Well, not what the internet changed it to, but what was course schedule. Ield leground blood fail reconstruction in South Carolina. What is a battleground . Fought. Rs are ok. Have we read some books in here suggesting that reconstruction was such as . Is a bigrebellion one. Nersabout eric fo a short history of reconstruction. What is being attempted to be reconstructed . I would say the south in general. Theyre not making it into like a new south, but back into the old south. Theyre trying to reconstruct the way their lives will be after the war. Professor anderson if youre talking southerners, yeah. But, guided by the republican party, what are they trying to do in his book, generally . Society ande labor irror image of what they conceive of the north to be which included what changes . Something will have to change in the south, right . Something will have to be rebuilt, what are those things . The freedmens bureau. Social construct. The distribution of land and rights. Professor anderson turn the south into an area of ideally, small farms, independent p producers. What about friedman . N . [indiscernible] anderson eventually. It becomes the program because reconstruction. Incorporate them some way. Is that a battleground . A different kind. A political battleground, a social battleground, and some respects, a cultural one. These things are highly controversial, and are contested. You have people struggling over them. Is South Carolina a battleground . Just what is being reconstructed . What is the battle over . How does he mean it . Like the whites tried to still maintain this control and system they had before the war. To reestablish the aristocracy. Professor anderson reconstruct what was. Foner uses it, it is obviously something that was current in the era. It means Something Different in 1860. When he uses it, he means, social, political, cultural, and in some ways, economic. And for the other . Power. Professor anderson reconstruction of the power that was. Defiance. Is South Carolina a little battleground literal battleground . What does he say . It is a continuation of the war. Different means. Ends. S same control of the labor force, this population, how would you describe these means . , violent. Professor anderson is there a different kind of violence than conventional wartime violence . I do not know it would be called a battleground, but with the kkk professor anderson it is kind of like a guerrilla war, right . He might go so far to call it terrorism. Until thet stop republican governments are withdrawn. That is out of ground. Battleground. We mean South Carolina is a stay of struggle for these things and with these things. What is a blood field . Fieldo you think a blood is . Battleground is literally a field on which a battle is fought. Would be blood field the residual effects. Professor anderson where did you come up with that . [laughter] workingr anderson wonders, right . What you mean residual effects . The effects of the home front nottle, like a war fought just the soldiers fighting the war, but their families at home. Professor anderson all right. That is one aspect. Do you like that answer . I could agree with that. I would definitely say, in addition to that, the idea of a blood field the leaving of actual blood on a field, the image it invokes. It is what is left in the wake of war, and, i guess, what was at stake that shed the blood there. Professor anderson do you have a dictionary . Did you look that up . Nope. Professor anderson it is a word that does not exist, but you are right. It was a proposed word. It was a word proposed to be introduced into the language by james joyce, who do find it just as you do find it. Just as youn defined it. Yes, there is blood somewhere soaking that feel, so we have to have some word to connote the aftermath and the images and feelings for all kinds of things, arguments,. Hat the aftermath invokes what of course have been trying do, but we have been struggling with is not just the battleground aspect of reconstruction, but we are also talking about the aftermath. The aftermath of the war. Different kinds of reconstructions. Does that make sense . Does the seleka level academic thinking does this sound like high level academic thinking . If we turn to others we have read here do you see where im going with this . Is he talking about the reconstruction . Sense. The physical what do southerners do, white southerners do, even as they are struggling politically and paramilitar do, butly . What else are they doing . [indiscernible] professor anderson they are creating a sort of story of society. They are creating this loss that described as southerners who they are, white southerners, anyway. You remember what the aspect of was . Loss cause mythology , whaty are building it are they reconstructed . Reconstructing . Their culture. Professor anderson their culture as they see it. Why did they lose the war according to the story . Why did the confederacy lose . Overwhelming force. Professor anderson overwhelming force and numbers never had a chance. It was inevitable. What is that like according to the loss cause mythology . It is a plantation ideal. A paradise where still toldies are like that today though. Professor anderson now youre thinking, oh my goodness, this goes from the 1880s and in some places it is still alive and relevant. In some places, it is still are in which is why we here talking about this kind of stuff. Builds a cause myth south which was pure, ideal, which never could have one, which fought for principles, not interest, where the ladies were ladies and gentlemen were gentlemen. What about slaves . Are almost like children. Professor anderson paternalism yth. Erges in the m are they loyal . Yes . Happy to be slaves . Certainly not the kind of behavior we are getting ready to talk about with this book. Happy in slavery. At of that is being built the same time, right . The mythology might have happened anyway, absent some of the events of reconstruction. Say . Would he this is how modern nations, or modern hopeful nations, have coped in similar ways. That brings us to why we are here, which is to talk about to continue to talk. We have been talking about the