Race And Reunion Summary

Throughout the period of Reconstruction, the meaning of the Civil War has adapted into many different visions: the reconciliationist vision, the white supremacist vision, and the emancipationist vision. The significance of the war has been constantly altered because of the many different perspectives about the war. Because the Civil War caused destruction directly to both the North and South with over 600 thousand deaths, the meaning of the war has been altered to and from the “twin goals.” --- healing and justice. In Race and Reunion, Blight argues that the “twin goals” and “competing interests” have changed with the idea of having a different goal of reuniting the Union.
The idea of healing and justice blight explains is that “these two

aims never developed in historical balance.”3 Blight discusses how whites, especially veterans and their family members, focused more of and on the healing aspect of the Civil War and less about doing justice about the four million emancipated slaves. On the other hand, the blacks wanted more focus on the equality aspect and the ability to exercise their rights and secure access to land.

Although in Blight’s video he argues that “liberation of slaves caused reconstruction,”and that even though they were free, no one knew what “free” really meant.2 For blacks, they perceived the war as an opportunity for freedom, but this wasn’t the case for the other side. The whites struggled with their loss and throughout the period of Reconstruction, the Southerners changed the meaning of the Civil War through the use of “terror and violence, and locked arms with reconciliationist of many kinds.”3 However the meaning of the war didn’t change overnight, it took time. For example, Blight explains that “there were many warring definitions of healing in the South and the nation’s collective memory had never been so shattered.”3 After the war ended, everyone had different views on how

Reconstruction should take place and how the North would reunite with the South. “[The Civil War and civil rights] were too often like planets in separate orbits around different suns.”1 In chapter 1 of Race and Reunion, it is clear that Reconstruction has an effect on the significance of the Civil War because “The emancipation proclamation changes the character of the war.”3 In chapter 1, Blight explains how Abraham Lincoln had a different perception of the Civil War in that “He envisioned an ideological struggle over the meaning of war, a society’s tortured effort to know the real character of the tragedy festering in the cold and in the stench of all those bodies awaiting burial.”3
Since both the North and South’s government was weak, politicians and businessmen grasped the opportunity to gain power of their own.

This turn in power lead to corruption as Bailey states “...Lincoln [had] promised ‘a new birth of freedom.’ Instead they got a bitter dose of corruption and political stalemate.” 5 People were influenced to campaign for their allies through patronage. These politicians and businessmen took advantage of the government so that they could enhance themselves which ultimately destroyed the government. In Blight’s video, he references the Civil War as the “second American Revolution” because the US had to completely remold and restructure itself and the government after being torn apart.”2 Overtime, the Republican’s goal of wanting to protect freed slaves and advocate for them soon came to an end. As a result, the Republicans gave in to the Compromise of 1877 with the South and with the upbringing of the Jim Crow laws. Even Bailey remarks that,“the Old South was in many ways more resurrected then reconstructed”5 because a new kind of racial judgment was thought about of the African Americans instead of totally reconstructing, improving, and becoming better. In Blight’s video he explains “The “cost of racial justice” was not worth risking the stability of the Union.”2 During this time, reconstruction started to weaken which caused the hope for equality to fade away for African Americans.“The Democrats reluctantly agreed that Hayes might take office

in return for his withdrawing intrusive federal troops from the two states in which they remained.”5 Once Reconstruction had come to an end, with the agreement of taking out troops from the South, “The Southern Democrats forgot the secession was about slavery, they recast the Civil war as a difference over states’ rights, and they recalled Reconstruction as a carnival of corruption...” 4 Bailey also states “deep-seated racism, ingrained American resistance to tampering with property rights, and rigid loyalty to the principle of local self-government, combined with spreading indifference in the North to the plight of the blacks, formed too formidable an obstacle.”5 Both the North and South were exhausted of struggling with Reconstruction that in the end, Reconciliation was the best option.
Out of the two “competing interests,” Reconciliation won out at the end of Reconstruction. During Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, 40 years after the war, a reunion was held in memory of the tough battle. In his speech, President Woodrow .“[Wilson] appealed for a ‘new’ host for a new age,...That new host was the teeming masses of the Progressive era.”3 In conclusion, American’s former grudge from failure was long gone. America had finally achieved and got what they were looking for and they had reached the calm of the storm. However, African American veterans were not recognized. “Because the planners had allowed no space for surviving black veterans, they had also left no space on the programs for a discussion of that second great outcome of the war- the failures of racial reconciliation.”3 Instead of facing the fact that their initial motive was unsuccessful, their view of the war changed so that all of their losses would mean something.
To sum up, both “healing and justice” had similar, relating aspects, but neither one was “historically balanced.” The reason why reunion won out is because the South couldn’t be changed and it was more of a challenge to change them. In order for someone to truly change, they have to be willing to do so themselves and that was not the case for the South after the war.