Saturday, March 23, 2019
Notice, he omits Reconstruction in his time frame here.
"...In the wake of the Civil War, Republicans in particular felt keenly that they were living in a great progressive era of history, marked by the development of democratic government, which was also making progress across the Atlantic. They had fought and won a gigantic struggle--still the most costly conflict, in absolute terms, in American history--to preserve the Constitution and eliminate slavery...." DK
DK's account dovetails nicely with
PBS HENRY LOUIS GATES' WHIG RECONSTRUCTION HISTORY
The twelve years that composed the post-war Reconstruction era (1865-77) witnessed a seismic shift in the meaning and makeup of our democracy, with millions of former slaves and free black people seeking out their rightful place as equal citizens under the law. Though tragically short-lived, this bold democratic experiment was, in the words of W. E. B. Du Bois, a ‘brief moment in the sun’ for African Americans, when they could advance, and achieve, education, exercise their right to vote, and run for and win public office.
For the real Reconstruction, you have to read something like J G Randall, The Civil War and Reconstruction. That gives a clearer picture.
Not Gates' or DK's Whig picture.
Those newly freed negroes were marched around polling stations by skalawags of Radical Republicans, accompanied by Union troops. They were fricking "voters" for Radical Republicans! Very few of them could even read, and why should they have learned to do so?
For the real Reconstruction, you have to read something like J G Randall, The Civil War and Reconstruction. That gives a clearer picture.
Not Gates' or DK's Whig picture.
Those newly freed negroes were marched around polling stations by skalawags of Radical Republicans, accompanied by Union troops. They were fricking "voters" for Radical Republicans! Very few of them could even read, and why should they have learned to do so?
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