The sesquicentennial commemoration of the American Civil War invites us to reflect on its profound impact on the nation. My own journey into studying this pivotal era began over half a century ago, not with a childhood fascination, but with a growing awareness of its relevance to the present.
In 1958, I arrived in Baltimore for graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University, with only a vague interest in Southern history. Having grown up in the North, the South seemed exotic and mysterious to me. The integration of Little Rock Central High School by nine black students, protected by the U.S. Army, sparked my curiosity about the constitutional basis for their presence—the Fourteenth Amendment, a crucial outcome of the Civil War.
The spark that ignited a passion
My interest in the Civil War era was ignited during my first days at Johns Hopkins. Meeting with historian C. Vann Woodward, author of The Strange Career of Jim Crow I learned of his involvement in addressing contemporary issues. Woodward was called to Washington to testify about potential problems in Little Rock as school desegregation efforts continued. This revelation—a historian offering counsel on pressing domestic issues—solidified my connection between the Civil War and my own times.
The early 1960s marked the centennial commemoration of the Civil War, but the civil rights movement overshadowed these observations. The sit-ins, freedom rides, and massive resistance to desegregation dominated the national conversation. The parallels between the struggles of the 1960s and the 1860s propelled me to focus my academic pursuits on the Civil War and Reconstruction.
From abolitionists to political history
My doctoral dissertation, published in 1964 as The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction explored the work of civil rights activists in the 1860s. After writing three books on these subjects, my interest expanded to the political and military events of the antebellum, war, and Reconstruction years that provided the context for my earlier work.
In recent decades, my writings have dealt with broader developments in the political and military history of the era. As Abraham Lincoln expressed in his second inaugural address, the progress of the Union’s arms was crucial to the abolition of slavery and the reconstruction of the Union on the basis of a new birth of freedom—issues that had initially drawn me to the study of the Civil War.
The Civil War’s lasting impact
The Civil War was the most profound and traumatic event experienced by any generation of Americans. With two percent of the population losing their lives, the war’s echoes have resonated down the generations. More significantly, the Civil War and Reconstruction did more to shape and reshape American institutions than anything else in our history, even the Revolution of 1776.
The war also radically altered the balance of power between the federal and state governments. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, which abolished slavery and mandated civil and political equality for freed slaves, set a precedent for Congress to enforce these amendments by appropriate legislation. This strengthened the nation at the expense of the states.
Many of the issues over which the Civil War was fought still resonate today: matters of race and citizenship, regional rivalries, and the relative powers and responsibilities of federal, state, and local governments. Controversies over the symbolism of the Confederate battle flag and the centrality of slavery in the causes of secession and war continue to generate debates among historians and the public.
As a historian, writing and teaching about the abolition of slavery and the enactment of civil rights legislation and constitutional amendments by the victorious North also means entering into the current debate about these issues. The use of federal power to bring about radical social and political change in the 1860s carries important implications for the use of federal power to bring about change in matters of race, citizenship, and social welfare today.
So long as these issues remain relevant—and there is no sign that they will go away anytime soon—the Civil War will remain, as historian Shelby Foote once described it, the crossroads of our being.
