The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction - Book Report/Review Example

Summary: BUT THERE WAS NO PEACE: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction Chapter Amercian Violence, Southern Violence, and Reconstruction This opening chapter provides an historical background to the violence in the southern states of America after the American Civil War. Rable makes the point that Americans and particularly southern Americans in this historical period were ‘heirs to a long tradition of violence’. This long accepted way of conducting affairs was an integral part of re-establishing order in the region after the disruptions of war. Rable rejects other critical explanations for the wide spread use of violence in the south, such as it being a continuation of the mores which were acceptable in frontier times, or a more general social condition in the south associated with a culture obsessed with taming man’s natural passions. This revolved around a mentality that sought to contain the inevitable presence of violence, rather than attempting to remove it from society. It was also a culture marked by violent ‘taming’ of the Indians and repression of slave revolts. Rable also rejects recent interpretations of the South as essentially conservative during this period. He argues, rather, that for the southerners of this period there was such a level of economic, social and political upheaval that to call this period conservative would be absurd. He blames this very turmoil on the explosion of violence in the south. For Rable, it was not a question of inherited violence but rather of ‘time and place’. The south became violent because of the specific conditions after the civil war, not for any violence inherent in southern society. Rable goes on to explain the way in which the south drifted out of the ‘mainstream’ and was left to have its fate decided by the victorious north. Under such conditions of continual political disappointment, violence erupted. Chapter 2: The Spectre of San Domingo This chapter deals with the fundamental problem facing the south after the Civil War – the position of the slaves. Although the constitution was founded on the idea of the equality of men, there was still a gross difference between white southerners and the recently freed slaves. For many southerners it was certainly difficult to accept the new status of men who had previously been considered far below them. Reconstruction in the south, argues Rable, therefore became a crusade to maintain the white status quo. A history of white supremacy was cited in order to show how the black man should not be allowed to participate on an equal level with the white man in all aspects of life. Rable sums up that ‘for many whites it was an article of faith that the old order could be preserved’. As Rable argues, this manifested itself as a belief in a paternal relationship between the inferior negro and the superior white land owner. Attempts, which were ultimately unsuccessful, were made to maintain a post-slavery, master-servant relationship which would allow the old powers to continue whilst also respecting the new ideas of rights for the freedmen. White southerners therefore positioned themselves as those who knew best how to deals with the ex-slaves, as they had centuries of experience of interacting with them. As blacks were no longer forced to work the land through slavery, they had to be compelled to do so in other ways. For most southerners, the way to compel them was through violence. The white position stemmed, argues Rable, from a basic position of racism. The vocabulary of ‘Negro’ and ‘black’ perpetuated stereotypes and incited ‘irrational emotions and fears’. Through their rhetoric, the white landowners were able to create a division between whites and blacks in order to further strengthen their position. The ex-slaves became regarded as lazy and insolent, with no place in white society. Rable argues that most whites were quite simply ‘psychologically unable to deal with blacks as autonomous individuals’. Indeed, in a few cases some landowners were so concerned about a social breakdown as a result of slave emancipation that they simply refused to give their slaves their freedom. This difficult situation was exacerbated, states Rable, by an increasingly uncertain economic future for the south. Slavery had been the driving force of agriculture and with its disappearance free labor was lost, causing serious economic problems for landowners. As a result, contracts for blacks were much less favorable than those for whites. Rable also points out that in many cases, although illegal, landowners continued to flog their black employees, unable to give up the traditions of slavery. Violence would continue to infiltrate southern society. Chapter 3: The Memphis Race Riot The Memphis race riots were the first, and most violent, of the riots to erupt in the south during Reconstruction. They would provide the prototype for all future race riots through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this chapter, Rable outlines the causes of these riots. Memphis had long had a history of violence. The port area of the city, explains Rable, was riddled with prostitutes and pirates while the city had a reputation for hard drinking and regular night-time brawls. After the end of the civil war the area prospered as the port attracted