Analysis : Dewey Grantham Jr.

Imagine a historian, author of an award-winning dissertation and several books. He is an experienced lecturer and respected scholar; he is at the forefront of his field. His research methodology sets the bar for other academicians. He is so highly esteemed, in fact, that an article he has prepared is to be presented to and discussed by the United States’ oldest and largest society of professional historians. These are precisely the circumstances in which Ulrich B. Phillips wrote his 1928 essay, “The Central Theme of Southern History.” In this treatise he set forth a thesis which on its face is not revolutionary: that the cause behind which the South stood unified was not slavery, as such, but white supremacy. Over the course of

After the Civil War, the South was in a state of political turmoil, social chaos, and economic decline. Contrary to popular belief, Northerners did not subject Southerners to unethical or inhumane punishment. The time post Civil War was filled with efforts toward reconstructing the South, yet there is the strong question if there even is a New South. Yes, there was somewhat of a New South economically. No, there was not a New South regarding race relations and social hierarchy. In the 1870’s, the South realized the world still looked at them as the ones who wanted slavery. There was a need to project a new image to the world and to stimulate

In “Reconstruction Revisited”, Eric Foner reexamines the political, social, and economic experiences of black and white Americans in the aftermath of the Civil War. With the help of many historian works, Foner gives equal representation to both sides of the Reconstruction argument.

Grant and Jefferson are on a journey. Though they have vastly different educational backgrounds, their commonality of being black men who have lost hope brings them together in the search for the meaning of their lives. In the 1940’s small Cajun town of Bayonne, Louisiana, blacks may have legally been emancipated, but they were still enslaved by the antebellum myth of the place of black people in society. Customs established during the years of slavery negated the laws meant to give black people equal rights and the chains of tradition prevailed leaving both Grant and Jefferson trapped in mental slavery in their communities.

The setting of the novel is a rural plantation in Louisiana in the Deep South. Most of the story takes place on Henri Pichot’s plantation. He is a wealthy influential man in Bayonne who can influence many decisions. Being set in the 1940’s before civil rights, the whites reigned supreme, and the blacks were still seen as inferior. Gaines uses characters such as Sheriff Guidry, Henri Pichot, and Mr. Joseph Morgan to demonstrate the white mentality towards African Americans (Poston A1). The white mentality causes many negative feelings. Folks says, “Part of Grant’s bitterness stems from his negative feelings about the black population in his hometown” (Folks B1). Grant is always mad and discouraged by the vicious cycle the blacks are put through. “The reader is able to gain insight into Grant’s thoughts and frustrations through his conversations with Vivian, his girlfriend. He feels trapped in his present situation” (Poston A1).

The first segment is about the "old" South and the plantations, slavery, supported by law, church, schools, and press. The second is the new order of Reconstruction, occupation and a changed federal Constitution. The third one is the third regime, following Reconstruction, which was the longest, characterized by the regime of "Jim Crow.” The last segment is the newest phase, comprising the demise of Jim Crow and the renewed intense devotion of the federal government and civil rights leaders to establish racial equality. This segments of Southern history has been involved to the relationship between the white and black race, specifically the legal and social status of blacks, and this work is essentially a study of the third segment - the rise and entrenchment of Jim

Woodward thesis on his book is that the Jim Crow laws and the segregation of the races was a more recent development in the south than was previously thought and were not always that way but changed over time being put into place during the 1890’s.Furthermore, he thinks that if southern history could change once it could change again and for the better in the 1950’s. Some of the historical problems is that Woodward try to deal with the historical conflicts of the south since the emancipation started until the present. Most of the issues Woodward took on were segregation, the Jim Crow Laws, and integration.

