The American Civil War: Total War (Part 5)

Reconstructing America

0:06 Speaker 1: Welcome to Double Helix Blueprint of Nations, season 2, episode 2.10, battle Cry of Freedom.

0:14 Speaker 1: Welcome back to Double Helix Blueprint of Nations.

0:27 Speaker 1: We've journeyed through the darkest days of the American Civil War, witnessed the brutal battles, the political upheavals and the agonizing decisions that shaped the nation.

0:38 Speaker 1: Now, as we enter the new chapter, our focus shifts from the battlefield to the complex and tumultuous period known as Reconstruction.

0:47 Speaker 1: For millions of black Americans, freedom had finally come.

0:52 Speaker 1: It was a deep sigh of relief after centuries of bondage, and finally the shackles of slavery were fallen away.

0:59 Speaker 1: Or were they?

1:01 Speaker 1: As history often reminds us, the end of one struggle is just the beginning of another.

1:07 Speaker 1: Over the next two episodes, we will see this materialize in earnest.

1:12 Speaker 1: The passage of the 13th Amendment marked the official abolition of slavery, but it was only the first step in what would be a long and arduous journey on the path to the long-desired freedom and equality the Founding Fathers articulated.

1:27 Speaker 1: Today we're going to explore the early days of Reconstruction, a time filled with hope, promise and monumental change.

1:36 Speaker 1: We'll look at the passage of the Reconstruction Amendments, those three pivotal additions to the Constitution that reshaped the American legal landscape.

1:46 Speaker 1: We'll also discuss the early attempts to rebuild the South and integrate millions of newly freed African Americans into a society that had, until then, defined them as property, as something less than human.

2:00 Speaker 1: This episode is also about the real human stories behind those changes.

2:06 Speaker 1: It's about the black Americans who, for the first time in their lives, were able to claim ownership of their own destinies.

2:14 Speaker 1: We'll also talk about the promise of 40 acres and a mule, a phrase that, for many, symbolized the possibility of a new life, a promise that, tragically, would go largely unfulfilled.

2:28 Speaker 1: So, as we dive into the heart of the early phases of Reconstruction, we'll discover that this was a time of profound transformation, not just for African Americans, but for the entire nation.

2:40 Speaker 1: The Civil War had torn the country apart, and now the challenge was to rebuild, not just physically but morally and socially.

2:51 Speaker 1: It was a time when the ideals of freedom and equality were put to the test, and the outcomes of those years would reverberate throughout American history, shaping the nation that we live in today.

3:04 Speaker 1: And so we begin to explore the triumphs and the trials of this pivotal era in American history, starting with the passage of the Reconstruction Amendments, the final abolition of slavery and the first steps towards a new, though deeply challenging, chapter in American history.

3:25 Speaker 1: Now, if you've been following along, you know that by 1865, the United States was a nation on the brink of monumental change.

3:33 Speaker 1: The war had ended, the Confederacy was defeated, but the question remained what exactly was the country going to do about the millions of newly freed African Americans?

3:46 Speaker 1: The Union may have won the war, but winning the peace was a whole different challenge.

3:52 Speaker 1: The Reconstruction Amendments, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, would answer, at least on paper, some of these questions.

4:03 Speaker 1: Would answer, at least on paper, some of these questions.

4:06 Speaker 1: These weren't just amendments, of course.

4:08 Speaker 1: They were, quite frankly, revolutionary changes that set precedent that lives in America today.

4:14 Speaker 1: So let's start with the 13th Amendment which, in simple terms, finally put an official end to slavery in the United States.

4:21 Speaker 1: It was passed by Congress on January 31st 1865, and ratified by the states later that year.

4:31 Speaker 1: It declared Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

4:45 Speaker 1: It's easy to think of the 13th Amendment as a formality, a rubber stamp on the Emancipation Proclamation, if you will.

4:54 Speaker 1: But it wasn't just a piece of paper.

4:57 Speaker 1: This was the legal death knell of an institution that had been the backbone of the Southern economy and social order for centuries.

