The Blue and the Gray, 1867

Download 43.29 Kb.

Date	26.05.2016
Size	43.29 Kb.
	#69971

The Blue and the Gray, 1867

By: Francis Miles Finch

BY the flow of the inland river,

Whence the fleets of iron have fled,

Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver,

Asleep are the ranks of the dead:

Under the sod and the dew,

Waiting the judgment-day;

Under the one, the Blue,

Under the other, the Gray.

These in the robings of glory,

Those in the gloom of defeat,

All with the battle-blood gory,

In the dusk of eternity meet:

Under the sod and the dew,

Waiting the judgment-day;

Under the laurel, the Blue,

Under the willow, the Gray.

From the silence of sorrowful hours

The desolate mourners go,

Lovingly laden with flowers

Alike for the friend and the foe:

Under the sod and the dew,

Waiting the judgment-day;

Under the roses, the Blue,

Under the lilies, the Gray.

So with an equal splendor,

The morning sun-rays fall,

With a touch impartially tender,

On the blossoms blooming for all:

Under the sod and the dew,

Waiting the judgment-day;

Broidered with gold, the Blue,

Mellowed with gold, the Gray.

So, when the summer calleth,

On forest and field of grain,

With an equal murmur falleth

The cooling drop of the rain:

Under the sod and the dew,

Waiting the judgment-day;

Wet with the rain, the Blue,

Wet with the rain, the Gray.

Sadly, but not with upbraiding,

The generous deed was done,

In the storm of the years that are fading

No braver battle was won:

Under the sod and the dew,

Waiting the judgment-day;

Under the blossoms, the Blue

Under the garlands, the Gray.

No more shall the war cry sever,

Or the winding rivers be red;

They banish our anger forever

When they laurel the graves of our dead!

Under the sod and the dew,

Waiting the judgment-day;

Love and tears for the Blue,

Tears and love for the Gray.

1. What was the point of this poem. Find two quotes that prove your stance.

___________________________________________________________________________________

2. Do you think this poem helped create a national unity? Why?

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

A Letter “To My Old Master,”

c. 1865

To my old master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee
Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found in your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin’s to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to back to the dear home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy—the folks call her Miss Anderson—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, “Them colored people were slaves” down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks, but; but I tell them it was no disgrace to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will better be able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshall-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for clothing, and three doctors visits to me and pulling a tooth for Mandy and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adam’s Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for your generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the Negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer for his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rater stay here and starve – and die, if it come to that – than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life is now to give my children an education, and have them for virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting me.
FROM YOUR OLD SERVENT,

JOURDON ANDERSON

Questions

1. What does Jourdon see as “fair” before he would consider going back to work for his old master?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

2. What is the tone of Jourdon’s letter. Why do you think the letter is written in this tone?

___________________________________________________________________________________

3. What does Jourdon calculate as his backwages? Do you think he believes his former master would agree? If not, then why would Jourdon bother writing this letter?

___________________________________________________________________________________

4. Does Jourdan’s letter suggest an obstacle to unity? Why?

___________________________________________________________________________________

Defining Reconstruction

Reconstruction is a “loaded” word. That is, it carries preconceived notions with it. Is Reconstruction an accurate word for the period of history following reconstruction? First, look at the definitions below. Then for each “case” determine if it fits the definition of reconstruction.

1. reconstruction (noun) - the activity of constructing something again (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/reconstruction)

2. reconstruction (noun)

Reconstruction is a type of new construction that reproduces the exact form and detail of a vanished building, structure or object, or a part thereof, as it appeared at a specific period of time.

1. Military Reconstruction Act

Section 1

“….Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of American Congress assembled, That said rebel states shall be divided into [five] military districts and made subject to the military authority […] and for that purpose Virginia shall constitute the first district; North Carolina and South Carolina the second district…”

Section 3

“…It shall be the duty of each officer assigned (to command a district) to protect all persons in their rights of person and property…to this end he may allow local civil tribunals to take jurisdiction of and to try offenders, or […] he shall have power to organize military commissions or tribunals for that purpose, and all interference under color of State authority under this act, shall be null and void.”
Does the Military Reconstruciton Act fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one)

YES NO
Defend your opinion:

___________________________________________________________________________________

2. “Multitudes bitterly opposed the schools”

Congressional Report on the Freedmen’s Bureau

“When our armies entered the South two facts became apparent: first, a surprising thirst for knowledge among the negroes; second, a large volunteer force of teachers for their instruction. Without delay schools were successfully established and the earliest efforts to impart knowledge found the freedmen ready for its reception […]”

“At the close of the war it is believed that 20,000 colored soldiers could read intelligently, and a much larger number were learning their first lessons.”

Opposition to above (from the same document)

“[…] Still, multitudes bitterly opposed the schools. Teachers were proscribed and ill-treated; school-houses were burned; many schools could not be opened, and others, after a brief struggle, had to be closed. Nevertheless, the country began to feel with moral power of this movement.”

“[…] ‘Much opposition has been encountered from those who do not believe in the elevation of the negro […] It is the testimony of all superintendents that if military power should be withdrawn, our schools would cease to exist.’”

Does the Congressional Report on the Freedmen’s Bureau fit the definition of “reconstruction”?

