HIST 370:  The Civil War & Reconstruction

Dr. Baum:  Outline of Course Lectures

INTRODUCTION
I. Historical Significance of the American Civil War
II. The "Big Picture": Political Polarization over Slavery and the Status of African-Americans

LEFT -----------------------------------------------------------------------------RIGHT
Radicals---------Liberals--------- Conservatives--------- Reactionaries
REVOLUTION...............................COMMON GROUND...........................COUNTER- REVOLUTION

III. Antebellum American
A. Spectacular Economic Growth
1. Factors of Production: Resources, Labor, Skill and Technology, Capital
2. The Transportation Revolution: Steamships, Roads, Canals, and Railroads
3. Pattern of Inter-regional Trade: Growing Markets and Law of Comparative Advantage
a. South: Cotton
b. West (Midwest): Foodstuffs
c. Northeast: Commerce and Industry
B. The Birth of Mass Political Parties: the Formation of the "Second Party System" (Whigs versus Democrats)

IV. The Old South: What Is Myth and What Was Real?
A. An Unexpected Diversity
1. Southern Agriculture and Industry
2. Social Structure of the White South
B. Life Under Slavery
C. The Southern Mind
1. Fear of Slave Revolts
2. Quieting the Opposition
3. Arguments in Favor of Slavery
4. The Cavalier Myth
5. Rejection of Majoritarian Democracy

THE COMING OF THE CIVIL WAR
I. THE DILEMMA OF TERRITORIAL GROWTH
A. MISSOURI COMPROMISE {1820}
B. TEXAS ANNEXATION
C. THE WILMOT PROVISO {1846}
D. FREE SOIL PARTY AND THE 1848 ELECTION
E. THE COMPROMISE OF 1850

II. RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
A. ENFORCEMENT OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT
B. Harriet Beecher Stowe's UNCLE TOM'S CABIN
C. KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT {1854}
D. [The Know-Nothing Interlude]
E. GUERRILLA WAR IN KANSAS
F. BROOKS-SUMNER INCIDENT
G. THE 1856 ELECTION
H. DRED SCOTT CASE & LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION
I. THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES {1858}

III. THE IDEOLOGY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
A. FREE LABOR AND "SAFETY VALVE" NOTION OF THE WESTERN LANDS
B. CRITIQUE OF THE SOUTH and DEFENSE OF NORTHERN SOCIETY
C. A "SLAVE POWER" CONSPIRACY
D. INTENT OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS
E. CONTRIBUTIONS OF FORMER FREE SOILERS, WHIGS, & DEMOCRATS
F. REPUBLICANS CONFRONT NATIVISM & RACISM

IV. THE SECESSIONIST MOVEMENT IN THE SOUTH
A. JOHN BROWN AND HARPER'S FERRY {1859}
B. DESTRUCTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: DOUGLAS DEMOCRATS VERSUS "SOUTHERN RIGHTS" DEMOCRATS
C. THE 4-WAY 1860 PRESIDENTIAL RACE: LINCOLN, BRECKINRIDGE, DOUGLAS & BELL
D. SECESSION CONVENTIONS: POLITICAL REALIGNMENT IN THE LOWER SOUTH [1860-1861]
E. DECLARATIONS OF CAUSES FOR SECESSION
F. SECESSION AS PRE-EMPTIVE COUNTER-REVOLUTION

THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865
I. The War Begins
A. Lincoln and Fort Sumter
B. The Upper South and the Border States Take Sides
C. Initial Balance of Forces

II. The Arts and Science of War
A. Jomini's Textbook Principles
B. The Armies and the Face of Battle

III. Northern and Southern Military Strategy
A. Anaconda Plan and Bull Run (Manassas)
B. Cordon Defense and The Diplomatic War
C. 1862 and Stalemate
1. Lincoln and the Copperheads
2. Campaigns in the West: Shiloh
3. The War at Sea
4. McClellan and "the Slows"
5. The Peninsula Campaign
6. Antietam
D. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
E. The Campaigns of 1863
1. Chancellorsville: Lee's Last Great Victory
2. The Siege of Vicksburg
3. Gettysburg
4. The Tennessee Campaign

IV. War and Society
A. The Enhancement of National Over Local Power
1. Conscription
2. Beginnings of National Finance
3. The Spreading Rail System
4. Government Becomes Big Business
5. Organizing Agriculture
C. New Bonds Between Citizens: Private Voluntary Institutions
B. The "Third (or Civil War) Party System" (Democrats versus Republicans)
1. The Civil War as a Republican Party War against the South
2. The Election of 1864: Lincoln versus McClellan
V. Driving Old Dixie Down
A. On the Southern Home Front
B. Grant Before Richmond
C. Loss of the Shenandoah
D. Sherman in Georgia and South Carolina
E. Appomattox

VI. The American Tragedy

RECONSTRUCTION
I. The Legacy of the Civil War
A. The Situation in the South at the End of the War
B. Issues and Attitudes
1. South: White Conservatives, White Unionists, and the Freedmen (the ex-slaves)
2. North: Radical Republicans and Northern Democrats
3. Overview of Post-War Political Polarization:

LEFT .................................................................................................................................................................................. RIGHT
Political and Economic Reconstruction........versus......Self-Reconstruction Reconstruction [based on the principle of white supremacy]

II. Presidential ("Johnsonian") Reconstruction, 1865-1867
A. President Andrew Johnson's Undemanding Policies
B. The "Johnson Governments"
1. "Black Codes" and Oppression of the Freedmen
2. Ex-Confederates in Control
C. Republican Disillusionment with Johnson

III. Origins of Congressional Reconstruction
A. The Schism between Johnson and Congress
1. The Freedmen's Bureau
2. Civil Rights Act of 1866
3. Fourteenth Amendment
4. The National Union Party and the "Off-Year" 1866 Congressional Elections
5. The Reconstruction Acts of 1867
B. The Impeachment and Acquittal of Johnson

IV. Congressional ("Radical") Reconstruction, 1867-1876
A. Readmission of the Southern States
B. The First Grant Administration
1. Fifteenth Amendment
2. Roots of "Liberal Republicanism"
C. Accomplishments of the Southern Republican Governments
V. The Counter-Revolution Against Congressional Reconstruction
A. White Terrorism: The Ku Klux Klan
B. The "Mississippi Plan" of Redemption
C. New Departure Democrats and the 1872 Election

VI. Retreat from Reconstruction in the North
A. Labor and the Radical Republicans
B. From Ideological to Pragmatic Politics: The Case of Massachusetts
C. Women and the "Chinese Question"
D. The Compromise of 1877

VII. The New South