Transcript Ch 22 Reconstruction File

Freedmen Define Freedom
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Emancipation
Freedom
Church
Education
Freedmen’s Bureau
provide
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clothing,
medical care,
food, and
education to both freedmen and white refugees.
• Literacy
• Ended 1872
Johnson: The Tailor
President
• was elected to Congress and refused to secede
with his own state of Tennessee.
• made Vice Democrat to Lincoln's Union Party
in 1864 in order to gain support from the War
Democrats and other pro-Southern element
• strong supporter of state's rights and of the
Constitution.
• Southerner who did not understand the North and
a Democrat who had not been accepted by the
Republicans.
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Presidential Reconstruction
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1863, Lincoln stated his "10 percent" Reconstruction plan: a state could be
reintegrated into the Union when 10% of its voters in the presidential election of
1860 had taken an oath of allegiance to the United States and pledged to abide
by emancipation.
state government would be constructed within the state, re-admitted into the
Union.
Republican fears over planter aristocracy and the possible re-enslavement of blacks,
Congress passed the
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Wade-Davis Bill in 1864 -required that 50% of a state's voters take the oath of
allegiance and it demanded stronger safeguards for emancipation.
Lincoln refused to sign the bill.
Disagreement between the President and Congress revealed differences in
Republicans and two factions arose:
– a majority that agreed with Lincoln and believed that the seceded states
should be restored to the Union as quickly as possible, and a
– radical minority that felt the South should suffer greatly before its readmittance - this minority wanted the South's social structure to be uprooted,
the planters to be punished, and the newly-emancipated blacks protected by
federal power.
President Johnson issued his own Reconstruction plan on May 29, 1865. It
called for special state conventions which were required to: repeal the decrees
of secession, repudiate all Confederate debts, and ratify the slavefreeing 13th Amendment.
The Baleful Black Codes
• series of laws designed to regulate the affairs of the emancipated
slaves. Mississippi- first 1865.
• aimed to ensure a stable and subservient labor force.
• "sharecropping” Plantation owners would rent out pieces of their
land to blacks and make the cost of rent higher than the return the
land produced.
• bound by contract to continue to work the land until debts were
repaid to the plantation owner.
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• harsh penalties for “jumped" labor contracts, some of which usually
forced the blacks to work for the same employer for one year. The
codes forbade a black to serve on a jury or to vote.
• The Republicans opposed to the Black Codes.
Congressional
Reconstruction
• In December 1865, Southern states represented
themselves in Congress
• This infuriated the Republicans
• bc now there would be an opposing party with much
more control in Congress
• Republicans feared that the South would take control
of Congress. Why?
• On December 4, 1865, Republicans shut the door in
the face of the newly-elected Southern delegates.
• President Johnson said Southern states had met
conditions
– the Union was now restored
– this statement angered the Republicans.
Johnson Clashes with Congress
• erupted in February 1866 when the president vetoed a bill extending the
life of the controversial Freedmen's Bureau (later re-passed).
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• Congress (controlled by the Republicans) passed the Civil Rights Bill in
March 1866, which gave blacks the privilege of American citizenship and
struck at the Black Codes.
• 14th Amendment passed 1866.
– 1- gave civil rights, including citizenship, to the freedmen;
– 2- reduced proportionately the representation of a state in Congress and
in the Electoral College if it denied blacks on the ballot;
– 3- disqualified from federal and state offices former Confederates who,
as federal officeholders, had once sworn to support the Constitution of
the United States; and
– 4- guaranteed the federal debt, while the Union assumed all Confederate
debts.
• Congress began to develop into the dominant role in controlling the
government.**
• All Republicans agreed that no state should be welcomed back into the
Union without ratifying the 14th Amendment.
Republicans Principles and Programs
• Charles Sumner-Republican radicals in the
Senate for black freedom and racial equality.
• Thaddeus Stevens led the radicals in the
House of Representatives.
• The moderate Republicans, the majority in
Congress
– preferred policies that restrained the states from
cutting citizens' rights,
– rather than policies that directly involved the
federal government in individual lives.
Reconstruction by the Sword
• March 2, 1867 Congress passed the Reconstruction Act
– divided the South into 5 military districts with union general/soldiers
– required that states ratify the 14th Amendment to be re-admitted, and
that states' constitutions had to allow former adult male slaves to vote.
– Mod. Rep. goal= create voters in Southern states that would vote those
states back into the Union and thus free the fed. Gov’t from direct
responsibility for the protection of black rights.
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15th Amendment passed-1869: granted black men the right
to vote.
• Military Reconstruction of the South took control of certain
functions of the president, who was commander in chief, and
set up a martial regime.
