Transcript Reconstruction and its Effects ! - Williamstown Independent Schools

Question…


What was the underlying issue of the Civil War?
???? DK (Level 0)

Slavery (First Level )

The Expansion of Slavery into the New Territories. (Second Level)

The Question being would the new states be “free” or “slave”?
(Third Level)

The delicate balance in the U.S. Senate. (4th Level)

The fear among southern states that a federal law would be passed
banning slavery (property) (5th Level)

The Election of Abraham Lincoln– perceived as a future abolitionist

Emancipation Proclamation 1863

13th Amendment 1865
Reconstruction

Describe the basic provisions and immediate impact of the
Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the
Constitution

Evaluate different Reconstruction plans and their social, economic,
and political impact on the South and the rest of the United States

Analyze the immediate and long-term influences of Reconstruction
on the lives of African Americans and U.S. society as a whole
Reconstruction
and its Effects
Central Characters:
Andrew Johnson
Freed Blacks
The Radicals
Carpetbaggers
Scalawags
Ex-Confederates
Federal vs. State Authority
Post-War Conditions in the South
Physical Damage
Transportation destroyed
9,000 mi. RR ruined
2/3 of shipping gone
thousands of mi. of roads
Loss of Property
land value dropped 70%
lost 1/3 of all livestock
equipment rusted/ disrepair
B. Human Toll
1. North = 364,000 lives
South = 290,000 (20% of all adult white males)
2. Widows & orphans abounded
C. Hardships
1. Black Southerners
4 million ex-slaves looked for work, food, clothing, shelter, skills, etc.
2. Planters
lost slaves ($3 billion) & private property ($100 million) seized by federal govt.
could not afford to hire labor even if they could hang on to their land
3. Poor-Whites
faced job competition from freedmen (increased racial conflict)
Quiz Q #1
What two issues lay at the
heart of Reconstruction?
1. The political and economic
power for freed slaves
2. North/South economic and
political relations.
Political Cartoon: What words come to mind?
Example:__________,….

Describe the basic provisions and immediate
impact of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and
Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution
We will…..
Analyze the immediate and long-term influences of
Reconstruction on the lives of African Americans
and U.S. society as a whole

Evaluate different Reconstruction plans and their
social, economic, and political impact on the
South and the rest of the United States
 1.
What should be done with the those
who rebelled against the Union? (former
Confederates)
We will Evaluate and Create
Plans
3 Main
 2. How should
thefor
Southern
States be readmitted
to the Union?
Reconstruction
Issues
 3.
What should be done for Freedmen to
achieve political and economic equality?
The Politics of Reconstruction
What was Reconstruction?
The period during which
the U.S. began to
rebuild after the Civil
War. It is the process of
bringing the Southern
states back into the
nation. It lasted from
1865 to 1877.
-During the war, Lincoln
made a plan for
Reconstruction that was
lenient, or easy, on the
the South.
-Lincoln’s plan differed
strongly from the
Radicals, a group of
Republicans who wanted
to destroy the political
power of former
slaveholders.
Quiz Q #2

A major reason the Radical
Republicans opposed
President Abraham Lincoln’s
Reconstruction plan was that
his plan…

Offered amnesty to Confederates
who would swear allegiance to
the United States
 After
Lincoln
died, his vicepresident,
Andrew
Johnson,
became
president.
-Johnson’s plan
was similar to
Lincoln’s.
Quiz Q #3
 President
Andrew Johnson’s
Reconstruction Plan would have…

Made it possible for former high-ranking
Confederates to assume positions of power in the
reconstructed southern governments.
 All
he required them to do was to ask his
pardon (ie. Kiss his foot!)
-However, Radical Republicans in
Congress thought both plans were too
easy on the South.
-They wanted to destroy the political
power of former slave owners.
-They also wanted African Americans
to be citizens with the right to vote.
- President Johnson, on the other hand,
refused to cooperate with Congress…..
Quiz Q #4
 What
brought the
Radical and moderate
Republicans together
in an alliance against
President Johnson?
 The
President’s veto of
the Freedmen’s Bureau
Bill and the Civil Rights
Act of 1866.
-When the majority of Republicans in Congress
united, they won a struggle with the president to
control Reconstruction.
-When Radical and moderate Republicans united,
they now had enough votes to override Johnson’s
veto power and passed a law creating the
Freedman's Bureau, which gave food and
clothing to former slaves and set up hospitals and
schools.
-Congress also passed the Civil Rights Act of
1866, which said that states could not enact laws
that discriminated against African Americans.
14th Amendment
 -Congress then passed the Fourteenth Amendment which
gave African Americans citizenship.

-Johnson urged Southern states NOT to ratify it because
they had no say in creating it.

-Congress angrily responded with the Reconstruction
Act of 1867 which stated that NO state could re-enter
the Union until it approved the 14th Amendment and
gave the vote to black men.
The Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867: The act also divided the South into five
military zones, temporarily disfranchised tens of thousands of former Confederates, and
laid down new guidelines for the readmission of states (Johnson had announced the
Union restored, but Congress had not yet formally agreed on this), not until all of their
conditions were met.
President Johnson Impeached!
 -The fight between Congress and Johnson led Congress
to look for a way to impeach the president. It wasn’t
enough for him to be a powerless lame duck. The
Radicals in Congress wanted him to be humiliated
and shamed, and ultimately, kicked out of office.

-Johnson had removed a cabinet member, and
Congress said he did it illegally, thus using this
excuse to try to kick him out of the presidency.

