During the reconstruction era. This Virtual Event was sponsored by the institute of American History. Welcome, a new Program Sponsored by the institute of American History, i am president of the institute, we are going to be presenting important books in American History which are like the 18th century tiny our current important books by the major claims in our country. A historian who works on health and education program, we will present the historians that guided questionandanswer session towards the end. If you think you might like other programs, please go to our website, now enjoy. Good afternoon, and welcome everyone to the inaugural edition of the new institute of American History program, and brings you some of americas greatest historians where they discuss their most recent books and today we are going to be joined by eric as he discusses his book the second county. But before i formally introduce professor, i want to go over a couple of housekeeping roles, first and foremost today is mothers day, i want to wish a very happy mothers day to the most important people in histo history, past and present, our moms, very happy mothers day to all the moms who are now watching. And then we will be first going through the tech issues of the tech aspects for your viewers out there, and introduction of myself and the rest of the team and them will be introduced with professor himself. For those of you who were new to the institute of American History, its a Nonprofit Organization specializing in k12 History Education and serving the general public, we helped give you resources, Educational Resources and programs from the Affiliate School program to the Hamilton Education program, we also provide direct access to a whole range of unique primary resources, many of which are from the 70000 collection of the institute collection. And im going to be your moderator today william, and part of the Hamilton Education program im one of the coordinators name also joined by Allison Kraft and marissa who will be helping with the q a and with any tech issues that you might have. Just for you guys out there so you know for security reasons your microphone is muted in your camera is automatically off in the chat is disabled, however, i know lots of you will have a lot of Great Questions to have but because of the fact that were going to have over 1000 participants in this program we cannot unfortunately do a live q a so if you look at the bottom of your screen there is going to be a little q a button for you to submit your questions and then we will pass those on to professor at the end of the program. I know all of you will have fantastic questions for professor but unfortunately we will not be able to do a live q a session during the program because there will be over 1000 participants in the program, if you do have a question for professor, submitted to the q a section, you can find the q a button at the bottom of your screen, today is professor eric, he is a specialist in the civil war and reconstruction era and his book the fiery trial, Abraham Lincoln and american slavery won the pulitzer prize. He is also the dewitt professor of history at Columbia University and today he will be discussing his book, the second founding the civil war and reconstruction remade the constitution. Without further ado here is professor. In the introduction of the book you mentioned its really interesting where you split up rights in four different ways coming took about natural rights, civil rights, Political Rights and social rights and how they were combined in different ways to give different meaning of citizenship. Can you expand on that. One of the things to understand about reconstruction and why its a pivotal period in American History, these concepts in the wake of the civil war and in the wake of the abolition of slavery, with being rethought up and on the society, im not a lawyer or legal scholar and in a way that helps to shape the way that i look at the history, im just what everybodys thinking, not just court cases or congressional debate, those are very important, her inner memoir said reconstruction was a period when the fundamental issues of democracy quality, citizenship were debated up and down society in the classrooms, and the courthouses, in the parlors in peoples homes, they were debating these. Before the work if you were a person, you would say these are different kinds, natural rights, those what everybody should enjoy because theyre human, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, those of the natural rights of hand kind with the declaration of independence. Civil rights or the rights that you need to compete in a society and the right to own property and to go to court and things like that. Then there are Political Rights, you can be a citizen and Political Rights, women could not vote anywhere but they were still citizens, Political Rights were regulated by the society that not everybody had them and then there was a vague idea, social rights which did not have much of a definition but who you associate with and who you will bring into your home, things like that. There were clear differentiations that the law, some people we said have those rights in some only had some but all that changed in reconstruction and in the public debates or what we thought popular constitutionalism they come to be merged in popular consciousness as the rights of citizens, the rights of americans in particular interested in africanamericans, the former slaves who were part of this debate and what they say, all these rights, we demand all of these rights, the same as white people, no longer shall black be restricted from voting the way they were in every state before the civil war. Some states didnt give blacks the basic civil rights, illinois, lincolns home state made it against the law for a black person to enter