(circle one) YES NO

Defend your opinion:

___________________________________________________________________________________

3. 14^th Amendment, Section 1

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the U.S.; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Does the 14^th Amendment, Section 1, fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one)

YES NO
Defend your opinion:

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

4. 15^th Amendment, Section 1

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

Does the 15^th Amendment, Section 1, fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one)

YES NO
Defend your opinion:

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________
5. “Descriptions of the Ku Klux Klans”

Frankfort, KY, Congressional Petition

“The Legislature has adjourned; they refused to enact any laws to suppress Ku Klux Klan disorder. We regard them now as being licensed to continue their dark and bloody deeds under cover of the dark night. They refuse to allow us to testify in the state Courts where a white man in concerned […] We find that we have become the special object of hatred and persecution at the hands of the Democratic party […] we have been law abiding citizens, pay our tax and in many parts of the state our people have been driven from the poles, refused the right to vote. Many have been slaughtered while attempting to vote…”

Does the “Descriptions of the Ku Klux Klans”, fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one)

YES NO
Defend your opinion:

___________________________________________________________________________________

6. Ku Klux Laws: “Certain Combination of Men Against Law Exist”

Ulysses S. Grant

“Whereas it has been satisfactorily shown to me that insurrection and domestic violence exist in several counties of the State of South Carolina, and that certain combinations of men against laws exist in many counties of said State known as “rifle clubs,” who ride up and down by day and night in arms, murdering some peaceable citizens and intimidating others, which combinations, though forbidden by the laws of the State, can not be controlled or suppressed by the ordinary course of justice; and

Whereas it is provided in the Constitution of the U.S. that the U.S. shall protect every State in this Union […] against domestic violence; and

Whereas […] by law it is provided that all cases of insurrection in any State or of obstruction to the laws thereof it shall be lawful for the President or of the executive to call forth the militia […] or the land and naval forces […] for the purpose of suppressing such an insurrection or causing the laws to be duly executed.”

Do the Ku Klux Laws fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one)

YES NO
Defend your opinion:

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

7. “A General Reestablishment of Order”

Rutherford B. Hayes, 1877

“The discontinuance of the use of the Army for the purpose of upholding local governments in two States of the Union was no less a constitutional duty and requirement, under the circumstances existing at the time, than it was a much-needed measure for the restoration of local self-government and the promotion of national harmony. The withdrawal of the troops from such employment was effected deliberately, and with solicitous care for the peace and good order of society and the protection of the property and persons and every right of all classes of citizens.”

Does President Hayes statement fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one)

YES NO
Defend your opinion:

___________________________________________________________________________________

8. “We Had Only Our Ignorance”

Anonymous African-American

“I felt that I was man enough to be working for myself and handling my own wages…unknown to my uncle or the Captain I went off to a neighboring plantation and hired myself out to another man […] The Captain came over to the new place and brought some kind of officer of the law. The officer pulled out a long piece of paper from his pocket and read it to my new employer. When this was done I heard my new boss say:

‘I beg your pardon, Captain, I didn’t know this nigger was bound out to you, or I wouldn’t have hired him.’

‘He certainly is bound out to me,’ said the Captain. ‘He belongs to me until he is twenty-one, and I’m going to make him know his place.’”
Does “We Had Only Our Ignorance” fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one)

YES NO
Defend your opinion:

___________________________________________________________________________________

9. Giving the Negro Fair Play

Frederick Douglass

“With all the discouraging circumstances that now surround what is improperly called the Negro problem, I do not despair of a better day. It is sometimes said that the condition of the colored man today is worse than it was in the time of slavery. To me this is simply extravagance. We now have the organic law of the land on our side. We have thousands of teachers, and hundreds of thousands of pupils attending schools; we can now count our friends by the million […] The very resistance that we now meet on Southern railroads, steamboats and hotels is evidence of our progress. It is not the Negro in his degradation that is objected to, but the Negro educated, cultivated, and refined.”

Does Frederick Douglass’ statement fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one)

YES NO
Defend your opinion:

___________________________________________________________________________________

10. The New South

Henry W. Grady

“There was a South of slavery and secession—that South is dead. There is a South of union and freedom—that South, thank God, is living and breathing growing every hour….”

“….As ruin was never before so overwhelming, never was restoration swifter. The soldier stepped from the trenches into the furrow, horses that had charged Federal guns marched before the plow, and fields that ran red with human blood in April were green with the harvest in June; women reared in luxury cut up their dresses and made breeches for their husbands, and, with a patience and heroism that fit women always as a garment, gave their hands to work […] ‘Bill Arp’ struck the keynote when he said: ‘Well, I killed as many of them as they did of me, and now I’m going to work.”

“[…] The old South rested everything on slavery and agriculture, unconscious that these could neither give nor maintain healthy growth. The new South presents a perfect Democracy, the oligarchs leading in the popular movement a social system compact and closely knitted, less splendid on the surface but stronger at the core—a hundred farms for every plantation, fifty homes for every palace, and a diversified industry that meets the complex needs of this complex age […] the South has nothing for which to apologize […] her convictions were as honest as yours.”

“[…] Now, what answer has New England to this message? Will she permit the prejudice of war to remain in the hearts of the conquerors, when it has died in the hearts of the conquered? […] If she does, the South […] must accept with dignity its refusal; but if she does not […] then will the prophecy of Webster […] be verified in its fullest and final sense, when he said: ‘Standing hand to hand and clasping hands, we should remain united as we have been for sixty years, citizens of the same country, members of the same government, united, all united now and united forever.”

Does Henry Grady’s statement fit the definition of “reconstruction”? (circle one)

YES NO
Defend your opinion:

___________________________________________________________________________________

Download 43.29 Kb.

Share with your friends: