Transcript Reconstruction

Unit 6
RECONSTRUCTION
Review…….What happened?
- 4 years of devastating war
- April 1865, Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox, VA
- Sherman has burned much of the South
- Richmond burned
- South’s economy ruined – runaway inflation
- 13th amendment – end of slavery
- A few weeks later Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
The Challenge…..
1.) How will we admit the South back into the Union,
promote forgiveness and reconciliation?
2.) How will we rebuild physically and turn things
around economically?
3.) How will we mesh 4 million newly freed slaves
into society?
Reconstruction – 1865-1877
- Reconstruction refers to the period
when the U.S. began to rebuild after
the Civil War
- The term also refers to the process
the federal gov used to readmit
Confederate states
- Complicated by the fact that
Lincoln, Johnson, and Congress all
had differing ideas on how
Reconstruction should be handled
Image of Charleston, SC in 1865
Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction
Moderate and Lenient
- Lincoln favored lenient
Reconstruction policy
- Individuals not states had rebelled
and the Constitution gave the Pres
the power to pardon individuals
- Make the South’s return as quick
and easy as possible
Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan
- Gov
would pardon all Confederates
who would swear allegiance to the
Union (except high ranking Confederate
officials and those accused of crimes
against POWs)
- States must recognize the 13th
amendment and end of slavery
- When 10% of those on the 1860 voting
lists took this oath of allegiance, a
Confederate state could form a new
state gov and be admitted in Congress
Radical Republicans
Angered by Lincoln’s Leniency
- Radicals favor harsher Reconstruction
- Want to destroy the political power of former
slaveholders
- Want full citizenship and right to vote for African
Americans (suffrage is a radical idea at the time)
- Led by Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens
- Wade Davis Bill – July 1864 – makes Congress
(NOT Pres) responsible for Recon. Also says
majority (not 10%) must take oath of loyalty to
Constitution. Lincoln pocket vetoes Wade Davis
Bill
Andrew Johnson
Lincoln’s Successor
- Born in a log cabin in Raleigh, NC
- Senator from Tennessee
- Former slave owner
- After secession, Johnson was the only senator from a
Confederate state to remain loyal to the Union
- By 1863 Johnson favors abolition
- Hated wealthy Southern planters – he held them
responsible for dragging poor whites into war
After Lincoln’s assassination – all of the problems of
Reconstruction fall to Johnson
Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
Similar to Lincoln’s - Lenient
- Each
state withdraw secession
- Swear allegiance to the Union
- Annul Confederate war debts
- Ratify the 13th amendment – abolishing
slavery
- Johnson opposed black suffrage
- He pardoned more than 13,000 former
Confederates
- Radicals angry – what about needs of
former slaves? Land, voting rights, and
protection under the law??
Congressional Reconstruction
The Freedman’s Bureau
- 1866 Congress enlarges The Freedman’s
Bureau
◦ Assisted former slaves and poor whites by
distributing clothing and food
◦ Set up hospitals, schools, teacher training
institutes
(Johnson vetoed the Freedman’s Bureau –
angers Radicals and pushes many moderate
Republicans to join them)
Congressional Reconstruction –
Civil Rights Act of 1866
- Gave blacks citizenship and forbade states from
passing discriminatory laws like black codes
◦ Prohibited blacks from carrying weapons
◦ Can’t serve on juries
◦ Can’t testify against whites
◦ Can’t travel without permits
◦ Some states prohibit blacks from owning land
Johnson vetoes the Civil Rights Act – again angers
Radicals and alienates moderate Republicans
th
14
and
th
15
Amendments
Moderate Republicans aligned with Radicals to override the Pres Johnson’s veto of the Civil Rights Act and
Freedman’s Bureau Act
- 14th Amendment = Citizenship – “all persons born or
naturalized in the US are citizens and are entitled to
equal protection of the law
- 15th Amendment = right to vote – no person can be
kept from voting because of “race, color, or previous
condition of servitude.”
Why is the right to vote critical for Freed blacks?
How is the 15th amendment a Republican insurance
policy?
Johnson’s
Impeachment
Radicals felt that Jonson was not carrying out his duty to
enforce Reconstruction and looked for any reason to
impeach him – formally charge him with misconduct in
office
- Congress passes Tenure of Office Act – Pres cannot remove
Cabinet officers without consent of Senate
- Johnson fires Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
- Johnson impeached in House and tried in Senate for
removal. Isn’t removed by only one vote.
- Cripples his ability to govern
Johnson’s Impeachment –
continued
Low point for checks and balances – Congress
using impeachment as a way to assert its
power rather than to remove a president who
really broke the law
Trivia – Johnson only 1 of 3 Presidents ever
impeached. None have been removed. Who
were the other two Presidents impeached??
Election of 1868 – Ulysses S. Grant – Civil War
hero elected President
The Post-War South
South is physically and
economically ravaged
- Most of war fought in South – much of South lay in
ruins
- Estimated that Sherman’s march alone cost $100
million worth of property damage
- Charred buildings, twisted RR tracks, demolished
bridges, abandoned farms, etc.
- Runaway inflation, Confederate bonds worthless
- Property value plummeted
- ALL Southerners poorer than they had been at start of
war
More than 1/5 of adult white men of the South died in
the war. Many more come home physically maimed
Scalawags and
Carpetbaggers
- Scalawags – white Southerners who joined the
Republican party. Saw them as using African American
vote for self-interest.
