Transcript Reconstruction - AP United States History

DISCLAIMER
The large bulk of this presentation was
created by Susan Pojer. I have made some
edits to her original slides, though most remain
intact. Some original slides have been removed.
Also, I have added a couple of slides of my own
as well.
Ms. Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY
REBUILDING the South
RESTORING the Union
RESTRUCTURING Southern society
Key Questions
1. How do we
bring the South
back into the
Union?
2. How do we
rebuild the
South after its
destruction
during the war?
4. What branch
of government
should control
the process of
Reconstruction?
3. How do we
integrate and
protect newlyemancipated
black freedmen?
“With malice toward none, with charity for all,
with firmness in the right as God gives us to see
the right, let us strive on to finish the work we
are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care
for him who shall have borne the battle and for
his widow and orphan, to do all which may
achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace
among ourselves and with all nations.”
Abraham Lincoln,
Second Inaugural, March 4, 1865
President Lincoln’s Plan
 10% Plan
*
Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction (December 8, 1863)
*
Replace majority rule with “loyal rule” in
the South.
*
He didn’t consult Congress regarding
Reconstruction.
*
*
*
Pardon to all but the highest ranking
military and civilian Confederate
officers.
When 10% of a state’s voting population
in the 1860 election had taken an oath
of loyalty and established a government,
it would be recognized.
Angered Radical Republicans
President Lincoln’s Plan
1864  “Lincoln
Governments” formed
in TN, LA, AR
*
*
“loyal assemblies”
They were weak and
dependent on the
Northern army for
their survival.
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
 Congress feared restoration of
planter aristocracy & potential
re-enslavement
Senator
Benjamin
Wade
(R-OH)
 Required 50% of the number of
1860 voters to take an “iron
clad” oath of allegiance
(swearing they had never
voluntarily aided the rebellion ).
 Required a state constitutional
convention before the election
of state officials.
 Enacted specific safeguards of
freedmen’s liberties.
Congressman
Henry
W. Davis
(R-MD)
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
 “Iron-Clad” Oath.
 “State Suicide” Theory [MA Senator
Charles Sumner]
 “Conquered Provinces” Position
[PA Congressman Thaddeus Stevens
– “Radicals”]
President
Lincoln
Pocket
Veto
Wade-Davis
Bill
13th Amendment
 Ratified in December, 1865.
 Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the
United States or any place subject to
their jurisdiction.
 CONGRESS shall have power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.
Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)
 Bureau of Refugees,
Freedmen, and Abandoned
Lands.
 Many former northern
abolitionists risked their
lives to help southern
freedmen.
 Primitive “welfare” agency
– food, clothes, medical care
 Called “carpetbaggers” by
white southern Democrats.
 Scalawags?
Freedmen’s Bureau Seen
Through
Southern
Eyes
Plenty to
eat and
nothing to
do.
Freedmen’s Bureau School
Primary success is in education
President Andrew Johnson
- A southerner who didn’t
understand
the North,

Jacksonian
Democrat.

Anti-Aristocrat.
- A
Tennessean who had
earned the distrust of the S,
 White Supremacist.
- A D who had never been

Agreed with Lincoln
accepted by the Rs,
that states had never
left
thebeen
Union.
-Alegally
P who had
never
elected to office
- “The wrong man in the wrong
place at the wrong time.”
President Johnson’s Plan (10%+)
 Offered amnesty upon simple oath to all except
Confederate civil and military officers and those with property
over $20,000 (but they could apply for pardon)
 Restored their property rights once pardon given
 In new constitutions, they must REPEAL ordinances of secession,
REPUDIATE war debts, & RATIFY 13TH Amendment in order to be
READMITTED.
 Mentioned nothing about voting & rights of slaves
 Named provisional governors in Confederate states and called them
to oversee elections for constitutional conventions.
1. Disenfranchised certain leading Confederates.
EFFECTS?
2. Pardoned planter aristocrats, brought them back
to political power to control state organizations.
3. Republicans were outraged that planter elite
were back in power in the “New South!”
Growing Northern Alarm!
 Many Southern state
constitutions fell short of
minimum requirements.
 Johnson granted 13,500
special pardons.
 Revival of southern defiance
in the Post-war South.
BLACK CODES
Slavery is Dead?
Black Codes in the Post-war South
 Purpose:
*
*
Guarantee stable labor
supply now that blacks
were emancipated.
