Transcript The Reconstruction Era

The Reconstruction Era
Mrs. Excell
Intro to Reconstruction

April 14th, 1865- Lincoln was assassinated
by John Wilkes Booth @ Ford Theatre
– Andrew Johnson (VP) succeeded Lincoln

Presidential Reconstruction Plan
– A state could rejoin the Union once it had:
 written a new state constitution
 Elected a new Govenor
 Repealed its act of secession
 Canceled its war debt
 Ratified the 13th Amendment (abolishing slavery)
End of Slavery
“Freedmen”- African Americans who had
been set free from slavery
 Positives of being set free:

– New name and a new life
– Marriage that was legal and forever
– Reuniting scattered family

Negatives of being set free:
– Began new lives with nothing
End of Slavery continued…

Freedman’s Bureau established by Congress
– Assisted former slaves
– Provided food, medical care for both blacks and
whites in the South
– Built schools

Forty Acres and a Mule
– Congressman Stevens attempted to get Congress to
break up plantations and
give it to freedmen
 Congress voted NO
End of Slavery continued…

The Black Codes:
– Laws passed to control former slaves
 Spelled out the rights of freedman
 Help planters find workers to replace their slaves
– Required freedman to work or they were arrested and
hired out anyway
– Limited freedmen to farm work or jobs with few skills; no
trade jobs or businesses
 Kept freedmen at the bottom of the Social Pyramid
– Segregation in public places
– Kids could not attend public schools
Congressional
Reconstruction

By 1865- Johnson felt that all Southern
states were ready to return to the Union
– Congress did not agree. They felt that the
Union needed to:
 Extend the life of the freedmen’s Bureau
 Establish the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (gave full
rights as a citizen to African Americans
– Johnson vetoed their suggestions and passed
the 14th Amendment (declaring former slaves
to be citizens with full rights)
Congressional Reconstruction
continued…

Military Reconstruction Act of 1867
– Divided the South into five military districts, each
governed by a general who was backed by federal
troops
– Southerners who had supported the Confederacy
were denied the right to Vote
 Southerners not so happy about the president’s new power
over them so…
– Command of the Army Act: limited the presidents power over
the army
– Tenure of Office Act- barred him from firing certain federal
officials without Senate’s permission
 Johnson ruled the two acts UNCONSTITUTIONAL and
proved his power
Congressional Reconstruction
continued…

Because of Johnson’s push-back, House of Representatives tried to
impeach Johnson for “contempt, ridicule, and disgrace.”
– Johnson was not impeached BUT lost his power
MEANWHILE:
 Sharecropping became a means of survival
– African Americans wanted land but had no money or jobs to get money
– White farmers had land but no one to farm it and no money to pay for
it to be farmed
SO….
White farmers divided land into small plots & rented plots and African
American farmers rented land and paid for the land by working it
– Sharecropping led to a lifetime of poverty and debt
for African Americans
 Used debt to by tools, seeds, etc and never made
enough off the land to pay the debt back
Southern Reconstruction

1867- Federal Army returned to the South and
started registering people to vote
– Freedmen, white Southerners who opposed the war,
and Northerners who moved South after the war
 African Americans joined the Republican Party
– Largest group in the South
 White Southerners opposing the War
– Second largest group
– Mostly poor white farmers, became known as Scalawags
 Northerners who moved South after war
– 3rd largest group, became known as “Carpet baggers”
Southern Reconstruction
continued…

1868 Election
– Ulysses S. Grant for the Republicans
 Supporter of Reconstruction
 Promises to protect the rights of African Americans
in the south
– Horatio Seymour for the Democrats
 Wanted to end reconstruction
 Wanted to return south to traditional WHITE
leaders
– GRANT WINS!!!!
Southern Reconstruction
continued…

15th Amendment- urged by Grant
– “Citizens right to vote shall not be denied…
on account of race, color, and previous
condition of servitude.”

Because of the new right to vote states
elected new delegates (1/4 elected were
African America)
– Created new state constitutions that were
very progressive
Southern Reconstruction
continued…

New State Governments
– Republican Governments (1/2 were African
Americans)
– Ratified 14 and 15 Amendment
– By 1870 all states rejoined the Union
 Started working on damage cause by the war (damage on
roads, bridges, railroads, schools and hospitals)
 Taxes increased up to 400% due to need to rebuild
– African Americans in office
 ½ officeholders- 22 in State Congress, 20 in the House of
Representatives, and 2 in Senate
End of
Reconstruction
Southerners resented Reconstruction
governments
 Tax payers blamed increased taxes on
corruption

– White Terrorism
 Tried winning black voters with charm, then legal
tricks to keep them from voting, and then with
terrorism and violence
– Ku Klux Klan (KKK)- dressed in long hooded robes and
armed with guns; worked at night, used methods from
threats to beatings to tar and feathering, to murder.
End of Reconstruction continued…

Enforcement Acts (1870 and 1871)
– Illegal to prevent another person from voting by
bribery, force, or scare tactics
 GRANTS ARMY ENFORCED THIS

Amnesty Act of 1872
– Amnesty (forgiveness)
 Allowed most former Confederates to vote once again

Hayes (R) succeeded Grant
– Forced to remove all troops from the South due to
back door deals
– Ended Reconstruction
Reconstruction Reversed

“New South” with textile mills, factories, and cities
– Textile mills increased in South

Losing Ground in Education
– Old southern Democrats regained control and started cutting
spending on education
 Funding dried up so schools shut down OR those that stayed open
had a fee

Losing Voting Ground
– Voters pay a poll tax- which most African Americans could not
afford
– Made voters pay tax or pass literacy test
 Whites “grandfathered in”- father or grandfather voted on Jan. 1,
1867 THEN they could vote without tax or test
Reconstruction Reversed
continued…

Drawing a “color-line’:
– Established Jim Crown Laws enforcing segregation of blacks and whites
in the South after the Civil War.
 “Jim Crow” was a black character from entertainer's at in the mid-1800s

Plessy V Ferguson
– African Americans argued that the Jim Crow Laws violated the 14th
Amendment
 Homer Plessy, arrested for refusing to obey a Jim Crow Law
– Plessy lost
– More Jim Crow Laws passed

Jim Crow Laws (White Only Labels)
–
–
–
–
Blacks and whites attended different schools
Played at different parks
Separate theatre sections
Back of bus
Responding to Segregation

Open Protest
– Attacked by whites
– Lynched
– Murdered (often hung)

Migration
– Left South
 Some to Africa founding Liberia (liberty) by freed American
slaves
– Northern Cities
 Competed for jobs with recent immigrants from Europe
– West
 Worked as cowboys or as India fighters
Responding to Segregation
continued…

Self Help
– Worked hard in families, churched, and
communities to improve their lives
 Banded together to build schools and colleges for
black children
 Literacy rose rapidly
– 1865- 5% read
– 1900- 50% read and wrote
– Started businesses