The Continuing Evolution of Reconstruction History

Author(s): Eric Foner

Source: OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 4, No. 1, The Reconstruction Era (Winter, 1989), pp.
11-13
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of Organization of American Historians
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25162634
Accessed: 06-01-2019 17:51 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Organization of American Historians, Oxford University Press are collaborating with

JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to OAH Magazine of History

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.5 on Sun, 06 Jan 2019 17:51:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 A SPECIAL SECTION

The Continuing Evolution

of Reconstruction History
Eric Foner

cans in Congress. Motivated by an wellsprings of Republican policy

In the past thirty years, no
period of American history irrational hatred of Southern "reb
els" and the desire to consolidate
reinforced the prevailing disdain
for Reconstruction. Johnson's new
has seen a broadly accepted point of
view so completely overturned as their party's national ascendancy, biographers portrayed him as a
Reconstruction--the dramatic and the Radicals in 1867 swept aside the courageous defender of constitu
controversial era that followed the Southern governments Johnson had tional liberty; his actions stood above
Civil War. Since the early 1960s, a established and fastened black suf reproach. Simultaneously, histori
profound alteration of the place of frage upon the defeated South. There ans of the Progressive School, who
blacks within American society, followed the period of Congres viewed political ideologies as little
newly uncovered evidence, and sional or Radical Reconstruction more than masks for crass economic
changing definitions of history it (1867-77), an era of corruption ends, further undermined the Radi
self, have combined to transform presided over by unscrupulous cals' reputation by portraying them
our understanding of race relations, "carpetbaggers" from the North, as agents of Northern capitalism,
politics, and economic change dur unprincipled Southern white "scala who cynically used the issue of
ing Reconstruction. black rights to fasten economic
Anyone who attended high Subordination upon the de
school before 1960 learned that feated South.
Reconstruction was as era of From the first appearance of
unrelieved sordidness in Ameri Anyone who attended high the Dunning school, dissenting
can political and social life. school before 1960 learned that voices had been raised, ini
Drawing on scholarly studies tially by a handful of survivors
that originated in the work of Reconstruction was an era of of the Reconstruction era and
William Dunning, John W. Bur the small fraternity of black
gess, and their students soon unrelieved sordidness in Ameri historians. In 1935, the black
after the turn of the century, activist and scholar, W. E. B.
the "traditional" interpretation can political and social life. Du Bois, published Black Re
argued that when the Civil War construction in America, a
ended, the white South ac monumental study that por
cepted the reality of military defeat, wags," and ignorant blacks, unpre trayed Reconstruction as an idealis
stood ready to do justice to the pared for freedom and incapable of tic effort to construct a democratic,
emancipated slaves, and desired above properly exercising the political right interracial political order from the
all a quick r?int?gration into the Northerners had thrust upon them. ashes of slavery, as well as a phase
fabric of national life. Before his After much needless suffering, the in a prolonged struggle between
death, Abraham Lincoln had em South's white community banded capital and labor for control of the
barked on a course of sectional together to overthrow these govern South's economic resources. His
reconciliation, and during Presiden ments and restore "home rule" (a book closed with an indictment of a
tial Reconstruction (1865-1867) his euphemism for white supremacy). profession whose writings had ig
successor, Andrew Johnson, at All told, Reconstruction was the nored the testimony of the principle
tempted to carry out Lincoln's darkest page in the American saga. actor in the drama of Reconstruc
magnanimous policies. Johnson's During the 1920s and 1930s, tion--the emancipated slave--and
efforts were opposed and eventually new studies of Johnson's career and sacrificed scholarly objectivity on
thwarted by the Radical Republi new investigations of the economic the altar of racial bias. "One fact