Restore pre-emancipation
system of race relations.
 Forced many blacks to
become sharecroppers
[tenant farmers].
Tenancy & the Crop Lien System
Furnishing Merchant
 Loan tools and seed
up to 60% interest
to tenant farmer to
plant spring crop.
 Farmer also secures
food, clothing, and
other necessities on
credit from
merchant until the
harvest.
 Merchant holds
“lien” {mortgage} on
part of tenant’s
future crops as
repayment of debt.
Tenant Farmer
 Plants crop,
harvests in
autumn.
 Turns over up to ½
of crop to land
owner as payment
of rent.
 Tenant gives
remainder of crop
to merchant in
payment of debt.
Landowner
 Rents land to tenant
in exchange for ¼
to ½ of tenant
farmer’s future
crop.
Congress Breaks with the President
 Congress bars newly-elected
Southern Congressional delegates.
 Fear the power of a restored South.
 February, 1866  President
vetoed bill to extend the life of the
Freedmen’s Bureau.
 Congress passes Civil Rights bill in
March, 1866 to grant citizenship to
blacks  Johnson vetoed it.
 Congress passed both bills over
Johnson’s vetoes  1st time in
U. S. history!! - & will continue to
override his vetoes
“Dead Dog
of the White House”
th
14
Amendment
 Ratified in July, 1868.
1.
Provides a constitutional guarantee of the
rights of citizenship & security of freed
people.
2.
Insures against neo-Confederate political
power.
3.
Enshrines the national debt while
repudiating that of the Confederacy.
 Southern states would be punished
(representation reduced) for denying the
right to vote to black citizens!
The 1866 Congressional Elections
 A referendum on Radical Reconstruction.
 Johnson made an ill-conceived propaganda
tour around the country to push his plan.
 Republicans
won a 3-1
veto-proof
majority in
both houses and
gained control of
every northern
state.
Johnson’s “Swing around
the Circle”
Radical Plan for Readmission
 Radicals seek full & complete rights for
blacks with federal gov’t in control
Moderates (majority in Congress) just trying
to keep states from infringing basic rights
of blacks.
 Required new state constitutions which
included black suffrage and ratification of
the 13th and 14th Amendments.
By 1870 – 15th Amendment ratified.
 In March, 1867, Congress authorized the
military to enroll eligible black voters and
begin the process of constitution making.
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
 Military Reconstruction Act
*
Restart Reconstruction in the 10 Southern
states that refused to ratify the 14th
Amendment.
*
Divide the 10 “unreconstructed states” into 5
military districts.
*
Each has military governor
*
20,000 troops
*
TN was first Southern state back in – 1866 &
thus escaped military reconstruction
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
 Command of the Army Act
*
The President must issue all
Reconstruction orders through
the commander of the military.
 Tenure of Office Act
*
The President could not remove
any officials [esp. Cabinet members]
without the Senate’s consent, if the
position originally required Senate
approval.
 Designed to protect radical
members of Lincoln’s government.
 A question of the
constitutionality of this law.
Edwin Stanton,
Sec. of War
President Johnson’s Impeachment
 Johnson removed Stanton in February, 1868.
 Johnson replaced generals in the field who were
more sympathetic to Radical Reconstruction.
 The House impeached him on February 24
before even
drawing up the
charges by a
vote of 126 – 47!
The Senate Trial
 11 week trial.
 Johnson acquitted
35 to 19 (one short of
required 2/3 vote).
Limitations of Radical
Reconstruction
 No land or education was guaranteed to
freedmen
 Belief that creating an electorate would
be enough to protect freedmen’s rights.
 Questionable legality of military rule:
Ex parte Milligan – Supreme Court had ruled
that military tribunals could not try civilians
even during wartime if civil courts were open.
So peacetime military rule would be in
direct contrast to Constitution.
“Black Reconstruction”
 Only one state legislature (SC) elected
a majority of blacks in its lower house
 No state senates had black majorities
 No black governors elected
 Most black officials that were elected
were capable, educated, free-born
 2 US Senators elected from MS
 14 black Congressmen elected
Black Senate & House Delegates
Black & White Political Participation
Blacks in Southern Politics
 Core voters were black veterans.
 Blacks were politically unprepared.
 Blacks could register and vote in states since
1867.
 The 15th
Amendment
guaranteed
federal voting.