5:05 Speaker 1: And, as you can imagine, it didn't just happen overnight.

5:09 Speaker 1: The passage of the 13th Amendment came after a brutal struggle in Congress, with fierce opposition from those who couldn't fathom a United States without slavery.

5:19 Speaker 1: The Amendment passed the House by just two votes and when it did, the chamber erupted in applause, cheers and even tears.

5:28 Speaker 1: It was in many ways the beginning of a new chapter for America, though not everyone was ready to turn the page.

5:36 Speaker 1: It is worth pausing here and pointing out that, while slavery was indeed abolished, the ghost of it will continue in America well into its future.

5:48 Speaker 1: I'll spoil my own next episode now to tell you we are not headed for a happy ending here.

5:56 Speaker 1: But as much as the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, it didn't solve all the problems.

6:01 Speaker 1: Ending slavery was one thing, but what about the newly freed African Americans?

6:07 Speaker 1: What rights did they have?

6:09 Speaker 1: Were they citizens, could they vote?

6:12 Speaker 1: That's where the 14th and the 15th Amendments came in, and, trust me, they did not come easily.

6:19 Speaker 1: The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, was a response to the Black Codes.

6:26 Speaker 1: These are laws that were passed by Southern states in the wake of the Civil War that sought to keep African Americans in a state of near slavery.

6:34 Speaker 1: We'll talk more about those in our next episode too.

6:39 Speaker 1: The 14th Amendment was the answer to the blatant attempt to undermine emancipation.

6:44 Speaker 1: Amendment was the answer to the blatant attempt to undermine emancipation.

6:48 Speaker 1: It guaranteed that all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves, were now citizens of the United States and of any state in which they resided.

6:56 Speaker 1: It also promised equal protection of the laws and due process, meaning that states couldn't just trample over the rights of newly freed African Americans without facing consequence.

7:09 Speaker 1: Now here's where things get really interesting.

7:13 Speaker 1: The 14th Amendment wasn't just about protecting African Americans.

7:18 Speaker 1: It was about fundamentally changing the relationship between the federal government and the states.

7:24 Speaker 1: Before this, the Bill of Rights applied only to federal government, but with the 14th Amendment the federal government became the enforcer of civil rights, making sure that states couldn't just do as they pleased when it came to citizens' rights.

7:39 Speaker 1: And this was a big deal.

7:41 Speaker 1: It was a major shift in American governance, and it laid the groundwork for future civil right battles all the way up to today.

7:51 Speaker 1: And then, of course, there was the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, which aimed to protect the right to vote.

7:58 Speaker 1: It stated that the right to vote could not be denied based on race, color or previous condition of servitude.

8:07 Speaker 1: This was a bold move, especially considering that the ink was barely dry on the 13th Amendment.

8:13 Speaker 1: But, like the others, it was not a smooth road.

8:17 Speaker 1: Southern states weren't about to let go of their power so easily, and they quickly found ways to sidestep this new reality through literacy tests, poll taxes and other forms of voter suppression that would take nearly a century to fully challenge.

8:34 Speaker 1: So if you ever wonder why people sometimes bristle at the thought of additional checks and I have the air quote fingers up right now at polls in America it is because there is a long tradition of using these as barriers of entry to restrict voting rights.

8:52 Speaker 1: In the same way it was done in the wake of the Civil War.

8:55 Speaker 1: But let's go back to the immediate aftermath of these amendments, particularly the 13th.

9:03 Speaker 1: Once slavery was officially abolished, there was a brief window of hope, an almost euphoric moment where it seemed like real change might be possible.

9:11 Speaker 1: African Americans in the South began to exercise their newfound freedom.

9:16 Speaker 1: They got married, they formed communities, they established schools and churches and they sought to claim their piece of the American dream.

9:24 Speaker 1: One of the most famous promises of this period was 40 acres and a mule.

9:30 Speaker 1: This phrase originated from Special Field Order no 15, issued by General William Tecumseh Sherman in January 1865 as he arrived in Savannah, georgia.