northern investment. However, the new found economic upturn could not mask the essential rift between blacks and the white, largely Irish population which had a long history of animosity. In spite of the improving economic climate, unemployment was still a problem and the white Irish workers regarded the blacks as a threat. Meanwhile, the majority of the black population from the surrounding area, now released from their obligations on the plantations, set up a large shanty town in the port area. The newly arrived negroes were unemployed and took to drinking, causing additional violence in the already dangerous port. The extent of black trouble making was also inflamed and exaggerated in the white press and the white population became indignant at the presence of what they regarded as a lazy and uncivilised group of layabouts. To make matters worse, explains Rable, the corrupt and inefficient police force was composed largely of white Irish men. They would often round up black freedmen and beat them up, exacerbating the already strained relationships. As tensions mounted on both sides, violence finally erupted on 1st May 1866 when white police and black freedmen clashed. The violence lasted two days. The Memphis race riots, however, were only the beginning of the violence which was to erupt across the south in the ensuing months and years. Chapter 4: New Orleans and the Emergence of Political Violence The riots in New Orleans, although similar in their end result, were not sparked by the same causes as those in Memphis. In fact, the New Orleans riots mark a shift from economic to political unrest and were therefore, in Rable’s words ‘a transitional event in the history of Reconstruction’. The Governor of the city, Madison Wells, appointed conservative union men and rebels to the offices which he governed, in order to ensure his re-election. In the 1865 state elections, Wells was duly nominated by both conservative Unionists and a large portion of Democrats. He won the elections and the Democrats gained control of the legislature. There was a general feeling among them that, in spite of growing pressure from the north to allow blacks into positions of power, white men must always govern the state. Under the newly appointed governor, many former Confederates were back in power which left the Union men feeling persecuted and helpless. In addition to this, they were socially ostracised. Louisiana also suffered from issues related to emancipation and there were tensions between the white leaders and the freedmen. In the meantime, Wells fell out of favour with his conservative supporters and so city elections were held in spring 1866. The previous Confederate mayor, Monroe, beat Wells. He was supposed to improve the police force but failed to remove the factionalism and inefficiency, nor did he oust the large proportion of officers who were openly racist. However, clashes were less violent than in Memphis and not enough to spark riots. Whites were also more tolerant due to the historical presence of free negroes in the city. In the meantime, Wells broke with his makeshift political alliance and, to try to improve his political position, made an alliance with radical Unionists based on support of black suffrage in spite of his well voiced, private, objection to it. Wells and his supporters attempted to reconvene the adjourned constitutional convention of 1864 on a technicality. This convention dealt with given blacks full constitutional rights. The idea that the blacks might get the vote provoked white anger. Meetings were held with the Unionists and blacks and the opposition soon became uneasy, fearing the convention. Over the first days, the military was not called out. However on 30th July, men were made ready to be deployed. On the afternoon of the same day, black men walked in support of the convention through New Orleans. Blacks and whites clashed and the riots began. Chapter 5: Military Reconstruction: The Triumph of Jacobinism The situation in the south, therefore, was becoming increasingly difficult. The white southerners saw radical reconstruction as ‘negro rule’ and small numbers of blacks in influential positions enraged them. The white man should rule the state and the black man should be subservient; this was the southerners’ opinion. As the Republicans set up regimes in the south, they gave the angry whites a reason for counter-revolution. This was worsened by the 1865 Civil Rights Act, under which blacks had equal access to public accommodation and public transport. Whites in the south were horrified at these changes. In the north, meanwhile, it became increasingly clear that there was little negotiating to be done with the south. In early 1867, the majority in the north did not want to continue negotiating with southern Confederates. Stevens therefore tried to convince the house to use more radical measures. Military action was agreed as the only way forward and on March 1867 the first Reconstruction Act was passed. At first, under the Reconstruction Acts, the whites in the south were able to deny the legitimacy of the governments which were being established by declaring that they still under military rule. In addition, they appealed to the Anglo-Saxon model of resistance against what they regarded as tyranny, in the manner of John Locke. Perceived Yankee oppression purified the Confederate cause, explains