In the first half of Race and Reunion, Blight traces the intertwined history of race and reunion in the United States following the Civil War. He lays out his thesis in the introduction: Civil War memory is irrevocably tied to race, so much so that you cannot have one without the consideration of the other. While Blight cites several instances where race is at best marginally present in reconciliation and Civil War memorial discourse, he uses these instances to further illustrate his secondary point, which is that, following the Civil War, slavery—one of the main reasons the Civil War was fought—along with African American rights, lost out to the desire among white Northern and Southerners to reconcile. The hard-won rights of African Americans in the wake of the Civil War quickly became sacrificial lambs on the altar of reuniting a divided country.
In Blight’s Prologue, I was struck to the point of near amusement by his hyper-awareness and acknowledgement of the fact that he was omitting certain facts in order to prove his point. It seemed almost as though he had read Trouillot and was acutely aware that he could be accused of silencing critical moments in America’s past. Race and Reunion is not meant to be a perfectly linear historical narrative, on the contrary, Blight cites key examples relating to themes he wishes to discuss and then moves on, aware he has not treated every issue in as much depth ash e could have—probably a good thing given the already expansive nature of the book.
As I was reading, I was particularly aware of whether Blight was paying adequate attention to the African American narrative in Civil War memory. Given the title of the book and the points he discussed in his introduction, it seemed to me he would have made an extra effort to ensure he was not just writing another white man’s narrative of the events taking place in the wake of the Civil War. Blight definitely does not ignore the presence of African Americans in the post-Civil War South, nor does he forget to acknowledge the influential role they played during the role. He discusses Frederick Douglass at length, particularly his changing opinions on whether African Americans should work with open-minded whites to guarantee their rights or whether they needed to just look out for themselves and their interests. Blight includes several testimonies from black soldiers, and acknowledges the role of black South Carolinians in implementing Decoration Day. Blight also shares harrowing tales of persecution of both blacks and whites who advocated equal rights for blacks by the Ku Klux Klan.
Despite Blight’s efforts to include these stories, though, I continued to wonder if he had adequately treated the subject of African Americans in Civil War memory. I know we are only halfway through the book curently, but I am curious to you’re your thoughts. Did Blight adequately treat African Americans and their role in Civil War memory, or is he, ironically, silencing the role they played in a novel that tries to draw attention to the marginalization of race in Civil War memory and discourse during the first 50 years following the war?