9:41 Speaker 1: For many newly freed slaves, this order represented a tangible piece of freedom, a way to start anew and build a future on their own terms.

9:51 Speaker 1: But, as you might guess, this promise was short-lived.

9:56 Speaker 1: After Lincoln's assassination, president Andrew Johnson reversed Sherman's order, returning the land to his former Confederate owners.

10:05 Speaker 1: The promise of 40 acres and a mule turned out to be more of a dream than a reality, leaving many African Americans feeling betrayed by a government that had promised them so much.

10:18 Speaker 1: Despite these setbacks, the Reconstruction Amendments were a monumental achievement.

10:22 Speaker 1: They represented the nation's attempt to live up to its founding ideals of liberty and equality, though the reality, as we'll see, was far more complicated.

10:33 Speaker 1: African Americans were now, at least on paper, free and equal citizens of the United States, but in practice, their journey towards true freedom and equality was just beginning, and it would be filled with trials, tribulations and an unyielding struggle against those who sought to deny them their rights.

10:55 Speaker 1: While these amendments were a huge leap forward, they were also just the start of a much longer and more complicated story, and it is a story that is still being written today.

11:06 Speaker 1: So as the ink dried on the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, the United States found itself standing at a crossroads.

11:16 Speaker 1: The war was over, slavery had been abolished and, on paper, african Americans were now full citizens.

11:25 Speaker 1: But, as we all know, there's a big difference between what's on paper and what happens in reality.

11:32 Speaker 1: The period known as Reconstruction was supposed to be a time of rebuilding, a chance for the country to right its wrongs and to chart a new course, and for a brief moment that all seemed like it might actually happen.

11:45 Speaker 1: Let's start with the South.

11:46 Speaker 1: After the Confederacy's defeat, the Southern states were in shambles economically, politically and socially.

11:55 Speaker 1: Plantations were ruined, the labor force had been emancipated and the old social order was upended.

12:03 Speaker 1: It was clear to everyone that the South could not simply return to the way things were before the war, but how to rebuild?

12:12 Speaker 1: That was the million-dollar question.

Broken Promises

12:15 Speaker 1: Under the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, the South was divided into five military districts, each overseen by Union troops.

12:24 Speaker 1: These laws were designed to enforce the new constitutional amendments and protect the rights of newly freed African Americans.

12:31 Speaker 1: The idea was to rebuild Southern society from the ground up, starting with a new political order that included, for the first time, african American men as voters and office holders.

12:44 Speaker 1: And it wasn't just a theoretical change, it actually happened.

12:49 Speaker 1: During the early years of Reconstruction, african Americans made significant gains in political power.

12:55 Speaker 1: In states like South Carolina, mississippi and Louisiana, black men served in state legislatures and some even held national office.

13:05 Speaker 1: One of the most famous examples is Hiram Revels, who in 1870 became the first African American to serve in the United States Senate, representing Mississippi, a state that just a few years earlier had been part of the Confederacy.

13:23 Speaker 1: These early Reconstruction years were a time of hope and possibility for African Americans.

13:27 Speaker 1: Schools were established, businesses were started and communities began to thrive.

13:33 Speaker 1: For the first time, black families could imagine a future that wasn't defined by the color of their skin.

13:40 Speaker 1: The Freedmen's Bureau, established in 1865, played a crucial role in this process, providing education, legal assistance and even helping to negotiate labor contracts for newly freed slaves.

13:54 Speaker 1: But, as we know, progress often breeds resentment.

14:00 Speaker 1: The sight of African Americans exercising their newfound rights and, in some cases, achieving political power, was way too much for many white Southerners to bear.

14:10 Speaker 1: The old social order may have been officially dismantled, but in their minds, and in the minds of many, it was still very much alive and they were determined to restore it by any means necessary.

14:23 Speaker 1: And here's where we meet the rise of redemption governments.

14:28 Speaker 1: As the 1870s progressed, white Southerners began to organize in opposition to Reconstruction, using a combination of legal maneuvering, violence and outright terrorism.

