Transcript Ordeal of Reconstruction

Ordeal of Reconstruction
APUSH: 2nd Block
Define Freedom & Freedmen's
Bureau
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South was confused about what "freedom" for blacks really meant
emancipation was not all of a sudden in the South; it was a process
many slaves were freed only to be enslaved again
some slaveowners turned to violence to keep their slaves, other
used legal ways
Emancipation demonstrated complexity of master-slave
relationships
some slaves stayed loyal to their masters
many slaves had outbursts with emancipation; joined Unions with
the stealing of their masters possessions
masters were forced to recognize their slaves' freedom
many newly freed slaves took new names and demanded to be
addressed by "Mr." or "Mrs."
some abandoned their cotton slave clothes and used silks, satins,
etc.
Freedmen Define Freedom Cont.
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Freedmen went to serach for long-lost spouses, parents, and children
some went to test their freedom
Strengthened black family, formalized "slave marriages"
Some left to work in the city, where black communities already existed
Church became a focus of black community
Formed their own churches with black minsiters
churches gave rise to other societies, helped protect blacks freedom
emancipation led to education
established societies to purchase land, build schoolhouses, and to hire
teachers
accepted help from northern white women teachers (American Missionary
Association)
turned to federal government for help; wnated friends and power in
Washington
The Freedmen's Bureau
• Congress created freedmen's bureau on March 3, 1865
• intended to be a "welfare" agency; it's pirpose was to
provide food, clothing, health care, and education to
freedmen and white refugees
• Oliver O. Howard headed the bureau
• taught about 200,000 blacks how to read (greatest
success)
• Mischievious acts of the bureau included getting
freedmen to sign working contracts with their former
masters
• President Andrew Johnson tried to kill this bureau, and it
expired in 1872
Johnson: The Tailor President &
Presidential Reconstruction
Grew up in a poor
family in North
Carolina.
Never went to
school but
worked as a
tailor.
Became active in
politics in
Tennessee.
Excelled at
speaking in front
of angry crowds
Andrew Johnson
• Gained favorable attention from the North
after refusing to secede with his own state.
• After being appointed war Governor, he
was
voted to be vice-president.
• On March 4, 1865, he showed up to the
Inauguration drunk.
• He was intelligent, able, forceful, gifted
with homespun honesty, and was a
dogmatic champion of states’ rights
Presidential Reconstruction
• President Lincoln felt restoration of the
Union would be relatively simple.
• In 1863 he proclaimed his “10 percent”
Reconstruction plan.
• Republicans thought that this wouldn’t be
enough.
• Rammed the Wade-Davis Bill through
Congress.
Presidential Reconstruction
• Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill.
• 2 types of Republicans
• Moderates: shared the same views as
Lincoln.
• Radicals: believed that the South
should’ve received greater punishment.
Black Codes
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Black Codes
What were they?
Codes created and passed by Southern states Immediately after the Civil War ended.
● Mississippi was the 1st to pass the law
● The black codes varied in severity from state to state (Georgia was the most
Lenient
& Mississippi was the harshest)
It allowed African Americans certain rights such as :
+ legalized marriage , ownership of property and limited access to the courts
but denied them the rights to :
- testify against whites, to serve on juries or in state militias, vote, or start a job
without the approval of the previous employer.
* These laws denied ex-slaves the complete civil rights enjoyed by whites and
intended
to force them back to plantations and poor lifestyles.
Congressional Reconstruction
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Clash between the North and the South within Congress.
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Many former Confederate leaders tried to reclaim their seats.
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The Northern Republican members of the congress did not wn to give up their advantage over the
South.
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This is because the Rebublicans were able to pass legislation that favoured the North.
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The Republicans also feared that the South's congressional representation would increase since
slaves were no longer considered only three-fifths of a person.
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Most of the Southern members were Democrats. This would put the Republican at a
disadvantage.
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On the first day of the congressional session, December 4, 1865, they refused to allow the newly
elected Southerners participate.
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The North also believed the Southerners would try to perpetuate the Black Codes, allowing
African Americans to be re-enslaved.
Johnson Clashes with Congress
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Do to this turmoil, a clash between congress and the President was definite.
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President Johnson vetoed a bill to extend the life of the Freedmen’s Bureau.
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In retaliation, Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill in March 1866
This granted American citizenship to blacks and denied the states the power to restrict their rights
to hold property, testify in court, and make contracts for their labor.
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President Johnson, again, vetoed it.
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Congress aimed to destroy the Black Codes and justified the legislation as implementing freedom
under the Thirteenth Amendment.
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Congress believed they would never be able to cooperate with Johnson.
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These Republicans wanted to ensure the principles of the Civil Rights Act by adding a new
amendment to the Constitution.
This would keep the Southerners from repealing it.
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This led to the creation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.
Swinging Around the Circle
• This was a nickname for Andrew Johnson's series of political
speeches in the congressional campaign of 1866 to get support for
his Reconstruction plan.
• This was a series of “give ’em hell” speeches
• He accused the radicals in Congress of having planned large-scale
antiblack riots and murder in the South.
• He would often retaliate to those that insulted him.
• His dignity sank to a new low and he was accused of being drunk.
• These speeches failed in the end.
• People began to support Congress instead of him.
