Toward the end. If you like other programs, please go to our website, now enjoy books. Good afternoon and welcome to the inaugural edition of this institute of American History program. Brings you some of americas greatest historians what they discuss their most recent books. Today we are joined by eric as he discusses his book. Before i formally introduce them, i want to go over a couple of housekeeping roles. First, today is mothers day. I want to wish you a very happy mothers day the most important people in history past and present, our moms. A very happy mothers day to all moms watching. We are going to go through some of the tech issues of the tech aspects for you viewers author, and introduction of myself and the rest of the team and then we will introduce professor himself. For those of you who are new to the institute for American History, Nonprofit Organization specializing History Education and serving the general public, Educational Resources and programs in the Hamilton Education program. We provide access to a range of unique primary resources many are from the 70000 election of the institute collection. I will be your moderator today. Im part of the Hamilton Education program. One of the coordinators im joined by Allison Kraft and marissa who will be helping with the q a and any tech issues you might have. For security reasons, your microphone is muted in your camera is automatically off. The chat is disabled. Lots of you are going to have a lot of Great Questions but because of the fact that we will have over 1000 participants in this program, we cant do a live q a. If you look at the bottom of your screen, theres going to be a q and a button for you to submit your questions and then we will pass them along to professor foner at the end. All of you will have fantastic questions but unfortunately, will not be able to do a live q a session because there are going to be over 1000 participants in the program. So if you do have a question, please submit it to the q a section. You can find out at the bottom of your screen. Todays speaker is professor eric foner. His book, Abraham Lincoln and american slavery won the pulitzer prize. Hes narrative of history at columbia university. Today he will discuss his book, the second founding, civil war and reconstruction remade the constitution. Here is professor foner. And introduction of the book, its interesting. Split up rights in four different ways. Natural rights, civil rights, Political Rights and social rights and how they were all kind of combined in different ways to give different meanings of citizenship. Can you expand on that . One of the things to understand about reconstruction and why its a pivotal. America, these concepts in the wake of the civil war and abolitionist slavery, all upanddown society. Im not a lawyer, im not a legal scholar and in a way, that helps shape the way i look at this history. Im interested in what everybody was thinking, not just congressional debate. Although those are very important. Reconstruction was a period when this fundamental issues of democracy, equality, citizensh citizenship, they were debated upanddown society, in the classrooms and course houses and parlors. In peoples homes they were debating this. Before if you are saying there were different kinds, natural rights, those are what everybody should enjoy because they do. Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Civil rights, social rights you need basically to just compete in society, the right to own property and go to court and things like that. Things are Political Rights. You can be a citizen and not have Political Rights. Women could not vote anywhere but they were so citizens. They were regulated by the society if not everybody had them. And there was a vague idea called social rights which didnt have much of a definition but you know who you associate with, who you bring into your home and things like that. There were clear differentiations of laws, but all that changed in reconstruction. These public debates are what we call popular constitutionalism, they come to be merged as the rights of citizens, of america. The former slaves part of this debate, what they would say, they said all these rights, we demand all fees rights the same as white people. No longer should blacks be restricted from voting they were in almost every state. Some didnt even give them the basic civil rights. Illinois, lincoln made against the law for a black person to even enter the state. Free black people could not legally the state of illinois, so there civil rights were restrictive. But now one of the key stories is how this concept of different rights get merged into a new idea of rights of americans, all people are to enjoy. That is part of the impulse that leads to the rewriting of the constitution. Could you go through each of these three amendments . Talk a little about them, how they were intended to be at the time of the report in the constitution and also how theyve been reinterpreted and used through American History through the present day. Thats a big question but thats really what my book is about. When you say what they were intended to do, thats a legitimate historical question. Im trying to figure out what they have in mind, quickly were trying to accomplish, how did they think it would change things . But right you get into legal, lets go back to the original intent of the founders and theres no important document ultimately one original intent. These amendments were compromises, they have all sorts of imports into them. There were changes in wording all way through crude theres a lot of intent into different possibilities and understanding the meaning of these amendments but so what are they . The 13th amendment enacted in congress in early 1865 and ratified by the end, abolished slavery throughout the entire country. In the process of doing that, the word slavery into the constitution for the first time. The original used the circumlocutions, slavery was in the, protected by doctor work. But slavery is named