14:39 Speaker 1: Of legal maneuvering, violence and outright terrorism, they sought to redeem their states from what they saw as the tyranny of Reconstruction.

14:46 Speaker 1: Organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, which we'll discuss in greater detail later, used intimidation and violence to suppress black political participation and restore white supremacy.

14:59 Speaker 1: By the mid-1870s, the tide was turning.

15:03 Speaker 1: The federal government, weary from a decade of Reconstruction, began to lose interest in enforcing the rights of African Americans in the South.

15:13 Speaker 1: The Compromise of 1877, which effectively ended Reconstruction, marked the beginning of a long and brutal era of segregation, disenfranchisement and racial violence that would last well into the 20th century.

15:29 Speaker 1: But before we get there, let's take a moment to reflect on the promise of Reconstruction.

15:34 Speaker 1: For a brief time, it seemed like America might actually live up to its ideals.

15:40 Speaker 1: The country had a chance to rebuild not just its physical infrastructure but its very soul.

15:46 Speaker 1: African Americans, long denied the basic rights of citizenship, were finally given a voice, and for a while that voice was heard, but, as we'll see in the next episode, that progress was not only halted but actively undone, leading to a new era of repression and violence that would haunt the nation for generations.

16:08 Speaker 1: As we discussed earlier, one of the most enduring symbols of Reconstruction and its unfulfilled promise is the phrase 40 acres and a mule.

16:18 Speaker 1: It's a phrase that even today carries a weight of hope, betrayal and missed opportunity.

16:24 Speaker 1: So let's dig into it a little bit more than we did before.

16:30 Speaker 1: The idea of 40 acres and a mule can be traced back to the waning days of the Civil War and specifically to field order issued by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.

16:39 Speaker 1: In January 1865, as Sherman's troops advanced through the South laying waste to the Confederacy's heartland, he issued Special Field Order no 15.

16:50 Speaker 1: This order was revolutionary, at least on paper.

16:53 Speaker 1: Number 15.

16:57 Speaker 1: This order was revolutionary at least on paper.

16:58 Speaker 1: It set aside a vast swath of land across the coast of South Carolina, georgia and Florida about 400,000 acres in total for the exclusive settlement of freed slaves.

17:05 Speaker 1: Each family would receive up to 40 acres of tillable land and army mules no longer needed for the war effort.

17:13 Speaker 1: They would be lent to them, to help them get started.

17:16 Speaker 1: The logic behind this was clear and, frankly, quite forward-thinking for the time.

17:22 Speaker 1: Sherman recognized that for freedmen to truly gain independence, they needed land, a source of livelihood and economic power.

17:30 Speaker 1: It wasn't enough to simply free people from bondage.

17:33 Speaker 1: They needed the means to sustain themselves and their families in this new world, and so the promise of 40 acres and a mule was born.

17:42 Speaker 1: For a brief period, this promise was actually being fulfilled.

17:47 Speaker 1: Thousands of freedmen settled in the land and there was a real sense of hope and possibility.

17:53 Speaker 1: Men settle in the land and there was a real sense of hope and possibility.

17:57 Speaker 1: Finally, it seemed, african Americans were being given a fair shot, a chance to build a life, a community and a future of their own terms.

18:04 Speaker 1: The land was theirs and for a few fleeting months it looked like Reconstruction might actually make good on its promise to reshape the South, like Reconstruction might actually make good on its promise to reshape the South.

18:17 Speaker 1: But, as we've seen before, the reality of Reconstruction was far more complex and fraught than the promises made on paper.

18:23 Speaker 1: When President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, his successor, andrew Johnson, took a very different approach to Reconstruction.

18:31 Speaker 1: Johnson, who was a Southern Democrat who had remained loyal to the Union, was far less sympathetic to the plight of the freedmen.

18:39 Speaker 1: In fact, johnson's approach to Reconstruction was rooted in a desire to quickly restore the Southern states to the Union with as little disruption to the pre-war social order as possible.

