History from Reconstruction to the Progressive Era

Once the Civil War ended, the United States entered into the age of Reconstruction. In the immediate aftermath of the war, the South was in shambles. Its infrastructure was destroyed and the economy collapsed. 4 million formerly enslaved people were suddenly free. Their former enslavers still owned land, weapons, local courts, and social power.

Winning the war and abolishing slavery did not wipe out the racist mindsets of the powerful men of the time. Newly freed people actively claimed their freedom in any way they could. They reunited with their families, built independent black churches, founded schools, and demanded legal marriages. White southerners were terrified of this because it challenged the entire racial order they knew and believed in.

In April of 1865, Lincoln was assassinated in Ford’s theatre, leaving Andrew Johnson to be the president to kickstart the era of Reconstruction. Johnson was a Democrat and served as president from 1865 to 1869. His approach involved a fast reconciliation with former confederates. He provided mass pardons to southern elites and returned land to ex-enslavers. He also opposed political rights for black people.

His lenient policies resulted in the Southern states passing the Black codes. These were laws that restricted movement of black people. They criminalized unemployment, which had a widespread effect on black communities who did not have official employment. Former enslaved people were arrested and forced into labor contracts. This allowed the Southern states to recreate slavery in everything but the name.

Reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1877. During this time, congress took control. It divided the South into military districts, required states to create new constitutions, and mandated Black male suffrage. Three new, very important, constitutional amendments were passed. They were the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments.

The 13th amendment officially abolished slavery. However, there is a loophole. Slavery is allowed if it is punishment for a crime. The 14th amendment established birthright citizenship for any person born within the country. It also guaranteed that states provide equal protection under the law to all individuals within their jurisdiction and prohibited them from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. The 15th amendment established voting rights for black men.

On March 3rd, 1865, Congress established The Freedmen’s Bureau. Its purpose was to manage the transition from slavery to self-sufficient freedom of refugees and freedmen. The bureau built schools, provided food and medical care, and negotiated labor contracts. Unfortunately, The capacity of the Freedmen’s Bureau was limited because it wasn’t set up to be a permanent solution. They were severely underfunded and were constantly attacked by white southerners and Johnson. Ultimately, the Bureau was shut down in 1872, but not before it changed millions of lives.

During reconstruction, there were over 2,000 Black men that held public office. There were black sheriffs, judges, and legislators. Two of the U.S. Senators were black men. They pushed for public education, updated infrastructure, and fairer tax systems.

White supremacists did not like this and launched a counterrevolution against this progression. Paramilitary groups, like the Ku Klux Klan formed in response. They murdered Black leaders, intimidated voters, and overthrew elected governments. There was a brief federal response against these groups. Troops were used to suppress the KKK. When enforced, this response worked.

Eventually, Reconstruction was abandoned. The collapse was a result of the North choosing white unity over black justice. Protecting Black democracy became inconvenient to white political and economic power for the North and the South.

Many northerners opposed slavery but did not support racial equality. They still believed black people were inherently inferior. So, when Reconstruction shifted from ending slavery to enforcing equal rights, support fell through. They believed freeing enslaved people was enough.

On top of that, the terror provided from white supremacist groups wasn’t random, it was strategic. They made participation in Reconstruction physically dangerous. The federal government proved to be unwilling to provide long-term military enforcement of democracy. This allowed white supremacy to prevail.

The Economic Panic of 1873 shifted the priorities of voters. The panic caused bank failures and massive unemployment. The northerners suddenly cared more about their wages and economic stability and Reconstruction was reframed as a costly distraction.

By the mid-1870s, business interests dominated the Republican party. Capital from the railroad and industrial industries became top priority and southern racial justice didn’t help their profits. Capital interests were focused on cheap labor, stable markets, and no constant federal intervention. Reconstruction was framed as bad for business confidence.

The Supreme Court upheld decisions that allowed states to violate citizen rights. It made federal protections for Black Americans toothless. Enforcement of Reconstruction was basically doomed.

In 1877, the political parties decided to compromise. The Republicans were granted the presidency and Democrats got federal troop withdrawal from the South. Black Americans were, unsubtly, sacrificed to preserve political order.

After Reconstruction was abandoned, the United States transitioned into the Gilded Age. During this time, democracy thinned, money swelled, and the country pretended this was just what progress looked like. The core question of the Gilded Age is, Who actually runs a democracy once corporations become more powerful than governments?

The timing of this great economic prosperity of the U.S. was not an accident. The broader retreat from federal enforcement during this period coincided with reinforced, laissez-faire economic policies. Federal oversight shrunk, allowing corporate power to explode. The government retreated from protecting the people and instead protected capital gain. Because of this, industrialization exploded.

Railroads began to knit the country together. Steel replaced iron and oil became king. Electricity began transforming cities with the invention of the lightbulb. Industrialists, bankers, and investors benefited at the expense of immigrant laborers, former farmers, black workers, women, and children.

Robber barons amassed immense amounts of money by exploiting labor, crushing competition, and corrupting governments. They built power by utilizing trusts and monopolizing industries.