fourth book which is merry the civil war ethic. We are dealing with two books acause this book is about much larger book about merry diary. Ts that is what brings us here. What is merry chestnuts rican starting reconstructing in this diary . Culture. Lture her professor anderson why does stern say she is writing an epic . Bemary chestnut would writing it because she feels her culture is being defined. Professor anderson it also reaches to the same questions , defining ofy people, the characteristics of a people. It becomes essential to the definition of a people. Battleground side of reconstruction or the blood field . Very much and aftermath book. Right . We say that both by what we have read, but also by what we know about how it was imposed. Do you remember how it was composed . During the 1880s, mary chestnut said what she remembered from the diary that she burned in the 1860s. Professor anderson this is not an actual diary of her wartime experience. Later that shees goes back to wartime journal, a series of wartime journals that she kept. She goes back and starts reworking these entries, creating, in a sense. It is a reconstruction of a wartime journal, some of which were burned, as you mentioned. It is something else. She is not trying to create something that is true to daily experience our life. It is very much a literary creation. It has a literary ambition, not meant to be a simple recording of this is what happened on this day, as i experienced it. It is meant to do something else, too be published. It is not published in her lifetime, she dies before that happens, but it is published by her literary executor in 1905 as a diary. What were going to do here is cerpts. Th our ex probably the most famous chapter in this diary, to see if we can tease out some of the themes, but also see if we can tease out the questions that were probing. We are probing today the relationship of this diary with the aftermath of the war. She is working on this, some in the 1870s, but in the 1880s, especially. Ing ishe is really writ in the shadow of reconstruction. She is writing in a society that has changed fundamentally. About abeen talking slavebased society. Now kind of society is it in the 1880s . Is it still biracial . Still biracial, but what is missing . Slavery is missing. Is it still agricultural . Al . Ll rur what is missing . The plantation. Professor anderson largescale agricultural units exist, but plantations are much more than that. It gathers up much more than the economic resources. It is primarily an economic institution, but over time, were talking about 200 years of development. The Plantation Society looks like it has passed. It is biracial, but slavery has passed. Is a democratic . Not really. Professor anderson you are saying not really. You are saying more so. Anna says not really. Mary says more. Someone must be right. [laughter] no, we canterson have the truth, this is an academic institution. They are both kind of right. Professor anderson ok. We will split the difference. Kind of like coaching the Old Little League team. Youre both kind of right. We will play with that. You are both kind of right. Why did you say that . I dont remember what i said. Professor anderson you didnt really say much. You just said, isnt this the point where they are kind of still controlling the ballot through different means . Like not letting blacks vote . They are anderson doing it in different ways in the 1880s. Actual legal franchise that doesnt start until the 1890s. They are still trying to control the ballot. Women cannot vote still. Theyssor anderson when cannot vote. Former slaves, friedman, are being pushed to the margins. Is that democratic . Not by our standards. You said more so. You have more federal instigation in the south. Even if they had the pull out their troops, they are kind of going south. [laughter] professor anderson already going south in the 1880s. Still a different kind of atmosphere. You have carpetbagger politicians, some black politicians. Professor anderson you certainly have all of those things in reconstruction. To turn theesire south into a more Democratic Society in the context at the time. 1880s, what is changing . Rise ore sort of the emergence of this. Then tillman will come to represent this better than anyone. It is both not as democratic as we would think from our perspective, and certainly not as democratic as it mightve been during reconstruction, but this is South Carolina, right . South carolina, as we know, and have talked about, has a distinct past. It is sort of the ground zero of reconstruction. If reconstruction is going to work anywhere, it has to work in South Carolina. We know it does not work for all the reasons we talked about. Is the aristocracy and South Carolina still what it once was . Chivalry, as she calls it . Else we mightver say. An example of what South Carolina was is shifting from the era start aristocracy. Her entire life cell has been demonized. Professor anderson that is a good point. The whole nation changes. Was in a kind of more romanticized than demonize . They are talking about the thiss written in all of like southern gentility, chivalry. , butss it was shifting there were still southern ideals. Professor anderson what do you think of that . , i think that could be true but the idea did not exist in the south itself. North was entertained by of ladies and nights, and they enjoyed the prospect of the luxury. Professor anderson that is one of the things the lost cause is morphing into. It becomes the way by which the whole country mythologized the south. This is happening into the 1880s and 1890s. Anduld say romanticization demonization rather than being opposite forces are on the same coin. Does that make sense . They are occurring at the same time, and for all the similar reasons. We have a society that is biracial with no slavery. A society that is agricultural, but no plantation. , withne of the politics obvious limitations, is more democratic than South Carolina had ever fully experienced, and maybe the nation had fully experienced. About paternalism . Is that gone . It is not as johns as it was. When the plantation style, this idea of this great paternal figure