18:50 Speaker 1: One of Johnson's first actions upon taking office was to rescind Sherman's Field Order no 15.

18:57 Speaker 1: The land that had been promised to Friedman was returned to his former Confederate owners, many of whom were eager to re-establish the old plantation system.

19:08 Speaker 1: Overnight, the Friedman, who had started to build new lives for themselves, were dispossessed.

19:14 Speaker 1: The dream of 40 acres and a mule was shattered and with it the hope of economic independence for millions of African Americans.

19:25 Speaker 1: This betrayal had devastating consequences.

19:27 Speaker 1: Without land or resources, the vast majority of freedmen were forced into a system of sharecropping.

19:34 Speaker 1: Or resources, the vast majority of freedmen were forced into a system of sharecropping, a new form of economic bondage that kept them tied to the land without ever truly owning it.

19:40 Speaker 1: Sharecropping was a pernicious system that perpetuated poverty and dependency.

19:50 Speaker 1: Under this arrangement, freedmen would work for a portion of a plantation owner's land in exchange for a share of the crop, but the terms were almost always skewed in favor of the landowner by the time debts were paid often for rent, tools, seeds and supplies the sharecropper was left with little or nothing.

20:06 Speaker 1: In many cases, they found themselves trapped in a cycle of debt and poverty, little better than the slavery that they had just escaped.

20:23 Speaker 1: The story of 40 acres and a mule is not just a story of broken promises.

20:24 Speaker 1: It is a story of how a brief window of opportunity for real change during Reconstruction was slammed shut by those who were more interested in preserving the old order than in building a new one.

20:33 Speaker 1: It is a reminder that the forces of reaction are often quick to regroup and reassert themselves, even in the face of what seems like irreversible progress.

20:43 Speaker 1: But it is also a story of resilience.

20:47 Speaker 1: Despite the betrayals, african Americans continued to fight for their rights to build communities and to demand the justice that had been promised to them.

20:56 Speaker 1: The legacy of 40 acres and a mule is complicated, but it is also a testament to the struggle for equality in the face of overwhelming odds.

21:08 Speaker 1: As we draw this episode to a close, it is hard not to reflect on what could have been during those early years of Reconstruction.

21:15 Speaker 1: The Civil War had ended slavery, but it hadn't ended the struggle for true freedom, equality and justice.

21:22 Speaker 1: For a brief moment, it seemed like the nation was poised to make good on the promises of the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

21:37 Speaker 1: There was a chance, however fleeting, to build a new South, one where African Americans could live as full citizens, with the rights and opportunities denied to them for so long.

21:50 Speaker 1: But, as we've already seen, those promises were quickly broken.

21:56 Speaker 1: The hope embodied in 40 acres and a mule was crushed by the same forces that had upheld slavery for centuries.

22:03 Speaker 1: The land was taken back, the dream of economic independence was dashed and the freedmen were left to navigate a landscape that looked all too similar to the one they had just left.

22:15 Speaker 1: The end of the war didn't bring the end of their struggles.

22:19 Speaker 1: It simply changed the battlefield.

22:23 Speaker 1: Reconstruction could have been the dawn of a new era in American history.

22:27 Speaker 1: Instead, it became a battleground for competing visions of the nation's future.

22:32 Speaker 1: The forces of progress were met with fierce resistance, and as we move forward in our story, we'll see just how devastating that resistance would be.

22:41 Speaker 1: The opportunity to build a truly just society was missed, and the consequences of that failure would echo through the generations.

22:50 Speaker 1: Next time, on Double Helix, we'll talk about the dark aftermath of Reconstruction, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the imposition of Black Codes and Jim Crow laws, and the myth of the Lost Cause.

23:07 Speaker 1: This is a story of a victory that came at an unbearable cost, a victory that was not fully realized.

23:15 Speaker 1: The struggle for equality would continue, but the path forward would be fraught with new challenges and old hatreds.

23:22 Speaker 1: Thank you for listening.

23:24 Speaker 1: We'll see you soon.