Reconstruction After the Civil War: Second Edition

February is Black History Month The Reconstruction period directly after the American Civil War ended in 1865 was cast as the time of the `scalawags', `carpetbaggers', Black Codes and ultimately after a determined and ugly political and military fight by the `right' people, the so-called natural rulers in the South, `redemption'. In short, a least for any radical, a time of shame in the American experience and, at least implicitly, a racist slap at blacks and their supporters for attempting to upset the traditional social order. There certainly was plenty that went wrong during Radical Reconstruction (there were, as Professor Franklin points out several phases of Reconstruction, not all of them radical) in the South but the conventional high school history textbooks never got into the whole story. Nor did they want to. The whole story is that until fairly recently this Radical Reconstruction period was the most democratic period in the South in American history, for white and black alike. The book under review that reflects the earlier efforts of the likes of Professor Kenneth Stamp (whose book of essays on Reconstruction I have previously reviewed in this space) goes a long way toward a better understanding of the period than those old high school textbooks. Professor Franklin, as he must, starts off his narrative history by describing the political problems associated with most of the earlier studies of Reconstruction done by those influenced by Professor Dunning and his school in the early 20th century (he provides a very useful "Suggested Reading" section at the end the book which details his sources for those who want to look at the state of scholarship on the subject in the late 1950's/early 1960's). That picture presented, as I described above, the familiar corrupt and scandalous activities associated with this period. Needless to say this position dovetailed very nicely with the rationale for Jim Crow in the pre-1960's South. Moreover, in the hands of its northern liberal devotees it nicely covered up the burgeoning corruption of the northern- based `robber barons'. There is an old adage that history is written by the victors. Whatever the truth to that assertion early Reconstruction history was written by the losers, or rather their apologists once removed. The Reconstruction era was dominated by three basic plans that Professor Franklin describes in some detail; the aborted Lincoln `soft' union indivisible efforts; the Johnson `soft' redemption plans; and, the radical Republican `scorched earth' policy. In the end none of these plans was pursued strongly enough to insure that enhanced black rights gained through legislation would lead to enlightened citizenship. Franklin, following Stampp, presents detailed critiques of all these plans and some insights about the social and cultural mores of the country at the time that do not make for pretty reading. The professor then goes on to try to demystify what the radical reconstructi

I completely disagree with those reviewers who found this book to be poorly written or confusing. In my opinion it is neither. I found this book to be very clear and well written. This is a short book that provides many interesting insights into a period of American history that is very often neglected in most history books. If one reviewer found the book confusing it is possibly because this is a very controversial and highly confusing period of American history. This book is a good antidote for those whose knowledge of reconstruction was obtained by the distortions and bigotry of films like Birth of a Nation or from the books written by revisionist southern historians. Dr. Franklin outlines the several stages of reconstruction: the initial confederate dominated governments that passed "black" laws that introduced de facto slavery, the reaction of congress and the passage of laws which helped install state governments that contained former slaves and northern "carpetbaggers", the southern reaction to this that was dominated by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and finally the readmission and rehabilitation of the Southern states that led to the political marginalization of the former slaves. Along the way he discusses the almost impeachment of President Andrew Johnson and the disputed election of Rutherford B. Hays. I found this extremely interesting as he shows that the oft cited reason for the Southern Democratic support for the Republican Hays was not primarily because of a deal to remove Federal troops from the three states that had not yet been rehabilitated. The Democrat Tilden had promised to remove these troops. Dr. Franklin cites studies that show that the deal by which the Southern Democrats switched their votes to Hays was motivated primarily by a deal concerning federal support for southern railways.

It's appalling that previous reviewers have denigrated this classic work by one of our counry's most distinguished historians. Born in 1915, Franklin was subject to the ugly aftermath of Reconstruction and wrote many definitive works on African-American history and the history of race relations. He has won innumerable honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and has chaired the American Historical Society, Phi Beta Kappa, the American Studies Association, the Southern Historical Association, and the President's Commission on Race (1997). Reviews that accuse him of being a poor writer or offering nothing beyond a high school history text (which would not have been written without his pioneering scholarship) only display the ignorance of the reviewers. Read this book, and Franklin's others!