HUMAN 1B Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Reconstruction Era, Reconstruction Acts, Southern Democrats
20 Apr 2016
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The memory of the civil war in american culture. Cannot look into the future - how ppl move from the past to future. The uses of memory has strong politics, especially racial one. Denies black agency; people who remembered the war helped historical contingency. Land distribution was the right thing to do after the civil war. Most northern whites believed the blacks would need to be guided by whites. Blacks need to sign yearly contracts to show that they are conceptually bound as slaves. With emancipation, black slaves got nothing but freedom. Freedom is in someway the opposite of slavery. Uniformly required for blacks to sign the contracts or put in jail w/ fines. Radical reconstruction - states constructing for black voters. Myth: blacks ruled the south ; blacks initially formed with pools of white. 16 seats won by blacks ; 18 served in high state office = ~400.