in the constitution. Hadnt lincoln freed all of the slaves . Well, no actually. Proclamation of 1863 did free little over 3 million slaves but there was still another threequarter vermilion to whom it did not apply. Slaves in the border states, missouri, kentucky, maryland who were in the union. They have not succeeded, well over halfmillion slaves but they were still in the union and the military major against the confederacy did not apply from moreover, what you really need to get rid of slavery is to abolish all state laws, slavery was created by state laws. There were still on the books in the emancipation proclamation was enacted. Bringing people is not quite the same thing as abolishing slave slavery. Thirteenth amendment eradicated throughout the entire country it has a second section which is extremely important which basically says congress will have the power to enforce this amendment with appropriate legislation. What does it mean to enforce the 13th amendment . Obviously nobody could be bought and sold anymore but slavery includes all sorts of things. Denial of education, the right of marriage, all sorts of rights are taken away when you are a slave. As abolishing slavery restrict the rights to everybody . What about racism that is essential to slavery in this country . As abolishing slavery also abolish racism and get the federal government the power to attack racism is a relic or residue of slavery . Nobody quite knew but the simple act of abolishing slavery becomes much more complicated the more you think about it and very soon after ratification, Congress Passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Based on the 13th amendment to guarantee to africanamericans the basic civil rights, short of voting for all other civil rights, to go to court, sue, have property, have the law apply equally to you as others. Thats part of the abolitionist slavery. Defining what it is to be a free person in america. Now you have for killing three people were slaves are just a few physical. Then 1866, Congress Goes further to approve the 14th amendment. The most important amendment in our history after the bill of rights, the longest amendment during all sorts of things together in terms of settling the uses of the civil war. Things about the confederate debt, something southerners will never get compensation monetarily for the slaves that had been freed but the court is the first section which begins by declaring anybody born in the u. S. , a citizen. You might say whats the big deal . Well, before the civil war, that was not the case. You could be born in the u. S. As a freak person not be a citizen. Thats what the Supreme Court said, only white people can be citizens. No black person can be a citizen of the u. S. Or here or anywhere else. There were closely tied before the civil war because of slavery fundamentally and how they influence the whole structure of our society and politics knocked abolished. This is what we call birthright citizenship which is still controversial because there is debate about well, does it apply to the children of undocumented immigrants . Where on mothers day today, a woman whos here illegally, undocumented gives birth to a child in the u. S. , whats the status of the child . The child is obviously a citizen. Anybody born in the u. S. What does it matter what your parents are. They could be bank robbers, it doesnt affect the status of the child as a citizen. The only exception is native americans. At that time, they were considers problems of their sovereignties, not the u. S. Not until 1924th at all native americans become citizens of the u. S. The vast majority, not for the first time, the uniform definition of citizenship for me amendment goes on to say no states can deny to any one of these citizens the privileges or immunities of citizens. Here get back to the question often type. Whats the original intent of saying that the privileges or immunities of citizens . Is a tremendous array of opinions about that. Some thought they didnt amount to very much, most of your rights came from the states, not the federal government. Being a citizen student amount to anything. Other said no, privileges and immunity so it meets all sorts of things. The right to education for example. All sorts of rights. Over the course of cash just recently, there was a Federal District court case coming out of michigan where they ruled literacy is a fundamental part of being a free american. Piercing the schools of detroit, they are so terrible people are being denied a basic right of american citizenship, thats the right to be educated. That is a 14th amendment decision. Its overseeing the state still trying to make sure they guarantee a full range of rights and privileges for all americans. So the Fourth Amendment is being debated right now, as we sit here at many levels of our judicial system. Then the amendment goes on to say no state can derive any person of equal protection of the law. It puts the word equal into the constitution for the first time in any meaningful way. The original constitution mentioned what happens if two candidates get an equal number of electoral votes but thats a different question. Now all persons in the u. S. Enjoy legal equality. You might say whats the big deal . But that wasnt true before the civil war work immediately, black loss, offset applied only to africanamericans, punish them in ways that people are not punished. Deprive them of things which white people objected to. Fourteenth amendment said you could no longer do that at the state level. Equal protection of the law. Finally, the 15th the member goes even further and seeks to guarantee the right to vote to all black men in the country. It says no state should deny you citizen of the right to vote because of race. But its a limited amendment because it leaves open other crimes to divide deny people write about. Sex, they were angry about this because it left him from the right to deprive women the right to vote because thats not discrimination on the basis of