Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Civil War 20160703

Appears to involve only the south. But many in the United States also have their eyes on the west. Todays speaker will explore the connections between reconstruction policies to the American South and the American West after the end of the civil war. Congressional republicans had an environmental view of citizenship, desiring to turn both freed africanamericans and indians into Small Farmers. Each group, many white americans believed, would be loyal to the government until the soil and till the soil based on a northern agricultural model. Adam dean is an assistant professor of history at lynchburg college, specializing in slavery, the american civil war, and reconstruction. He received a ba from the university of california los angeles, ma and phd in 19 century history from the university of virginia under the direction of gary gallagher. Gallagher, who will be here to speak. Adams scholarship focuses on using insights from environmental and social history to answer longstanding questions about the long civil war and its era. His first book, agrarian republic, farming, antislavery politics, and nature parks in the civil war era, was published by the university of North Carolina press in february 2015. Hes also published articles in Civil War History in our own virginia magazine of history and biography. In 2009, he had an article entitled who controls the tax controls the future, virginia textbook controversy, won our annual award for the best article that year. Hes currently at work on his next project about the study of white southern unions during reconstruction. Please join me in a warm vhs welcome to adam dean. [applause] adam good afternoon. Thank you so much for coming to hear me speak today. Its been unusually rainy this may. I would like to begin by thanking all the great folks at the Virginia Historical society and the dispatch for sponsoring this talk. I really feel that the vhs is a gem i have not seen in any other state that ive been to. To begin, 150 years after the civil war, virginia prepared for another campaign. The commonwealth called this one civil war 150. Understanding our past, embracing our future. At the conclusion in 2015, of the various remembrance activities and tourism promotion, a study found that the various sesquicentennial activities brought in more than 290 million tourist dollars to the state, and generated more than eight point or million 8. 4 million in state tax revenue. As an 11 year resident of the commonwealth and as a historian, i cannot help but view this as a success, with one caveat. That is, at the conclusion of the study in august of 2015, there are no new posts on the civil war 150 website, with mary a mention of reconstruction. Nary a mention of reconstruction. It is my opinion that the outcome of the civil war, that is, union victory, determined only two things. First, that the United States would stay together, and second, that legal slavery would he abolished. That is it. Reconstruction would determine other questions. Would confederate officers and the leaders of secession be punished for what many northerners viewed as treason . What exactly did freedom mean for the 4 million black southerners who escaped bondage because of the war . On what terms would be seceded states rejoin the union . With the social and economic structure of the defeated confederacy change . What would become of the American West . I think we sometimes forget that the question over whether slavery would exist in places even in my home state of utah, new mexico, california, kansas and nebraska, had done much to bring on the war. Now that the union had won, how would these new places be governed . So today i went to suggest that understanding reconstruction is just as critical as understanding the causes, the course, and the outcome of the civil war itself. In many ways, reconstruction did just as much to shape the future of the United States as the war itself. How one should understand reconstruction is the subject of my talk today. The first point that i would like to make about reconstruction is that contrary to what you might have heard, the north this is a constant struggle for my students to find what is the north, but for the purposes of today, i would like to define the north as the states that simply supported the union during the war. They did not want to industrialize the south. Instead and this is one of the main contentions of my book agriculture characterized the world of northerners. Even excluding california and oregon at the time, both overwhelmingly rural, 72 of those who lived in the free states were rural, had rural occupations. Most were farmers or laborers, lived in rural areas. Only in rhode island and massachusetts did less than 50 of the population live in rural areas. These people lived, by and large, on small farms. The average farm size was 113 acres in rural new york and pennsylvania. 125 in todays upper midwest, and 169 in areas beyond the mississippi. What does that all mean . It means that agrarian values defined northerners. And in particular, the Republican Party, which was always more popular in rural areas than it was in urban states, which were the strongholds of the democrats. The second point i would like to convey is that by the 1850s, many northerners adopted the ideal of farming a small plot of land for multiple generations. What was the word for this at the time, agricultural permanence. In other words, by using techniques that can serve the soil, people can stay on the same tract of land for many years. They did not have a modern environmentalist view that conserving the soil was a good thing for the earth. They thought it was a good thing for society. If you were able to farm the same plot of land for multiple years, you could build a stable community, and yeomannery ideal for lower case r, republican government. When the