Rable, and took on the sense of a war against radicalism. In the fourth Reconstruction Act of March 1868, however, this loop-hole was blocked. Southerners, realising that there was little left for them to do except accept the situation, took to wooing the black vote, hoping to maintain the status quo through legitimate election. However, it became obvious that black were not convinced by the rhetoric of men who had, until then, been aggressively hostile to them. The south, therefore, looked to the north and the 1868 elections to turn the tide of black power. However, their hopes were not realised and the north maintained control. Chapter 6: The Origins of the Counterrevolution The southerners, therefore, felt excluded from the political process and left outside the bastions of power. As Rable argues, it is just such a situation where the ruling body is, or appears to be, unresponsive to the needs of a significant group of people, that civil violence can occur. The ferocity of the southerners resistance to the established power manifested itself firstly in the press. Newspapers ran inflammatory headlines with articles which grossly exaggerated levels of taxation and public spending. In order to cement public opinion against the ruling body, the highly critical opinion of white southerners was made clear. Whites also openly defied the new authorities. However, it was clear that they could not resort to violence against the white leaders as they had against the blacks, since the murder of a white man carried serious penalties. Instead, there were flurries of violence against white Republicans. The southerners were, however, able to exploit the imbalance between blacks and whites which was ingrained in the court system. The judiciary in the south was at best inefficient and at worst corrupt and openly racist. Crimes against blacks carried much lighter sentences than those against whites. This, therefore, allowed whites to threaten and intimidate blacks with little sanctions against them. This power was put to best use during the election process. As Rable explains, in the spring of 1868 the ratification for the new state constitution of Mississippi took place. Whites filled the polling stations and attacked blacks who attempted to vote. Others took down the names of all the blacks who turned out to vote, in order to intimidate them. This process was designed to keep the blacks, who would support the new constitution, away from the polling stations in order for the vote of the whites to prevail. Tactics of this kind became common across the south. As Rable summarises, ‘If they [i.e. the blacks] could either be “persuaded” not to vote or to vote Democratic, the strength of the Republican party would disappear’. With few other ways to combat the tyranny of the north, southerners turned to this tactic in order effectively remove the vote from the blacks Chapter 7: The Search for a Strategy The first ‘strategy’ which Rable cites is that of the Ku Klux Klan. He argues that although they became infamous, the period they operated for was brief. They operated in areas where black and white populations were about equal, in order to limit the chances of retaliations from the blacks. Their methods revolved around violent intimidation and brutal ‘trophy’ murders, hanging their victims from trees as a sign and a warning to other blacks. They operated at night and were designed to fill blacks with terror. Indeed, Rable stresses that blacks that stood up to the Klan have gone down as heroes in black American history. The Republican party had the role of attempting to stop such violence, but they were ineffective and unable to rise to the task. Indeed the issue even of the need to repress the Klan caused divisions. Scalawag Smith attempted to downplay the activities of the Klan, refusing to acknowledge it as a real problem. Meanwhile, carpetbag Spencer exaggerated their activities in order to attack and undermine his rivals in the party. The second problem, where the problem was admitted, was how to suppress the Ku Klux Klan. There was terror among state sheriffs who often refused to make arrest in fear of reprisals. Where troops were brought in to discourage the Klan, conservatives replied predictably that soldiers were not needed as the southern states were peaceful. The second strategy was ‘votes.’ Initially, the Republicans never managed to gain enough of the vote to make them an effective party in the south. Efforts to split the white vote failed and they managed to convert very few southern whites. The party was also riddled with internal division. The main split was between carpetbaggers and scalawags. As Rable explains, ‘scalawags complained that carpetbaggers had received the bulk of federal patronage, and each faction chafed over seeing its rivals ensconced in positions of power and profit’. However, it was racial division above all which weakened the party. Although they had the black vote, the whites still had to be courted and convinced to vote Republican. This was an almost impossible task. In addition, there were issues even within the Republican party over black participation. Some members, most often scalawags, doubted the ability of negroes to hold positions of office. In return, negroes within the party were frustrated that they did not hold a number of offices proportionate to their number within the party. The violence of