Transcript Reconstruction

Reconstruction
VUS.7.2
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness
in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on
to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds;
to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his
widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and
cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and
with all nations.
Abraham Lincoln
Second Inaugural Address
Reconstruction of the South
 Period during which
the U.S. began to
rebuild after the
Civil War, lasting
from 1865 until 1877
 It is the process the
federal government
used to readmit the
Confederate states
Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction
 Lincoln favored a lenient Reconstruction policy
 Believed secession was constitutionally impossible
 Individuals, not the states had rebelled
 The 10% Plan
 Government would pardon all Confederates (except
high-ranking Confederate officials and those accused
of war crimes) if they would swear allegiance to the
Union
 After 10% of those on the voting lists in 1860 swore
allegiance, a state could form a new state government
and gain representation in Congress
Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction
 Four states moved towards readmission
 Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia
 Radical Republicans in Congress
 Led by Charles Sumner, Massachusetts Senator and
Thaddeus Stevens, Pennsylvania Representative
 Wanted to destroy political power of the former
slaveholders
 Wanted African Americans to have full citizenship
and the right to vote
Radical Republican Plan,
The Wade-Davis Bill
 Proposed Congress not the president be in charge
of Reconstruction
 Majority of those eligible to vote in 1860 had to
swear an oath of allegiance not just 10%
 Lincoln’s used a pocket veto to kill the bill after
Congress adjourned
 Radicals became upset and outraged by Lincoln’s
veto
 Set stage for a presidential-congressional
showdown
Johnson’s Plan
 Andrew Johnson
 Democrat from Tennessee becomes president in April 1865
 Staunch Unionist
 Presidential Reconstruction
 Declared each remaining state could
be admitted under certain conditions
 Requirements for states
 Withdraw its secession
 Swear allegiance to the Union
 Annul Confederate war debts
 Ratify the 13th Amendment
Johnson’s Plan
 Johnson’s Plan did not differ that much from
Lincoln’s
 Johnson did want to prevent high ranking
Confederates and wealthy plantation owners
from taking the oath for voting privileges
 Did not address the needs of the former
slaves as far as land, voting rights, and
protection under the law
 Angered the Radical Republicans
Southern Reaction to Johnson
 Southern States liked Johnson’s Plan
 Within a few months, they held conventions,
set up new constitutions and elected their
representatives to Congress
 Many of the representatives had served in
the Confederate Congress, cabinet and four
were Confederate Generals
 Johnson pardoned all of them
 Radical and African Americans were angry
The Standstill
 Radical Republicans dispute Johnson’s claim that
Reconstruction was complete
 Congress refuses to admit the new elected Southern
legislators
 Freedmen’s Bureau
 Created by Conges to assisted former slaves and
poor whites in the South
 Distributed food and clothing
 Set up more than 40 hospitals, 4,000 schools, 6
industrial institutes, and 74 teacher-training
centers
Civil Rights Act of 1866
 Gave African American males voting rights
 Forbade states from passing “black codes” that
restricted African Americans’ lives
 Black Codes (African Americans could not:)
 Carry weapons
 Serve on juries
 Testify against whites
 Marry whites
 Travel without permits
 Own land (in some states)
Johnson’s Veto
 Johnson shocked everyone when he vetoed the
Freedmen’s Bureau Act and the Civil Rights Act of
1866
 Alienated the moderate Republicans who were
trying to improve his Reconstruction plans
 Angered the Radical Republicans by appearing to
support Southerners
 Presidential Reconstruction ground to a halt
Congressional Reconstruction
 Radical and moderate Republicans decided to work
together to overturn Johnson’s veto
 Congress drafted the 14th Amendment
 Made “all persons born or naturalized in the
United States” citizens of the country
 All were entitled to equal protection of the law
 Could not be deprived of their life, liberty, or
property with due process of law
 Radical Republicans win landslide majority in
Congress that fall
Reconstruction Act of 1867
 Did not recognize state governments formed under
Lincoln and Johnson’s Reconstruction plans
 Tennessee was except: ratified the 14th Amendment
 Divided the 10 remaining Confederate states into
military districts each headed by a Union general
 Voters in districts would elect delegates to convention
in which new state constitutions would be drafted
