GeorgeM. Fredrickson, Huggins,Slave and Citizen(Boston: Little,Brown,1980). of the of recent work in "comparative and variousdefinitions history" 32. For an assessment in The Past BeforeUs, ed. Michael "ComparativeHistory," genre,see GeorgeM. Fredrickson, White Press, 1980), pp. 457-73. Fredrickson's Kammen (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University comparativestudyof theevolutionof systems Supremacy(New York: 1981) is an exemplary of racial dominationin the United States and South Africa. Cf. C. Vann Woodward, "The University Price of Freedom,"in What Was Freedom'sPrice?,ed. David L. Sansing(Jackson: of Mississippi Press, 1978), pp. 93-113; Stanley L. Engerman,"Economic Aspects of the West Indies," Journalof to Emancipationin the United States and the British Adjustments Stanley Greenberg,Race and State in Capitalist History (forthcoming); Interdisciplinary Press, 1980); (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Development:ComparativePerspectives (Baton Rouge: Louisiana of Emancipation EricFoner,"Nothing ButFreedom":The Aftermath State University Press, 1983), ch. 1. 33. For example,JayR. Mandle, The Roots of Black Poverty(Durham,N.C.: Duke Univerthe model of "plantationsociety"fromthe Caribbean to the sity Press, 1978), transposing theperiod1865-1919as an undifferentiated unit,and deriveseconomic AmericanSouth,treats social relations,and black and white thought(includingan "ideology of subserstructure, thaninvestifrom theoverallmodel,rather amongthefreedmen) vience"supposedlyprevalent gatingthemempirically. in othersocietiesmostvaluable for of emancipation 34. Amongtheworkson theaftermath (Chicago: of theAmericanSouth are SidneyW. Mintz, Caribbean Transformations students Historical Reflecof Chicago Press,1974) and "Slaveryand theRise ofPeasantries," University tions6 (Summer1979): 213-42; Thomas C. Holt, "'An Empireover theMind': Emancipation, Race and Ideology in the British West Indies and theAmericanSouth," in Region,Race and eds., J. Morgan Kousser and JamesM. McPherson (New York: Oxford Reconstruction, Slave Emancipation (Oxford: Press,1982), pp. 283-313; WilliamA. Green,British University Oxford University Press, 1976); Alan H. Adamson, Sugar WithoutSlaves (New Haven, Adaptations in Conn.: Yale University Press, 1972); Rebecca J. Scott, "Postemancipation Cuba, 1880-1899" (American Historical Association annual meeting,Los Angeles, 1981); Press,1980). Frederick Cooper, FromSlaves to Squatters(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University in thePostbellumSouth (Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard 35. StephenJ.DeCanio, Agriculture Press, 1974); Robert Higgs, Competitionand Coercion (New York: Cambridge University UniversityPress, 1977); Joseph D. Reid, "Sharecroppingas an UnderstandableMarket Response-the Post-BellumSouth," Journalof Economic History33 (March 1973): 106-30; Harold D. Woodman, "Sequel to Slavery: The New HistoryViews the PostbellumSouth," Journal of SouthernHistory44 (November1977): 523-54. 36. Roger L. Ransom and Richard Sutch, One Kind of Freedom(New York: Cambridge in Economic to thiswork,see Explorations relating Press,1977). For severalarticles University to theJanuary issue, remarks and April1979), especiallytheintroductory History16 (January by WilliamN. Parker. and EconomicDevelop37. Wiener,Social Originsof theNew South, and "Class Structure mentin the AmericanSouth, 1865-1955," AmericanHistoricalReview 84 (October 1979): 1865-1880,"in FromOld 970-92; Ronald L. F. Davis, "Labor DependencyAmong Freedmen, B. Moore South to New: Essays on the Transitional South, eds. WalterJ.Fraserand Winfred Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1981), pp. 155-65. Davis also cast doubt on the view (Westport, on MississippiValley plantationsshaped that the Army'swartimewage labor experiment helpedconvinceblacks to rejectwage thattheexperience policies,contending Reconstruction labor altogether. 38. Unfortunately, virtuallythe entiredebate has thus far focused on the cotton South,
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wheresharecropping replacedslave labor. Littlework has been done on ruralclass formation in sugar,wherewage-laborplantations succeededslavery, on rice,wherea black peasantry not unlikethatof theCaribbeancame intoexistence, or on theUpper South,whichexperienced a complexprocessof economicdiversification aftertheend of slavery.But see J.CarlyleSitterson, Sugar Country(Lexington:University of KentuckyPress, 1953); and JosephP. Reidy, "Sugar and Freedom: Emancipationin Louisiana's Sugar Parishes" (American Historical Associationannual meeting, Washington, M. Clifton,"Twilight D.C., 1980); James Comes to theRice Kingdom:PostbellumRice Cultureon the South AtlanticCoast," GeorgiaHistorical