Establishment of Historically
Black Colleges in the South
•
•
Education
– By 1870, some 4,000 schools & 9,000 teachers taught
200,000 formerly enslaved people
– Freedmen of all ages were being taught
– By 1876, about 40% of African American children
attended school
– African American colleges & universities were established
Churches
– Religion had always been a major part of the lives of
African Americans
– Became the center of many African American communities
– Acted as unofficial courts
The 1868
Republican Ticket
The 1868
Democratic Ticket
1868 Presidential Election
Grant’s popular vote low-won due to black vote.
3 Southern state votes not even counted – MS, TX, VA
Ulysses S. Grant
• Elected in 1868 & 1872
• Civil war hero who saved the
Union!
• TERRIBLE PRESIDENT
• Believed president’s role was
to carry out the laws & leave
policy making to Congress
• Massive corruption during his
administration
– William Belknap – bribes
– “Whiskey Ring”
#18
Corruption in Business &
Government
• Gold Market
– Jay Gould & James Fisk, with the help of Grant’s brother-inlaw devised a scheme to corner the gold market
– Treasury Dept. broke the scheme, but not before Gould made
a huge profit
• Credit Mobilier Affair
– Insiders gave stock to influential members of Congress
– Avoiding investigation of the profits they were making off of
gov’t subsidies for the transcontinental railroad
• Whiskey Ring
– Federal revenue agents conspired w/ the liquor industry to
defraud the gov’t of millions in taxes
Transcontinental Railroad
• Shortly before the Civil War, enthusiasm mounted
for a transcontinental line
• Federal gov’t would provided subsidies to fund the
project – largest in history!
• Railway Act of 1862
– Union Pacific
• Employed Irish Americans & African American workers
– Central Pacific
• Tough time finding workers – Chinese men
• Burlingame Treaty
– Right to work in America does not guarantee citizenship
– Will later lead to anti-Chinese sentiment
Transcontinental Railroad
• 1869, Promontory Point, Utah
• Hammer a ceremonial golden
spike
• Other transcontinental
railroads will be built w/out the
fanfare
• Will become America’s first
“big business”
– Require huge amounts of capital
– Will increase economic power of
banks
– Stimulated expansion of in the
production of coal, iron, stone, &
lumber
The Election of 1872
 Rumors of corruption
during Grant’s first
term discredit Republicans.

Though Grant never personally
profited from the scandals, his
loyalty to dishonest men around
him badly tarnished his
presidency
 Horace Greeley runs
as a Democrat/Liberal
Republican candidate.
 Greeley attacked as a
fool and a crank.
 Greeley died on
November 29, 1872!
1872 Presidential Election
The Panic of 1873
 In 1873, overspeculation
by financers &
overbuilding by industry &
railroads led to
widespread business
failures & depression
 Debtors required
greenbacks in repayment
of debts – requested
more greenbacks be
produced
 Grant will veto a bill calling for more greenbacks &
support a stable money supply backed by gold
Northern Support Wanes
 “Grantism” & corruption.
 Panic of 1873 [6-year
depression].
 Concern over westward
expansion and Indian wars.
 Key monetary issues:
*
*
should the government
retire $432m worth of
“greenbacks” issued during the Civil War?
should war bonds be paid back in specie or
greenbacks?
The End of Reconstruction
• With Radical Republicanism on the wane,
southern conservatives, southern
conservatives took control of the gov’t
• Known as Redeemers
• Had different social & economic
backgrounds, but agreed on their political
program
– States rights, reduced taxes, reduced spending
on social programs, & white supremacy
Southern Resentment & Resistance
• “Scalawags” and
“Carpetbaggers”
– Accusations of corruption
• Ku Klux Klan, TN, 1866
– Terrorists that targeted
blacks, carpetbaggers,
teachers in black schools,
Radical Republicans
– Main goal is
disenfranchisement of blacks
• Congress passes Force
Acts of 1870 & 1871
White Supremacy & The KKK
• Groups of southern whites organized various secret
societies to intimidate blacks & white reformers
• Most prominent was the
Ku Klux Klan
• Founded in 1867 by ex-Confederate
general Nathaniel Bedford Forrest
• “invisible empire” burned
black-owned buildings, flogged &
murdered freedmen to keep them from voting,
chased carpetbaggers & scalawags out of the south
Amnesty Act of 1872
• Seven years after Lee’s surrender, many
northerners were ready to put hatred of the
Confederacy behind them
• Congress passed a general amnesty act that
removed the last of the restrictions on exConfederates, except for top leaders
• Political Consequence: allowed southern
conservatives to vote for Democrats to
retake control of state gov’ts
Legal Challenges
 The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)
•1st test case of the 14th amendment.
