Fasttrack to America's Past
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Page 140


Page 141
 		Pages 140 & 141 - Voices of Reconstruction

The reading selection

   The four selections on these pages give a variety of viewpoints about the challenges faced by the people of the South and the nation after the Civil War.

   The first three selections will give students a better sense of the complexity of the situation faced by individuals, government leaders, and the military during Reconstruction.

   The fourth selection is from Booker T. Washington's famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech of 1895.  Segregation had become a widespread social pattern in the South, and in many areas had the force of law.  Washington lays out a challenge for whites and blacks to work together for their mutual progress.

   Students should know that Booker T. Washington did not like segregation.  He accepted it only because he did not think it could be challenged directly at that time by blacks, especially in the South.  He hoped his strategy - a kind of compromise position - would win the support of whites, improve education and opportunities for blacks, and eventually cause segregation to fall away.


The picture

   Booker T. Washington, who rose from slavery to become a famous leader and educator in the decades after the Civil War.  His account of his life in his autobiography, Up From Slavery, is one of the great classics of American literature.
 

Group discussion questions

   The first selection, a notice from the Freedmen's Bureau, appeals to both whites and blacks to realize that a "great social revolution" is going on.  It warns whites that their interests and those of the freed slaves are the same.  If the freed slaves are driven away by unfair treatment, the state of North Carolina will lose a large part of its productive labor.
   The document also tells the freed slaves that they have new responsibilities.  They must support their families, help orphaned children, and obey the laws of the land.
   This document reveals the basic task of the South at the end of the Civil War:  adapt to the new reality, because a new reality has arrived.

   In the second selection, blacks in Virginia are expressing fears about how they will be treated if the former Confederates are allowed to simply swear loyalty to the U.S. and regain control. 
   "We know these men - know them well," the document warns.  The black Virginians worried that once the former Confederate leaders were back in power, laws would be passed to keep the freed slaves from having any real freedom. 
   The letter asks the federal government to keep Virginia under a military governor until a law is passed to stop any state from discriminating between citizens on the basis of race or color.
   This selection reveals an important task that remained long after the war ended: protecting the rights of blacks in the South.

   A white newspaper editor from Louisiana in the third selection tells the U.S. Congress that interference from the federal government is unnecessary.  He claims that white planters realize that it is in their own self-interest to treat the freed slaves well.  He says the planters know very well that to lose the labor of blacks would be a disaster.
   The editor states that planters he has spoken with make it a point to provide education, "a preacher," and other help for the freed slaves.  He concludes, "Leave the people to themselves, and they will manage very well."
   This selection shows another challenge left by the Civil War.  How much should the federal government interfere as whites and blacks in the South adjusted to the end of slavery?  Too much interference would be resented and resisted by whites, and too little would leave freed slaves vulnerable to abuse.

   The last selection dates from 1895.  In it, Booker T. Washington proposes a strategy that sidesteps the issue of segregation.  That social pattern, he realized, would not be broken overnight.  Instead of confronting it directly, he urges blacks and whites to at least work together on "all things essential to mutual progress."
   What is essential, he says, is that blacks have the opportunity to advance economically.  Holding them back, he warns whites, will drag down the entire South.  He has a warning for blacks also, and says that if blacks focus mainly on their grievances, they will miss their opportunities.
    Washington clearly believed that as blacks advanced economically as farmers, tradesmen, and business owners, they would be better prepared to exercise their rights as citizens.  His remarks also show his believe that if blacks and whites in the South moved forward, segregation would eventually vanish by itself.
   This selection reveals the toughest challenge of all as the decades rolled by after the Civil War:  How could both blacks and whites move forward into a new South, given the deep prejudices that gave rise to segregation?  Washington believed he had at least part of the answer, although he was often criticized by black leaders in the North for not attacking segregation itself more forcefully.







Copyright Notice

   Copyright 2018 by David Burns.  All rights reserved.  Illustrations and reading selections appearing in this work are taken from sources in the public domain and from private collections used by permission.  Sources include: the Dover Pictorial Archive, the Library of Congress, The National Archives, The Hart Publishing Co., Corel Corporation and its licensors, Nova Development Corporation and its licensors, and others.  Maps were created or adapted by the author using reference maps from the United States Geological Survey and Cartesia Software.  Please see the home page for this title for more information.