What the South Was Like During Reconstruction
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Date: 2022-12-29
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Comments and reviews: 20
Jeannine
Why did U leave out so many pertinent facts? Such as the fact that there were actually black slave owners who supported the Confederacy during the Civil war, and that poor whites were share croppers to? And that 2/3 of the Sothern people never owned slaves. and that the goal of the radical reconstructionists was revenge, not helping the South rebuild or helping the former slaves. I lived in the South in the 1950's & went to school there. Our schools were just as hard-up for books as the black schools. Our textbooks in the 1950's were at least 10 years old, threadbare with torn pages. Our schools didn't compare to schools in the North 100% of the students tested positive for HOOKWORM in 1951 due to the prevalence of outdoor toilets (privies, which causes hookworm when children walk around without shoes, which most did. Our schools had no gym equipment whatsoever, (we didn't have a gym either. It was located on a dirt road, we grew our own vegetables for the school lunch. The lunch woman was an 8th-grade grad of that same elementary school. My father was the principal of that school, but, since there was no money for a janitor or a phone or a secretary, he was also the janitor. and he was his own secretary, which meant that he was also in charge of the lunch money collection, (25 cents per day per student. My dad spent weekends hoeing corn and vegies in that school vegetable garden
I compare all that to how the US Government treated Japan and Germany after WW2. we practically rebuilt both nations. Quite a comparison to the way the South was treated for an entire century after the Civil War.
I don't like liberals who pretend to be experts. also don't like the sarcastic know-it-all tone. My father's grandfather was a soldier in the Civil War. a UNION soldier. Btw once my dad jokingly said that the school lunch woman could feed the whole school on ONE CHICKEN. It was true to.
The cause of the Civil War has been over simplified as well, but that's another story for the liberals to revise. I know that slavery could have ended without fighting a war.
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Why did U leave out so many pertinent facts? Such as the fact that there were actually black slave owners who supported the Confederacy during the Civil war, and that poor whites were share croppers to? And that 2/3 of the Sothern people never owned slaves. and that the goal of the radical reconstructionists was revenge, not helping the South rebuild or helping the former slaves. I lived in the South in the 1950's & went to school there. Our schools were just as hard-up for books as the black schools. Our textbooks in the 1950's were at least 10 years old, threadbare with torn pages. Our schools didn't compare to schools in the North 100% of the students tested positive for HOOKWORM in 1951 due to the prevalence of outdoor toilets (privies, which causes hookworm when children walk around without shoes, which most did. Our schools had no gym equipment whatsoever, (we didn't have a gym either. It was located on a dirt road, we grew our own vegetables for the school lunch. The lunch woman was an 8th-grade grad of that same elementary school. My father was the principal of that school, but, since there was no money for a janitor or a phone or a secretary, he was also the janitor. and he was his own secretary, which meant that he was also in charge of the lunch money collection, (25 cents per day per student. My dad spent weekends hoeing corn and vegies in that school vegetable garden
I compare all that to how the US Government treated Japan and Germany after WW2. we practically rebuilt both nations. Quite a comparison to the way the South was treated for an entire century after the Civil War.
I don't like liberals who pretend to be experts. also don't like the sarcastic know-it-all tone. My father's grandfather was a soldier in the Civil War. a UNION soldier. Btw once my dad jokingly said that the school lunch woman could feed the whole school on ONE CHICKEN. It was true to.
The cause of the Civil War has been over simplified as well, but that's another story for the liberals to revise. I know that slavery could have ended without fighting a war.
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Allen
Johnson did not abandon Lincoln's Plan. Lincoln had proposed a 10% Plan for re-entry of former Confederate states (10% of population had to swear loyalty to US and each state had to have a new constitution abolishing slavery, etc) Johnson continued support for the 10% Plan; it was the Republican Congress that wanted more-- a 50 % Plan, Freedman's Bureau, and more.
Johnson, a Democrat from Tennessee (Lincoln was the first Republican Pres. but had a split party ticket with Johnson in 1864) opposed Congress and thought that Reconstruction would be finished by the end of 1865-- so far from reality! Additionally, it was the Compromise of 1877 that effectively ended Reconstruction. There was an electoral tie in the 1876 Election- neither candidate ( Republican Hayes nor Democrat Tilden) had a majority of electoral votes; in such situations the Constitution says that the election goes into the House of Rep. to be decided.
Reconstruction ended when House Democrats offered to support Republican Hayes in return for Republicans supporting the withdrawal of the remaining Federal troops from the South.
This back-room deal is generally known as the Compromise of 1877 and it essentially left Blacks in the South under the control of the same Democratic Party that had supported slavery and secession.
