History 210-1Lecture 26A New Birth of Freedom?

I. The Confederate war machine and home fronta. Confederate women

i. 1863: a group of 100 white women in Richmond riot because they are on verge of starvation

ii. For Southern whites, Civil War was invasive war1. Half livestock was killed2. Half of farm machinery was destroyed3. Cities/Towns destroyed, Inflation super high

iii. Some historians argue that a reason the Confederates didn’t last longer was because the more women had to struggle to survive on home front, more started begging their husbands to come back from the front

iv. Confederate leaders had to beg women to stop writing letters because they were sapping the moral from confederate army a

v. By 1864: more than half of confederate army was absent from front lines due to high desertion rates

b. the draft (spring of 1862) i. only has ¼ white men of North; enlistments begin declining ii. Ideological problem to southern whites: broke away from

government they felt was too invasive, but new government imposed draft was pretty invasive too—states’ rights vs. centralized government

c. decision to arm slaves (1864)i. Confederacy decides to arm black slaves because leaders decided it was better to be independent w/o slaves than it was to be subservient to the North without slaves

ii. Decision comes too late—war is practically over and not much effect

d. the southern social order cracks under pressurei. South begins to crack under pressure along class lines—poor men say “rich men’s war and poor men’s flight” because wealthy planters were allowed to buy a replacement for their military service

ii. Rich lose their luxuries, but poor lose their necessities iii. Because the war lasted so long, it crumpled in on itself and

contradictionsII. The Northern war machine and home front

a. agricultural and industrial expansion i. 373,000 died for the Union ii. Women are able to do much of the labor at home because of

new advances in technology iii. Coal industry, firearms industry, industries that directly served

war exploded and grew—dramatically accelerated modernization

iv. federal power centralizes the economy: federal income tax (1861); national banks; Legal Tender Act (“greenbacks,” in 1862)

1. Jacksonians tried to keep federal government from regulating the economy—it would always get caught up with the wealthy Americans—perpetuating wealthy class power

2. With Democrats split in South, Republicans passed all these measures they had wanted

a. Federal Income Tax 1861b. Centralized system of national banks whose job it

was to regulate the monetary system 1861c.Legal Tender Act all different 7,000 banknotes went

out of circulation and now this was backed by federal gov. 1862

III. Changes brought by the wara. The rise of industrial capitalism

i. Republican view:1. Party of big-time industrial capitalism; drawn from the

Whig’s early beliefs that anyone could move up in life if they made the right life choices and worked hard

ii. Democratic view1. Capital and labor were fundamentally opposed and would

be in conflict and workers needed to be vigilant that big businesses wouldn’t oppress the workers and use their economic power to buy influence in the federal government (Party of Labor, particularly white labor)

b. Federal power triumphs over states’ rightsi. Main way gov touched lives’ of everyday people was through post office; but during and after the war, they felt the power of federal Gov. in more ways –pay taxes, greenbacksnation emerges with a stronger central gov

ii. new ideas about liberty and power1. Colonists saw power as a threat to liberty, so when

Americans created first Gov. (articles of Confederation) it was so small, weakeven in new Constitution, try really hard to diffuse power

2. Shifts to positive liberty ideaiii. positive liberty—“freedom to”

1. Gov needs to be big enough to help people realize their potential

a. “Freedom to” get access to education, opportunity 2. As government, must build railroads and transportation to

help people gain economic and social mobility iv. negative liberty—or “freedom from”

1. “Freedom from” persecution for worshipping different Gods

2. Amendments before civil war used language of “Shall not”—limiting federal government’s power

3. After civil war, uses “shall” language –gives federal gov. more power at expense of the states

c. After slavery, a new birth of freedom? 1865 stopping pointi. By serving in army, gained confidence, leadership skills (big implications for post war culture and politics)not likely to passively accept second-class citizenship

ii. Defied ideology of paternalism and after the war, they were determined to prove they could be brave and patriotic citizenship

iii. 13th Amendment—ratified and ended slaveryiv. Slave power has been crushed—but how much did White

Republicans really care about them? They believed those in Northern factories, in free labor society, only have self to blame for failures

1. Champion of self-made man—how does that affect black rights?

2. Racial inequality wasn’t something most Whites wanted to work for