Winter 1989 ti

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.5 on Sun, 06 Jan 2019 17:51:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
and one alone," Du Bois wrote, horses of Northern capitalism. Persistent racism, these post-revi
"explains the attitude of most recent Moreover, Reconstruction legisla sionist scholars argued, had negated
writers toward Reconstruction; they tion was shown to be not simply the efforts to extend justice to blacks,
cannot conceive of Negroes as men." product of a Radical cabal, but a and the failure to distribute land
Black Reconstruction anticipated the program that enjoyed broad support prevented the freedmen from achiev
findings of modern scholarship, but both in Congress and the North at ing true autonomy and made their
at the time of its publication, it large. civil and political rights all but
failed to influence prevailing views Even more startling was the meaningless. In the 1970s and 1980s,
among academic historians, or the revised portrait of Republican rule a new generation of scholars, black
account of the era in school texts.
Despite its remarkable longevity
and powerful hold on the imagina
tion, the demise of the traditional Reconstruction was not merely a specific time
interpretation was inevitable. Its
fundamental underpinning was the
period, but the beginning of an extended his
conviction, to quote one member of torical process: the adjustment of American
the Dunning School, of "negro inca
pacity." Once objective scholarship society to the end of slavery.
and modern experience rendered its
racist assumptions untenable, fa in the South. So ingrained was the and white, extended this skeptical
miliar evidence read very differ old racist version of Reconstruction view to virtually every aspect of the
ently, new questions suddenly came that it took an entire decade of period. Recent studies of Recon
into prominence, and the entire scholarship to prove the essentially struction politics and ideology have
edifice had to fall. negative contentions that "Negro stressed the "conservatism" of
It required, however, not simply rule" was a myth and that Recon Republican policymakers, even at
the evolution of scholarship but a struction represented more than "the the height of Radical influence, and
profound change in the nation's blackout of honest government." the continued hold of racism and
politics and racial attitudes to deal The establishment of public school federalism despite the extension of
the final blow to the Dunning School. systems, the granting of equal citi citizenship rights to blacks and the
If the traditional interpretation re zenship to blacks, and the effort to advanced scope of national author
flected, and helped to legitimize, the revitalize the devastated Southern ity. Studies of federal policy in the
racial order of a society in which economy refuted the traditional South portrayed the army and Freed
blacks were disenfranchised and sub description of the period as a "tragic men's Bureau as working hand in
jected to discrimination in every era" of rampant misgovernment. glove with former slaveowners to
aspect of their lives, Reconstruction Revisionists pointed out as well that thwart the freedmen's aspirations
revisionism bore the mark of the corruption in the Reconstruction and force them to return to planta
modern civil rights movement. In South paled before that of the Tweed tion labor. At the same time,
the 1960s the revisionist wave broke Ring, Credit Mobilier scandal, and investigations of Southern social
over the field, destroying, in rapid Whiskey Rings in the post-Civil War history emphasized the survival of
succession, every assumption of the North. By the end of the 1960s, the old planter class and the conti
traditional viewpoint. First, schol Reconstruction was seen as a time of nuities between the old South and
extraordinary social and political
ars presented a drastically revised the new. The post-revisionist inter
account of national politics. New progress for blacks. If the era was pretation represented a striking
works portrayed Andrew Johnson as "tragic," it was because change did departure from nearly all previous
a stubborn, racist politician inca not go far enough, especially in the accounts of the period, for whatever
pable of responding to the unprece area of Southern land reform. their differences, traditional and
dented situation that confronted him Even when Revisionism was at revisionist historians at least agreed
as president, and acquitted the its height, however, its more opti that Reconstruction was a time of
Radicals--reborn as idealistic re mistic findings were challenged, as radical change. Summing up a
formers genuinely committed to black influential historians portrayed decade of writing, C. Vann Woodward
rights?of vindictive motives and change in the post-Civil War years observed in 1979 that historians now
the charge of being the stalking as fundamentally "superficial." understood "how essentially non