-Johnson was impeached by the House of
Representatives, and went on trial in the Senate.
IF found guilty, he would be removed from the
presidency…………..
But………
 ……….when
the final votes came in,
President Johnson was NOT Convicted in
the Senate but by a single vote!
 Regardless,
Johnson served the remainder
of his term as a powerless lame duck, and
Congress ran the country.
15th Amendment

-In 1868, Civil War hero
Ulysses S. Grant was
elected and became
president.

-African American votes in
the South helped him win.

-Then in 1870, the
Fifteenth Amendment was
ratified which banned
states from denying the
vote to black men.
Ulysses S. Grant
Reconstructing Society
-By 1870 all former Confederates states
were back in a union.
-Their governments were run by
Republicans.
-The South faced terrible economic
conditions.
-Many men had died in the war, people had
lost their investments, farms were
ruined................
Sherman's March to the Sea
A New Beginning....?

-The new Republican
state governments in
the South began public
works programs to
repair the physical
damage to the cities
and landscape.

-They also provided
social services to
provide food, clothing,
shelter, and education.

They raised taxes to
pay for these programs.
-Three groups of Southern Republicans
had different goals:
-Scalawags were white southerners.
They were small farmers who did not
want wealthy planters to regain power,
so they cooperated with the Northern
controlled Republican Southern stated
governments. Other southerners saw
them as traitors of the Old South.
-Carpetbaggers were Northerners who
had moved South to take advantage of
rebuilding the South for profit.
-Black men had voting rights for the first
time and voted Republican, but many
white Southerners resisted equality for
African Americans.

-During Reconstruction,
many former slaves
moved to the cities, and
with help they organized
schools and churches.

-Many voted, and some
were elected to the
highest offices in the
United States
government........Hiram
Revels was the first
African American
senator.
Hiram Revels
Promises Unkept........

-Freed African Americans wanted to farm their
own land and had been promised “40 acres and a
mule” by General Sherman, though Congress did
NOT honor this promise.

-Meanwhile, the old Southern planters wanted to
return to the plantation system.

-They tried to make sure that the former slaves
could NOT own land, and that they would remain
at the very least, 2nd class citizens, so…..
Sharecropping & Tenant Farming
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-To survive, many former
slaves became
sharecroppers, which is a
system in which landowners
give a few acres of land to
their farm workers.

-The “croppers” keep a small
portion of their crops and give
the rest to their landowners.

Another system that allowed
whites to control the labor of
former slaves was tenant
farming. Tenant farmers
rented land from the
landowners for cash.
Quiz Q #5
 In
the years after the Civil War, most
freedmen ended up working as…
Farmers under a sharecropper system.

The Collapse of Reconstruction
What gains of Reconstruction were undone by 1877, only 12 years after the Civil
War was over?
-Racist southern whites did not like the freed slaves voting, so some formed
secret groups such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) that used violence to keep blacks
from voting.
Black Codes and other Laws in
the Post Reconstruction Era
 Vagrancy
Laws:
 Black Codes (Jim Crow Laws) Segregation
“ Separate But Equal”
 Grandfather Clause
 Literacy Tests
 Poll Taxes

-In response to groups such as the KKK, Congress passed
the Enforcement Acts under President Grant to stop
the violence, and, in effect, the KKK essentially
went into hiding as federal troops began to hunt
them down.

-However, Congress also gave the vote to many
former Confederates.

-As a result, Southern Democrats began to regain
power...........
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-Other less extreme whites refused to hire blacks that
voted.
Why did Reconstruction fail to
solve the racism issue in the United
States?

-An economic depression occurred during the Panic of
1873, which severely cut funds away from Reconstruction
programs.

-As a result, the Northern states grew tired of attempting
to pay for the rebuilding of the South – and, ultimately,
the assimilation of the freed slaves into normal society.

Also, President Grant became increasingly unpopular as
his administration was corrupt with several scandals…..
Quiz Q #6
 Why
did Ulysses S. Grant’s popularity
decline substantially by the end of
his presidency?
The corruption evident in
his administration.
The “Compromise of 1876”

-In 1876, there was a disputed
presidential election that led to the end
of Reconstruction.

-Even though the Democratic candidate
had seemingly won the election, the
Democrats agreed to accept the
Republican candidate, Rutherford B.
Hayes, as President in return for the
withdrawal of federal troops from the
South.
Quiz Q #7
 The
“Compromise of 1877” did which
of the following?
 Ended
federal military support of
Republican administrations in the South.
SO.........

..... without federal troops, there was no one to stop hate groups, such
as the Klan, from returning to intimidate blacks from voting.

Thus, the Southern Democrats regained control of the state legislatures,
and most things went back to largely the same way it was before the
Civil War began.

The new state Southern
Democratic legislatures
quickly began passing socalled “Jim Crow” Laws –
discriminatory laws that
would ensure that whites and
blacks would be kept
separate.
- Blacks once again began to
be treated like 2nd-class
citizens, and it would take
almost another 100 years –
until the 1950s - with the
beginning of the Civil Rights
Movement – before justice
would once again come to
African American
citizens....and this time for
real.
Quiz Q #8
After the passage of the 13th, 14th, and
15th Amendments, the black
population continued to experience
political and economic oppression
mainly because…
-Southern legislatures
enacted Jim Crow Laws
What advancements have African
Americans made since
Reconstruction?
Reconstruction continued
 3.
Reconstruction Video and Questions
(Page 4 in Packet)
 4.
Reconstruction Plan: Grade and
Answer each question in 1-2 Complete
Sentences.
 5. My Reconstruction Plan (Handout)