Transcript Reconstruction - Cloudfront.net

Reconstruction:
The Dawn Without a
Noon
1865 - 1877
What was Reconstruction?
• The attempt to achieve
national reunification and
reconciliation and to improve
the status of former slaves
(freedmen).
• Hard to do both. “Politics is the
art of the possible.”
• North prevailed during war.
South prevailed after war.
The Problems of Peace
• Even before the fighting was
over the debate began over
how to reconstruct the
shattered Union
• What were the main
questions facing the decision
makers regarding southern
reconstruction?
Main Questions
1. How would the
South be rebuilt
economically &
socially?
2. How would
the freed
blacks be
treated?
4. Who would
control & direct
the process:
South, President,
or Congress?
3. How would
the former
Confederate
states be
readmitted to
the Union?
The Fate of the
Confederate Leaders
• Many of the Confederate
leaders were imprisoned
at the end of the war
• Jefferson Davis was
captured & imprisoned
for 2 years
• All eventually pardoned
in 1868 by President
Johnson
• Even Jeff Davis was
given his citizenship
back – posthumously,
over 100 years later
Gone With the Wind
• Southern economy was
utterly destroyed
• Plantations choked with
weeds
• Cities burned to the
ground
• Factories &
transportation ruined
• Slave-labor system was
gone & with it over $2
billion in capital
The South Destroyed
Southern Pride
• Many southerners
refused to believe they
were beaten & held
strongly to the belief that
their cause had been just
• Southerners also refused
to recognize the federal
government in
Washington as their own
• The Stars & Bars would
be incorporated into
many southern state
flags
The Freedmen’s Fate
• Freedom for Southern
blacks at the end of the
Civil War came
haltingly & unevenly in
different parts of the
conquered Confederacy
• Lincoln worked to create
th
the 13 Amendment
(ratified after his death
in 1865)
–Abolished slavery
everywhere in the US
• Southern planters &
slave owners used
violence as well as legal
means to keep blacks
from being liberated
• Some blacks resisted
liberation out of loyalty
to their masters
• Others rose in violence &
looting against the
defeated plantation
owners
Day of Jubilee
• Upon receiving emancipation
many former slaves celebrated
their liberation by…
–changing their names
–going in search of lost loved
ones
–getting married
–just getting up & moving
“because they could”
"When freedom come, I didn’t know what dat
was at fust. I rec’lec’s Uncle Charley Burns
what drive de buggy for Marster Charles, come
runnin’ out in de yard an’ holler ‘everbody
free, everbody free’, an’ pretty soon some sojers
come an’ de Capt’in reads a proclamation to all
de folks,--white folks an’ us black folks, too.
An’ law me, dat’s one time Marster Charles
can’t open his mouth, ‘cause de Capt’in tell
him to shut up, dat he would do de talkin’.
Sarah Ford -- on the Patton Plantation near West Columbia, Texas
Exodusters
• While most former slaves
stayed in the South,
some began to move
north
• A popular destination
was the new state of
Kansas
–This exodus ended when
steamboat captains
conspired to refuse to
carry blacks across the
Mississippi River
Church & Education
• Black churches, such as
the African Methodist
Episcopal Church became
the focus of the black
community
• The church provided
social services & most
importantly became
centers for education as
former slaves sought the
right to read which had
long been denied to them
Ethiopia Baptist Church
built in 1865
Learning to read…
The Freedmen’s Bureau
• March 3, 1865: Congress
created the Freedmen’s
Bureau
• Bureau headed by
General Oliver O. Howard
• Purpose: help ex-slaves
survive
• Provided food, clothing,
medical care, &
education to the former
slaves
• Promised the freed
slaves “40 acres and a
mule”
Freedmen’s Bureau School
• Bureau did not come through
on most of its promises, but it
was successful in teaching
over 200,000 former slaves to
read
