Black Reconstruction In America

Du Bois details how formerly enslaved Black Americans became soldiers during the Civil War. Enslaved people would only benefit from the Emancipation Proclamation if they fled to the North. Lincoln hoped they would do so to weaken the South and strengthen the Northern armies. This controversial decision cost Republicans political support in the North, but it boosted support for the Union amongst Black Americans and English abolitionists. English Chartists and workers supported the move, and Karl Marx himself lauded Lincoln for it. The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 changed the dynamic around, and argument for, the Civil War. At the outset, the Union had insisted they were not fighting for emancipation, but the influx of Black freemen fighting for the Union made it impossible to deny it was a goal of the war.

Union leaders began to organize Black men into military regiments. Some of this work began before the Emancipation Proclamation. For instance, General Butler used Black troops to defend New Orleans in 1862. On January 6th, 1863, the first two authorized Black regiments, the 44th and 55th Massachusetts Regiment, were formed. Initially, the Union attempted to pay the Black soldiers less than their white counterparts, but the Black soldiers protested this wage discrimination and eventually the law was changed.

The Emancipation Proclamation made poor white people in the North feel as if they were being sent to fight on behalf of Black people. When a draft was instituted in the North, white people, especially the Irish, rioted in New York City and elsewhere. Between 400 and 1,000 people were killed. The tension as a result of the draft orders illustrated that the North needed Black soldiers as reinforcement because white draftees would desert or refuse to fight. Du Bois critiques how white people did not see Black men as fully human, no matter how intelligent or eloquent they were, until “he rose and fought and killed” (94).

Black people had been used throughout the war as spies or informers. They had also appropriated Southern boats for the Northern effort. They also contributed their labor to building fortifications and roads. Black soldiers were used as “shock troops” on the frontlines of battle. They were lauded by white generals and in the newspapers for their bravery and ferocity in battle. By the end of the war, there were 186,017 Black troops organized into 154 regiments. A couple hundred served as commissioned and non-commissioned officers.

The South was furious at the North for arming Black Americans. They killed Black soldiers indiscriminately, even after a legal surrender. However, as the war dragged on, Southern leaders were forced to consider including enslaved or free Black Americans in their own war effort. By the time they resolved to do so, in early 1865, the war was already lost. General Lee surrendered on April 9th, 1865.

Black Americans were thrilled to finally be free from bondage. Du Bois notes that “the mass of slaves […] were in a religious and hysterical fervor. This was the coming of the Lord” (110). Black Americans wanted the opportunity to work the land for themselves. They also wanted the opportunity to learn to read and write. The joyous “song” freed Black Americans sung was “America’s one real gift to beauty” (112). White Americans, North and South, largely despised Black Americans. However, Du Bois argues, their emancipation benefited the whole United States, as “at last democracy was to be justified of its own children” (113).

Du Bois argues that the planter class attempted to effectively reestablish enslavement following emancipation through the use of “Black Codes,” or laws that curtailed the rights of Black people by limiting suffrage, freedom, and workplace rights.

At the end of the Civil War, white leaders in the United States began to debate whether to give Black men the right to vote. Many, including in the North, believed that Black people were inherently intellectually and morally inferior to white people, and therefore they could not be made “full citizens.” These views were especially pronounced in the South where people “looked back” to the days of enslavement, with planters using their political power to pass laws that amounted to enslavement. For instance, a law was passed in North Carolina to treat Black people without employment as “contraband” that could be “seize[d]” and sold. In South Carolina, a law was passed allowing “masters” to whip their “servants.” They justified this publicly by claiming that Black people would “die out” if they were not ruled by white men. Some recently freed Black Americans were sold into enslavement in places like Cuba and Brazil where enslavement was still legal.

Du Bois summarizes President Abraham Lincoln’s gradually evolving position on “the Negro question” (130). Initially, Lincoln supported sending all Black Americans to a colony such as Liberia. However, these colonial experiments failed. After the Civil War, Lincoln, urged by Charles Sumner and others, began to consider suffrage for Black Americans as part of the Reconstruction of the United States. Lincoln used the federal government and the military to establish Union-friendly provisional governments in the former Confederate states. 