There was also no accountability in voting. Party machines ran cities and controlled voting centers during elections. Votes were bought by the highest bidder. In the beginning, ballots weren’t secret which allowed voters to be intimidated and threatened with violence depending on who they voted for. Corporate money dominated political campaigns and politicians were openly owned.

In 1883, after the assassination of President Garfield, an attempt was made towards civil service reform with the Pendleton Act. The goal of this act was to stop jobs being given for political loyalty. It prohibited firing for political reasons and created the Civil Service Commission, making jobs about skill and qualification rather than party connections. The Pendleton Act was able to reduce patronage slightly, initially covering only 10% of federal jobs but later expanding. It was a small step towards big resistance.

Workers fought back. America’s first national strike occurred in 1877 with the Great Railroad Strike. This highlighted the great divisions between labor and capital. There was widespread social unrest, which prompted the use of federal troops on protesters.

In 1886, a significant turning point for the American labor movement occurred with the Haymarket Riot. This event was a violent confrontation between police and protestors in Chicago. This led to a controversial trial which resulted in the conviction and execution of labor protestors and/or anarchists. The result escalated tensions between laborers and businesses.

The Homestead Strike of 1892 resulted in gunfire between workers and the Pinkertons. The manager of the Carnegie Steel Company hired 300 Pinkerton agents to secure the plant that resulted in a battle that left several people dead.

The Pullman strike was a major railroad labor dispute against the Pullman Palace Car Company. Pullman, Illinois was a company-town that was devastated during the severe economic depression of 1893. The Pullman company cut wages by 25% while refusing to lower rent and living expenses. The workers refused a wage reduction and were locked out of the factory. The strikers won the battle against the Pinkertons, however the National guard was also sent to break the strike. This allowed the company to reopen with non-union workers.

Through all of these significant events, a pattern appeared. The workers would protest, violence would erupt, and the government would side with businesses. Unions were framed as threats to order instead of defenders of rights.

Cities began to explode. There was overcrowding and disease with no sanitation standards. Immigration soared and nativism surged. The Chinese Exclusion Act, signed in 1882, prohibited Chinese workers from immigrating to the U.S. Fabricated scientific evidence was used to divide humanity into biologically distinct races. The claim was that some races are inherently superior or inferior. “Old stock” immigrants labelled “new stock” immigrants as undesirable in society.

After Reconstruction, Black communities were terrorized by Jim Crow laws. Segregation hardened against white and black Americans. Voting rights were suppressed primarily for Black Americans and many poor citizens through poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation. Lynching became normalized. The North mostly looks away. The groundwork was laid for a decision such as Plessy v. Ferguson to be upheld.

Farmers were also crushed by monopolies of the time. Railroads destroyed farmland and crop prices were falling. In response, the farmers formed Farmers’ Alliances and the Populist Party to demand regulation, public ownership of railroads, monetary reform, and broader democracy. Their movement scared the elites, which caused them to lose. But, progressivism now borrows heavily from their left-wing policy ideas.

The Gilded Age sold the lie that anyone could succeed if they worked hard enough. In reality, your starting position mattered. On top of that, existing wealth reproduced itself. Your race and class dictated the opportunities available to you. The Gilded Age was a democracy hollowed out by money, where inequality exploded while the government pretended not to notice.

After the Gilded Age came the Progressive Era. By the 1890s, the problems in the country were pretty hard to ignore. Monopolies dominated entire industries, the cities were overcrowded and dangerous, it was routine that workers were injured or killed at work, and political corruption was blatant. Public trust in institutions was collapsing. Even the elites started worrying that if the system wasn’t reformed, the people might overthrow it. Progressivism was motivated partly by morality and partly by self-preservation.

The progressives of the time included middle-class reformers, journalists (muckrakers), labor activists, women, a few radicals, and even some politicians. They disagreed a lot but shared the belief that the government should intervene to fix social problems. This challenged the laissez-faire economic position that was dominating the United States at the time.

The muckrakers worked hard to expose what elites wanted to keep hidden. Instigating public outrage with the truth led to political pressure and eventually to reform.

Reform of machine politics included using secret ballots and direct primaries. These changes allowed a reduction in elite gatekeeping but did not eliminate monetary influence during elections.

Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901. He believed monopolies could threaten democracy and the federal government should act as a referee. He broke up trusts and strengthened regulation agencies in the government. However, he didn’t challenge segregation or support full racial equality.

In the workplace, progressives wanted stricter child labor laws, workplace safety, shorter hours, and workers’ compensation. However, unions were still treated with suspicion, strikes were often crushed, and courts sided with employers.

Women were everywhere in Progressivism. They ran settlement houses, led reforms, organized labor, and pushed suffrage. They fought for democracy despite being explicitly excluded from it.

Progressives did well, but only went so far. They hit limits because challenging racial hierarchy was too divisive, attacking wealth concentration too directly scared donors, and World War I shifted priorities. They reformed the system while leaving behind its deepest inequalities.