- Carpetbaggers – Northern born white Republicans
who moved South after the war. Southerners believe
they are just coming to exploit the South’s devastation
for their own economic profit.
Majority of white Southerners hate both scalawags and
carpetbaggers
Carl Schurz – liberal Republican
who moved to MO after the war
1.) Is Schurz shown in a positive
or negative light? How do you
know?
2.) Why does the cartoonist show
the Southern people in a group
waiting down the dusty road for
Schurz?
Challenges of
Former Slaves
Reality of freedom…..
◦ No land
◦ No tools, no money, and few skills
◦ No formal education
◦ Where to live? How to make a living? How to
feed self and family?
◦ Goals and Actions
◦ 1. Reunite families
◦ 2. Education – many black schools and
colleges founded in Recon
◦ 3. Many freed blacks form their own new
churches and volunteer groups
Focus on building up black community more than total
integration. By establishing separate black institutions
they were able to focus on their own leadership and
escape white influence that had dominated them for so
long.
40 acres and a Mule
- During the Civil War Sherman promised freed
slaves who followed his army, “40 acres and a
mule”
- Many African Americans and some Republicans
assert that freedmen deserve some of planters land
– land redistribution
- Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens calls for gov
to confiscate planter land and redistribute
- Most balk at this idea and land redistribution
never happens – violates sacred American
right/ideal of private property
Sharecropping and
Tenant Farming
- Without their own land and capital, many former
slaves had to sign contracts with planters. In exchange
for wages, housing, and food, freedmen worked in the
fields
- Sharecropping: Landowners divided land and gave
each worker a section along with seed and tools. At
harvest each worker gave a share of the crop (often
half) to the owner
- Tenant Farming: freed slaves could rent their land
from the owner. They paid cash to use the land and
kept all their harvest.
Both systems often a cycle of poverty
The Collapse of
Reconstruction
KKK – Ku Klux Klan
- KKK originally founded as a social club for
Confederate veterans in TN in 1866
- Spread throughout the South and many chapters
turn violent
- Overarching goals:
◦ Restore white supremacy
◦ Destroy the Republican party
◦ Oust Reconstruction governments
◦ Prevent African Americans from exercising their
political rights (voting)
◦ Sought to inflict fear and harm on blacks or whites
who helped them
Reconstruction Comes
to an End
- 1872 – Congress Allows the Freedman’s Bureau to expire – thinking it
had fulfilled its purpose
- Grant’s presidency plagued by political corruption – weakens the
Republican party and scandals divert attention away from
Reconstruction
- Economic Panic of 1873 – many small banks close and the stock market
collapses. Many RR and businesses go bankrupt. Triggers a 5 year
economic depression
- Series of Supreme Court decisions weakens some of the gains made by
Reconstruction
- Impassioned Radicals Sumner and Stevens dead
- Many northerners grow weary and indifferent to conditions in the
South – turn attention to economy and/or gov corruption
Panic of 1873 Cartoon
- What aspects of the
cartoon convey the
feeling of panic?
Southern Democrats “Redeem” the South
- Redemption – the term Southern
Democrats used for their return to
power in state governments
◦1869 and into the early 1870s
Democrats recaptured state gov in
AL, AK, GA, MS, NC, TX, VA
◦Redemption – take state gov back
from Northern Reconstructionist
Election of 1876
- Republican Rutherford B. Hayes V. Democrat
Samuel J. Tilden
- Tilden wins popular vote but one short of number
needed in electoral college
- Party leaders make a deal – Compromise of 1877:
Southerners would accept Republican Hayes in
return….
◦ Withdrawal of federal troops from SC and LA (two
states Repub Recon still governed)
◦ Federal money to build a RR from TX to the West
coast and to build Southern roads, bridges, etc.
◦ Hayes had a to appoint a conservative Southerner
to his cabinet
Republican Hayes wins election but loses popular
vote and technically doesn’t get electoral vote
Legacy of Reconstruction
Home Rule in
the South
HOME RULE – After the Compromise of 18777,
Democrats get their long-desired goal of home rule –
the ability to run state governments without
Federal/Reconstructionist intervention
African Americans still had a long way to go in terms
of Civil Rights. Much legislation was passed but
Congress did not adequately protect their rights and
the Supreme Court undermined many of them.
During Recon, African Americans had founded many
colleges and the literacy rate had increased.
Was Reconstruction a Success or Failure?
Reconstruction Successes
- African Americans were free
- Only a few years after slavery African Americans participated at all
levels of gov
- State gov funded public school systems for all students
- African Americans established institutions that had been denied
them during slavery – black colleges and schools, churches, families
- 14th and 15th amendments would help blacks gain increased rights
and would be the platform for the Civil Rights movement of the 20th
century
Reconstruction Failures
- Federal and
state gov failed to secure the rights guaranteed to former
slaves by constitutional amendments
◦ No land reform/redistribution
◦ Racial bias was a national problem - KKK
◦ The Supreme Court undermined the power of the 14th and 15th
amendments
◦ Jim Crow – segregation (Plessy V. Ferguson, separate but equal becomes
the norm)
◦ Strategies to block voting – Literacy Tests, Poll Taxes, Grandfather Clause
◦ Many freedmen stuck in cycle of poverty with no land and no economic
resources to get started