race. You cap property qualifications, poll tax, literally taxes, as long as they were not racially configured. Later on in the 19th century, the right to vote was taken away from africanamerican men in the south, the constitution was nullified down part of the south in the late 19th century. But not by flossing black people cant vote anymore, bylaws putting other requirements, which were supposedly nonracial but the way they were implemented was to basically eliminate the black vote. So these amendments make africanamericans equal citizens, at least in terms of the law and the constitution which is an amazing transformation, ten years after slavery was the most important Economic Institution in the united states. Now the former slaves are elevated to this condition of equality and thats one of the reasons why i say its a fundamental change in the constitution. I will stop right there and get you a long answer that was fantastic. Before we get ready to start transitioning to the q a out of the program from the final question i want to ask you, the reconstruction. From the second founding. Which is in your book, except critical in the history of our country, its in some ways, not as well known. We kind of go from the civil war and then skip over to already at the start of the 20th century in some ways. If you could talk a little bit about why you think that is and also how this reconstruction. Omaha has the historical interpretation of this changed over the decades as well . I have devoted a lot of my career to study reconstruction product i do agree its often not very well known or understood. I think theres a lot more recognition support nowadays than there was say when i was in school, and college. Reconstruction in my mind, is critical to understanding americans today. Issues of reconstruction are right on our front pages. They are pushed off for the moment because of the Public Health situation we face but was a citizen . Thats being debated every day at our border. Who are to have the right to vote . The right to vote was being suppressed in many states. People off the pony roles for trivial reasons. Reconstruction issue very much alive today. Terrorism reconstruction was a period of home from american terrorism. Im not talking about osama bin laden. Im talking ku klux klan groups like that which killed more americans than many others imagined to do. How do you deal with terrorism and combat . Thats a reconstruction question. The relationship between economic democracy and political democracy, reconstruction his work at least for men, not women, theres a level Playing Field of Political Rights and yet economically, the former slaves were tremendous disadvantage. They came out of slavery with no economic wherewithal, not given 40 acres that many thought was there right coming out of slavery. You happy vast inequality economically, coupled with a tremendous strive towards political democracy and inequality politically. Thats not unlike our situation today or weve had such an increase in inequality in the last generation or so but another thing for many, many years i dont want to go to Great Lengths but many years, i was seen as the most time in american drama, a period of corruption from this government according to the scholars of the early 20th century. Many came out of socalled dunning school. It was part of the intellectual legitimation of the solid south. Look what happened when black men were given the right to vote. Disaster of reconstruction. Our conclusion from black . The white sox is correct to take the right to vote away even though they are violating the constitution. If you give them their basic rights, you have a replay of reconstruction. Im sorry to say, defining my life to historical, it played a role in spreading racist history which help legitimate the denial to africanamericans of the basic constitutional rights. Once the Civil Rights Movement took place, it fell to the ground and set length, scholars have been rewriting reconstruction history and i think we see them today is a critical moment in the history of american democracy. The great tragedy of reconstruction was attempted but it failed. Whole bunch of books dealing with this, this particular book even though its three amendments, pull back a little is also about reconstruction. The last chapter is also relevant to the present day, its about how the Supreme Court systematically whittled away at the guaranteed rights in the constitution, how they are interpreted over the whole next generation of the 1880s and 90s and into the early 20th century. They allowed the right to vote to be stripped away, they legitimize things like racial segregation think no, thats not discriminatory. If blacks dont like it, thats their problem. Singling out a group of citizens for exclusion from Public Transportation and same nobody should complain about that. That doesnt violate equality. Many other and stripping away from the federal government the power to enforce 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. Every one of the amendments had this final cross giving congress the power to enforce it and get, even time to today, not that long ago, seven or eight years ago in the Shelby County case where the Supreme Court overturned the key provisions of the Voting Rights act of 1965 again on the grounds that well, really the federal government shouldnt be bothering states about who they let vote and to they dont even though the amendments were predicated on the idea of federal enforcement of forcing the states to treat all their inhabitants equally which theyve never done before, particularly in the south. This is part of trying to build a new nation on the ashes of slavery. That was the aim but unfortunately, this long history also shows us something felt uncomfortable, rights can be gained and also taken away. Our history is not just greater and greater freedom but greater freedom and then lesser freedom. Rights can be gained or lost, struggles go on and on and reconstruction is one moment, a much bigger strug