Transcript Reconstruction Ppt - Taylor County Schools

“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’s 2nd Inaugural Speech, March 4, 1865
Ruins seen from the capitol, Columbia, S.C., 1865
• Reconstruction (1865-1877) – period
during which the United States began to
rebuild after the Civil War and included
the process by which the federal
government readmitted former
Confederate states.
• South lay in ruins
• Nearly 4 million freed slaves needed food, clothing, &
jobs
• Lincoln planned for Reconstruction, the rebuilding of
the South
Ruins seen from the
Circular Church,
Charleston, S.C.
• General amnesty, or pardon, would be granted to all
Southerners who would take an oath of loyalty to the U.S.
• When 10% of the number of voters who had participated
in the 1860 election had taken the oath within a particular
state, then that state could launch a new state government
and elect representatives to Congress
• Excluded from this oath were former Confederate officials, Officers, and judges
• Pledge to obey all federal laws pertaining to slavery
• Radical Republicans led by
Charles Sumner & Thaddeus
Stevens opposed Lincoln’s Ten
Percent plan
• Thought Lincoln’s plan was too
lenient
• Did not want to reconcile with
the South – wanted to
“revolutionize Southern
institutions, habits, & manners”
• The Radical Republicans had 3 main goals:
• 1. Wanted to prevent the leaders of the Confederacy from returning to
power after the War
• 2. Wanted the Republican Party to become a powerful institution in the
South
• 3. Wanted the federal government to help African Americans achieve
political equality by guaranteeing their right to vote
• Moderate Republicans thought Lincoln’s plan was too lenient BUT
also that the Radical Republicans were to radical with African
American voting rights
• In the summer of 1864 the Republicans compromised and came
up with a plan called the Wade-Davis Plan
• Required the majority of the adult white men in
former Confederate states to take the Ironclad Oath
of allegiance to the Union
• The state could then hold a constitutional convention to
create a new government
• The people chosen to attend the convention must take
the Ironclad Oath – saying that they had never fought
against the Union or supported the Confederacy
• Also, each state’s convention would have to:
• 1. abolish slavery
• 2. repay all debts the state had acquired as part of the Confederacy
• 3. and deprive all former Confederate government officials and military
officers of the right to vote or hold office
• Lincoln blocked the bill with a pocket veto
• He agreed with some of the goals BUT felt that harsh treatment
of the South would be counterproductive
• Lincoln realized the South was already in chaos with the
devastation of war and the collapse of the Southern economy
• Thousands of people were unemployed, homeless, and hungry
• Thousands of freed slaves “freedmen” needed help
• Many were following Union troop, especially on Sherman’s
March to the Sea
• Created by Congress and established March 1865
• Helped the 4 million slaves freed after the war
• Negotiated labor contracts with planters, specifying
pay and hours of work
• Worked to educate freedmen
-Provided housing for schools, trained and paid teachers
• Vice President to Lincoln –
became President after
Lincoln’s assassination
• Democrat from TN that had
remained loyal to the Union
• Like Lincoln, believed in a
moderate Reconstruction
plan
• Closely resembled Lincoln’s plan
• Offered a pardon for all former citizens of the Confederacy
who took an oath of loyalty and to return their property – like
Lincoln, excluded former Confederate officials and officers
• However, they could apply for individual pardons from the President
• Required states to ratify 13th Amendment abolishing slavery
• After these issues were met, states then could organize new
governments and elect Congress members
• Confederate states met Johnson’s demands
• Radical and Moderate Republicans in Congress outraged
because African Americans were not allowed to vote & former
Confederate Leaders were elected to Congress
• After the war, most southern states quickly ratified the 13th
Amendment as forced by the Reconstruction plan but….
• The new Southern legislators passed Black Codes, which limited
the rights of African Americans in the South
• Under Johnson’s policies of Reconstruction, nearly all the
southern states would enact their own black codes in 1865 and
1866
• These codes greatly angered congressional Republicans
• These codes varied from state to state, but all intended to keep
African Americans in a condition similar to slavery
• Many states required blacks to sign yearly labor contracts - if
they refused, they risked being arrested as beggars and fined
or forced into unpaid labor
• With the election of former Confederates to offices and the
introduction of black codes, moderate Republicans joined the
radicals and together they began to take over Reconstruction
• In 1865 the House of Representatives and Senate leaders
created a Joint Committee on Reconstruction to develop their
own program for rebuilding the Union
• Granted citizenship to all persons
born or naturalized in the U.S.
