Hello everyone, I’m Cameron Seker and I’m looking forward to learning about this country’s history with you all this semester.
The Reconstruction era was a crucial followup to the devastation left behind by the Civil War. Firstly, one must understand the goals of both the Confederacy and the Union going into the Civil War to understand what victory implied for the future of the United States. The Confederacy wished to hold onto the institution of slavery, whereas the Union sought to break said institution. A victory for either faction would have spelled an entirely different path forward for the United States, but was a crucial fight to have particularly in a time period where death and devastation was actually limited by the technology available. Willis alludes to this in his article in which he writes “...the casualty statistics for individual battles are simply staggering, especially considering the military technology then available”. If a civil war were to break out in the modern era, there can be no doubt that the battles would be even deadlier than were possible during the mid 19th century. All this to say, the Union’s victory over the Confederacy was not without sacrifice, and the Reconstruction period was an imperfect follow up. Echoes of the hateful, racist bigotry that the Union had sought to stomp out has continued to influence the country in a large set of ways. Even during the war, the Union was particularly cruel to people of color. (Aptheker, 1947) Had the Reconstruction Era not only focused on federal intervention to integrate freed slaves into the country as independent citizens, but also pushed on a cultural level the importance of getting rid of racist ideology, perhaps our understanding of race within the context of United States history would be vastly different.
On a more lighthearted note, I found it funny that the final Confederate raider surrendered in England. It seems like it only takes two revolutions to return to your roots.
Willis, Matthew. An End to All Hell: 150th Anniversary of the Civil War’s End - JSTOR DAILY, 9 Apr. 2015, daily.jstor.org/end-hell-150th-anniversary-civil-wars-end/.
Aptheker, Herbert. “Negro Casualties in the Civil War.” The Journal of Negro History, vol. 32, no. 1, 1947, pp. 10–80. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2715291. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.
The Reconstruction era was a crucial followup to the devastation left behind by the Civil War. Firstly, one must understand the goals of both the Confederacy and the Union going into the Civil War to understand what victory implied for the future of the United States. The Confederacy wished to hold onto the institution of slavery, whereas the Union sought to break said institution. A victory for either faction would have spelled an entirely different path forward for the United States, but was a crucial fight to have particularly in a time period where death and devastation was actually limited by the technology available. Willis alludes to this in his article in which he writes “...the casualty statistics for individual battles are simply staggering, especially considering the military technology then available”. If a civil war were to break out in the modern era, there can be no doubt that the battles would be even deadlier than were possible during the mid 19th century. All this to say, the Union’s victory over the Confederacy was not without sacrifice, and the Reconstruction period was an imperfect follow up. Echoes of the hateful, racist bigotry that the Union had sought to stomp out has continued to influence the country in a large set of ways. Even during the war, the Union was particularly cruel to people of color. (Aptheker, 1947) Had the Reconstruction Era not only focused on federal intervention to integrate freed slaves into the country as independent citizens, but also pushed on a cultural level the importance of getting rid of racist ideology, perhaps our understanding of race within the context of United States history would be vastly different.
On a more lighthearted note, I found it funny that the final Confederate raider surrendered in England. It seems like it only takes two revolutions to return to your roots.
Willis, Matthew. An End to All Hell: 150th Anniversary of the Civil War’s End - JSTOR DAILY, 9 Apr. 2015, daily.jstor.org/end-hell-150th-anniversary-civil-wars-end/.
Aptheker, Herbert. “Negro Casualties in the Civil War.” The Journal of Negro History, vol. 32, no. 1, 1947, pp. 10–80. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2715291. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.