Republican Party got established in madison, wisconsin in 1854, the selection of the name republican was intentional. In the early 1800s, Thomas Jefferson referred to his Political Coalition as the democratic republicans or republicans for short. When the party got established in the 1850s, they selfconsciously embraced jeffersons ideas about agriculture and the importance of a human re yeomannery republican government. Republicans believe that killing the soil or multiple generations tilling the soil for multiple generations on small arms created progress, or to use the language of time, civilization. They also connected small farming to an idea that historians have long recognized as critical to understanding the civil war, and that is the concept of union. The union meant republican government itself great while they were always quick to advertise their ties to jefferson and political propaganda and speeches, even their namesake, they differed from jefferson in some critical ways. Republicans opposed, unlike jefferson, the extension of slavery westward. That was their whole reason for existence. They believed that slave taste agriculture destroyed based agriculture destroyed the soil, creating what they called barbarism and constant western movement in search of new land. Third, once republicans wrested control of reconstruction from Andrew Johnson, they applied these exact ideas, connecting land use social structure to both the south and the west after the war. Improving the soil through hard work, scientific knowledge, and agricultural permanence was one key republicans believed to healing a divided nation. They also believed that small landholders, rather than large plantations or planters, would prove to be the most loyal to the union. And, they applied to these ideas in both the south and in the west. Republicans argued that forcing indians to become small armors farmers would open up more land for whites and help civilize, in their words, resisting tribes. This is exactly what they thought should happen with the south, the big land stations of the south needed to be broken up and redistributed to former former slaves and white unionists so that a loyal yeomannery could form in the south. Think about this. In my world, of academics, this is a pretty significant contention. Why historians generally treat land distribution in the south as one of reconstructions lost moments, where things could have happened differently. This dates back to perhaps one of the most famous historians, the black intellectual w. E. B. Dubois. But historians seem to act as if federal indian policy during reconstruction and afterwards is completely different, unconnected. In my opinion is that the same ideology was at the foundation of both efforts. Citizenship for both africanamericans and indians during reconstruction upon their exceptions acceptance of angloamerican culture, religion, and land use ideals. Lets begin talking about reconstruction itself. Reconstruction formally began not after the war, that in december of 1863, during the war, after the u. S. Had and control of most of tennessee, arkansas, and louisiana. That or rename, reconstruction, comes from president lincolns proclamation of amnesty and reconstruction, which in december of 1863 offered a full pardon and restoration of all property except slaves to any confederate who would swear allegiance to the United States and recognize all legislative and executive orders pertaining to slavery. When 10 of the 1860 voting population accepted those terms, that state could establish a governmentrecognized by the United States. This plan was mostly formed in wartime contingencies. President lincoln believed a less burdensome reconstruction would end the conflict sooner, giving confederates less to fight for, and maintaining the loyalty of some slave states that had stayed within the union like kentucky, which were very much opposed to any bigger social change. Things changed in november of 1864, an election year. The Republican Party won stunning and commanding majorities in the house and senate. And lincoln earned a second term. Also that time in the war, the outcome seemed to be pointing towards a union victory. And thus, priorities for reconstruction shifted. The republicans who won election identified the slaveholding elites as the cause of war. For them, victory meant not only defeating the confederacy on the battlefield, but changing the social structure of the south to ensure that there was not another conflict. The performance of black soldiers in the u. S. Army, and the impending destruction of slavery, raise the question of whether black people should be citizens in postwar society. The first indication, or one indication, of what republicans and lincoln wanted the south to be got unveiled in the creation of the Freedmens Bureau in march 1865. This was the First Federal Government Agency of its kind devoted to promoting education, rebuilding, and poverty relief. But something this is really unfortunate, in my opinion, that is often not taught about the Freedmens Bureau, is that part of its job was to lease, quote, confiscated and abandoned lands, end quote, to former slaves. Giving them the option to buy 40 acres of such land at the end of three years. The notion tied indirectly to what many northerners thought the postwar south should look like. It should be an Agricultural Society of Small Farmers. Charles sumner of massachusetts explained, quote, the freedmen, for weary generations, have her lies these lands with their fertilized these lands with their sweat. The time has come that they should enjoy the results of their labor for at least a few months. End quote. A close confidence of many politicians, a female author and abolitionist named lydia maria child, wrote too many politicians expressing the intense of the law. She stated, quote, the old satanic fire will long remain in the ashes of the rebellion. If