 Title page for The Facts of Reconstruction (1913) | |
| Author | John R. Lynch |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Reconstruction era politics |
| Publisher | Neale Publishing Company |
Publication date | 1913 |
| Publication place | United States |
The Facts of Reconstruction is a non-fiction book by John R. Lynch. The book, a rebuttal to critics of Reconstruction era policies in the United States, was first published in 1913.
The Facts of Reconstruction is a rebuttal to the conservative Dunning School of historiography, which argued that the South had been damaged by the efforts of the North at Reconstruction and that the use of the military to advance Reconstruction efforts was a dismissal of American values. [1] [2] : xi Primarily examining his home state of Mississippi, Lynch tracked the history of the Reconstruction era, the presidential election campaigns of 1880 and 1884, and various pieces of voting rights legislation to argue that African Americans had contributed positively to American society as a result of the Reconstruction era. [3] Lynch also criticized James Ford Rhodes' History of the Civil War, 1861–1865 and specifically defended the policies of Mississippi governors Adelbert Ames and James L. Alcorn. [2] : 31
John R. Lynch was born into slavery in 1847 and was freed in 1863 after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. He entered politics shortly after the end of the Civil War, was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1869, and was made speaker of the house in 1872. Lynch served in the United States House of Representatives from 1873 to 1877 and again from 1881 to 1883. After leaving the House he remained active in state politics, business, and served in the U.S. Army. [4]
The Facts of Reconstruction arose as a response to the rise of William A. Dunning and the school of thought which shared his name. The Dunning School argued that African American politicians had been manipulated into supporting the Republican Party in order to enrich the North at the expense of the south. [5] : 428 The book was published by the Neale Publishing Company in 1913 and received a second printing in 1915. The publisher is notable—Walter Neale, who founded the Neale Publishing Company in 1896, was a noted racist and critic of Reconstruction era policies, however, he regularly published books on both sides of the issue. [6]
Initial reception to The Facts of Reconstruction was mixed, with the Black press generally viewing the book more positively than reviewers writing for predominantly white publications. [5] : 428–429 Among the book's notable supporters were sociologist and historian W. E. B. Du Bois, African Methodist Episcopal minister Benjamin F. Lee, and civil rights activist Monroe Alpheus Majors. [7] [8] The book received glowing reviews in The Twin City Star and the Los Angeles Evening Express , with the former praising Lynch for avoiding "any features which might be calculated to arouse racial antagonism" and the latter acknowledging it as providing a much-needed alternative viewpoint. [9] [10] The American Missionary , an abolitionist magazine, acknowledged the book as a contrast to the recently-released film The Birth of a Nation, writing that "prejudice is a bad historian." [11]
Justin Behrend, a historian at the State University of New York, described The Facts of Reconstruction as being an early example of the professionalization of history. [5] : 430 The book received renewed recognition in the 1960s after it was republished. [12]
The Reconstruction era was a period in United States history and Southern United States history that followed the American Civil War and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the abolition of slavery and the reintegration of the eleven former Confederate States of America into the United States. During this period, three amendments were added to the United States Constitution to grant citizenship and equal civil rights to the newly freed slaves. To circumvent these legal achievements, the former Confederate states imposed poll taxes and literacy tests and engaged in terrorism to intimidate and control black people and to discourage or prevent them from voting.
Clarksdale is a city in and the county seat of Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. It is located along the Sunflower River. Clarksdale is named after John Clark, a settler who founded the city in the mid-19th century when he established a timber mill and business. Clarksdale is in the Mississippi Delta region and is an agricultural and trading center. Many African-American musicians developed the blues here, and took this original American music with them to Chicago and other northern cities during the Great Migration.
Blanche Kelso Bruce was an American politician who represented Mississippi as a Republican in the United States Senate from 1875 to 1881. Born into slavery in Prince Edward County, Virginia, he went on to become the first elected African-American senator to serve a full term.
In United States history, scalawag was a pejorative slur referred to white Southerners who supported Reconstruction policies and efforts after the conclusion of the American Civil War.
Hiram Rhodes Revels was an American Republican politician, minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and college administrator. Born free in North Carolina, he later lived and worked in Ohio, where he voted before the Civil War. Elected by the Mississippi legislature to the United States Senate as a Republican to represent Mississippi in 1870 and 1871 during the Reconstruction era, he was the first African American to serve in either house of the U.S. Congress.