the state, free black people could not legally enter the state of illinois according to the law of illinois. So there civil rights were severely restricted but now in reconstruction you get the key stories on how the concept of different rights gets merged into a new idea of the rights of americans. That all people audit enjoy and that is part of the impulse that leads to the rewriting of the constitution. If you would not mind, could you go through each of the three amendments, talk a little bit about the in how they were intended to be how they were put into the constitution and how they have been reinterpreted and used through the American History to the present day. Thats a big question but thats what my book is about and let me say before, when you say what they were intended to do, that is legitimate historical question, im trying to figure out what of the people that wrote them and ratify them have in mind, what are they trying to accomplish, how did they think this would change, when you get into legal, the word intent often used original intent, lets go back to the original intent of the founders and no historian takes the idea seriously, there is no important document that only has one originally intent. These amendments were compromises, they were also sorts of inputs into them in there was changes in wording all the way through ratification. There is a lot of intent in different intent in a lot of different possibilities and understanding the meaning of these amendments. What are they, the 13th amendment ratified, enacted in congress in early 1865 and ratified by the end of 1865 about slavery, throughout the entire country. In the process of doing that, could the word slavery into the constitution for the first time, the original constitution used the Persons Health of labor, other persons, slavery was in their protected but not to work. In the act of abolishing slavery it is banned in the constitution. Why do we need that, how did lincoln free all the slaves and then answer patient proclamation, no actually. The proclamation of january 1, 1863 did free almost 3 million slaves but there was still another three quarters of a million to whom it did not apply of slaves of the four border states, missouri, kentucky, delaware, maryland who were in the union, they have not succeeded, they had well over half a million slaves but they were still in the union and the procuration which was against the confederacy did not apply to them and lincoln excepted other courses of the confederacy as well. Moreover, what you really need to get rid of slavery is to abolish all the state laws, slavery is created by state law. Congress will have the power to enforce this amendment with appropriate the 13th amendment. What is mean to enforce that. And obviously nobody can be bought and sold anymore. But slavery, go through ulcers of things, denial of education, denial of the right of marriage. All sorts of rights are taken away when youre a slave. Does abolishing slavery restore those rights to everybody. And what about the racism that is essential to slavery in this country. The abolishing slavery also abolish slavery give the government power to erase the racism. The residue of slavery. Nobody quite new. But the civil act of abolishing slavery becomes much more complicated the more you think about it. And very soon, Congress Passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. One of the most important loss of our history. Based on the 13th amendment to guarantee, to africanamericans the basic civil rights, short of voting and who have probably have a law applying equal me to you and others, that is part of the abolition of slavery, defining to be or what it is to be a free person in america. Now youre free people who were slaves just a few years ago. And soon after that in 1866, Congress Goes further to approve the 14th amendment. In the most important amendment on the 14th of the night, and her history under the bill of rights certainly in the locust amendment through ulcers of things together. Instantly the issues of the civil war. In there about the confederate that the southerners will never get compensation monetarily for this slaves. But the core is the first of the key part is the first section which begins by declaring anybody in the United States a citizen what is a big deal well before the civil war those of the case, you be born in the ics as a 3 percent and ibm system. That is that is only white person to be a citizen, no black person could be a citizen. Susan ship and race were closely before the civil war because of slavery. Citizenship. The whole about society, politics pretty and it was abolished. Everybody, this is what we call birthright citizenship is still controversial. Because for example, this debate about well doesnt apply to the children of undocumented immigrants. A mother, a woman news here illegally. Undocumented. Gives birth to a child in the United States. What is the status of the child. Obviously citizen pretty anybody born in the United States. Doesnt matter what your parents are, they can be bank robbers. That is not affect the status of the child as a citizen. The only exception is native americans. At the time, they were considered citizens of their tribal sovereignties. It was not until 1924 that all native americans become citizens of the United States. But the vast majority of a is now for the first time a uniform definition of citizenship and then the amendment goes on to say personal, no state cannot deny to anyone of these citizens, the privileges or immunities of citizens. And he will get back to this question, what is the original attempt of the referring to the privileges or immunities of the citizens. A tremendous array of opinions about that. Some people including the Supreme Court thought didnt really amount to very much. The most of your rights come to the