• In many cases, the Bureau
acted in cahoots with local
planters to keep blacks tied to
the old plantations
• Southern whites saw the
Bureau as Federal interference
in state affairs with the
purpose of overturning the
racial order
• President Johnson agreed with
these white supremacist views
& tried to kill the agency
• Bureau expired in 1872
Presidential
Reconstruction
1864 -1866
Lincoln’s 10 Percent
Plan
• December 1863:
Lincoln
announced his
plans for
reconstruction
• He believed that the
Southern states had
never really left the
Union, therefore process
of reconstruction should
be fairly quick & easy
• He would grant a pardon
to nearly all supporters
of the Confederacy if
they took an oath of
allegiance to the Union
• All must pledge to accept
emancipation
• Only certain high ranking
officials would not be
pardoned
• When 10% of the voters in
the 1860 presidential
election took the oaths, the
state could petition for
reentry to the Union
Wade-Davis Bill
• Congressional Republicans
rejected Lincoln’s 10%
Plan fearing planter
aristocracy regaining
power
• 1864: Congress passed
Wade-Davis Bill
–called for 50% of voters to take
loyalty oaths & to exclude all
who had aided the Confederacy
–New state constitutions would
also have to guarantee equal
rights to all blacks & all citizens
• Lincoln pocket-vetoed the
bill
The
“Iron
Clad”
Oath
• Congress responded by
refusing to seat Louisiana
delegates after the state had
met the 10% requirements
• The controversy surrounding
the Wade-Davis Bill revealed
the deep differences between
the Congress & the president
State Suicide Theory
• Many radicals in Congress
believed that the southern
states had committed political
suicide by seceding &
therefore forfeited all their
rights
• These Republican
congressmen saw the South as
a conquered territory subject
to Congress
• When Lincoln was
assassinated in April 1865
& Andrew Johnson became
president, radicals believed
Andrew Johnson would
share their desire to punish
the planter aristocracy
President Andrew
Johnson
• States’ rights Democrat
from Tennessee
• Hated the aristocratic
plantation class of the
South but cared nothing
for the slaves
• Known as a
champion of
the poor
mountain
whites
Damn the negroes! I am
fighting these traitorous
aristocrats, their masters!
President
Andrew
Johnson
Presidential
Reconstruction under
Johnson
• Congress was not in
session when the war
ended so Johnson began
carrying out his own
plans for reconstruction
• Issued a general
amnesty for all except
the leadership class, who
were disenfranchised
–Allowed many of planter
aristocrats to control
areas of the South again
Proclamation
of Amnesty
• Appointed Governors &
ordered constitutional
conventions held
–The conventions were to
ratify the 13th
Amendment & repudiate
the secession
• Wanted the slaves to
continue to work for
their former masters &
to take no interest in
politics
• Blacks began forming
their own churches &
schools & petitioned for
equal rights
• The 200,000 blacks who
fought for the union
wanted the rights they
had fought for
Southern Backlash
• Black Codes
–New all white legislatures
passed codes designed to
regulate & suppress the
former slaves
–Main purpose was to
ensure a stable labor
supply
–Blacks were required to
show proof of
employment
–Also could not vote, serve
on a jury, or testify
against a white person
• Attempted to restore
pre-emancipation
system of race relations
Work Gangs in the South
• Sharecropping:
–new laws forced many
blacks into economic
servitude as tenant
farmers to their former
masters
Northern Reaction
• The ease of
Reconstruction & the
plights of former slaves
under the Black Codes
led northerners to
question who had really
won the war
Radical
Reconstruction
1867 - 1877
• Radicals complained that
the new governments
were controlled by exrebels
• December 1865: Refused
to seat any recently
elected southerners
Ex-Confederate
VP Alexander Stephens
(Now a Georgia Senator!)