 To reenter into the Union a state had to ratify the 14th
Amendment
Johnson’s Impeachment
 Radical Republicans believed Johnson was not
enforcing the Reconstruction Act
 Looked for grounds on which to impeach Johnson
 Tenure of Office Act
Passed by Congress in March 1867
 Stated the president could not remove cabinet
officers
 Cabinet not in the Constitution; Washington
invented it
 1867 Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton

Johnson’s Impeachment
 House of Representatives impeached Johnson
on 11 charges, 9 were based on the Tenure of
Office Act
 Trial took place in
the Senate
 Need a 2/3 majority
to remove Johnson
from office
 The vote was one
vote shy of the
majority
Election of 1868
 U.S. Grant will win by a wide
margin
 Southern Blacks voted mostly
Republican helping Grant win
 After election Radicals
introduced the 15th Amendment
 States no one can be kept
from voting because of “race,
color, or previous condition of
servitude”
Postwar South Conditions
 1868
 Former Confederate states of Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina
reentered the Union
 1870
 Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia reentered
the Union
 Even with all states back in the Union, Republicans
did not end Reconstruction
 They wanted to make economic changes in the
South
Physical & Economic Conditions
Physical Effects
 New Southern state
governments had to
rebuild battle scarred
regions, destroyed
railroads, buildings and
bridge
 Neglected roads and
abandoned farms had to
be restored or replaced

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Economic Effects
Property values plummeted
Those with Confederate
bonds or money had little
hope of recovering their
value
Small farms were ruined or
in disrepair
Southern economic
resources were destroyed
Region’s population was
devastated
New Republican governments
 Projects undertaken in the South
 Built roads, bridges, and railroads
 Established orphanages
 Created institutions for the mentally ill and
disabled
 Created the first public school systems

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Virginia established public schools in 1869
General Robert E. Lee supported this measure
 Increased taxes to create the money needed
for recovery
Scalawags and Carpetbaggers
 Scalawags
 White Southerners who joined the Republican Party
 Hoped to gain political offices with the help of the
African American vote
 Wanted to use the offices to enrich themselves
 Carpetbaggers
 Northerners who arrived in the South carrying so few
belongings that they could fit into a carpetbag
 White Southerners believed these men wanted to
exploit the South’s postwar turmoil for their own
profit
Political Differences
 Internal conflicts in the Republican Party
caused disunity
 New status of African Americans required
changes in the attitudes of Southern whites
 Southern whites thought that Northern
investments would help the south recover from
the war
 Many Southern whites refused to accept the
new status of blacks and resisted the idea of
equal rights
Former Slaves Face Challenges
 New Won Freedoms
 Now allowed to travel with passes, many former
slaves moved into cities and Northern states
 Former slaves wanted to leave the plantations
behind
 Reunification of Families
 Slavery split up many African American families
 Many freed slaves took advantage of their
freedom to look for their loved ones
 Freedmen’s Bureau worked to reunited families
 African Americans were now allowed to marry
Former Slaves Face Challenges
 Education
 Established educational institutions
 Hampton Normal and Agricultural School founded in
Hampton, Virginia (Now Hampton University)
 Churches
 African Americans found their own churches
 African American ministers became influential
 Volunteer Groups
 Established own fire companies, trade associations,
political organizations, and drama groups
 Provided financial and emotional support for their
members
Former Slaves Face Challenges
 Laws Against Segregation
 Most Republican Southern state governments
repealed the black codes
 Most African Americans focused on building up the
black community rather than total integration
 Politics
 First time African Americans held local, state, and
federal government offices
 Sixteen African Americans elected to Congress
 No African American governors until Virginia elected
Douglas Wilder in 1990
 Hiram Revels was the first African American Senator
Restoration of Plantations
 Planter class wanted to restore plantations
 Wealthy Northern merchants encouraged this
because they wanted the cash crop of cotton
for their businesses
 White planters were determined to get the
labor they needed
 Used sharecropping and tenant farming to do
this
 Economic necessity forced former slaves to
sign labor contacts with planters
 In exchange for wages, housing, and food,
freedmen worked in the fields
Sharecropping and Tenant
Farming
Sharecropping
