Democracy and the American Civil War

Description

In 1865, after four tumultuous years of fighting, Americans welcomed the opportunity to return to a life of normalcy. President Abraham Lincoln issued his emancipation decree in January 1863 and had set the stage for what he hoped would be a smooth transition from war to peace with the announcement of his reconstruction program in December 1863 and with his call of "malice toward none and charity for all" in his Second Inaugural Address in March 1865. Lincoln's dream of completing the process of reconstructing the nation was cut short just one month later by the hand of an assassin.The essays in this volume-by Adams and Hudson along with Stanley Harrold, John David Smith, Mitchell Snay, and Fay Yarbrough-represent an exemplary collection on the importance of democracy and race during and after America's most devastating conflict. Ranging from a consideration of antebellum abolitionists to the racial policies adopted by Native American tribes that had allied with the Confederacy to the ambiguous legacies of Reconstruction, these chapters are thoroughly researched, persuasively argued, and beautifully crafted. Democracy and the American Civil War is a compelling examination of black Americans and their quest for citizenship rights in the face of violence and ostracism.As volume coeditor Leonne Hudson points out in his introduction, Lincoln's actions were significant steps on the road toward the fulfillment of the democratic tenets contained in the foundational documents of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. By the end of the Civil War, President Lincoln had come to realize that individual freedom was an inalienable right. Furthermore, he believed that in a democratic nation all men were not only entitled to freedom but to equality as well. Although African Americans had played an unforgettable role in helping to preserve the Union, they found their path to full democracy littered with political and legal obstacles that would bedevil them for decades. This collection enriches our understanding of democracy, race, and the Civil War, and it reminds us that the historical importance of democracy and the complexity of race are topics with which we should continue to engage.

Sujets

• Histoire
• USA
• United States of America
• History of the Americas
• American Civil War
• États-Unis
• Guerre de Sécession

Informations

• Publié par: The Kent State University Press
• Date de parution: 14 octobre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781631012280
• Langue: English

Extrait

Praise for Democracy and the American Civil War
“It is unfortunate that Alexis de Tocqueville died in 1859. His Democracy in America of 1835 was one of the most brilliant examinations of any society at any time in human history. What would he have thought about the American Civil War and the presidency of Abraham Lincoln? We will never know. Thankfully, this new volume, superbly edited by Kevin Adams and Leonne M. Hudson, draws us into the varied and vexed worlds of democracy during the nation’s most grueling test with Tocquevillian talent. Any reader who wants to wrestle with democracy, race, and the Civil War will grab this volume.”
—E DWARD J. B LUM , author of Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism, 1865–1898
“At Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln emphasized ‘a new birth of freedom’ for government of, by, and for the people (and that is the proposition he emphasized as he spoke, not the prepositions). The Civil War changed American democracy and American race relations in ways sweeping and subtle. From abolitionists and black troops to the Cherokee, from changing laws to growing lawlessness, this marvelous collection of essays examines ways in which Americans of the Civil War era tried—and sometimes failed—to live up to the ideals that Lincoln described, and gives us new ways to think about the times and the people at the heart of them.”
—M ICHAEL S. G REEN , author of Lincoln and the Election of 1860
“This slender volume illustrates that for all the recent work on emancipation during the Civil War era, imaginative scholars still draw fresh insights. Its coverage spans abolitionism, Abraham Lincoln, emancipation in the Cherokee Nation, the White Leagues in Reconstruction Louisiana, and the principle of posse comitatus . The relationship of race to democracy runs through all the essays. It is fitting that Kent State University’s annual Symposium on Democracy, commemorating the events there in May 1970, sponsored these explorations. The contributors pay fitting tribute to the quest for a fuller and more inclusive democracy that each generation enriches with its blood.”
—J OSEPH P. R EIDY , Professor of History and Associate Provost, Howard University
“Reflections of the work and wisdom of five leading historians, the essays in this welcome volume probe and explain the most explosive racial controversies of the Civil War era: militant abolitionism, wartime emancipation, proud black soldiers, postwar Union military occupation, white resistance to Reconstruction, and the plague of ongoing racism. Together, they prove that American democracy’s long quest for racial justice almost inevitably requires force and provokes violence.”
—T. M ICHAEL P ARRISH , Baylor University
Democracy and the American Civil War
Democracy and the American Civil War

