Transcript Reconstruction 1865-77 – rebuilding the former Confederate states

Reconstruction 1865-77 – rebuilding
the former Confederate states and
reuniting the Union
War’s Aftermath in South
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Lost 2/3 of shipping; 9000 miles of
RR.
Lost 1/5 of adult white males.
Poor whites – competing w/freedmen
for jobs.
Economy was in shambles.
13th Amendment
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Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the
United States, or any place subject to
their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to
enforce this article by appropriate
legislation
Simply – it abolished slavery.
Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction
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Offered amnesty to any confederate
who took oath of allegiance to Union
and Const, and accept ending of
slavery.
Permitted states to rejoin the Union
when 10 Percent of its residents who
had voted in 1860 swore loyalty to
the nation.
Started in Dec of 1863.
Wade-Davis Bill
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Radical Rep that thought Lincoln’s plan
was to lenient.
Required that 50 percent of a state’s white
males take a loyalty oath to be readmitted
to the Union.
In addition, states were required to give
blacks the right to vote.
Result: Congress passed the Wade-Davis
Bill, but President Lincoln chose not to
sign it, killing the bill with a pocket veto.
Lincoln’s Assassination
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Shot at Ford’s
Theater by John
Wilkes Booth on
April 14, 1865.
VP Andrew Johnson becomes President
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A Democrat
Former Senator
from Tennessee
Had pro-Union
sympathies
Ill-suited for the
challenges.
Will be saved from
impeachment.
Johnson’s Plan
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Required that states nullify their acts
of secession.
Abolish slavery.
Refuse to pay Confederate
government debts.
Pardons for those taking a loyalty
oath, but no pardons would be
available to high Confederate officials
and persons owning property valued
in excess of $20,000.
Continued
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With Congress in adjournment from April to Dec.,
1865, Johnson put his plan into operation. Under
provisional governors appointed by him, the
Southern states held conventions that voided or
repealed their ordinances of secession, abolished
slavery, and (except South Carolina) repudiated
Confederate debts. Their newly elected
legislatures (except Mississippi) ratified the
Thirteenth Amendment guaranteeing freedom for
blacks. By the end of 1865 every ex-Confederate
state except Texas had reestablished civil
government.
Reconstruction -Is it over?
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Radicals say NO WAY!
58 members of Congress were in
Conf Congress; 6 served in Conf
capital; 4 were Conf Generals!
All pardoned by Johnson – WOW!
Congress refused to admit newly
elected southern legislators.
Black Codes – laws adopted to limit
the freedom of former slaves.
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Could not hold meetings unless
whites were present.
Could not travel without permits,
own guns, attend schools with
whites.
Could not rent land outside of cities.
Issue of Suffrage
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Moderates did not want to give Afr
Am this right.
Radicals like Thaddeus Stevens and
Frederick Douglass wanted to give
the right to vote, even for those in
south.
Land Reform
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Had to save money to buy land.
Some gained land from gov’t.
Congress vs. Johnson
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Moderates joined back up with
Radical Republicans.
Repub. wanted to help Southerners.
The Battle
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Extended life of Freedmen’s
Bureau – provided aid and supplies
to southerners left homeless and
hungry after war. Extension vetoed.
Civil Rights Act of 1866 – 1st Civil
Rights act in U.S. history; vetoed by
Johnson and overridden. First major
legis ever enacted over a presidential
veto.
14th Amendment – next slide.
14th Amendment
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14th Amendment – ratified in 1868.
Was opposed by Johnson – granted
equal citizenship to all those born or
naturalized in the U.S.
Did not grant the right to vote, but
stated that if any state prevented a
portion of it male citizens from
voting they would lose a % of it
congressional seats
Radicals take over in Congress
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Rep voted in to office overwhelmingly in 1866.
Take over Reconstruction.
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
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Divided the former Conf into 5
military districts.
States required to ratify 14th Amend
to gain admission. (Helps it get
passed in 1868)
Submit new constitution granting all
men the right to vote.
Afr Am be allowed to vote for
delegates to the state conventions,
and be delegates.
Impeachment!
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Johnson challenges Tenure of Office
Act by firing Sec of War Stanton.
House voted to impeach.
Charges were weak.
Escaped by 1 vote, and finished
term.
Election of 1868
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Grant (Rep) vs.
