Transcript File - MR. PIGNATARO`S SOCIAL STUDIES CLASS

Notes: Reconstruction defined
Power Struggle: Johnson vs. Congress
• President’s plan: lenient---1865 to 1867
• 10% plan- followed Lincoln’s Plan
• Radical Republicans---opposed Johnson
• Congress’s plan: harsh---1867 to 1876
Southern oath of allegiance---50%
Ratify: 13, 14 & 15 Amendments
reject state’s rights
submit to U.S. Government authority
Help for Freedmen
Freedmen’s Bureau for education
Divide the South into 5 military districts

Human toll of the Civil War: The North lost 364,000
soldiers. The South lost 260,000 soldiers.
Between 1865 and 1877, the federal government
carried out a program to repair the damage to the
South and restore the southern states to the Union.
This program was known as Reconstruction.


Lincoln’s assassination would make it a difficult road.


Plantation owners lost slave labor worth $3 billion.
Poor white Southerners could not find work because of
new job competition from Freedmen.
The war had destroyed two thirds of the South’s
shipping industry and about 9,000 miles of railroad.

•Remained loyal to the Union during
the Civil War.
•Lincoln chose him as his VP to help
with the South’s Reconstruction.
•Supported Lincoln’s Plan
•Engaged in a power struggle with
Congress over who would lead the
country through Reconstruction.
•Would be impeached but not
removed from office.
Impeachment: Bringing charges against the President. Two steps involved……
1st Step: U. S. House of Representatives hold hearings to decide if there are crimes
committed. They then vote on the charges and if there is a majority, then, charges are
brought against the President.
2nd Step: U.S. Senate becomes a courtroom. The President is tried for the charges brought
against him. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is the judge. Once trial is completed,
Senators must vote to remove President with a 2/3’s vote.
Presidency would suffer as a result of this failed impeachment.
•13th Amendment
Abolished slavery
(1865)
•14th Amendment
Provided citizenship &
equal protection under
the law. (1868)
•15th Amendment
Provided the right to
vote for all men which
included white and
black men. (1870)
Giving Voting
therights
Black man the right to vote was truly
revolutionary……..A victory for democracy!
1865, Congress created the Freedman’s Bureau to help former slaves get a new start in life.
This was the first major relief agency in United States history.
Bureau’s Accomplishments
Built thousands of schools to educate Blacks.
Former slaves rushed to get an education for themselves and their children.
Education was difficult and dangerous to gain.
Southerners hated the idea that Freedmen would go to school
Ku Klux Klan refers to a secret society or an inner circle
• The Klan sought to eliminate the Republican
Party in the South by intimidating voters.
• They wanted to keep African Americans as
submissive laborers.
• They planted burning crosses on the lawns of
their victims and tortured, kidnapped, or
murdered them.
• Prosperous African Americans, carpetbaggers,
and scalawags became their victims.
Mississippi Governor, 1866: “The Negro is free”
“Whether we like it or not; we must realize that fact now and
forever. To be free, however, does not make him a citizen or
entitle him to social or political equality with the white man.”
Sharecroppers were Freedmen
and poor Whites who stayed in
the South and continued to
farm.
Freedmen signed a work contract
with their former masters .
Picked cotton or whatever crop the
landowner had.
Freedmen provided the labor.
6. Sharecropper
cannot leave the
farm as long as he
is in debt to the
landlord.
1. Poor whites and
freedmen have no
jobs, no homes, and
no money to buy
land.
2. Landowners need
laborers and have no
money to pay
laborers.
3. Hire poor whites
and freedmen as
laborers
5. At harvest time,
the sharecropper is
paid.
•Pays off debts.
•If sharecropper
owes more to the
landlord or store
than his share of the
crop is worth;
4. Landlord keeps track
of the money that
sharecroppers owe
him for housing, food
or local store.
•Sign contracts to
work landlord’s land
in exchange for a
part of the crop.
DURING
RECONSTRUCTION
MANY A/A’s
VOTED &
WERE VOTED
INTO OFFICE
First Black
Senators and
representatives
in the 42st and
42nd Congress.
Black Congressmen
THE 1ST A/A
SENATOR,
Hiram Revels,
on the left was
elected in 1870 to
replace the seat
vacated by
Jefferson Davis.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Samuel Tilden
The election of 1876 and the Compromise of 1877 are
referred to as the Corrupt Bargain.
The Democrats and Republicans work out a deal to
recognize Hayes as President
In return, President Hayes must end Reconstruction
and pull the Union troops out of the South.
Once this happens, there is no protection for the
Freedmen and the South will regain their states and go
back to the way it was.
Successes and Failures of
Reconstruction
Successes
Failures
Union is restored.
Many white southerners bitter
towards US govt & Republicans.
South’s economy grows and new
wealth is created in the North.
14th and 15th amendments
guarantee Blacks the rights of
citizenship, equal protection
under the law, and suffrage.
The South is slow to
industrialize.
After US troops are withdrawn,
southern state governments and
terrorist organizations effectively
deny Blacks the right to vote.
Freedmen’s Bureau and other
organizations help many black
families obtain housing, jobs,
and schooling.
Many black and white
southerners remain caught in a
cycle of poverty.
Southern states adopt a system of
mandatory education.
Racist attitudes toward African
Americans continue, in both the
South and the North.
RECONSTRUCTION ENDS
(the military is gone)
• Southern state govt’s pass laws to restrict A/A’S voting
rights:
LITERACY TEST- must read Constitution to be able to vote.
POLL TAX- must pay a fee to be able to vote
GRANDFATHER CLAUSE- if g-pa voted before civil war,
then you could vote. (no blacks voted then!)
• SEGREGATION- separation of races in public places
also known as JIM CROW LAWS
PLESSY V. FERGUSON- “SEPARATE BUT EQUAL”
BROWN V. BOARD OF ED.- OVERTURNED PLESSY CASE