the Klan was, therefore, able to continuously undermine the position of the Republicans. Their position was weakening. Chapter 8: Counterrevolution aborted: Louisiana, 1871-1875 As Rable states, ‘Louisiana symbolized the feebleness of radical Reconstruction and Republican southern policy’. Factionalism within the party was never worse than in Louisiana. This only worsened in the election of 1872. The election boiled to down to a campaign between the Republicans and Fusionists, made up mostly of Democrats. The Fusionists eventually won, but under strained conditions in which the Republicans accused the governor’s registrars of failing to allow black voters to register and a variety of other illegal measures design to spell defeat for the Republicans. Both sides therefore claimed victory and a recount was called. During the upheaval that followed, the election became a national scandal. After four recounts, three in favor of the Fusionists and one in favor of the Republicans, the national government finally stepped in to resolve the problem. The Republicans were promised troops to enforce the election result in their favor and eventually a dual government was set up. However the ‘illegal’ Republican government came under attack from the press in the state and as tensions increased the possibility of the outbreak of civil war in the state became real. When, on March 5th, an opposition militia attempted to capture the police station in New Orleans, things finally came to a head. The military arrested several men involved in the raid on the police station and the Republican Kellogg calmly reported peace in the city. The dual government was dissolved and hostility to the Republicans increased further. The opposition therefore shifted their attacks to the less well protected country parishes, where Kellogg could not call in the military to re-establish order due to their remote locations. Grant Parish was the scene of the most violent of these attacks and sparked racial violence in Colfax. The Republican situation was becoming increasingly untenable and so it was that the Democrats eventually took power in the state. Kellogg was not impeached and a shaky peace was reached. Louisiana was to become an interesting study for other states in the south. Some Democrat leaders regarded the failure to prosecute Kellogg as a missed opportunity and a dangerous recognition of Republican power. As Rable concludes ‘to paranoid minds, the [Republican] threat was real even in states safely in Democrat hands’ Chapter 9: Counterrevolution Triumphant: Mississippi, 1873-1876 In 1868, Adelbert Ames became provisional governor of Mississippi, in spite of being a Yankee war vetran. However, he was aided by a strong dynamic character and a genuine desire to unite, and help work together, the blacks and whites of the city. He regarded himself as the right man to lead the blacks to freedom and save the south from itself. However, the scalawags did not share this carpetbagger’s view of the future. Similar divisions to those present in Louisiana presented themselves within the Republican party. Scalawag Alcorn wanted to build support for the party on a conservative coalition, while Ames preferred to work closely with black leaders. Ames went on to defeated Alcorn in the 1873 elections due to the enthusiasm of the freedmen to vote while many Democrats abstained. Upon his election, the conservatives agreed to support his leadership, although it was clear that their tolerance would not last forever. Mississippi had responded surprisingly well to the Reconstruction Acts, but Ames would have to improve the economy and bring an end to the on-going problems of social disorder if he were to keep the white population on-side. By 1874 the party consisted mostly of carpetbaggers and blacks, since many scalawags had left after Alcorn’s defeat. Unfortunately, 1873 marked an economic collapse in Louisiana. Conservatives took full advantage of the opportunity to criticise the Republican taxation and public spending. Disorder at Vicksburg was followed by violence around the 1875 elections and Ames was forced to call out the militia to resolve the situation. This use of the militia sparked more violence across the state and the election was marked by voter intimidation and fraud. So it was that the Democratic party came to power in the state in 1875. This time, the hostility to the Republicans was not aborted and Ames was threatened with impeachment when the Democratic legislature met in January 1876. In the end, Ames resigned and the impeachment was dropped. Chapter 10: 1876: The Triumph of Reaction The election of 1876 effectively saw the end of Reconstruction in the south. Although the election was won by the Republican Hayes, the result was much disputed and it is still unclear who actually won the election. However, in spite of the Republican victory, the south had been lost. In return for southern support, Hayes agreed to recall federal troops from the southern states. White racism took hold and the rights which the blacks had won were soon withdrawn from them. They were once more second class citizens without the vote. The year therefore saw what Rable describes as the ‘triumph of reaction’. The Republicans had failed to maintain their power in the south and their dream of bringing together the black man with the white man in peaceful union had failed. Read More