Seymour (Dem)
Grant wins with
help of Afr Am
voters
15th Amendment
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Right to vote for all male citizens.
Did not guarantee right to hold
office.
Did not prevent states from using
preventive requirements. Ex – Poll
Tax and Literacy Test.
Failed to extend vote to women.
African American Activism
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Many registered to vote.
Joined political groups.
Served as delegates to state
constitutional conventions.
They were largest group of southern
republican voters.
Delegates outnumbered whites in LA
and SC.
New kinds of Republicans in South
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Carpetbaggers White and African
American
Republicans from
the north who
traveled south to
attend state const.
conventions
Scalawags –
Southern whites
who had supported
the Union cause.
KKK
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Started by 6 former Confederates in Tenn.
“Grand Wizard” was Nathan Bedford
Forrest.
Main goal was to keep Afr. Am. in role of
submissive laborers, and keep blacks from
voting.
Led to Enforcement Acts – passed to
stop violence against Afr. Am. Also
supervised southern elections, and protect
voting rights of Afr. Am.
Republicans lose power
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Grant wins again in
1872.
Started with Panic
of 1873 – Rep
didn’t help much.
Civil Rights Act of
1875 – prohibit
businesses, that
served the public,
from discriminating
vs blacks.
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“Solid South” is
formed by So
Dems, and
reverses most
Reconstruction
policies.
Republicans win
election of 1876 in
a dispute.
Civil Rights Acts
1875
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Congress passes the
first Civil Rights Act,
guaranteeing African
Americans equal rights in
transportation,
restaurant/inns, theaters and
on juries. The law is struck
down in 1883 with the Court
majority arguing the
Constitution allows Congress
to act only on discrimination
by government and not that
by private citizens.
1964
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The Civil Rights Act of 1964,
which ended segregation in
public places and banned
employment discrimination
on the basis of race, color,
religion, sex or national
origin, is considered one of
the crowning legislative
achievements of the civil
rights movement.
Compromise of 1877
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Tilden (Dem) beat Hayes (Rep) in the
popular vote.
Election states were challenged in 4 states
to see who gain electoral votes.
Dems accept Hayes as Pres if Reps agree
to withdraw the remaining federal troops
from the south. Appoint Dem to govt
position in the South, and to Cabinet.
Ends Reconstruction - The “Great
Betrayal” for Afr Am
Farming in the New South
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Promised “40 Acres and a Mule” by
Sherman. Johnson gave land back to
landowners…unsuitable land was set
aside for freedmen and poor whites.
Sharecropping and tenant farming
Crop-lien system – Promising crops to
local merchants who then sold them goods
on credit. Impossible to work your way
out of poverty or to gain independence.
Cycle of debt, and south was forced to
import most of its food.
Industrial Growth
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Built new industries (mills) and
railroads.
These workers also suffered in
poverty.
Jim Crow Laws
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Series of laws
designed to enforce
segregation,
separation, of the
races.
Poll Taxes and
literacy test to be
able to vote was
what led to these
new laws.
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Separate schools,
public
transportation, and
public facilities.
Segregation was
upheld in Plessy v
Ferguson – ruled
that “separate but
equal” facilities did
not violate 14th
Amend.
Responses to Jim Crow
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Washington –
believed Afr. Am
should concentrate
on achieving
economic
independence,
which he saw was
the key to political
and social equality.
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Ida B. Wells –
focused her
attention on
stopping the
lynchings.
Positive Changes for African Am.
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Middle class grew.
Rapid growth of African Am
Churches.
Formed cooperatives to buy
farmland.
Some became millionaires.
16 elected Congressmen. Hiram
Revels was first Afr Am Senator (MS)
First Black Congressmen from
Deep South
Successes of Reconstruction – Know 2
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Break up of plantation system.
Passing of 14th and 15th Amend.
Afr. Am allowed to participate in all
levels of gov’t.
Organizations that helped and black
colleges were available.
Tax-supported, mandatory education
in North.
Failures of Reconstruction – Know 2
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Most Afr. Am remained in cycle of
poverty – no economic resources
were provided
Supreme Court undermined the
power of the 14th and 15th Amend
Racism was national, not regional.
State Rep parties could not preserve
black/white voting coalitions to stay
in power and continue political
reform in the South.