The Redeemers were a political coalition in the Southern United States during the Reconstruction Era that followed the American Civil War. Redeemers were the Southern wing of the Democratic Party. They sought to regain their political power and enforce white supremacy. Their policy of Redemption was intended to oust the Radical Republicans, a coalition of freedmen, "carpetbaggers", and "scalawags". They were typically led by White yeomen and dominated Southern politics in most areas from the 1870s to 1910.
John Roy Lynch was an American writer, attorney, military officer, author, and Republican politician who served as Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives and represented Mississippi in the United States House of Representatives.
The nadir of American race relations was the period in African-American history and the history of the United States from the end of Reconstruction in 1877 through the early 20th century, when racism in the country, and particularly anti-black racism, was more open and pronounced than it had ever been during any other period in the nation's history. During this period, African Americans lost access to many of the civil rights which they had gained during Reconstruction. Anti-Black violence, lynchings, segregation, legalized racial discrimination, and expressions of white supremacy all increased. Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans were also not spared from such sentiments.
James Ford Rhodes, was an American industrialist and historian born in Cleveland, Ohio. After earning a fortune in the iron, coal, and steel industries by 1885, he retired from business to devote time to historical research. He wrote a seven-volume history of the United States from 1850, initially published from 1893 to 1906 with an eighth volume added in 1920. Another book, A History of the Civil War, 1861–1865 (1918), won the second-ever Pulitzer Prize for History.
Black Reconstruction in America: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860–1880 is a history of the Reconstruction era by W. E. B. Du Bois, first published in 1935. The book challenged the standard academic view of Reconstruction at the time, the Dunning School, which contended that the period was a failure and downplayed the contributions of African Americans. Du Bois instead emphasized the agency of Black people and freed slaves during the Civil War and Reconstruction and framed the period as one that held promise for a worker-ruled democracy to replace a slavery-based plantation economy.
The Dunning School was a historiographical school of thought regarding the Reconstruction period of American history (1865–1877), supporting conservative elements against the Radical Republicans who introduced civil rights in the South. It was named for Columbia University professor William Archibald Dunning, who taught many of its followers.
Robert H. Wood was an African American 19th-century politician, postmaster, and sheriff. He served as the first African American Mayor of Natchez, Mississippi from 1870 until 1871, and was part of the Adams County Board of Supervisors from 1871 to 1872. He was one of only five black mayors in the American South during the Reconstruction-era; and is thought to be the first black mayor in Mississippi.
Elizabeth Ann Regosin is an American historian who is the Charles A. Dana Professor of History at St. Lawrence University. She researches African-American history with a focus on emancipation and the Reconstruction era. Regosin has written two books on the topic, Freedom's Promise (2002) and Voices of Emancipation (2008).
William M. Hancock was a judge and state legislator in Mississippi. His father was Judge Jubal Braxton Hancock.
The Neale Publishing Company was an American book publisher active between 1894 and 1933. It was a prolific publisher of books about the American Civil War and the Southern United States.
John Scurlock, known as Little John Scurlock or L. J. Scurlock, was a Methodist minister, editor and politician in Mississippi, United States. He was reported to be seven feet tall. According to a history written during the nadir of American race relations era, "The negro leader, John Scurlock, was killed one night in Coffeeville by unknown parties. It was supposed that the deed was committed by the Ku Klux Klan, and little effort was made to find the murderers, as the negro was a very bad character." However although he is often classified as a Reconstruction-era murder victim, records of the Methodist Church in the south seem to have Rev. L. J. Scurlock into the 1880s or possibly 1890s. A history published 1895 states "Many who have been in attendance upon the sessions of the General Conference in recent years will remember the tall, courtly figure of a presiding elder from Mississippi, the Rev. L. J. Scurlock. A prominent worker on committees, thoughtful and dignified, he gained immediate attention whenever he obtained the floor in debate. For many years he occupied a leading position among the people of his own State, and in the Conference he exercised a commanding, yet gentle, influence. He has passed from the ranks of the Church militant to his place in the Church triumphant."
Kate Masur is an American historian and author. She is a professor of history at Northwestern University.
Gregory D. Smithers is a professor of American history at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. An ethnohistorian, Smithers specializes in Native American and African American histories.
Remembering Reconstruction: Struggles over the Meaning of America's Most Turbulent Era, published in 2017 by Louisiana State University Press, edited by Carole Emberton and Bruce E. Baker, with an introduction by W. Fitzhugh Brundage, is a collection of ten essays by historians of the Reconstruction era who examine the different collective memories of different social groups from the time of Jim Crow through the post-Civil Rights period.
Joe Martin Richardson was an American emeritus professor of history and author who wrote about Florida's history. He was a history professor at Florida State University from 1964 until 2006.