• Republicans concerned
that newly reconstructed
states would return to
the Union with even
more political power
–Blacks (who could not
vote) no longer to be
counted as 3/5ths of a
person
• December 6, 1865:
Johnson announced that
reconstruction was over
& that all states had
ratified a new
constitution under his
guidelines
The Clash with Johnson
• February 1866: Congress
passed a bill to extend
the life of the
Freedmen’s Bureau
• Johnson
vetoed the
bill, leading
to outrage in
Congress
Civil Rights Act of 1866
• Congress passed the Civil
Rights Act of 1866 (over
Johnson’s veto)
–Made all people born in
the United States (except
Indians) citizens with all
rights except the right to
vote
th
14
Amendment
• Congress then created
the 14th Amendment
making citizenship for all
a part of the Constitution
• Purpose: make Civil
Rights Act an
amendment for
protection against South
• Also barred former
Confederate officeholders
from holding state &
national office
• Ratification of the 14th
amendment became
mandatory for holding
seats in Congress
• 10 of the 11 former
Confederate states
refused to ratify the 14th
Amendment
–Tennessee would ratify &
be the first to be
readmitted to the Union
The 1866 Election
• 1866 congressional
elections were crucial to
both sides
• Whoever had a majority
would control the
direction of
Reconstruction
• If Republicans controlled 2/3rd
of the seats they could
override any presidential veto
• Real root of controversy
between the president and
congress was Johnson’s “10percent” state governments &
their Black Codes
“Swing ‘Round the Circle”
• Johnson, determined to gain a
majority favorable to his
policies, went on a disastrous
speaking tour
Johnson’s “Swing around the Circle”
• Had the opposite effect &
ultimately guaranteed the
rd
Republicans the 2/3
majority
Radical Republican
Principles & Programs
• Radical Republicans
insisted on a more
radical form of
reconstruction & reform
of southern society by
force
• Thaddeus Stevens
(House) & Charles
Sumner (Senate)
endorsed suffrage for all
blacks & punishment for
secession
Republican Moderates
• More moderate elements of
the Republican party had the
majority & would reign in
some of their more radical
brethren
• Wanted to create a
Republican alliance of nonsecessionist whites & freed
blacks in the South
• Both moderates &
radicals agreed that the
freed slaves must be
given the right to vote –
even it meant using force
Military
Reconstruction
1867 – 1877
Reconstruction Act of
1867
• South divided into 5
military districts each
commanded by a Union
general & occupied by
Union troops
Military Reconstruction
• States had to ratify the
th
14 Amendment
• State constitutions had
to guarantee all adult
males the right to vote
• New state governments
would now have both
black & white members
• Once all these conditions
were met the states were
readmitted to the Union
• While the use of troops
and military tribunals
was clearly
unconstitutional (see ex
parte Milligan), the
South began the process
of creating constitutions
guaranteeing Black
suffrage
Blacks vote for the first
time
• Did not want the federal
government to be
responsible for
protecting black rights
• Resulted in century of
institutional
discrimination against
blacks
• As the states came back
into the Union, the
“bluebellied” Yankee
troops were removed &
the states were
“redeemed”
• “Bourbon” whites were
restored to power
• By 1877, all of the South
had been “redeemed” &
the troops removed
• South would remain
solidly Democratic for the
next hundred years
The Impeachment of
Johnson
• Congress, by now
thoroughly annoyed
with the “drunken
tailor” in the White
House, decided to try &
impeach the president
• This would have elevated
the Radical president
pro-tempore of the
Senate, Ben Wade, to the
presidency
• Congress passed the
Tenure of Office Act in
1867
–Barred the president from
removing from office any
Senate-approved official
–Attempt to provoke
Johnson to break the law
• Johnson then
dismissed the
Secretary of War,
Edwin M. Stanton,
an ally & spy of the
radicals
• House voted to
impeach Johnson
on the charge of
violating the Tenure
of Office Act
• He was tried by the House
prosecutors before the
Senate & acquitted by 1
vote by the Senate
–Could have set a bad
precedent & weakened
executive branch
Seward’s Folly
• Although reduced to
caretaker status
following the
impeachment, Johnson
was to have his greatest
success during the
impeachment crisis
• 1867: Secretary of State
Seward accomplished an
enduring success in
foreign relations for the
Johnson administration
when he purchased
Alaska from Russia for
$7.2 million
th
15
Amendment
• 1869: Congress passed
an amendment
guaranteeing the right to
vote to all regardless of
“race, color or previous
condition of servitude”
• Purposes:
–ensure guarantees of
suffrage if southerners
took control of Congress
in future
–Strengthen Republican
control of South & votes
in North
No Women Voters
• The question over
Black suffrage now
reopened the issue of
female suffrage
• Many leading feminists,
such as Elizabeth Cady
Stanton & Susan B.
Anthony, who had been
active in the abolition
movement, had agreed
to put their agendas on
hold
• With the end of the war & the
ratification of the 13th
Amendment, they were now
ready to again call for female
suffrage
• But the 15th Amendment, as
written, failed to call for
voting guarantees based on
gender
• 1870: Congress approved
the 15th Amendment
prohibiting any state from
limiting voting because of
race
• Results:
–South ignored both 14th
& 15th Amendments
Election of 1868
• Republican Ulysses S.