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Johnson did not abandon Lincoln's Plan. Lincoln had proposed a 10% Plan for re-entry of former Confederate states (10% of population had to swear loyalty to US and each state had to have a new constitution abolishing slavery, etc) Johnson continued support for the 10% Plan; it was the Republican Congress that wanted more-- a 50 % Plan, Freedman's Bureau, and more.
Johnson, a Democrat from Tennessee (Lincoln was the first Republican Pres. but had a split party ticket with Johnson in 1864) opposed Congress and thought that Reconstruction would be finished by the end of 1865-- so far from reality! Additionally, it was the Compromise of 1877 that effectively ended Reconstruction. There was an electoral tie in the 1876 Election- neither candidate ( Republican Hayes nor Democrat Tilden) had a majority of electoral votes; in such situations the Constitution says that the election goes into the House of Rep. to be decided.
Reconstruction ended when House Democrats offered to support Republican Hayes in return for Republicans supporting the withdrawal of the remaining Federal troops from the South.
This back-room deal is generally known as the Compromise of 1877 and it essentially left Blacks in the South under the control of the same Democratic Party that had supported slavery and secession.
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Cayla
My dads side of the family (white) are from Alabama from as far back as our familial recorded history extends (we have letters and other documentation dating back to the Civil War, or even a little before. My family members were (and are) documented coal miners and subsistence farmers to the beginning of our recorded history. My grandparents grew up in Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement. I recently asked my granny what she remembered about that time and if she witnessed or was privy to any of the civil rights activities ongoing throughout those years in Alabama. She said (paraphrasing, We were too darn poor to be mean to each other or do any of that protesting! Black, white, we were all working and just trying to survive!
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My dads side of the family (white) are from Alabama from as far back as our familial recorded history extends (we have letters and other documentation dating back to the Civil War, or even a little before. My family members were (and are) documented coal miners and subsistence farmers to the beginning of our recorded history. My grandparents grew up in Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement. I recently asked my granny what she remembered about that time and if she witnessed or was privy to any of the civil rights activities ongoing throughout those years in Alabama. She said (paraphrasing, We were too darn poor to be mean to each other or do any of that protesting! Black, white, we were all working and just trying to survive!
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Pat
The North never realized they had to completely change Southern culture and force the Southern landed gentry out of power, violently if necessary, and it probably would have been, or the problems of the Confederacy would continue. As they did. Hell you can pretty much trace an unbroken line from the Confederacy to the Klan to the Dixiecrats to the cynical Republicans who instituted the Southern strategy to the modern rural Republicans who tried to take over in a violent coup on January 6, 2022, and who now back Trump. A few judicious hangings and a lot of well-deserved jailings in the late 1800s would have saved us all a lot of hell over the years. Yeah, I said it. And I meant it.
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The North never realized they had to completely change Southern culture and force the Southern landed gentry out of power, violently if necessary, and it probably would have been, or the problems of the Confederacy would continue. As they did. Hell you can pretty much trace an unbroken line from the Confederacy to the Klan to the Dixiecrats to the cynical Republicans who instituted the Southern strategy to the modern rural Republicans who tried to take over in a violent coup on January 6, 2022, and who now back Trump. A few judicious hangings and a lot of well-deserved jailings in the late 1800s would have saved us all a lot of hell over the years. Yeah, I said it. And I meant it.
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Gene
I grew up in a white sharecropper home in South Carolina. In my 1950's childhood about a third of the white children in my school were from sharecropper homes. We all saw Reconstruction as Civil War 2. 0 in which the white citizens of the South were further plundered by Northern Carpetbaggers. Our sharecropper upbringing was Civil War 3. 0. The true villains in our stories were the Yankee murderers of our Southern folk and the Carpetbagger plunderers that made our lives in the South so abominably hard and lean. It would have been better for black sharecroppers and white sharecroppers if Southerners had never stopped killing the Yankee invaders. Your video is a pack of lies.
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I grew up in a white sharecropper home in South Carolina. In my 1950's childhood about a third of the white children in my school were from sharecropper homes. We all saw Reconstruction as Civil War 2. 0 in which the white citizens of the South were further plundered by Northern Carpetbaggers. Our sharecropper upbringing was Civil War 3. 0. The true villains in our stories were the Yankee murderers of our Southern folk and the Carpetbagger plunderers that made our lives in the South so abominably hard and lean. It would have been better for black sharecroppers and white sharecroppers if Southerners had never stopped killing the Yankee invaders. Your video is a pack of lies.
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Professor
Today we have aggressive black voter suppression. Harris County in Texas had one drop box for votes. I think the population is 3 million. Houston we still have a problem! There has been no end to the indignities black communities live with in the south down to not having safe water to drink and situations when all the sewage mostly from wealthier white communities would flow downhill and flood black communities yards parks schools. Their ancestors have even been buried in poorly made cemeteries so shotty that after floods bodies go sailing by. Dignity is power. I am white and I will always fight for the dignity of every living being.