those tyrannical oligarchs have their lands monopoly restored, they will trample on the blacks in the poor whites as of old. Those mammoth plantations on to be divided into small farms and an allotted number of acres given to soldiers, white and black, end quote. The fact that Abraham Lincoln supported and side this will to law gives some insight into how his ideas about reconstruction changed, though he was always famously cryptic on what exactly he wanted, and on april 11, 1865, lincoln gives the final speech of his administration. In it he openly endorsed black voting, leading one person in the audience, john wilkes booth, to assassinate him three days later on april 14, 1865, putting Vice President Andrew Johnson in the white house. Johnsons reconstruction hall was different. The issue two proclamations on may 29, 1865. First, restored Property Rights with some exemptions to those who pledged loyalty to the union, and act we essence and emancipation, and the second outlined a reconstruction plan for north airliner. The thinking being it starts in North Carolina, would go to other states after thats. Here johnson appointed a provisional governor to create a new government and enrolled voters to create a new constitution. Critically, the voters included people who were on the list only before may 20, 1861, the date of secession. And who agreed to a loyalty oath. Are there any black people on the south, on the voting rolls prior to may 20, 1861 . Possibly. Basically none in the state california. This was confining suffrage writ large to white men in the south. Northern visitors to the south in the months after these proclamations were often deeply critical of the president s policies and suggested a broader reconstruction that remade the south in the image of the small farming communities of the north. These visitors associated large landholdings with the lease tossed to the union and sparing the slaveholding expansion that brought on the war. They believed that the soil itself, the southern economy, and Southern Society would become more productive and loyal if tended by Small Farmers. Let me share with you a few telling observations, though theres any more in my book. Visiting virginia, he argued that slavery had a disastrous impact on the land. In richmond, he wrote that he had quote, past the same desolate scene which i had everywhere observed since i set foot upon the soil of virginia. Old fields and under groups, with signs of human life so feeble and so few that one began to wonder where the country population of the old dominion was to be found,. He reported being amazed that quote, the petty and shiftless system of farming witnessed around the city, end quote. Trowbridge quoted a native white southerner as a way of offering a solution. The man said, the way it generally is, a few own too much and the rest own nothing. I know hundreds of thousands of acres of land put to no use. Which, if it were cut up into little farms, would make the country look touristy, end quote. The prescribed solutions went down to specific crops. Quote, i found the land worn out, night like nearly all the land in the country. The way virginia folks have spoiled their form. First there was timber, they burnt it off and put a good coat of ashes on the soil. Then they raised tobacco three or four years, then corn, till the soil ran out and they could not raise anything. It was like giving rum to an exhausted man. Sydney andrews, a newspaper reporter from illinois, displayed similar ideas about proper landuse. I find it quote, very suggestive. He visited western North Carolina, which was unionist during the war, and he seemed to connect that loyalty to the union with the landuse in that part of the state. Quote, western North Carolina is suggestive of pennsylvania. It abounds in small arms rather than large plantations, and corn, not cotton, is the principal product. There are apple orchards and many peach trees, some fences, and occasionally a comfortably situated farmhouse. End quote. I like how he had to add occasionally. 26yearold harvard law graduate john richard did a was equally evocative. Many men in virginia, he said, quote, owned 5000 and 6000 acres of land. If only these half their tracks could be broken up into small farms, the soil would yield a product fourfold greater than now. The next sentence is even more telling. As a result, an intelligence and industrious yeomanry composed of colored virginians could become the new leaders. Northern visitors to the west, exact tame same time, would have similar suggestions. Some Background Information is necessary. During the civil war itself, several events occurred in the west that pointed towards the necessity for change in indian policy after the war. The first of which was that there was a war within a war, that the tutor the dakota sioux went to war with the u. S. Government between august and december 1862 in minnesota over treaty violations and the failure of the government to provide this resulted in a defeat of the sioux and a mass hanging of 38 leaders of the sioux. A more infamous event occurred in november of 1864, known as the sand creek massacre. Units of the first colorado cavalry attacked a group of peaceful era paco indians arapahoe indians. How do they know they were peaceful . They were capped outside of the camped outside of the fort, raising an American Flag and white flag. The mass murder that resulted was indicative that some whites in the United States were willing to resort to genocide one newspaper reported, quote, unborn babes were torn from the wombs of dying mothers and scalped. Children of the most tender ages were butchered, soldiers at war and their hats with the portions of the bodies of both males and females, end quote. So once the war ended and news of these events filtered eastward, there was a massive debate and washington, d. C. About indian policy. While the indians themselves were