CLHUMHI012 - Reconstruction and Its Legacy in America
The 12 years following the Civil War (1865–77) were described by W.E.B. DuBois as “a brief moment in the sun” for Black people. Dr. Fay Yarbrough and Dr. Caleb McDaniel review the sweeping changes resulting from Emancipation; the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments; and the Freedmen’s Bureau. They also consider the extraordinary grassroots efforts of freed people and their allies to build a radically inclusive society, as well as the virulent resistance to this new social order. This era had profound implications for the rights and lives of Black people and other marginalized groups and also shaped Native American land sovereignty, among many other consequences. Featuring primary sources, lecture and discussion, this course is organized around several “big questions” that resound loudly today: What do freedom and belonging mean? What is citizenship, and who is a citizen? Who should vote? What is democracy? How should we remember and teach history?
Lectures include:
Oct. 3. “Emancipation and the Freedmen’s Bureau: What Do Freedom and Belonging Mean?” Caleb McDaniel, Ph.D., Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Humanities, professor of history and chair, Department of History, Rice University
Oct. 10. “Radical Reconstruction—Government and Grassroots: What Is Citizenship? Who Is a Citizen?” Fay Yarbrough, Ph.D., professor of history, associate dean of programs and special projects, School of Humanities, Rice University
Oct. 17. “Counterrevolution—Voting Laws and Violence: Who Should Vote? What Is Democracy?” Caleb McDaniel, Ph.D.
Oct. 24. “Reconstruction’s Legacies and “Long Tail”: How Should We Remember and Teach History?” Fay Yarbrough, Ph.D.
Course Details
W. Caleb McDaniel, Ph.D., is Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Humanities, professor of history and chair of the Department of History at Rice University. His research and teaching focus on the 19th century, the Civil War era and the struggle over slavery. Dr. McDaniel serves as co-chair of the Rice University Task Force on Slavery, Segregation and Racial Injustice. His book “Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America” received the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in History and the Organization of American Historians’ Civil War and Reconstruction Book Award. He also authored “The Problem of Democracy in the Age of Slavery: Garrisonian Abolitionism and Transatlantic Reform.” Dr. McDaniel’s scholarly articles have appeared in the Journal of the Civil War Era, the Journal of the Early Republic, American Quarterly and elsewhere, and he has published essays in The New York Times, Smithsonian, The Atlantic and other outlets.
Fay Yarbrough, Ph.D., is a professor of history, the associate dean of programs and special projects for the School of Humanities, and a faculty affiliate of the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality and the Center for African and African American Studies at Rice University. Dr. Yarbrough is a Rice graduate and completed her Ph.D. in history at Emory University. Her first book, “Race and the Cherokee Nation: Sovereignty in the Nineteenth Century,” was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2008; her second book, “Choctaw Confederates: The American Civil War in Indian Country,” was published by the University of North Carolina Press in the fall of 2021. Dr. Yarbrough has held national research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities (2018–19) and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (2006–7). She served as visiting editor for the Journal of Southern History in 2020. Professor Yarbrough is a Jones College Associate.
Online--Synchronous
This course will be delivered in a synchronous format online. Registered participants will receive login instructions to the course page which will provide access to the virtual classroom link and other resources. All online classes are held at Central Standard Time.
Center for African and African American Studies, Rice University; Department of History, Rice University