Quarterly62 (Summer1978): 146-52; and Thomas F. Armstrong, "FromTask Labor to Free Labor: The Transition Along Georgia'sRice Coast, 1820-1880,"GeorgiaHistoricalQuarterly 64 (Winter1980): 432-47; Foner, "NothingBut Freedom,"ch. 3; Barbara J. Fields, "The Maryland Way fromSlavery to Freedom"(Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1978); Crandall A. Shadowed Thresholds of TennesseePress, 1982). Shifflett, (Knoxville:University 39. StevenH. Hahn, "The Roots of Southern Populism:Yeoman Farmers and theTransformation of Georgia's Upper Piedmont,1850-1890" (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1979). Cf. Forrest McDonald and Grady McWhiney,"The South fromSelf-Sufficiency to Peonage: An AmericanHistoricalReview 85 (December1980): 1095-1118. Interpretation," 40. On the scalawags, the classic articleby David Donald, "The Scalawag in Mississippi " Journal Reconstruction, of SouthernHistory10 (November1944): 447-60, stressed therole of theWhigplanters amongsouthern Republicans.Worksstressing theroleofupcountry small farmers includeGordon B. McKinney, SouthernMountain Republicans1865-1900 (Chapel Hill: Universityof North Carolina Press, 1978); Allen W. Trelease, "Who Were the Scalawags?" Journalof SouthernHistory29 (November 1963): 445-68. William T. Blain, "Banner Unionism in Mississippi,Choctaw County 1861-1869," Mississippi Quarterly29 (September 1976): 207-20, is an outstanding studyof the linksbetweenUnionismand white in one Mississippihill county. Republicanism 41. Morton J. Horwitz, The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860 (Cambridge, Mass.: HarvardUniversity and Press,1977); HarryN. Scheiber,"Regulation, Property Rights, Definition of 'The Market':Law and theAmericanEconomy,"Journal 41 of EconomicHistory see Daniel A. Novak, The Wheelof Ser(March 1981): 103-09. On coercivelabor legislation, vitude(Lexington: of Kentucky University Press, 1978); Pete Daniel, "The Metamorphosis of Slavery, 1865-1900," Journalof American History66 (June1979): 88-99; William Cohen, "Negro Involuntary Servitudein the South, 1865-1940: A Preliminary Analysis,"Journal of SouthernHistory42 (February1976): 31-60; and Harold D. Woodman, "Post-Civil War and theLaw," Agricultural Southern Agriculture History53 (January 1979): 319-37. Disputes over fencing and hunting are treatedby Steven Hahn in "Common Rightsand Comrights monwealth:The Stock-Law Struggleand the Roots of SouthernPopulism," in Kousser and McPherson,eds., Region, Race and Reconstruction, pp. 51-88, and "Hunting,Fishing,and Foraging:The Transformation of Property Rightsin the PostbellumSouth," Radical History Review (forthcoming); and by J. CrawfordKing in "The Closing of the SouthernRange: An Exploratory Study,"Journal of SouthernHistory48 (February 1982): 53-70. These issues are also discussedin Foner, "NothingBut Freedom",ch. 2. 42. IrwinUnger, The GreenbackEra (Princeton, N.J.: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1964); Robert P. Sharkey,Money, Class, and Party (Baltimore:JohnsHopkins University Press, 1959); Stanley Coben, "Northeastern Business and Radical Reconstruction: A Re-Examination," Mississippi Valley HistoricalReview 46 (June1959): 67-90; LawrenceN. Powell, "The AmericanLand Companyand Agency:John A. Andrewand theNorthernization of the South," Civil War History21 (December 1975): 293-308. On economic change, see AlfredD. Chandler, Jr., The Visible Hand (Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977). 43. Mark W. Summers, "Radical Reconstruction and theGospel ofProsperity" (Ph.D. diss., of California,Berkeley, University 1980). 44. Allen W. Trelease's WhiteTerror(New York: Harperand Row, 1971) remainsthesole comprehensive studyof the problemof Reconstruction violence, a subjectwhose profound impacton political,economic,and social relationsremainsto be fullyexplored.

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RECONSTRUCTION REVISITED

FONER / Reconstruction Revisited

REVIEWS IN AMERICAN HISTORY / December1982

Revisited FONER / Reconstruction

REVIEWS IN AMERICAN HISTORY / December1982

FONER / Reconstruction Revisited

REVIEWS IN AMERICAN HISTORY / December1982

tion . . . [they] failed to act in the interestsof black peasants," especially on

FONER / Reconstruction Revisited

REVIEWS IN AMERICAN HISTORY / December1982

FONER / Reconstruction Revisited

REVIEWS IN AMERICAN HISTORY / December1982

Revisited FONER / Reconstruction

REVIEWS IN AMERICAN HISTORY / December1982

FONER / Reconstruction Revisited

REVIEWS IN AMERICAN HISTORY / December1982

FONER / Reconstruction Revisited

REVIEWS IN AMERICAN HISTORY / December1982

FONER / Reconstruction Revisited

REVIEWS IN AMERICAN HISTORY / December1982

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