In A Short History of Reconstruction by Eric Foner the passage he talked about topics that impacted the reconstruction. For example the Fourteenth Amendment that granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States including former enslaved people. He also states the origin of civil rights and radical republicans. He is illustrating that the reconstruction affected everyone and had a significant impact in many ways.
The section on the Fourteenth Amendment expanded my knowledge of the different clauses within the amendment. The first clause does not allow states to shorten someone’s equality. The second allows all males to be able to vote so that southern states benefit from having more representation. The “male” part of the clause did not help feminist and felt betrayed.
I personally never thought about what politicians had to do to keep peace. But Foner mentions that there wasn’t a national police force or permanent military to keep the rights of former slaves. Southern blacks and white loyalists tried to convince Congress that they can not trust Southern states to solve their problems without federal oversight. Former slaves feared that southern states would find loopholes to try to stop former slaves from having their rights. Something that was interesting was President Andrew Johnson. He “had” to veto any bill that had to do with reconstruction because he needed to keep his support between the north and southern states. He knew that the Freedmen’s Bureau would upset white southerners. Foner also states that Johnson believed “giving blacks citizenship was discriminating against whites.” Johnson has obviously picked a side and many northerners are not happy that he was blatantly racist. Foner pointed out major events and topics that were significant to the reconstruction era. At the end everything connected and it seems like there was a domino effect with Johnson trying to keep his support but ended up losing support.
A good summary—I think it makes sense to focus on the Fourteenth Amendment, since it was so significant, although you might have talked a little bit about what Foner describes as its origins, as well as how it was interpreted at the time.
You’ve also put your finger on perhaps the biggest issue looming over Reconstruction—the problem of enforcement. I’m not sure if Foner addresses that question adequately in this chapter. Was the failure of Reconstruction then due to the lack of enforcement by the Army, Congress, or other federal forces, or to inadequacies in the legislation (like 14A) itself? Or, did the racism expressed by President Johnson doom its experiment in racial equality from the start?