12 Magazine of History

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.5 on Sun, 06 Jan 2019 17:51:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
revolutionary and conservative The first is the centrality of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863,
Reconstruction really was." black experience. Rather than the to emphasize that Reconstruction
In emphasizing that Reconstruc passive victims of the actions of was not merely a specific time pe
tion was part of the ongoing evolu others or simply a "problem" con riod, but the beginning of an ex
tion of Southern society rather than fronting white society, blacks were tended historical process: the ad
a passing phenomenon, the post active agents in the making of Re justment of American society to the
revisionists made a salutary contri construction, whose quest for indi end of slavery. The destruction of
bution to the study of the period. vidual and community autonomy the central institution of antebellum
The description of the Reconstruc did much to establish Reconstruc Southern life permanently trans
tion as "conservative," however, tion's political and economic agenda. formed the war's character, and
did not seem altogether persuasive Black participation in Southern public produced far-reaching conflicts and
when one reflected that it took the life after 1867 was the most radical debates over the role former slaves
nation fully a century to implement development of the Reconstruction and their descendants would play in
its most basic demands, while others years. Other themes include transi American life and the meaning of
are yet to be fulfilled. Nor did the tion from slave to free labor and the the freedom they had acquired. These
theme of continuity yield a fully evolution of racial attitudes and were the questions on which Recon
convincing portrait of an era that patterns of race relations. struction persistently turned.
contemporaries all agreed was both The book also seeks to place the They were also questions that
turbulent and wrenching in its social Southern story within a national confronted every society that abol
and political change. Over a half context, especially by stressing the ished slavery in the Western hemi
century ago, Charles and Mary Beard emergence during the Civil War and sphere, from Cuba and Jamaica to
coined the term "The Second Ameri Reconstruction of a national state Brazil. Indeed, it may well be that
can Revolution" to describe a trans possessing vastly expanded author the future of Reconstruction studies
fer in power, wrought by the Civil ity and a new set of purposes, lies in comparative analysis of the
War, from the South's "planting ar including an unprecedented com differences and similarities between
istocracy" to "Northern capitalists mitment to the ideal of a national various aftermaths of slavery. I
and free farmers." And in the latestcitizenship whose equal rights be made a brief beginning in this di
longed to all Americans regardless
shift in interpretive premises, atten rection in my Nothing But Freedom,
tion to changes in the relative power of race. Originating in wartime published in 1983. But comparative
of social classes has again become a exigencies, the activist state came to study of the economic, political, and
central concern of historical writ embody the reforming impulse deeply social consequences of emancipa
ing. Unlike the Beards, however, rooted in postwar politics. And tion remains in its infancy. As was
who all but ignored the black expe Reconstruction produced enduring true for the study of slavery, a
rience, modern scholars tend to view changes in the laws and Constitution compai ative approach to emancipa
emancipation itself as among the that fundamentally altered federal tion can broaden our perspective,
most revolutionary aspects of the state relations and redefined the introduce new questions and con
period. meaning of American citizenship. cepts, and illuminate what was and
The most recent effort to pro Yet because it threatened traditions was not unique in the American ex
vide a coherent account of the of local autonomy, produced politi perience of Reconstruction.
Reconstruction era is my own Re cal corruption, and was so closely
construction: America's Unfinished associated with the new rights of
Revolution, published in 1988, and blacks, the rise of the state inspired Eric F oner is Professor of History at
with an abridged version, A Short powerful opposition, which, in turn, Columbia University in New York.
History of Reconstruction, set to weakened support for Reconstruc He has written extensively on Recon
appear in 1990. Drawing upon the tion. Finally, the study examines struction and his latest book, Recon
voluminous secondary literature that how changes in the North's economy struction: America's Unfinished
has appeared in the last thirty years, and class structure affected Recon Revolution, 1863-1877 received man
the book seems to provide a coher struction, and especially the retreat awards, among them the 1988 Los
ent, comprehensive modern account from the commitment to equality Angeles Times Book Prize and the
of the period. Necessarily, it touches that accelerated during the 1870s. 1989 O AH Avery O. Craven Award
on a multitude of issues, but certain My account of Reconstruction as the most original book on the Era
broad themes unified the narrative. begins not in 1865, but with the of Reconstruction.

Winter 1988 13

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.5 on Sun, 06 Jan 2019 17:51:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms