Introduction
Black Reconstruction in America was written in 1935 by W. E. B. Du Bois a distinguished American historian, sociologist, and civil rights activist. Du Bois is an author of a large number of books and articles devoted to the history of people of African descent and their fight against racism, slavery, and the slave trade. He was an advocate for the development and independency of rich traditions of the African culture. Du Bois’ ideological legacy was used by many civil and political rights activists, and Black Reconstruction in America is considered one of his most influential works. The main theme throughout the book is the role Black people played in both the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era.
The Origins and Context of the Book
By many, the book was and still is perceived as a direct response to the views and ideas promoted by the Dunning School. The representatives of this school of thought believed the Reconstruction era to be a failure. They diminished the Black people’s role during the Reconstruction, and their views were based on the strong opposition to the ideas of the Radical Republicans, who advocated for the immediate eradication of slavery. In addition, the Radicals took measures to establish civil rights in the South, pushing new policies and laws through Congress. Du Bois’ book reflects this historical and biographical context by directly addressing the accusations and assumptions proposed by the Dunning School members. His discussion presents them as a part of the White elite, which prevented poor whites from uniting with slaves and confronting the planter capitalist class together. White workers were led to believe that their whiteness somehow made them better than black workers, and that was one of the most devastating impacts of the Dunning School and the White elite in general.
The academic and intellectual context was thus highly influenced by the ideas of white supremacy, particularly in perceiving Reconstruction as a failure and diminishing Black people’s role in promoting positive changes. This was the idea commonly supported by many scholars at the time, including such prominent figures as Woodrow Wilson and James Ford Rhodes. In his works, Du Bois sought to overcome the perceptions the White elite class propagated at the beginning of the 20th century.
Du Bois had published a number of works on Reconstruction before the final publication of Black Reconstruction in America. His first work related to the history of black enfranchisement was an essay published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1901 titled The Freedmen’s Bureau. In this essay, Du Bois examined the bureau’s role and its work’s efficiency in helping recently freed Black people living in the South. The Gift of Black Folk, published in 1924, was another work that served as a basis for Black Reconstruction. In it, Du Bois describes the contributions that Black people made to the creation and development of the United States. “Reconstruction and Its Benefits”, an essay published in the American Historical Review in 1910, was also highly important. All these books, articles, and essays eventually led to the creation of the major work on the topic of Black Americans’ role in the history of Reconstruction.
The Life of the Book after Publication
Although Black Reconstruction in America has earned positive reviews from the New York Times and several other newspapers and magazines, it was still ignored or rejected by most historians and scholars. This was due to the fact that most of them were proponents of white supremacy, segregationists, former slaveholders, and members of the Dunning School. They ridiculed the idea that a Black man could write a scholarly work. Black critics and journalists expressed favorable assessments of the book but were moderate and dispassionate in supporting Du Bois or the ideas he proposed. All this resulted in the book being ignored until the beginning of the 1960s when black civil rights movements started gaining strength again.
In the second half of the 20th century, the book became more popular among scholars, historians, and civil rights activists. At that time, Black Reconstruction in America began to be viewed as a close analysis of the American culture and the history of the Reconstruction period. Some of the major ideas of the book were recognized by more people and eventually became common for the majority of historical writings done on the topic since the book’s publication. Some of these ideas include slavery being the main cause of the Civil War and black people being active agents of change during the war and Reconstruction periods.
Another idea gaining recognition over the course of the century was that the era’s politics were focused on the struggle over controlling black labor. More and more people accepted the fact that Reconstruction had presented numerous opportunities for improvement and that its overthrow was a tragedy and a defeat of democracy in the US and the world. Nowadays, the book is considered one of the fundamental works on American racism and influencing historical change. There is a unanimous agreement among historians and academic scholars today that most of the disappointments of the Reconstruction period were caused by slavery legacies.
The Importance of the Book Today
As mentioned above, Black Reconstruction has made a major contribution to the narrative of the Reconstruction era and the establishment of Black civil rights. It has introduced an important idea of viewing Reconstruction as a phenomenon that has to be understood in relation to the entire nation. Thus, its analysis should include not only “the South, but all the classes, from Northern industrialists and workers to Southern freedpeople, planters, and poor whites”. Another contribution to the historical scholarship of today is the fact that this book contains numerous quotes from primary sources. This allows the readers to gain new insights and perspectives on the views common among the notable leaders at the time. Some of these include quotes from Abraham Lincoln, Rutherford Hayes, Thomas Bayne, Charles Sumner, etc. Du Bois claimed that historians should “regard the truth as more important than the defense of the white race”, and his contribution to spreading such attitudes among scholars is invaluable. I believe this book is one of most important historical works, and reading it is essential for all scholars and individuals interested in the discussions of racism in American history.
The book is also important because it presents detailed explanations of how Southern and border states changed their governments after the Civil War. Du Bois refutes most of the myths created and spread by the Dunning School members. For example, the ones that state that Black people were able to fully control their governments and that they tended to misuse the financial help provided by the state. Du Bois states that some Black leaders did take bribes but explains that it is only due to the fact that they lived in poverty. This and other arguments that Du Bois presents concerning the corruption narrative seem persuasive to me. Through this work, he disproved the idea that Black leaders were the only ones to blame for corruption during Reconstruction.
Although I consider Black Reconstruction to be one of the fundamental historical works, I still think that in addition to being too long for modern readers, it can seem repetitive to some. Overall, I agree with Du Bois’ view about the possible accomplishments that could have been achieved during the Reconstruction era if white supremacists had not ended it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be stated that Black Reconstruction in America is one of the classical historical works, the themes of which can still be seen in modern society. Although the book had been ignored by scholars for several decades after its publication, it is now an essential work to read for all historians, academics, and general readers interested in the topic. With this book, Du Bois managed to completely change the narrative in which the history of Reconstruction had been taught before. As a result, it is now rightfully considered to be his magnum opus and an extraordinary work of history.
Bibliography
Du Bois. W E. B. Black Reconstruction: An Essay toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880. Temecula, CA: Reprint Services Corp., 1935.
Foner, E. “Black Reconstruction: An Introduction.” South Atlantic Quarterly 112, no. 3 (2013): 409–418.
Meer, Nasar. “W. E. B. Du Bois, Double Consciousness and the ‘Spirit’ of Recognition.” The Sociological Review 67, no. 1 (2018): 47–62.