states, not the federal governments of a citizen of the did not amount to anything. Others said, no, privilege and immunities, and all sorts of things bridge the right to an education for example. All sorts of rights which ran over the course, it is interesting, just recently the district the Federal District court case, coming out of michigan where they rolled that literacy is a fundamental part of being an american. The 14th amendment decision. Theyre so terrible that people are being denied a basic right of american citizenship. It is the right to be educated. Now is a 14th amendment decision. It was over saint with the stay still and try to make sure that they guarantee a full range of rights and privileges for all americans. So this amendment is being debated right now as we sit here and many levels of our judicial systems. Then the amendment goes on. Then he goes on to say that no state can deprive any person, not just citizens, anybody it was the world equal into the constitution for the first time, in a meaningful way. The original constitution mentioned what happens is to candidates. Equal and that is a different question. Now suddenly all will present you to enjoy legal equality. Can you might say what is a big deal. But that wasnt true before the civil war or immediately after. Black laws and codes, laws that apply only to africanamericans and present in ways the white people are not punished pretty drive them of things which white people objected to. Equal protection of the law. Subject to the 15th amendment. Because into even further and 60 guarantee the right to vote to all black men in the country. Citizen the right to vote because of race. But is limited because it leads of the other grounds to date but deny people the right to vote three to six, the womens Rights Movement were extremely angry about this because it was left of the right to deprive the women of the right to vote. Because that is not discrimination on the basis of race. You can have full taxes and literacy tests. As long as they werent actually configured. The right vote was taken away from africanamericans in the south on the constitution was nullified basically down there. And not that almost saying the black people care about anymore. They have all of these other requirements that was supposedly nonracial but the way they were implemented was to basically eliminate the black vote. But nonetheless, so these amendments make africanamericans equal citizens. At least in terms of the law and the constitution. And that is an amazing transformation, ten years after slavery was the most important Economic Institution in the United States. Now that formal slaves are elevated to this condition of equality thats one of the reasons i say in such a fundamental change in the constitution. And im going to stop right there. I give you long answer. That was absolutely fantastic. Now we transition to the q a part of the program. With my question i wanted to ask is the reconstruction. , the second founding. Which is really as you bring out a new book, is so critical in the history of our country. In some ways that is well known. We kind of go from the civil war and skip over until they are ready the start of the 20th century in some ways. First he could talk a little bit about why you think that is. And then also, how this reconstruction carries how because the historical interpretation of it change the decades as well. Eric well, you know, i have devoted a lot of my time to studying reconstruction. I have to agree with you, its a very wellknown. Or understood. I think theres a lot more recognition of this importance nowadays and let say, when i was in school and college. The reconstructions in my mind is critical to understanding americans today. The issues of reconstruction are right on our front pages. Many push up for the moment because of the terrible healt pc Health Situation really makes. But he was a citizen. That is being debated every day. Who ought to have the right to vote. Its being suppressed in many states. People thrown off the voting rolls, for trivial reasons. Who should boat pretty is a reconstruction issue very much alive today. Terrorism, research and for the period of homegrown american terrorism pretty talking about the ku klux klan. A group like that which actually killed more americans than van martin ever managed to do predict honeydew with americans from an army try to combat it. As question. The relationship between economic democracy and political democracy. And at least for men, not women, there is a level Playing Field of Political Rights and yet economically of course the former slaves were at tremendous disadvantage. They came out of slavery without economic and were not giving the 40 acres that felt that was the right coming out of slavery. And steve avast economic inequality coupled with the tremendous trend towards political democracy. And unlike our situation art today, we have such an increase in inequality in the last generation or so. And for many years, i want to go into mr. Biography greatly but for many years, we described as being the lowest point in the american political drama. In other words, was a period of corruption, ms. Government. According to the scholars of the earlier 20th century. Many of them came out of my university. And they was part of the intellectual legitimation of the old solid self rated the jim crow south. Look what happened when black men were given the right to vote. A disaster of reconstruction. One conclusion, the white south is correct to take the right to vote the way. Even though there violating the constitution read it he gave blocks of basic rights and we would have another replay of the allegedly hours of reconstruction. Im sorry to say someone is devoted to life as part of the historical profession that historians in this country, played a very Important Role