rarely consulted, the debate seemed to be between western politicians who advocated for what can only be called genocide, and easterners who wanted to reshape the west in similar ways to the American South. Western travelers argued that landuse was one of the primary influences on society. Small farms practicing improved agriculture would allow indians to build communities and become in their words, civilized. In other words, the indians needed to become Small Farmers and act like white people in culture and religion to have a future in the United States. Let me again share some telling quotes. Albert richard son of the new york tribune believed in 1866 that indians were quote, cruel, bloodthirsty, and treacherous by nature because, he added, quote, they never tilled the soil. Richardson after obeying farming. One indian nearlygent and agreeable as white as myself. Speech. Yal as indian farm of over 100 acres excuse me, of 100 acres, was all and under high cultivation. Indians acting a white people, it was okay. Terms. N stark indians he believed, needed to either move to reservation and start farming small plots of be holyquote, exterminated. Im from the west. Farms dont work in the west because its so dry and air rid. But the people at the time had an answer. Richardson, gentleman i just quoted, with an of theastic advocate theory called rain follows the plow just cough variation of that film. If you build it, they will come. A farm, rain will come. This is truly interesting to me being from the west. He says, thousands upon miles of brush and cedar and cactus, and from western Sierra Nevada will and fruit. Y oats so these observers in the south west, wrote directly back to federal policymakers. See. Is easy you can you can see their letters going to very powerful senators. N and this led to new reconstruction both the south and the west. Of 1866 congress have to build extending the life friedmans bureau and setting aside 3 million acres of land for black homesteads. Another telling law first of 1866d in february and passed in june of that year, was thensons veto, act. Ern homestead this law extended the homestead of 1862, which i hope you with. Miliar for the west, over the five land states that have been part of the confederacy. Alabama, florida, louisiana and mississippi. Julian, thengton, spoke expressive expressively about the connections he saw between land use and loyalty to the union. Of intel, system adopted by the Southern States policyunion, favors the of great estates. Landlordismem of and slavery which finally laid wayst to the fertile section of the republic and threatens its life. While in the new england states, adopting ahis, in different system, referring to laid the foundations soileir prosperity in the itself. End quote. West, the national rejected theessly sandof mass murder seen at creek. James r. Doolittle established a mission to come up with a new set of policies. That because of andokees create seminoles choctaws owned and farmed land oklahoma that they had advanced to degree that they were capable of selfgovernment. Of 1867, long past when Andrew Johnson was still relevant as president , congress created the u. S. Indian peace commission. All indianettle tribes on reservations with the of becoming farmers. The law, from agriculture and domestic manufacturers should be introduced as rapidly as possible. Schools to teach the children english, court and other government, of farmers and mechanics sent to andruct the indians missionary and benevolent societies invited. Quote. Of course there was a catch do all of this while it was called peace commission, if indians to become yeomans the army would force them to do so. And grant when he became president or took office in mark march of 1869, this would be his policy. Peace policy. Is of this legislation suggests many republicans, south hadnd the different land use problems but solutions. The west republicans believed americans had more farming possibility by relying and gathering and living withently barbariced a lifestyle. In the south slave exhausted the of permitting the rise threatening the union. Howard. Tis wh a u. S. General during and after makes theser, lengths clear. Howard was the first head of the in 1865. S bureau aggressively promoted land redistribution. The chagrin of his commander in chief. He campaigned against johnson senatorsetters to calling for more redistribution. The such efforts failed in south, howard continued in the west. He served this main general in of 1877. One of the last big indian 19th century. He in negotiates, he constantly demanded that the nez purse give up their culture and land and to small farming. Hea recorded negotiation, lost his patience saying, quote, theimes over i hear that earth is your mother. More, endhear it no quote. What was the outcome of all ideas and policies . Opinion, the vision westns prominent in the despite some individuals like sherman whoiam argued that quote, it is better that the indian race be obliterated. The south. Iled in by 1874, the u. S. Government was moving away from the full reconstruction in the south while stepping up efforts in the west. Failures of reconstruction are worth ten lectures. Wanted to cover one of the failures of the specific law i mentioned. The southern homestead act. Create a black failed thehall law failed. Of the 47 million acres of the south, yellow ofe and cypress covered much the land. Making it unsuitable to farm you had the capital to out, drain itrees and fertilize it. Most former slaves did not have. Other cases where there was violence andirect intimidation prevented families homesteads. Ring for the visiont, though, allotment in the daw act in 1877. Which authorized the president reservationsndian and distribute 160 acres of the heads of each family. The rest of the reservation land would be open to white homesteads. So the question is, why was it successful in the west but not the