The Civil War was fought over several interrelated issues, slavery being the most important. Yet it would be overly optimistic to assume that the Civil War was fought just to end enslavement. In fact, it was fought to preserve the integrity of the nation and to solidify a strong central government based on the principles of liberty and equality. Although many northerners harbored racist beliefs, the push to eliminate slavery had grown stronger as social norms changed.
Compromise with slave owners and racist proponents of the slavery model was endemic to American political culture. As much as Lincoln was a “Great Emancipator,” he was also not a staunch abolitionist.
Lincoln’s assassination dealt a death knell to Reconstruction and reparation. The Freedman’s Bureau was designed with good intentions but its goals never reached fruition under the auspices of the Southern sympathizer Johnson Grassroots organizations like the American Missionary Association did little to help improve the actual status or outlook for former slaves. Sherman’s special orders and the activism of abolitionists like Forten show that some attempt was made to create a timeline for reparations but Reconstruction utterly failed. 1877 was a turning point, when the blood that had been spilled during the Civil War seemed all for naught as racists gained control of their local, state, and ultimately, federal governments. With the loss of rights for non-white males came the loss of hope for women of any color to be considered citizens of the United States. New constitutional amendments finally extended citizenship to non-white males, but failed to provide meaningful social and political progress.
After the Civil War, it would have seemed that the decisive Union victory would have led to much harsher punishments for the rebels. The racist Southerners who fought for their rights to own slaves should have been treated more harshly, but instead the states’ rights advocates enabled the propagation of ignorance, conservatism, and racism, which is why the United States continues to grapple with social justice now.
Works Cited
Franklin, John Hope. From Slavery to Freedom: a History of African Americans. New York :McGraw-Hill/Connect Learn Succeed, 2011.
