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The Reconstruction Amendments: A Constitutional Revolution

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Details

July 7, 2015through July 21, 2015



Description

Summer Webinar Series: The Reconstruction Amendments: A Constitutional Revolution
Tuesdays, July 7,14, & 21
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET / 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm PT

This series of three webinars concerns the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and the change in the Constitution that they represented and did not represent. We will seek to understand these amendments within the Constitution's basic structure to see how they fix problems endemic to the Constitution, while also understanding these amendments in their immediate context as vehicles to bring peace and protection for freedmen at the end of the Civil War. We will look at the layers of context and the immediate effects of these amendments-and also why they failed to secure their goals in the years immediately following the Civil War.

  • Tuesday, July 7: The "King's Cure" and the 13th Amendment
    This webinar focuses on how states would be re-integrated into the Union in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War and the powers Congress assumed in that extraordinary time. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in all states of the Union, holding states to consistent standards for free labor and giving enforcement of this provision to the national Congress. Yet problems arose about the unequal treatment of freedmen after the war ended, giving rise to the need for a more radical limit on state power if the Union's goals in the Civil War were to be accomplished.

  • Tuesday, July 14: Completing the Constitution with the 14th Amendment
    This webinar focuses on how states would be re-integrated into the Union in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War and the powers Congress assumed in that extraordinary time. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in all states of the Union, holding states to consistent standards for free labor and giving enforcement of this provision to the national Congress. Yet problems arose about the unequal treatment of freedmen after the war ended, giving rise to the need for a more radical limit on state power if the Union's goals in the Civil War were to be accomplished.

  • Tuesday, July 21: The 15th Amendment and the Failure of Reconstruction
    Reconstruction presents a dual-edged dilemma, as Republicans tried to re-integrate the Southerners back into the Union while providing protection for freedmen. The easier the terms of re-integration for the Southerners, the more difficult it would be to secure rights for the freedmen. The formula Republicans hit upon was to secure freedmen through the vote, so that they could, in effect, protect themselves. This strategy, adopted by the Grant Administration, required a huge effort on behalf of the Union army and law enforcement and was ultimately abandoned as requiring too much of an abridgement on Southern self-government.

Presenter: Scott Yenor, Associate Professor and Department Chair of Political Science, Boise State University, Idaho; partner faculty member, Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs, Ashland University, Ohio.

Registration

Series Fee: $60 NCSS members / $150 NCSS nonmembers

Graduate credit: Available at an additional fee through Ashland University. More details will be provided in registrant notification.


Conference Registration

Pass Name Description
The Civil War Amendments Summer Webinar Series


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