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Please respond to her post 

Emily–

The Civil War was a crisis concerning the meaning of freedom in this country, and it produced a redefinition of freedom in American history. It resulted in a fundamental change in what American freedom was and who was entitled to it. From the Civil War emerged a new principle, that of a national citizenship whose members enjoyed the equal protection of the laws regardless of race. Occurring during the decade following the Civil War, Reconstruction saw the legal abolition of slavery, the establishment of equal protection under the law, and increased opportunities for Black men to vote and hold political office

Before the Civil War, the concept of liberty and justice for all meant little unless you were white and male. Union soldiers saw the war as an effort to preserve the United States. This dedication to the country is seen in a letter that Major Sullivan Ballou, fighting for the Union, wrote to his wife. “Sarah, my love for you is deathless…and yet, my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind, and bears me irresistibly on with all those chains, to the battlefield” (Ballou, 1861). The white South had an understanding of freedom centered on local self-government, opportunities for economic independence, and property security, including property in slaves. Indeed, many southern whites believed that slavery was the foundation of liberty. Sam Watkins, a confederate soldier, wrote, “The federal [U.S.] army was advancing all along the line. They expected to march right into the heart of the South, set the Negroes free, take our property, and whip the Rebels back into the Union. … The South is our country” (Watkins, 1881-82). But as the war progressed, these abstract definitions of America as the symbol of liberty began to give way to a more concrete meaning of freedom tied to the emancipation of the slaves. Millions of northerners who had not been abolitionists when the war began became convinced that securing the Union as the embodiment of liberty required the destruction of slavery. President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed in his State of the Union Address, “We know how to save the Union…In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve” (Lincoln, 1862). The Emancipation Proclamation did not immediately abolish slavery. But it made emancipation an irrevocable war aim, profoundly changing the character of the Civil War.

The destruction of slavery powerfully shaped the course of the Civil War and the debate over Reconstruction. Reconstruction aimed to bring the South back into the Union while protecting the rights and safety of the newly freed slaves. After the Civil War, with the protection of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, African Americans enjoyed a period when they were allowed to vote, actively participate in the political process, acquire land of former owners, and seek employment. They sought to give meaning to freedom by reuniting families separated under slavery, establishing churches and schools, seeking economic autonomy, and demanding equal civil and political rights. Some emancipated slaves quickly fled from the neighborhood of their owners, while others became wage laborers for former owners.

Most importantly, African Americans could make choices for themselves about where they labored and the type of work they performed. The Freedmen’s Bureau helped emancipated slaves negotiate contracts. Here are examples of parts of these contracts, “The said J.B. Ferguson agree to furnish each laborer, if he have one, with comfortable quarters on the plantation also one acre of land to each and every house for the use of the occupants thereof… The crop shall be divided as follows: to the freedmen & women one half of the corn, potatoes, peas, rice, and other products when gathered and prepared for market, also one half of the cotton and cotton seed, when prepared for market” (Bureau, 1866). The South, however, saw Reconstruction as a humiliating, even vengeful imposition and did not welcome it. Most Southern whites could not accept the idea of African Americans voting and holding office or the egalitarian policies of the new government. As soon as blacks gained the right to vote, secret societies sprang up in the South, devoted to restoring white supremacy in politics and social life. Frederic Douglass began to question what reconciliation between North and South would mean for African Americans, “if war among the whites brought peace and liberty to the blacks, what will peace among the whites bring” (Douglass, 1875). African Americans were free, but Reconstruction fell short of ensuring the full rights of all its citizens.