Stony The Road

Stony The Road

Adult nonfiction
"In the broadest terms, Reconstruction was a revolutionary time
in American life--a time of national renewal extended out from Civil
War, death, and destruction that narrowed the gap between the
country's ideals and laws and advanced racial progress. Yet it was
also a turbulent and brutally violent period, one marked by rapid
economic change and new forms of white resistance that included
everything from organized para military assaults and political
assassinations to night rides and domestic terror."
When I took American History back in high school, Reconstruction
got very little textbook ink. I guess things haven't gotten better in
the intervening decades. Reknowned Black history scholar Henry Louis
Gates, Jr., quoted above, wrote Stony The Road to increase people's
knowledge and understanding of the tumultuous years between the 1860's
and 1920's.
Reconstruction had two goals. One was reuniting two parts of a
nation that had just spent four years engaged in bloody combat. Under
what conditions could the vanquished South be readmitted to the
Union? The other was equipping people who had been kept in ignorance
and involuntary servitude and treated as objects rather than humans
to handle the more complex lives of freedmen and freedwomen. The
Freedmen's Bureau was created to reunite black families and help them
gain educations and ways of earning a living.
Even as Black people were making progress on all fronts, angry
Whites in the defeated South were scheming to put them back "in their
place." These former Confederates saw the war as a war of aggression
on the part of the Union. The creation of the Freedmen's Bureau and
other programs and mandates originating in Washington were seen as
egregious government over reach. The "Lost Cause" was portrayed as a
valient attempt to save a gracious way of life. And how would the
South's agrarian economy function without the forced labor of blacks?
We're probably all familiar with the KKK and their night
riding. But the battle to keep Blacks "in their place" wasn't fought
only with nooses and burning crosses. It also involved pseudo
science, appeals to the fears of Whites, and images. Stony The Road
includes a treasure trove of posters, trading cards, photographs,
cartoons, and other visual representations which nicely complement
Gates' scholarship and really make the book come to life.
Stony The Road is a must read for all who want to understand how
the bright promise of Reconstruction was so brutally slain. Some of
the racist ideas the reader will encounter are sadly being revived in
Trump's America.
On a purrrsonal note, it snowed all day. In May. This is pretty
incredible--even for Maine. Eugene was sweet enough to buy a frozen
pizza (to make supper really easy prep) and a beautiful bouquet of
flowers for me. That surprise really perked me up. I started a list
of my pandemic sheltering in place achievements. Much to my surprise
it's pretty impressive. (Jules)
It is not time for snow!!! It keeps the birdies away and makes the
hoomans sad. Mother Nature, get with the program! (Tobago)
Tobago and Jules Hathaway


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