Fables Of The Reconstruction
Mother Jones|July/August 2017

America’s post-Civil War experiment in racial equity didn’t simply end on its own—it was violently overthrown.

Tim Murphy
Fables Of The Reconstruction

PEOPLE DEAL WITH political trauma in different ways. After the 2016 election, yuppies who once scoffed at preppers found themselves stockpiling canned goods. Barack Obama went kitesurfing. Hillary Clinton hiked in the woods. Hundreds of thousands of people began meeting in small groups—“for the first time in my life,” many told reporters—to organize a resistance. Some people bought bourbon, some people bought dogs, and I found myself reading about Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

In the years before the Civil War, Higginson, the abolitionist scion of a powerful Boston Brahmin family, had dabbled as a Unitarian minister, helped bankroll John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, and even sustained a sword wound to his face while breaking into a Massachusetts jail to rescue a fugitive slave. He prayed for a great cleansing war to rid the nation of slavery, and when it came he cheerfully enlisted. Then, in the fall of 1862, Higginson embarked on one of the most radical projects in American history.

Placed in command of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, the Union Army’s first all-black regiment, Higginson found himself at the epicenter of a social revolution. Under his eye, former slaves seized abandoned plantations, divided up the land and livestock, and built new civic institutions rooted in the idea of racial equality. Their so-called Port Royal Experiment turned South Carolina’s low country into the tip of the spear of Reconstruction.

Higginson believed in the transformational nature of his work, but one evening in 1863, he peered with stunning clarity into the future. “Revolutions may go backwards,” he fretted in a diary entry that ought to be carved in granite, “and the habit of injustice seems so deeply impressed upon the whites that it is hard to believe in the possibility of anything better.”

Bu hikaye Mother Jones dergisinin July/August 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

Bu hikaye Mother Jones dergisinin July/August 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MOTHER JONES DERGISINDEN DAHA FAZLA HIKAYETümünü görüntüle
Food + Health / Global Warning - Why Project 2025 is an environmental catastrophe in the making
Mother Jones

Food + Health / Global Warning - Why Project 2025 is an environmental catastrophe in the making

When President Joe Biden took office, Democrats held a slim majority in the House of Representatives and a single-vote edge in the Senate. Despite the monumental odds, he has presided over the most productive presidential term for climate action in American history. Under Biden’s direction, the federal government took up the arduous task of incorporating climate considerations into scores of administrative operations and procedures. The epa cracked down on superpollutants and issued stricter emissions regulations for passenger vehicles. The Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate spending bill Congress has ever passed, brings the nation closer to its goal of slashing carbon emissions in half by 2030.

time-read
5 dak  |
November/December 2024
Trumpnesia - To get a second chance, Trump needs voters to forget his disastrous presidency.
Mother Jones

Trumpnesia - To get a second chance, Trump needs voters to forget his disastrous presidency.

One of the most oft-quoted sentences ever penned by a philosopher is George Santayana’s observation that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” In 2024, this aphorism is practically a campaign slogan. Donald Trump, seeking to become the first former president since Grover Cleveland to return to the White House after being voted out of the job, has waged war on remembrance. In fact, he’s depending on tens of millions of voters forgetting the recent past. This election is an experiment in how powerful a memory hole can be.

time-read
6 dak  |
November/December 2024
WHEN IN DROUGHT
Mother Jones

WHEN IN DROUGHT

This obscure yet adaptable grain could be a healthy staple for a warming planet.

time-read
3 dak  |
November/December 2024
BAD HABITS
Mother Jones

BAD HABITS

A spate of recent horror movies recycle tired tropes about nuns-and reveal society's ongoing discomfort with independent women.

time-read
9 dak  |
November/December 2024
Taking the Fifth For a glimpse of the Supreme Court after a second Trump term, look at the radical circuit court that's already driving America to the right.
Mother Jones

Taking the Fifth For a glimpse of the Supreme Court after a second Trump term, look at the radical circuit court that's already driving America to the right.

Imagine obamacare is dead and millions of Americans have lost health coverage.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November/December 2024
THE ARCHITECT
Mother Jones

THE ARCHITECT

TRUMP WANTS TO BE KING. RUSS VOUGHT HAS A PLAN TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November/December 2024
Losing Faith
Mother Jones

Losing Faith

As an evangelical leader, I enticed lawmakers and federal judges to adopt a conservative Christian agenda. Donald Trump’s rise proved how wrong I was.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November/December 2024
GOD'S COUNTRY
Mother Jones

GOD'S COUNTRY

These Christian nationalists have a plan to take over Americafrom small towns to the highest court in the land.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November/December 2024
IN THE NAME OF THE MOTHER
Mother Jones

IN THE NAME OF THE MOTHER

How Shyamala Gopalan Harris raised a presidential contender

time-read
6 dak  |
November/December 2024
KILL THE MESSENGER
Mother Jones

KILL THE MESSENGER

The anti-disinformation field is retreating under attack.

time-read
6 dak  |
November/December 2024