Reconstruction in Louisiana in 1864 forced the federal government to consider Black suffrage. There were approximately 18,600 historically free Black people in Louisiana, some of whom, like the Ricaud family, were incredibly wealthy landowners. They demanded the right of suffrage. Lincoln refused to intervene in the state negotiations. While the new Louisiana constitution did not grant suffrage to Black men, it did abolish enslavement and state that the legislature could pass a law granting suffrage. The new state government was recognized by the federal government in February 1865. Charles Sumner condemned the new Louisiana government for failing to grant suffrage to Black men.

Du Bois argues against the claim that Lincoln’s Reconstruction plan would have been “far better and more successful” (147) than the plan that was ultimately ratified after his assassination. He points out that Southerners hated Lincoln and continually sought to oppress Black people, as shown in the Black Codes. Du Bois documents these Black Codes and their strict regulation of Black labor and lives in great detail.

Du Bois argues that there were two different visions of Reconstruction in the North after the Civil War. There was a movement for “abolition-democracy,” or a Reconstructed United States that granted Black people full citizenship. There was also a desire by Northern industrial leaders to create an “autocracy” that would discipline labor to “amass wealth and power” (163). These two trends were often conflated and tentatively allied with one another.

The United States in the 19th century experienced massive industrial expansion, Westward expansion, and an agricultural boom which led to a belief in the “American Assumption,” or the idea that any man could become wealthy through hard work. The American labor movement drew from this tradition. Abolition-democracy leaders, as part of this movement, wanted to extend the possibilities of this assumption to enslaved Black people for both moral and economic reasons. The capitalist class somewhat supported this goal, as they saw an educated free Black workforce as an opportunity to increase their profits. The Southern planters revolted against this Northern alliance against their monopoly control of Black labor.

After the Civil War, the question of how to organize and train free Black labor became pressing. Further, if Black people were to be educated and granted free labor, debates around their rights to suffrage like other free laborers came to the fore. Du Bois analyzes the approaches of two leaders in these debates, Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens. Sumner was a lifelong abolitionist and advocate for racial equality. He gave a passionate speech to Congress about the importance of universal suffrage on moral grounds. Thaddeus Stevens made similar arguments, but he attempted to persuade using economic arguments. He argued that the land of the “rebels” should be given to the freed Black people as they would be economically productive. 

Many abolitionists argued that Black suffrage should be a requirement of Reconstruction. Du Bois describes this debate as “a test of the nation’s real belief in democratic institutions” (183). However, the former Confederate states’ new constitutions all refused to grant suffrage even though they did all formally abolish enslavement.

In the North, industrialists were concerned about the politics of the newly rejoined former Confederate states. These states largely supported free trade while Northern manufacturers supported tariffs to protect their domestic industry. These industrialists were largely Republicans, while the South were Democrats. Seeking to ensure Republican power, the industrialists entered into a temporary alliance with those advocating for abolition-democracy to extend suffrage to Black men. The movement gained popular support between 1860 and 1870. There was a growing recognition in the US labor movement of the shared struggle of the “proletariat”—that is, all working-class people, including Black Americans and immigrants.

Du Bois argues that the “first fruit” of the alliance between abolition-democracy and industry was the Freedman’s Bureau. He characterizes this as a “dictatorship […] for the protection of emancipated Negro labor” (194). The Freedman’s Bureau provided land, education, farming supplies, and other services to formerly enslaved people. Du Bois traces the Congressional debates over the formation of the Bureau, which was finally established in 1865 under the leadership of Oliver Howard. Du Bois notes that the establishment of the Freedman’s Bureau was advocated for by members of “Negro conventions” throughout the South. Although the Bureau was working in a chaotic environment with a difficult mission, Du Bois argues that it was overall an economic and social success. However, it was plagued with charges of inefficiency, fraud, and corruption.

Du Bois concludes with a comparison of Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, who became president after Lincoln’s assassination. He concludes that while Lincoln was constantly evolving toward greater equality for Black Americans, Johnson became more reactionary over time, as seen in his acceptance of the Black Codes.