south . One irony here is that in the the people as a policy affected were actually supportive. What do i mean by that . In the africanamericans south wanted small farms. Lands that they had slaves. N as in alabama, one such man albert headed up a black calledal organization loyal league. It called for large plantations to be broken up into small farms. Where anything but cotton was tilled. Articulatedriffin that laboring selfreliant and willligent population multiply all over the country. West, however, indians were not supportive of becoming white people and Small Farmers. To mispronounce this. So i apologize. Nez purse chief in negotiating with o. O. Howard, said that arrangements would surrender homeland and lead to into andutting propaning the earth mother at all. Rue law the answer which wraps up my talk today, is that the violent southern whites white north brought land redistribution efforts in the south. Yet, sense forcing indians to adopt farming, aligns with the views of western whites who fit gain lands when the federal government compelled indians to plots of land, in theruction continued west while it ended in the south. Thank you. [applause] i guess were still learning you break it you own it. Thespoke of the role of United States army and indian policy. Could you tell us a little bit of United States army in reconstruction southern reconstruction . Id be happy to. Thats an area where there Needs Research done. E to be honest. The u. S. Army present in the limited. Slight ther during reconstruction, volunteer army demobilized very soldiers wanted to go back home. Thethe army in many of defeated confederacy was only present in bigger cities and towns. It was not as present in the country. Would play a critical betweenthe conflict president johnson and congress. Famously when johnson this has been interpreted in ways, sent aferent ulysses s. Ter to grant saying you shroud bring d. C. Rmy to washington the implication was to congress. That was grants interpretation. Generalsd all of his to stand down and ignore the and sent the message he had sent, he got from johnson to congress. Actually one of the reasons behind impeachment. Then general were apt enforce some of the Friedman Bureau provisions. 1867. Econstruction act of verye famous for taking a aggressive role in the bending rights and going after the klan in new orleans. Were morer generals president. To the i have two questions. Over the extent of homestead in florida . Which i believe had the bulk of public lands. Thats actually a fantastic question. Im really glad you brought that up. That was one of the limited the southern successful. T was i think its in my back. But its over 400 black families actually get homestead in florida. Was a community of former slaves with homesteads at a with the somewhat title, lagoon. Is, its myuestion belief that the bulk of the land the hands of planters. The land was in the. Ands of modest landholders my fatherinlaw was born in the of georgia on North Carolina. They had no blacks over there. Large chunks of territory like that. Did the people will distribute land, propose to get the land . Answerss a couple of to that question. Do first of which is that i believe there was in fact, pressure from the areas, sugar theseof the south from large landholders. Andrew johnson in his movedr life, had actually to tennessee. Ofts why large numbers former white southerners had midwest before the war. That, i do i believe there was a phenomenon in existence. Of your question observers did notice those regions that were small farms. Gentleman from illinois went to western North Carolina. He say, this is pretty much how it should be. Wanted to do was thek the political power, ander landholders redistribute that to not only former slaves but to white unionists as well. This would have sort been enough land, i dont think one could answer that question. Thats good enough. [indiscernible] thats actually my next book about. Theres a very fascinating philadelphia in september of 1866. Unionists. N white southern unionist. Will state representative except for south no one. Would send [indiscernible] georgia, government again bybe taken over yankees. Of you flush out the notion coffee baggers and what role in virginias government . [laughter]. Let me think for a second that one. Different was a bit in its reconstruction. Was indeed sum to the military reconstruction act government,its which was a coalition of free slaves, loyalist whites and a few northerners who moved to the state was really only in power of years. Le was any nk there why reconstruction turned out it did. There was not a powerful party in the south late 1860s. [indiscernible] that was a political slogan by the opponents of reconstruction. If yount want didnt like what reconstruction was doing and trying to change the south and bring in railroads and have and have civicn equality, political equality for it aspeople, you labeled alien force. Carpet baggers. 1856, the republican soil, freefree slave. No free slaves. Free men. Free labor, the part i wonder about, what free soil did that play out in the reconstruction era . Thats a good question. Helps to think my back that sameil back into as republican slogan, free soil, free men, fremont. If you read chapter two of my really touches on that. Ine soil meant no slavery the west. The image of the slave plantation is this monopolies prevent freeould white people of the north from thatg land in the west and the farming practices were poor plantation. It was pretty key component to therepublican message of 1850s. Meant noctly free soil slavery in the west. Time for one more question. If not, please join me in adam dean. [applause] youre watching American History tv. Weekend every weekend on cspan 3. Conversation, like us on facebook at cspan history. Next, history professor yochelson discusses jacob a. M her book, reece a complete catalog of his photographs. Whyessor