Transcript Reconstruction

Reconstruction
Chapter 16
Rebuilding The South
Following the war
• 620,000 Americans lost their
lives
• Lincoln is re-elected in 1864
and assassinated in 1865 by
John Wilkes Booth.
• 13th Amendment ends the
institution of slavery altogether.
(1865)
• 14th Amendment guaranteed
civil rights to all Americans
(1866)
• 15th Amendment gave black
males the right to vote (1869)
Reconstruction Plans
• What were the plans for reconstructing the
South?
– Lincoln’s Plan (10% Plan)
• 10% of voters to pledge loyalty to the Union
• Accept a ban on slavery
– The Wade-Davis Bill
• Maj of voters to pledge loyalty to Union
• Maj. Accept a ban on slavery
– Johnson’s Plan
• Set up new state governments
– Radical Republican Plan
• Wanted extreme change
Who were…
• Moderates:
– hoped the national gov.
would not have to force the
South to follow federal
laws.
• Carpetbaggers:
– Were Republicans who
moved south after the war.
• Scalawags:
– Were Southern
Republicans.
Why was Johnson impeached?
•
Because congress said that he
violated the Office of Tenure Act.
•
Reconstruction politics was the
real underlying cause.
– 1866 Republicans won control of
Congress.
– 1867 Congress began
Reconstruction plans.
– Pres. Johnson disagreed with
these acts.
– Congress passed a law to limit
Johnson’s power
– Johnson violated the new law by
firing Ed. Stanton (sec of state)
– Congress then voted to impeach
Johnson.
Election of 1868
• US Grant was elected to the Presidency in
1868
• African Americans were able to vote and
helped Grant win the election in 1868.
• Reconstruction Governments in the south
were represented by Blacks who had been
elected for the first time in US history.
How was agriculture affected by
reconstruction?
• Sharecropping: African Americans who
stayed on plantations became part of this
system, where crops were grown, but a
portion of the yield was given to the owner
of the land.
• This system was a reinvention of slavery.
• Sharecroppers were help captive by their
debt now that they were free.
continued…
• The price of cotton dropped dramatically
because more farmers were planting it.
• The supply was higher than the demand.
What was the Freedman’s Bureau?
• The purpose was to provide relief to all
poor people, black and white in the South.
• The Freedman’s Bill was vetoed by
Johnson who cited it as unconstitutional.
End of Reconstruction
•
Ku Klux Klan: formed as an opposition to reconstruction. The secret
society opposed civil rights and suffrage for Blacks.
• General Amnesty Act: This allowed former Confederates except
those that held high ranks, to hold public office.
• Redeemers were Democrats who gradually gained control of state
governments.
• Jim Crow laws: laws that required segregation of the races in the
South
Election 1876
• Race between Hayes and Tilden was
close.
• The House of Representatives had to
decide the outcome
• Compromise 1877:
– Hayes (Republican Candidate) would get the
presidency.
– Condition: US troops would be removed from
the South ending Reconstruction.
“This week is the saddest—I have
ever experienced.”
Ann Quigley, principal (Barton Academy)
• On April 12, 1865, the Civil War ended for
Mobile when Mayor Slough surrendered
the city to Union troops approaching on
Bay Shell Road.
• Whites in the city had been told for years
that social order depended on the
enslavement of African Americans.
Labor Fears
• 1. African Americans would be moving in large
numbers to the city to find work.
• 2. Whites would be cast into competition with a
large number of free blacks.
• 3. Would African Americans work in the absence
of the supervision and coercion that slavery
afforded?
• 4. Anxiety over the potential miss-behavior of
free blacks frightened whites and gave rise to
interracial violence.
Racist Laws
• One state law attempted to place black children
into a state of virtual slavery.
– County probate judge had the power to remove
children from their families and place them with
“masters” until age 21
– Known as apprentice legislation denied black parents
or guardians control over their dependents.
– What does this mean?
• A necessary component of their freedom was removed.
– The law created a supply of bound black labor, denied
the legitimacy of black families, and established a
sharp distinction between the rights of whites and
freedmen.
Racist Laws continued
• Mobile city and county authorities enforced
laws designed to force freedmen to work.
– They implemented other ordinances limiting
black access to relatively profitable
occupations.
– Whites could receive bonds to operate
businesses with no problem, blacks had to
pay a fine of $1,000.
Restoring the Antebellum Culture
• Joseph Stillwell Cain revived
Mardi Gras when he and six
others disguised as Chickasaw
Indians paraded through the
streets in a charcoal wagon, as
the “Lost Cause Minstrels,
openly defied federal troops.
• Chief Slackabamorinico, as
Cain called himself, declared
an end to war depression,
believing that the old order
would resume even after the
war.
Violence
• Judge Richard Busteed was
murdered by Assistant US
District Attorney LVB Martin
for allowing blacks to testify in
court.
• A race riot erupted on May 14,
1867 during a speech given a
Republican congressman
William D. “Pig Iron” Kelley.