Reconstruction Video

The PBS documentary, RECONSTRUCTION: AMERICA AFTER THE CIVIL WAR, was a very interesting documentary that looked at the Civil Rights era and shed light on very under taught subjects.

I find it very intriguing that Lincoln picked his running mate to be a person that was an outright racist. Andrew Johnson was a racist Southerner. I wonder who Lincoln's other running mates could have been. Picking Johnson seems very odd considering what Lincoln ended up doing.

When Johnson takes over, he proves this by "keeping the black population under control". Johnson also required the Southerners to take an oath to the Union, which I find odd because in a democratic society, no oath should ever be forced to take an oath. 

Johnson seemed like he had a superiority complex, because he was forcing people to beg to him for amnesty. It's also odd that he completely forgave the Southerners, and in most cases gave their land and power back to them, and no one stopped him. 

I am surprised that there was no uprising from blacks once they realized they would have to go back to working for their owners, but this time a little more morally just. I am surprised that there was no uprising to overthrow the Southern rule.

It's also weird that the black codes existed without interference from the government. Slavery was abolished, but the only thing that changed was the name. Any law that requires all black people to work on a plantation for a white man is arbitrary and capricious. 

Without the Freedman's Bureau, blacks had no chance to get on their own feet and start their own lives, so they are stuck with abiding by the black codes.

After the war, at least 10 former Confederate believers were elected to Congress. To me, fighting the Civil War was pointless. Slavery was abolished, sure, but nothing truly changed until 1965. Yes, slavery was horrific, however the same mental, physical, and emotional torment continued after the war to keep the black population as subordinates to the whites.

To prevent these Confederates from having their power, the clerk did not call on their names during their first meeting. I find this to be petty, but actually very worth it for Reconstruction. Congress continued their fight for their Reconstruction by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1966. This established birth right citizenship.

When the South realized that they would not be able to fight off the North, they decided to focus their efforts on the populations living in the Southern states. The Southern states started to riot against the black population by targeting the returning soldiers and massacring them. 

To me, this was America's holocaust. The fact that whites were pillaging blacks just because they were scared of a new order is insane and horrific. The riots against blacks were violent and inhumane. I still cannot believe some of the things that I hear and read about. Just seems very inhumane.