Race and African Americans in the Nineteenth Century

EDITED BY K EVIN A DAMS AND L EONNE M. H UDSON
THE KENT STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS KENT, OHIO
© 2016 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ISBN 978-1-60635-269-4
Manufactured in the United States of America
Portions of chapter 1 originally appeared in A Companion to the U.S. Civil War , edited by Aaron Sheehan-Dean, © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Used by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Portions of chapter 3 originally appeared on pages 74–92 of Race and the Cherokee Nation: Sovereignty in the Nineteenth Century by Fay A. Yarbrough, Copyright © 2008 University of Pennsylvania Press.
Reprinted with permission of the University of Pennsylvania Press.
Cataloging information for this title is available at the Library of Congress.
20  19  18  17  16        5  4  3  2  1
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
LEONNE M. HUDSON
Morality, Violence, and Perceptions of Abolitionist Success and Failure from Before the Civil War to the Present
STANLEY HARROLD
“As firmly linked to ‘Africanus’ as was that of the celebrated Scipio”: Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation, and the U.S. Colored Troops
JOHN DAVID SMITH
Reconstructing Other Southerners: The Aftermath of the Civil War in the Cherokee Nation
FAY A. YARBROUGH
Army of Democracy? Moving Toward a New History of Posse Comitatus
KEVIN ADAMS
Democracy and Race in the Late Reconstruction South: The White Leagues of Louisiana
MITCHELL SNAY
Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments
It is only proper that we pause to recognize and acknowledge those persons who played a role in the success of the Symposium on Democracy and the publication of the book that followed. The planning for the symposium and the publication of the subsequent volume required the help and cooperation of several individuals. The members of the symposium planning committee would like to express their sincere gratitude to Lester A. Lefton, then president of Kent State University. His support for the symposium helped to guarantee its success. President Lefton fully understood that a university is a microcosm of society, in which democratic principles must be valued and protected. We also offer special thanks to Debra L. Berry of the president’s office, who guided us around pitfalls and kept us on track without a word of complaint. When we found ourselves facing an uncertainty, Debra could always be counted on to provide calm and encouragement.
The work of the symposium planning committee was significantly eased by the outstanding support it received from Kent State University’s Office of University Communications and Marketing, the Kent Student Center, the Department of History, the May 4 Visitors Center, and the Kent State University Bookstore. We would also like to thank the keynote speaker, panelists, and moderators of the sessions for their significant contributions to the program. The panel moderators, Lesley J. Gordon of the University of Akron and Kevin Adams and Leonne M. Hudson, both of Kent State University, added an important scholarly dimension to the symposium. We also extend a special note of appreciation to KSU’s faculty, students, and staff, and to members of the community, for their support of and attendance at all or portions of the symposium.
The Kent State University Press supported the symposium project from the beginning and remained an invaluable resource throughout the planning process. The editors of this volume are especially indebted to Will Underwood, KSUP’s director, and Joyce Harrison, its acquiring editor, for their commitment to the publication of these essays. We would like to thank the staff at the Press for making certain that this volume is a reflection of the high quality for which KSUP is known. We are grateful to the readers of this manuscript, Joseph P. Reidy and the other, anonymous, reader, for offering substantial suggestions for improving this work.
It is our hope that this volume will generate discourse on college and university campuses on the significance of tolerance, inclusion, and pluralism in a democratic nation.
Introduction
L EONNE M. H UDSON
The first May 4 Symposium on Democracy was held at Kent State University in April 2000. Carol A. Cartwright, then president of the university, established the symposium as a forum for scholarly discussion on the meaning of democracy in a pluralistic society. Through the symposium, the university emphasizes the promotion of civil discourse and the prevention of violent confrontations. Among the cornerstones of a democratic society are freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. If these are in any way circumscribed, America is diminished as a nation. By embracing the horrific events of May 4, 1970, Kent State University acknowledges in a very public way the unforgettable tragedy that occurred on its campus decades ago. The symposium also honors the memory of the four students who lost their lives on that day—Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder—and of the nine others who were wounded when Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on students protesting the war in Vietnam.
In 2011, against the backdrop of the nation’s commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, historians Leonne M. Hudson and Kevin Adams, along with Will Underwood, the director of the Kent State University Press, made a formal request to the university’s administration to plan the Thirteenth Annual Symposium on Democracy. President Lester A. Lefton gave the green light to move forward, allowing the formation of the symposium planning committee of three. Its first order of business was to select a theme for the symposium. The committee decided on “Democracy and the American Civil War” in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the most devastating war in the history of the nation. We organized three panels and invited six leading scholars of the Civil War era to present their research. The distinguished historians who appeared on the symposium program were: Mitchell Snay of Denison University; John David Smith of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; J. Matthew Gallman of the University of Florida; Mark Grimsley of Ohio State University; Stanley Harrold of South Carolina State University; and Fay A. Yarbrough of Oklahoma University (now at Rice University). Professors Adams and Hudson of Kent State University, along with Professor Lesley J. Gordon of the University of Akron, moderated the three sessions. The three-day symposium began on April 23, 2012, with a keynote address delivered by Pulitzer Prize–winning historical novelist Jeff Shaara. His address explored the reasons the Civil War continues to fascinate Americans and what is it about the war that makes it such an enduring phenomenon. Shaara’s oration received an enthusiastic reception from the audience.
Although the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville declared, after touring the United States in the 1830s, that “America is the most democratic country in the world,” groups then living on the margins of U.S. society, such as Native Americans, women, and black