• In 1877, the last federal arms were removed from Southern
politics and the Democratic South was made.
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The Realities of Radical
Reconstruction in the South
• Women still could NOT vote
• 15th Amendment caused
– blacks to organize politically
– Union League: network of political clubs to
educate members and campaigned for
Republican candidates.
– built black churches and schools,
– recruiting militias to protect black communities
from white retaliation.
• From 1868-1876, blacks began to hold major
offices in government (senator,
congressmen).
Ku Klux Klan refers to
a secret society or an
inner circle
Organized in 1867, in
Polaski, Tennessee by
Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Represented the ghosts
of dead Confederate
soldiers
Disrupted
Reconstruction as much
as they could.
Opposed Republicans,
Carpetbaggers,
Scalawags and
Freedmen.
KKK
Spreading Terror
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The Ku Klux Klan
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.
The Federal Response
 President Grant’s War On
Terrorism.
 The Enforcement Act of
1870 banned the use of
terror, force, or bribery to
prevent people from
voting.
 Other laws banned the
KKK and used the military
to protect voters and
voting places.
 As federal troops withdrew
from the South, black
suffrage all but ended.
kkk
ALL HATED BY THE KKK
Carpetbaggers
Northerners/Republicans sent to help
reconstruct the South….
Scalawags
Southerners who helped Carpetbaggers
Freedmen
Blacks who tried to vote or were
involved in the reconstruction of their
states governments.
During Radical Reconstruction, the Republican
Party was a mixture of people who had little in
common except a desire to prosper in the
postwar South. This bloc of voters included
freedmen and two other groups: carpetbaggers
and scalawags.
Northern Republicans who moved to the postwar
South became known as carpetbaggers.
Southerners gave them this insulting nickname,
which referred to a type of cheap suitcase made
from carpet scraps.
Carpetbaggers were often depicted as greedy men
seeking to grab power or make a fast buck.
White southern Republicans were seen as traitors
and called scalawags.
This was originally a Scottish word meaning
“scrawny cattle.”
Refers to one who is a “scoundrel”, reprobate or
unprincipled person.
Some scalawags were former Whigs who had
opposed secession.
Some were small farmers who resented the planter
class. Many scalawags, but not all, were poor.
South’s Backlash
kkk
Letter About Ku Klux Klan Terror*
State of Mississippi. Monroe County.
March 30, 1871
My beloved Sister: I will endeavor to answer
your joyfully received letter. I must tell you
something about the Ku Klux, they are raging on
the other side of the River. They have whipped
several white men, whipped and killed several
Negroes.
They whipped Colonel Huggins, the
Superintendent of the free schools nearly to
death, and everybody rejoiced when they heard it,
for everybody hated him. He squandered the
public money, buying
KKK Quote 3
pianofortes, organs, sofas, and furniture for the
Negro School house in Aberdeen.
The people are taxed beyond endurance. The Ku
Klux gave him seventy lashes, and then gave him
ten days to leave the country. He left and went to
Jackson.
There was a Regiment of Militia came into
Aberdeen Friday. They are sent here to put down
the Ku Klux. Huggins has come back with the
Militia, but I wouldn't give a straw for his life, for
he will be killed.
It is the opinion of most everybody there will be
war. The Yankees coming here will make the
Negroes more insolent.
KKK Quote 3
With Country full of Yankees, things are going too
far, for the free whites of the South are
determined not to put up with it.
A Negro can kill a white man, take it in Court, get
a Negro jury, clear him and then turn him loose,
things can't go on this way. We are in a most
peculiar situation.
Give my love to all the Connections and write
soon. Yours, Jennie
*Mrs. Webb was the wife of William J. Webb,
who owned and operated the City Hotel on the
site of the Plainview Hotel, on the Block North
of the Monroe County Courthouse, Aberdeen,
Mississippi. The Shaw Family patronized this
Hotel. Colonel Huggins left Aberdeen in the
night and went back North.
KKK Quote 3
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 did not receive “40 acres
and a mule”
•Sharecropping is primarily
used in farming
•Landowner provided land,
tools, animals, house and
charge account at the local
store to purchase necessities
•Freedmen provided the labor.
•Sharecropping is based on the
“credit” system.
Sharecroppers
Advantages
Disadvantages
Part of
a business
venture
Raised their social
status
Received 1/3 to 1/2
of crop when
harvested
Raised their self
esteem
Sharecroppers
Blacks stay
in South
Some
landowners
refused to honor the
contract
Blacks poor
debt
and in
Economic slavery
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.
Sharecroppers
1876 Election
•Tilden did not
receive enough
electoral votes.
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•Special
Commission
gives votes to
Hayes.