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Today we have aggressive black voter suppression. Harris County in Texas had one drop box for votes. I think the population is 3 million. Houston we still have a problem! There has been no end to the indignities black communities live with in the south down to not having safe water to drink and situations when all the sewage mostly from wealthier white communities would flow downhill and flood black communities yards parks schools. Their ancestors have even been buried in poorly made cemeteries so shotty that after floods bodies go sailing by. Dignity is power. I am white and I will always fight for the dignity of every living being.
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tugquarles
Several autobiographies of former slaves tell stories of their master telling them all they were now free and could leave. Some farmers offered to pay their former slaves to help bring in the crops. One of these stories was by someone who became famous (I cant remember thur name and Im not willing to research it. This person said their mother left them on the plantation and one of the white women (mother or daughter) raised these two siblings and helped educate them.
We all know the bad stories but for some reason, in todays society, everything is focused on the horrors which there are many.
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Several autobiographies of former slaves tell stories of their master telling them all they were now free and could leave. Some farmers offered to pay their former slaves to help bring in the crops. One of these stories was by someone who became famous (I cant remember thur name and Im not willing to research it. This person said their mother left them on the plantation and one of the white women (mother or daughter) raised these two siblings and helped educate them.
We all know the bad stories but for some reason, in todays society, everything is focused on the horrors which there are many.
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gator
Lincoln's final version of the 13th amendment did more to oppress blacks than anything else did. Turned this hit piece on the south off just. 31 seconds inn. The propaganda was just ooozing from the speakers and monitor. Thought it was going to be objective but no, more race bait. Double checked it and went to 48 seconds, blacks were not the only people suffering during what was labeled. as reconstruction. Didn't want black history, I wanted a everyone's history. Not any one special group of people. Why is black history under weird history anyway? I'll research this another way.
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Lincoln's final version of the 13th amendment did more to oppress blacks than anything else did. Turned this hit piece on the south off just. 31 seconds inn. The propaganda was just ooozing from the speakers and monitor. Thought it was going to be objective but no, more race bait. Double checked it and went to 48 seconds, blacks were not the only people suffering during what was labeled. as reconstruction. Didn't want black history, I wanted a everyone's history. Not any one special group of people. Why is black history under weird history anyway? I'll research this another way.
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Outdoor
Here is a fun fact, they started Sharecropping. What would happen is the land owner would supply all tools and land. The supplies were bought at the land owners store. Because most farmers could not read or write, or very little there was a lot of adding on the bills. I have heard a many of story were Granddaddy could not read, but Grandma could, so she signed for all supplies and they paid for no more. After a couple of years of these the land owners force them out and the families moved to town and worked in the mills. This happened to poor blacks and whites.
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Here is a fun fact, they started Sharecropping. What would happen is the land owner would supply all tools and land. The supplies were bought at the land owners store. Because most farmers could not read or write, or very little there was a lot of adding on the bills. I have heard a many of story were Granddaddy could not read, but Grandma could, so she signed for all supplies and they paid for no more. After a couple of years of these the land owners force them out and the families moved to town and worked in the mills. This happened to poor blacks and whites.
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Hill
Definitely would have been a great start for generational wealth for African Americans. Though there were quite a few whites that were truly fighting for change(Benjamin Wade. Henry Davis)etc. It still all boiled down to white supremacy. Regardless what side they fought on. All was forgiven even after all the treason displayed by the Confederate States. They were given their land back and left to continue to take out their frustration on the so called freed men. And we all know about that evil that they want us to forget about.
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Definitely would have been a great start for generational wealth for African Americans. Though there were quite a few whites that were truly fighting for change(Benjamin Wade. Henry Davis)etc. It still all boiled down to white supremacy. Regardless what side they fought on. All was forgiven even after all the treason displayed by the Confederate States. They were given their land back and left to continue to take out their frustration on the so called freed men. And we all know about that evil that they want us to forget about.
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Brian
I have two thoughts about Reconstruction:
1) In an alternate universe where Lincoln lived, it would've gone a lot better for the ex-slaves.
2) Reconstruction ended far too early. It shouldn't have ended until the South was actually brought to heel and made to follow federal law. Any state that tried to implement Black Codes should've been militarily re-occupied until they corrected their behavior.
It would've been preferable to have another civil war in 1876 than to put up with the South's behavior.
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I have two thoughts about Reconstruction:
1) In an alternate universe where Lincoln lived, it would've gone a lot better for the ex-slaves.
2) Reconstruction ended far too early. It shouldn't have ended until the South was actually brought to heel and made to follow federal law. Any state that tried to implement Black Codes should've been militarily re-occupied until they corrected their behavior.
