Reconstruction and Race Problems Historians

Kenneth M. Stampp: Radical Reconstruction:

The historian, Kenneth M. Stamp, argued that the only way that African Americans would obtain their rights is by getting assistance in the Homestead Acts. He also believed that the only way for African Americans to obtain equality is for them to have a land to work for themselves. A life changing agency was the Freedman's Bureau which aided freed slaves to obtain everything they needed to start a new life. This Bureau provided food, shelter, and medical care for those who were previous slaves and help establish themselves from the difficult transition of being a slave to becoming a civilian. President Andrew Johnson decided to veto the bill, however, Congress did not allow him to. After this scandal, the bill was exteded this helped the freed slaves because the agency had the right to verify work contracts and have courts for African Americans. 

Guion Griffis Johnson: Southern Paternalism Toward Negroes After Emancipation:

During this transition of slaves adating to civilian life many people had different ideas as to how this came to be. Guion Griffis Johnson, explained that this way of thinking could be defined in five different way of thinking. One way was called modified equalitarianism, which was to give freed slaves the right education in order to be able to advocate in politics and order important work positions. Another form of thinking was benevolent paternalism, white men claimed that they knew what the freed slaves needed and believed that they owed and great debt to the freed slaves for working on their lands for so long. Separate but equal, believed that freed slaves deserved education but it could not be the same as the whites. Those who were separate and permanently unequal claimed the African Americans were their own race and would never achieve high ranking positions. The last way of thinking was, permanently unequal under parental supervision believed that freed slaves were intellectually blind and could not advance in education, the whites said that they would be able to protect them as long as they continued to be slaves. 

C. Vann Woodward: Capitulation to Racism:

The historian, C. Vann Woodward, published a book in which he explains the Jim Crows laws in the South. He claims that these laws were not there to create hatred but that the hatred was already established in the South. One way that hatred was not thrown fully out into the South was because of the Northern Liberalism who were always talking about rights in ways such as the press, and in government. The Northerners started to say that the laws were the ones who created racism. Capitulation to Racism was the right to vote for freed slaves, and the reason as to why freed slaves did not vote was because of the fear that the whites caused in freed men. The historian believed that racism was caused by the progress of the South and accepting the freed slaves.