Black Reconstruction In America

Black Reconstruction in America is an in-depth material class analysis of the political economy and history of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era. The book assumes a fair degree of prior knowledge about the basic facts of these historical events.

In the mid-19th century in the United States, debates around enslavement became increasingly heated. A key site of contestation over enslavement was the frontier territories like Kansas and Missouri. The Free Soil party opposed the expansion of enslavement into the Western territories. Between 1854 and 1859 there was a series of violent skirmishes between pro-enslavement and abolitionist groups in Kansas during a period called “Bleeding Kansas.” An abolitionist leader in Bleeding Kansas was Kansan evangelical John Brown, who along with his sons led a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859 in the hopes of sparking a revolt amongst enslaved persons. Although John Brown was later executed for his role in the raid, these battles were a prelude to the Civil War.

In 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election. Although he was not a staunch abolitionist, he sided with the Free Soilers and opposed the expansion of enslavement into the Western territories.