It would've been preferable to have another civil war in 1876 than to put up with the South's behavior.
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Shane
A few facts were incorrect such as when you said that Johnson was impeached for his job in Reconstruction, not true, he was impeached because he fired his secretary of war Edwin Stanton. Also there were things you never mentioned such as that Republicans established military dictatorships across the South after Southern States refused to ratify the 14th amendment. Otherwise, the video is a good run-down.
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A few facts were incorrect such as when you said that Johnson was impeached for his job in Reconstruction, not true, he was impeached because he fired his secretary of war Edwin Stanton. Also there were things you never mentioned such as that Republicans established military dictatorships across the South after Southern States refused to ratify the 14th amendment. Otherwise, the video is a good run-down.
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Keetah
The slaves didnt just up, quit and go out and live a free life. Never did that happen. Freed slaves couldnt go anywhere because of an economic power structure. They were free to become an economic slave. It only took a couple hundred years to condition the people they wanted as slaves. to be their voluntary slaves. And now black peoples are DEFINITELY owned. including their ancestry.
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The slaves didnt just up, quit and go out and live a free life. Never did that happen. Freed slaves couldnt go anywhere because of an economic power structure. They were free to become an economic slave. It only took a couple hundred years to condition the people they wanted as slaves. to be their voluntary slaves. And now black peoples are DEFINITELY owned. including their ancestry.
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Cory
If General Lee hadn't been a great leader, and honorably surrendered and instead told his troops to hide in the mountains and conduct guerrilla warfare, Americans would still be fighting that war. That's why good Americans honor and respect him.
Anyone who doesn't think so should look back on how the Vietnam war ended with guerrilla fighters eventually winning.
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If General Lee hadn't been a great leader, and honorably surrendered and instead told his troops to hide in the mountains and conduct guerrilla warfare, Americans would still be fighting that war. That's why good Americans honor and respect him.
Anyone who doesn't think so should look back on how the Vietnam war ended with guerrilla fighters eventually winning.
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James
Our country had to free the slaves in 1865. Then the KKK and Jim Crow tried to keep blacks enslaved and we defeated them again. Now, we need to free African Americans from horrible public schools. The thing in common is one of our current political parties. Colleges for Blacks were largely started by Republicans from the North.
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Our country had to free the slaves in 1865. Then the KKK and Jim Crow tried to keep blacks enslaved and we defeated them again. Now, we need to free African Americans from horrible public schools. The thing in common is one of our current political parties. Colleges for Blacks were largely started by Republicans from the North.
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Rory
Every time I see videos or read about the Jim Crow scenario I think that maybe the Federal Army should have continued occupation of the South for 50 years minimum. That way all of the assholes in the South from the time of the Civil War would have either been dead or too old hold office.
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Every time I see videos or read about the Jim Crow scenario I think that maybe the Federal Army should have continued occupation of the South for 50 years minimum. That way all of the assholes in the South from the time of the Civil War would have either been dead or too old hold office.
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AG
It takes a long time to break cycles that are not fair to one group vs another when there is a shift on leverage one has, finances made, power and control. Never an easy path to do better or create better when injustices, deprevation and/or freedoms are shifting in a society.
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It takes a long time to break cycles that are not fair to one group vs another when there is a shift on leverage one has, finances made, power and control. Never an easy path to do better or create better when injustices, deprevation and/or freedoms are shifting in a society.
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weird_history
I want to see a video of what life was like for othet minorities aside from black people. I mean no disrespect, know black people have had more hardships then one can count. But I'm positive life in early America wasn't pleasant for Mexicans, Chinese, Irish etc.
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I want to see a video of what life was like for othet minorities aside from black people. I mean no disrespect, know black people have had more hardships then one can count. But I'm positive life in early America wasn't pleasant for Mexicans, Chinese, Irish etc.
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joelh1950
All of this and the Blacks vote Democrat? Thats kind of like shooting yourself in the foot! Hey folks the Democrats are still slave holders to this day, we are all their slaves! Find a different party to vote for, by the way the Republicans aren't much better!
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All of this and the Blacks vote Democrat? Thats kind of like shooting yourself in the foot! Hey folks the Democrats are still slave holders to this day, we are all their slaves! Find a different party to vote for, by the way the Republicans aren't much better!
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Andrew
Wasn't there a brief period following the Civil War when it looked like the goals of black integration into society was going to be successful as many blacks gained the right to vote and elected blacks to legislative seats at both the state and federal level?
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Wasn't there a brief period following the Civil War when it looked like the goals of black integration into society was going to be successful as many blacks gained the right to vote and elected blacks to legislative seats at both the state and federal level?
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