In the article “The Central Theme of Southern Slavery” Ulrich B. Phillips asserts that among several other motives that served as a drive for white Southerners to support slavery, the predominant one was their desire to preserve white supremacy in the South. He claims that all of the states in the US are similar except for the opinion about slavery. Phillips emphasizes that the idea of slavery in the South was important and perceived by southerners as heritage and a tradition. He also claims that the institution wasn’t merely economic, but also a system of social order. In addition, the white southerners saw abolition as a major threat to their economic freedom. According to Phillips, some Southerners saw deportation of african-american citizens as another solution to the slavery crisis in the United States. However,

Reconstruction opened many doors for its newly freed African American citizens. One the many doors, were those of political office. Though these doors opened for blacks in a variety of places, the social origins of

“It is a time when one’s spirit is subdued and sad,” wrote Mark Twain in his bitter, nihilistic satire on the post-Reconstruction era of the United States: The Gilded Age. “[T]he past seems a storm-swept desolation…What is the use of struggling, and toiling and worrying anymore?” Such was the mood of the late 1800s; the racism and prejudice that had festered in the pre-Civil War South had not abated, and progress in civil rights was undermined by indifference among Northerners and Southerners alike. The deep sectional divisions from the War had not yet been repaired, and the struggle between justice and unity was bloody and heated. The deadly tug-of-war between the two culminated in a win for unity; Reconstruction ended not with the blessings and consent of freedmen, but with a quiet compromise between apathetic bureaucrats.

The United States was a very divided country between the North and the South in the 19th century. “Reconstruction was a vicious and destructive experience, a period where when vindictive Northerners inflicted humiliation and revenge on the divided south” (Brinkley 351). During the time of reconstruction, President Lincoln and Andrew Johnson had large plans for the country but shortly took a sharp turn of the unexpected, radicals put in the Black Codes and amendments into the law, and the south had “redeemed” itself and began to rebuild.

In “Populist Dreams and Negro Rights: East Texas as a Case Study,” Lawrence Goodwyn keys in on the triumphs of the People 's Party in Grimes County, Texas. I discovered Populism in Grimes County is the narrative of an interracial alliance that had its beginning in Reconstruction and persevered for more than an era. I resolved why the long post-Reconstruction period emerges as the social request that has been composed progressively along racial lines; the time period encroached as a brief gleaming light in parts of the South. I learned how some white Southerners have generally been a spread for the district 's skepticism and other issues. Goodwyn establishes a viewpoint about the possible results for a greater number of individuals voting in a free society. I understand that the variables of pressure and coercion caused an end to influence at the polling stations; there was corruption occurring with vote counts. The Grimes County story significantly describes this disappointment; however in the understanding, it gives into the hidden legislative issues of black disfranchisement and the accomplishment of a solid single-party political environment in the American South it is not one of a kind.

C. Vann Woodward’s book, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, has been hailed as a book which shaped our views of the history of the Civil Rights Movement and of the American South. Martin Luther King, Jr. described the book as “the historical Bible of the civil rights movement.” The argument presented in The Strange Career of Jim Crow is that the Jim Crow laws were relatively new introductions to the South that occurred towards the turn of the century rather than immediately after the end of Reconstruction after the Civil War. Woodward examines personal accounts, opinions, and editorials from the eras as well as the laws in place at the times. He examines the political history behind the emergence of

As a country, America has gone though many political changes throughout its lifetime. Leaders have come and gone, and all of them have had their own objectives and plans for the future. As history has taken its course, though, almost all of these “revolutionary movements” have come to an end. One such movement was Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a violent period that defined the defeated South’s status in the Union and the meaning of freedom for ex-slaves. Though, like many things in life, it did come to an end, and the resulting outcome has been labeled both a success and a failure.

The Civil War: one of the most pivotal and significant moments in the history of the United States of America. The dividing of a newly birthed nation upon itself - the turmoil created threatened to collapse a unified yearning for independence. A nation once united by the solace of solidarity, once tread on by the tyranny of a motherland, once triumphant in a fight for freedom, became segregated by principle. Power and greed fueled a dichotomy between color and people which repercussions' lingered in the air of America for the better part of two centuries, and quite possibly more to come. The civil war has left its mark on American society, and its damage is still crippling a social zeitgeist that has the potential to flourish in harmonic