 Landowners divided their
land and gave each worker
(freed slave or poor
white) a few acres along
with seeds and tools
 At harvest time, each
worker gave a share of
his crop, usually half, to
the landowner
 Share paid the owner
back and end the
arrangement until the
next year
Tenant Farming
 Sharecroppers who saved a
little and bought heir own
tools could bargain better
with landowners
 Could even rent land for
cash from the owner and
keep all their harvest
Results
 Seldom worked in practice,
most bought on credit from
merchants who charged
them inflated prices
 End result could not save
enough to buy their own land
Cotton No Longer King
 Demand for Southern cotton began to drop during
the war as other countries increased their cotton
production
 Instead of diversifying Southerners planted even
more cotton driving the price down more
The Collapse of Reconstruction
 Most white Southerners
accepted the change
in African American
status
 Some were bitter
and used violence
to keep African
Americans from
participating in
politics
Ku Klux Klan
 Founded as a “social club”
for Confederate veterans
 Started in Pulaski,
Tennessee in 1866 by 6
former Confederate
veterans
 The name comes from the
Greek word “kyklos” (circle)
and the word clan
 Eventually spread to every
Southern state by 1868
Ku Klux Klan
 Was a secret society so not much is truly known
 Wore the robes and masks to represent the ghosts
of Confederates killed during the Civil War
 Many chapters became violent
organizations
 Goals
 Turn the Republicans out of
power in Southern states
 Restore white supremacy
 Stop newly freed slaves from
exercising their voting rights
Ku Klux Klan
A cartoon threatening that the KKK would lynch carpetbaggers,
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Independent Monitor, 1868.
Anti-Black Violence, 1868 - 1871
 Klan killed thousands of men, women, and children
 Burned schools, churches and property
 Any whites who tried to help were also in jeopardy
 Also tried to prevent African Americans from
making economic progress
 African Americans who owned their own land or
worked in jobs other than agriculture were
targeted by attacks and destruction of their
property
Legislative Response
 Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871
 First one provided for federal supervision of
elections in Southern states
 Second one gave the president the power to use
federal troops in areas where the Klan was
active
 1882: Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional
 Acts helped to decrease Klan activity
 By 1880 Klan managed to restore white supremacy
to the South and eventually died out
An economic boom and bust
 Economy was booming, investors felt it would
continue to do so
 Invested heavily in new business opportunities
 Many took on more debt than they could
afford
 Jay Cooke, a Philadelphia banker, invested
heavily in railroads
 Did not get enough investors
 Cooke’s banking firm, the nation’s largest dealer in
government securities, went bankrupt
The Panic of 1873
 Small banks closed
 Stock market
temporarily collapsed
 89 railroads went broke
 By 1875, 18,000
companies had folded
 Triggered a 5 year
economic depression
 3 million workers lost
their jobs
Democrats Redeem the South
1869-1875
 Democrats recapture
state governments of
Alabama, Arkansas,
Georgia, Mississippi,
North Carolina,
Tennessee, Texas, and
Virginia
 Named this redemption:
Democratic return to
power in the South
Election of 1876
 Rep choose Rutherford B. Hayes, governor of Ohio
 Dems choose Samuel J. Tilden, governor of New York
 Tilden was one vote shy of winning the electoral vote
but Hayes had not received a majority either
 Constitution says in this case the decision must be
made by the House of Representatives
 A special committee finally comes to an agreement
giving the Presidency to Hayes after five months of
debate
Samuel J. Tilden
Rutherford B. Hayes
Governor of NY
Governor of Ohio
Compromise of 1877
 Key Points
 Withdrawal of federal troops from Louisiana and
South Carolina
 Democrats wanted federal money to build a railroad
from Texas to the West Coast and to improve
Southern rivers, harbors, and bridges
 Hayes was to appoint a Southerner to his cabinet
 Republican leaders agreed to the demands and
Rutherford B. Hayes was inaugurated
 Reconstruction had officially ended
 All southern states were now controlled by Democrats
 Ideas will become known as “Home Rule”
Legacy of Reconstruction
 Reconstruction ended with much real progress in
the battle against discrimination
 Radical Republicans wanted to help former slaves
but they made several mistakes
 Congressional Reconstruction was not a complete
failure
 Allowed for the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th
Amendments (“The Civil War Amendments”)
 Supreme Court will narrow their scope, but in the
20th century they will become the foundation for
civil rights legislation