Grant won the election of
1868, vowing to continue
with Military
Reconstruction
Realities of Reconstruction
• By 1870, all southern states
had met the requirements for
re-admission to the Union
• Thousands of blacks joined
the Union League to be
educated on the civic duties
inherent in their new political
rights
• 14 African-Americans sat in
the House of
Representatives &
Mississippi had 2 black
Senators
• African-American women
were involved in politics
as well, except of course
they still could not vote
The Reconstruction
Governments
• Radical Reconstruction
state governments
passed much desirable
legislation & badly
needed reforms
• Most of these reforms
where kept by the
“redeemers” at the end
of Reconstruction
–Adequate public schools
–Improved tax systems
–Public works projects
–Property rights improved
• Also, Black Codes were
repealed & civil rights
laws were passed
• Despite this, these
“radical” governments
were known for
corruption & scandal
• Truth was that political
corruption during
Reconstruction was
present in both North &
South
• “Carpetbaggers”
–Northern
whites who
went south
after the war
to seek their
fortunes
• “Scalawags”
–Native born southerners
who joined the
Republican party & aided
Reconstruction
–Corruption & plundering
of South exaggerated
• Many former slaves, too
poor to buy land, worked
in the farming systems
that replaced the
plantations
• Sharecropping = renting
land for a share of the
crop
Sharecropping
• Cotton was grown under
the crop-lien system people borrowed money
on a future cotton crop
Tenancy & the Crop Lien System
Furnishing Merchant
 Loan tools and seed
up to 60% interest
to tenant farmer to
plant spring crop.
 Farmer also secures
food, clothing, and
other necessities on
credit from
merchant until the
harvest.
 Merchant holds
“lien” {mortgage} on
part of tenant’s
future crops as
repayment of debt.
Tenant Farmer
 Plants crop,
harvests in
autumn.
 Turns over up to ½
of crop to land
owner as payment
of rent.
 Tenant gives
remainder of crop
to merchant in
payment of debt.
Landowner
 Rents land to tenant
in exchange for ¼
to ½ of tenant
farmer’s future
crop.
Invisible Empire of
the South
• Southern whites fought
against Reconstruction &
sought to restore white
supremacy through
groups like the Ku Klux
Klan
• KKK founded in 1866 in
Tennessee
• Members wore white
sheets & used beatings,
scare tactics, as well as
murder to “keep blacks
in their place” –
subservient to whites
Racial Terrorism …
• The “knights” were
successful in preventing
both blacks & white
"carpetbaggers" from
voting
. "Some
white folks came to the farm and
tells me I's got to vote 'publican, 'cause dey
say dem 'publicans done free us. So I goes
to de place and de man say, 'what you vote,
'publican or democrat?' I say, 'publican, and
jes' 'bout dat time some shootin' start and I
hears somebody say dey gwine run every
nigger-lovin 'publican out de country."
--Anthony Christopher, a former slave
The Force Acts
• 1870 & 1871: federal
government passed the
Force Acts outlawing the
use of terror to
intimidate
• KKK succeeded in
decimating Republican
organization
Post-Reconstruction
Civil Rights
• Civil Rights Act of 1875
–Made discrimination
illegal in public
accommodations
–Found unconstitutional in
1883
Jim Crow (1890s)
• Most civil rights gains
were eradicated by
states that created the
so-called Jim Crow laws
to limit the rights of
blacks
• Lynching as intimidation
–1890s: ~200 per year
• Wholesale
disenfranchisement of
Blacks began in 1890,
with the use of literacy
tests, poll taxes,
grandfather clauses, &
gerrymandering
“Separate But Equal”
• Plessy v Ferguson (1896)
–Supreme Court ruling
established legal
segregation in the South
under the guise of
“separate but equal”
facilities
The End of
Reconstruction
• In the 1876 election,
Republican Rutherford
B. Hayes & Democrat
Samuel Tilden ended in a
tie when electoral votes
were disputed
1876 Presidential Tickets
• Compromise of 1877
–Ended the electoral
dispute & made the
Republican Hayes
president
–In return, the Democrats
got the remaining Union
troops out of the South
• Reconstruction formally
ended in 1877 when
Hayes orders all Union
troops to barracks in the
South
The Dawn Without
Noon
• Not until the 1950’s &
60’s would leaders such
as Martin Luther King Jr.
help blacks regain voting
rights in the South