•Hayes wins the
election
*Disputed
Electoral votes
164
369 total electoral votes, need 185 to win.
•Democrats
refuse to
recognize Hayes
as President
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.
Agreement between
Democrats and
Republicans
•Hayes pulls the troops
out of the South.
•Southerners take over
their state governments
called “REDEEMERS”
•Successes Freedmen
would be lost because
Southerners would take
over their state
governments.
•Jim Crow laws kept
Blacks from voting and
becoming equal
citizens.
social reality
After Reconstruction, 1865 to 1876, there
were several ways that Southern states
kept Blacks from voting and segregated,
or separating people by the color of their
skin in public facilities.
Jim Crow laws, laws at the local and state
level which segregated whites from blacks
and kept African Americans as 2nd class
citizens and from voting.
poll taxes
literacy tests
grandfather clause
social reality
The systematic practice of
discriminating against and
segregating Black people,
especially as practiced in the
American South from the end
of Reconstruction to the mid20th century
Derogatory name for a Black
person, ultimately from the
title of a 19th-century minstrel
song.
Goal: Take away political
and constitutional rights
guaranteed by Constitution:
Voting and equality of all
citizens under the law.
JC laws
Jim Crow Laws: segregated
Whites and Blacks in public
facilities became the law after
Reconstruction:
•Used at the
local, state
levels and
eventually the
national to
separate the
races in
schools, parks,
transportation,
restaurants,
etc….
•kept Blacks, minorities
and poor whites from
voting and as 2nd class
citizen status
JC laws1
social reality
Poll Taxes: Before you could vote, you had
to pay taxes to vote. Most poor Blacks
could not pay the tax so they didn’t vote.
Literacy Test: You had to prove you could
read and write before you could vote….
Once again, most poor Blacks were not
literate.
Grandfather clause: If your grandfather
voted in the 1864 election than you could
vote…..Most Blacks did not vote in 1864, so
you couldn’t vote….
The Struggle for African
American Suffrage
1865
Civil War ends
Reconstruction
begins
1900s-1940s Jim Crow
laws prevent African
Americans from voting
1870s
Reconstruction
ends.
Plessy vs Ferguson effected
social equality for Black
Americans from 1896 to 1960’s
1950s-1960s
Civil Rights
movement begins.
Voting Restrictions for African
Americans in the South, 1889-1950’s
Segregated
1% of Blacks integrated
Less than 5% integrated
25% or more integrated
JC laws/map
South’s Backlash1
Lynchings of
Whites/Blacks
0 to 20
20 to 60
60 to 100
100 to 200
200 or more
South’s Backlash1
The right to
vote was taken
away from the
Freedmen after
Reconstruction
Reconstruction Ends
There were five main factors that
contributed to the end of Reconstruction.
•Corruption: Reconstruction legislatures & Grant’s
administration symbolized corruption & poor government.
•The economy: Reconstruction legislatures taxed and spent
heavily, putting the southern states deeper into debt.
•Violence: As federal troops withdrew from the South, some
white Democrats used violence and intimidation to prevent
freedmen from voting. This tactic allowed white Southerners to
regain control of the state governments.
•The Democrats’ return to power: The pardoned exConfederates combined with other white Southerners to form a
new bloc of Democratic voters known as the Solid South. They
blocked Reconstruction policies.
•The Country: The Civil War was over and many Americans
wanted to return to what the country was doing before the war.
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.
Quote by Frederick Douglass 1
Quote by Frederick Douglass 2
Social equality vs. legal equality
Which way would the scale tip?
social reality
Supreme Court decision which
legalized segregation
throughout the nation.
•“Separate but Equal” as long as
public facilities were equal
•Problem: Black facilities would
never be equal to White facilities
•Our nation would be segregated
until the 1960’s.
Booker T. Washington
How do Black Americans overcome segregation?
Southern Perspective
•Former slave
•Wrote a book/Up From Slavery
•Before you are considered equal in society--must be
self sufficient like most Americans
•Stressed vocational education for Black Americans
•Gradualism and economic self-sufficiency
•Founder of Tuskegee Institute
W.E.B. Dubois
How do Black Americans overcome segregation?
Northern Perspective
• Fought for immediate Black equality in society
• Talented 10%: Demanded the top 10% of the
talented Black population be placed into the “power
positions”
• Gain equality by breaking into power structure
• Founder of NAACP
 National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People
Solid South
Political term that describes how
the South would vote in future
elections…… Always voted for the
Democrats because they hated
the Republicans.
Reconstruc
tion Map
•Women rights
supporters refused
to support the 14th
Amendment giving
African American
Men citizenship
unless women were
added to it.
•Abolitionists would
not support
women’s rights
Abolitionists vs Women’s rights