• Declared that no state could
deprive any person of life, liberty,
or property “without due process
of law”
• Also declared that no state could
deny any person “equal protection
of the law”
• Essentially eliminated Johnson’s programs for
reconstruction
• Divided the south into 5 military districts
• Each district was placed under Union general
leadership to maintain peace and “protect the rights
of persons and property”
• New elections were held to design new
constitutions acceptable to Congress
• These new state constitutions had to give the right
to vote to all adult male citizens, regardless of
race
• Had to ratify the 14th Amendment after drafting
new state constitutions
• The Republicans wanted Johnson out Office, so they sought to
impeach him
• Impeach: To formally charge with misconduct in office
• Congress passed 2 new laws to avoid any Presidential vetoes or
refusal to enforce the laws they passed
• 1.) Command of the Army Act
• 2.) Tenure of the Office Act
• Congress passed 2 new laws to avoid any Presidential vetoes
or refusal to enforce the laws they passed
• 1.) Command of the Army Act
• 2.) Tenure of the Office Act
• Command of the Army Act – all orders from the President to go through the
headquarters of the general of the Army (Grant’s headquarters)
• Tenure of Office Act - cabinet members could not be removed “during the
term of the president by whom they may have been appointed”
• Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to challenge the
Tenure of Office Act
• 3 days later the House of Representatives voted to impeach
Johnson
• He was tried in the Senate and vote was 35 to 19 (one vote
short of the 2/3 majority needed to remove him from office)
• Staying in office till the Election of 1868
• 18th President - served two
terms from March 4, 1869,
to March 4, 1877.
• Grant presided over the last
half of Reconstruction
• Supported amnesty for
Confederate leaders and
protection for the civil rights
of African-Americans
• Recognizing the importance of African American suffrage, the
Republican run Congress passed the 15th Amendment
• Declared that the right to vote “shall not be denied on account
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”
• Reconstruction had a dramatic impact on the South
• Changed the landscape of Southern politics by bringing African
Americans to the political scene
• It began to change the Southern society – made them angry
with the federal government’s policies
• He favored a limited number of troops to be stationed
in the South to protect rights of Southern blacks, and
suppress the violent tactics of the Ku Klux Klan
• In 1869 and 1871, Grant signed bills promoting
voting rights and prosecuting Klan leaders
• Republican Party in the South relied on 3 groups during
reconstruction
1. African Americans (15th Amendment)
2. Scalawags
3. Carpetbaggers
• 15th Amendment gave African Americans the right to vote
• Went from enslaved workers to legislators and administrators
on nearly all levels of government
• 14 elected to the House of Representatives and 2 to the Senate
• 90% of blacks supported Republicans
• White Southerners who worked with the Republicans and
supported Reconstruction
• Very diverse group of people
• Many were owners of small farms who didn’t want the wealthy
planters to regain power
• Others were businessmen who favored Republican plans for
developing the South’s economy
• Large #s of Northerners traveled to
the South
• Southerners called these newcomers
“carpetbaggers” because they
arrived with belongings in suitcases
made of a carpet fabric
• Many viewed the carpetbaggers as
intruders seeking to exploit the
South’s postwar turmoil for their own
gain
• Anti-Black Violence
• Grant’s Troubled End
• Election of 1876
• Compromise of 1877
• Angry with Republican reconstruction, many white
Southerners organized secret societies to undermine
Republican rule
• Goal was to prevent African Americans from voting
and supporting the Republicans
• Largest of these secret groups was the Ku Klux Klan
• Ku Klux Klan
• Established in 1866 by former Confederate soldiers in TN
• Wore hooded robes and rode in bands at night terrorizing African
Americans and carpetbaggers
• President Grant passed Enforcement Acts in 1870 and 1871 to
try and stop the Klan violence
• Despite the almost 3,000 arrested around this time, only 600
served any time in prison
• The KKK continued on to do its works as it could
• Despites Grants actions on the KKK, he was not a forceful
President and the Republican Party began to divide
• A series of scandals damaged his administration
• Also, an economic panic known as the Panic of 1873, started
due to a series of bad railroad investments forcing a powerful
banking firm into bankruptcy
• This set off a depression that lasted until almost the end of the
decade
• The rising power of the Democrats made enforcing
Reconstruction more difficult
• Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) vs. Samuel Tilden
(Democrat)
• Tilden won the popular vote, Hayes won the electoral
college
• South was upset and disputed the election
• Compromise of 1877 – agreement
to settle the disputed election
• Hayes (Republican) = president
• Republicans would end military
occupation of the South
• White Democrats took control of
southern state governments
• Reconstruction came to and end with the removal of
the federal troops and the collapse of Republican rule
in the South
• After Reconstruction, Southerners hoped for an
industrial economy to emerge in the South – “New
South”
• Despite its industrial growth, new industries and
railroads, the South changed very little in some ways
• For African Americans the end of Reconstruction meant a return
of the “old South”
• Many returned to the plantations owned by whites either
working for low wages or becoming tenant farmers – paying
rent for the land they farmed
• Because they could not afford their own land, many tenant
farmers became sharecroppers
• Sharecropping - is a system of agriculture in which a landowner
allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops
produced on the land
• Although it allowed African Americans to control their work for
the first time in their lives, they rarely had enough crops left
over to sell to allow them to ever buy their own land
• The Civil War ended slavery, but Reconstruction’s failure left
many African Americans, and many poor whites, trapped in
economic turmoil that was beyond their control