The goal of this blog initially was for Mr. Mc to show his students and friends what he doing while in Pennsylvania and DC in 2011. Now it's being used as a place for him, travelling colleagues and former students to discuss edumacation and history related "stuff" as well as ... well, anything which pops into his head. Mr. Mc would never knowingly embarrass either the school he loves or the family he is devoted to. By joining in the discussion, he expects the same of you.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Reconstruction Sucked!
Today's theme in class was Reconstruction. The era lasts for about 10-15 years with the goal of reunifying the North and South. It ends because a people exhausted by a war and struggling with how to best integrate freed slaves into a new order gave up. Ok, that is my opinion. There are other arguments and points to be made and I will concede that they have their worth but the advocates of free blacks were weary and the advocates for the Lost Cause waited them out. I didn't walk in their shoes and so I am not casting judgement. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to 'reconstruct'. Yet, that failure had a devastating human cost.
An image I found last year is one I use in class and explains my feelings about Reconstruction. Its by Thomas Nast in 1868 and starkly points out how the idea of emancipation hasn't rung true for the freedmen.
The other submission is a trailer for a PBS video on peonage titled Slavery By Another Name. Peonage was the enslavement of African Americans for at least two generations after the Civil War for bogus criminal acts.
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