Republican Principles and
Programs
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Veto-proof Congress and unlimited control of reconstruction policy
Moderates and radicals still disagreed over things
Charles Sumner led the radicals in the Senate
He worked for not only black freedom; he worked for racial equality
The most powerful radical in the House was Thaddeus Stevens from
Pennsylvania
He defended for the runaways slaves in court without a fee
He wanted to be buried in a black cemetery
Devotion to blacks was matched by his hate for the rebellious white
southerners
Leader of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction because of his
sharp mind and his wit
Republican Programs
• Opposed to a sudden restoration of the southern states because
they wanted to keep the south out the union, apply for federal power
to bring about a drastic social and economic change in south
• While the moderates wanted to quicker reconstruction
• Republicans were aware to the principles of states’ rights and selfgovernment
• Preferred policies that restrained the states from reducing citizens’
rights rather than the policies that directly had the federal
government in there individual lives
• The policies actually showed the influence of both sides even
though the moderates had the upper hand
• Had to agree on the necessity to give blacks the right to vote by
1867, even if the troops had to get involved
Reconstruction Act
• March 2, 1867- Congress passed the Reconstruction Act
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- passed due to vicious and bloody race riots that
had happened several Southern cities,
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-divided the South into 5 military districts, each
commanded by a union general and policed by Union soldiers.
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- It required that states wishing to be re-admitted
into the Union had to ratify the 14th Amendment
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- states' constitutions had to allow former adult
male slaves to vote.
Military Reconstruction
• martial law on the South
• Union general
• new state constitutional conventions
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- blacks to vote
• 1870- states meet with the standards of Reconstruction
• 1877- last of the states were given their home rule back
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-Reconstruction ended.
No Women Voters
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The passage of the three Reconstruction-era Amendments—the 13th, 14th, and
15th—delighted former abolitionists but deeply disappointed advocates of women’s
rights
Women had played a prominent part in the prewar abolitionist movement and had
often pointed out that both women and blacks lacked basic civil rights (right to vote)
The struggle for black freedom and the crusade for women’s rights were one and the
same in the eyes of many women; yet during the war, feminist leaders such as
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony had temporarily suspended their own
demands and worked wholeheartedly for the cause of black emancipation
The Women’s Loyal League had gathered nearly 400,000 signatures on petitions
Now with the war ended and the Thirteenth amendment passed, feminist leaders
believed that their time had come; they reeled with shock when the wording of the
Fourteenth Amendment, which defined equal national citizenship, for the first time
inserted the word male into the Constitution in referring to a citizen’s right to vote
Both Stanton and Anthony campaigned actively against the 14th amendment despite
the pleas of Frederick Douglass, who had long supported woman suffrage but
believed that his was the Negro’s hour—women lost the battle with the Fifteenth
Amendment as well
Radical Reconstruction in the
South
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Lincoln and Johnson had proposed to give the ballot gradually to selected blacks who
qualified for it through education, property ownership, or military service
Began to organize politically
Union League: (pro-Union) educated members and campaigned for Republicans
African American women
Black political community- Conventions
14 black Congressmen and two senators served in D.C.
State and local gov.- lieutenant governors and representatives, mayors, magistrates,
sheriffs, and justices of the peace
“scalawags” and “carpetbaggers”
Many new reforms: establishing adequate public schools, tax systems, launching
public works, and women's’ rights
Graft
Ku Klux Klan: Founding the
Klan
• The Ku Klux Klan was founded on the day
before Christmas in 1865 but did not become
very active until 1866
• Founded in Tennessee by groups of Radicalists
• Nicknamed the “Invisible Empire of the South”
• Created in the “Reconstruction” of the South
What did it do
• The Klan was made up of radicalists that did not
approve of the way that they were supposed to
be ruled now.
• At first they just tried to bully the blacks
• They then began to murder those you were in
agreement with free blacks
Results
• The Klan intimidated blacks and others to a far
extent
• The government passed the harsh Force Acts of
1870 that led the federal army to stop the Klan
and other organizations like it
• The goal was to try and make blacks feel under
whites and they succeeded in some cases
Impeachment of President
Johnson
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Radicals in the United States began to attempt to impeach President Johnson. They
falsely accused him of maintaining “a harem of ‘dissolute women’”.
In 1867, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act which required the president to
secure the consent of the Senate before he could remove his appointees. Passing
this law was an initial step made by the radicals to have Johnson impeached. With
this law, radicals ensured that the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, a spy for the
radicals, would remain in the White House.
Because of this law, when Johnson abruptly dismissed Stanton in 1868. The House
of Representatives voted 126-47 to impeach Johnson for “high crimes and
misdemeanors”, charging him with various violations of the Tenure of Office Act.
When the trial for impeachment arose, Radicals in the House of Representatives had
a hard time making a compelling case for Johnson’s impeachment.
When the day came to vote for impeachment in the senate, Radicals failed to win the
2/3 vote requirement to have Johnson impeached. Therefore, President Johnson was
found not guilty and continued to be president.
Alaska Purchase
Achieved by the Johnson administration.
bought from Russia.
believed that they wouldn’t lose their
province in the event of another war.
preferred to sell to the U.S
liability
Secretary William Seward sign a treaty that
bought Alaska for 7.2 million dollars.
Territory was profitable
American people somewhat against it.
Allowed the United states access to the
Pacific northern rim.
The Heritage of Reconstruction
• Many southern whites saw reconstruction as worse than the war
itself
• They resented the upending of their social and racial system,
political empowerment of blacks, and the insult of federal
intervention in their local affairs
• Lincoln, Johnson, and Republicans had no clear picture of what
federal policy toward the south should be
• Policymakers searched for the right policies to impose a specific
program on the south
• The republicans wanted to protect freed slaves as well as promote
the fortune of the republican party
• Reconstruction conferred only fleeting benefits on the blacks and
virtually extinguished the Republican party in the south for nearly
100 years