•LA legislature granted a 25-year monopoly to a slaughterhouse in New
Orleans in 1869 (to protect the people's health).
•Other slaughterhouse operators brought suit - deprived of their property
without due process of law in violation of the 14th Am.
•The U.S. Supreme Court decided against the slaughterhouse operators,
holding that the 14th Am. had to be considered in light of the original
purpose of its framers, i.e., to guarantee the freedom of former black
slaves.
•Although the amendment could not be construed to refer only to black
slavery, its scope as originally planned did not include rights such as those
in question. The restraint placed by the Louisiana legislators on the
slaughterhouse operators was declared not to deprive them of their
property without due process.
The Civil Rights Act of 1875
 Crime for any individual to deny full &
equal use of public conveyances and
public places. (Last attempt of Radicals)
 Prohibited discrimination in jury selection.
 Shortcoming  lacked a strong
enforcement mechanism.
 No new civil rights act was attempted
for 90 years!
1876 Election
Election of 1876
 Republicans wanted Grant
to run for 3rd term, but
too much scandal
 Tilden (D) has more
popular votes than Hayes
(R) & is only short 1
electoral vote, but
disputed votes come in
from FL, SC, LA
1876 Election Results
Hayes Prevails
Sammy Tilden—Boo-Hoo! Ruthy
Hayes’s got my Presidency, and
he won’t give it to me!
A Political Crisis: The
“Compromise” of 1877
• Hayes, R gets the P
• Troops to be
withdrawn from S
• Southerner will
become Postmaster
General
• Republicans promise
federal $ for internal
improvements in S
• RECONSTRUCTION
ENDS!
15th Amendment
 Ratified in 1870.
 The right of citizens of the United States to vote
shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or by any state on account of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude.
 The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.
 Women’s rights groups were furious that they were
not granted the vote!
The Failure of Federal Enforcement
 Enforcement Acts of 1870 & 1871
[to stop the lynchings - also known as
the KKK Act].
 “The Lost Cause.”
 The rise of the
“Bourbons.”
 Conservative, probusiness Democrats
 Redeemers (prewar
Democrats and Union
Whigs)
 Wanted to oust
freedmen, carpetbaggers
& scalawags
THE NEW SOUTH
• After abandonment of Republican Reconstruction, blacks
were left friendless in South
• White Ds resume power (the “Redeemers”)
• Political Subjugation:
– Legal codes of segregation appear – Jim Crow laws
– Also – disenfranchisement through voter-registration
laws, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, etc.
– South’s segregation validated by Plessy v. Ferguson,
1896
• “Separate but equal” doctrine… separate, but equal,
schools/facilities are constitutional
• Economic Subjugation:
– Blacks forced into sharecropping/tenant farming
• Record #s of blacks lynched to ensure South’s “new”
political & economic order
“JIM CROW”
Jim Crow - not actually a person,
but the subject of a song
performed by Thomas Dartmouth
“Daddy” Rice. Rice was a white man
who performed in blackface. Rice
denigrated Blacks through his
music, his stereotypical behavior,
and his rude jokes.
“Jump Jim Crow” was a bonafide
hit among Caucasian Americans in
the early 19th century. The lyrics
express several racist sentiments.
First, Jim Crow is satisfied with
his lot as a slave. He is sexually
promiscuous. He is also ignorant,
and the song is usually sung in
“supposed” slave dialect.
Jim Crow laws refer to the
segregation laws in the South from
Reconstruction to the 1960s.
RECONSTRUCTION – A
FAILURE OR A SUCCESS?
• Traditional view has been a failure:
– “The Tragic Era”
– “The Blackout of Honest Government”
• Justify these 3 reasons given by historians
for the failure of Reconstruction to help
freedmen find their place in American life:
1. Confused priorities
2.Opposition from Southern whites
3.Federal gov’ts unwillingness to go the
distance to accomplish its goals
Reconstruction a Success?
• “Black Reconstruction” is how revisionist
historians view the era
– A more positive characterization?
• What evidence is there that goals of
education, economic development &
establishing a sense of community were
achieved?
• How did Black Reconstruction pave the
way for the Civil Rights Movement of
the 1960s?