that was in charge of his family and slaves, that was gone, but it was still there. Women still do not have rights. Professor anderson it is still there, but sort of the same thing. As chivalry favorites, so does the return of the stick ideal. It is replaced by different kind of approach towards africanamericans. [indiscernible] a far morenderson aggressive white supremacist viewpoint begins to take hold. You are saying the change and shift as Society Changes and shifts. This diary is written reconstructed while those things are going on. It is part of that environment as much as it is part of the environment of the war. Lets see what happens if we read some excerpts. Lets see if we can get to explain what mary chestnut is sterng, but also how talks about how to approach the book. What she gives us is an approach to the book. Lets see if we cant come out with some ways by which we think about the book, but the way those things might be tied to in thet her experience civil war, but what she freezes at the end of experiences at the end of her life. This is the chapter on the. Urder case Betsy Witherspoon, as we already know, since we have talked about this, is a slave mistress. Give me what happens very briefly. What happens and when does it happen . Slavesstrangled by her in her bed. They tried to frame it as she passed away. Professor anderson right. They tried to frame it as though she passed away peacefully in he the night. Disturbing. E this happens when . Early in the war, late in the war . 1861. Orone knows who will win lose the war. It seems that the slaves have. Een awakened, or could be charlotte richardson, why dont you start. How do she set this up . Introductions are always important. The introductions are where you go ahead. Ni nine, the opening scene. [indiscernible] professor anderson the most unhappy people are the people who have bad thoughts. She comes home. Sick, right . She comes home, she has a fever. She is confined to her bed. She is left with bad thoughts. What kind of bad thoughts are in september and october of 1861 . Not getting off to a good start in the war. Professor anderson thing starting off at started off ok at manassas, but a lot of people are complaining that we have not followed up on that, from the confederate perspective. T is possible to think that what else . Loyalty of slaves. Professor anderson is that possible to conceive of . , no. Professor anderson we see that more after the murder. I think it is possible before. Obviously, slavery is such a big part of the war. Professor anderson the happy people might say, of course not. The unhappiest people are the ones likely to say, remember, South Carolina is populated by a black majority, and this is true in the low country, where we know there are movements afoot, federal invasions. What other bad thoughts . What are possible bad thoughts in 1861 . Student just seeing both sides of the coin. You can see the gentility is that a word . The hypocrisy in it. Professor anderson dont you love the way she uses the patriarch moses, always possible to see both sides of the question. The younger moses becomes a reconstruction era governor. Who knows how deliberate that might have been. She is in her bed. She is helpless. Have you ever been helpless . Im sure you were helpless at a very young age. Who in here is a bad patient, besides me . I cant stand to be sick, to have people taking care of me. You get frustrated. No . Good patient . Morgan says no. Im happy to be taken care of. [laughter] what else might you think . We might be surrounded by enemies student death taking so many young people away from the home front . Professor anderson she might die. That is how bad this is. She has got to be thinking about death. What does that conversation turn on . How many are lost . How many are killed and wounded . She is coming back from seeing the front, being at the front, being in richmond. She has experienced death that most of the people she is going to be around have not yet. Student many werent even dying in battle, just dying. Professor anderson right, not the glorious shot in the chest and go out, just nasty stuff, disease, dysentery, diarrhea, fever. Stuff you would prefer not to have on your death certificate. You want to go out a little bit more especially coming from chivalry you want to go out higher than that. Any other bad thoughts . These are southerners, right . Are they supposed to be thinking bad thoughts . Being tried in battle in a romantic era . Student that the confederacy could not stand prof anderson are we Strong Enough . Are we Strong Enough . Not just are we Strong Enough, but littered throughout this chapter are references to fathers, the revolutionary fathers. That scene with squire mcdonald, dissented from jasper mcdonald, all that kind of stuff. Are we worthy to be founders of a nation of our own . That is a powerful, powerful fear, if he think about it in the context of 19thcentury romantic nationalism. We still, to this day, the Founding Fathers are enjoying a rebirth right now. They still cast a shadow. People somehow feel inadequate against imagine creating a nation that you say is the true america, the true vision of america, how much more significant that feeling might be . What does she do after it . She introduces it, she talks about crossed eyes, seeing things both ways. She is setting us up here. She is setting us up for uncertainty. Where did she go . What do she end up talking about . From their forward . Student [indiscernible] prof anderson people who visit her, images of those people. Student she goes into the commodores account, facing the charivari so gallantly prof anderson yes, yes. She has seems that move along but she eventually ends up she doesnt begin by talking about the death of mary wurster, which i find interesting, which is clearly the most significant event i keep saying meriwether spoon, it is Betsy Weatherspoon. She begins like betsy. She begins just like her. She is creating a sort of image around it. We finally get there we dont get there until september 9. This is 20 years later. Mary chestnut knows very well how all of this proceeds. We have to think that what she is doing as a deliberate recreati