Transcript US CP Reconstruction

Adapted from Ms. Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY
Key Questions
1. How does
the South
come
back into the
Union?
2. How does the
South rebuild
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?
President Lincoln’s Plan
 10% Plan
*
*
*
Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction (December 8, 1863)
Pardon to all but the highest ranking
military and civilian Confederate
officers.
When 10% of the voting population in
the 1860 election had taken an oath of
loyalty and established a government, it
would be recognized.
th
13
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.
Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)
Freedmen’s Bureau School
Establishment of Historically
Black Colleges in the South
President Andrew Johnson
 Democrat from
Tennessee.
 Anti-Aristocrat.
Damn the negroes! I am
fighting these traitorous
aristocrats, their masters!
~Thaddeus Stevens
House Rep. from
Pennsylvania
~Charles Sumner
~1856, Sumner
Caning by Preston
Brooks
What did the Radical Republicans
want?
• Harsh punishment for the Confederacy
• Emphasized civil rights, including the right
to vote, for freedmen.
14th Amendment
 Ratified in July, 1868.
*
“all persons born or naturalized in the
United States” are citizens of the country
and all are entitled to equal protection of
the law, and no state could deprive any
person of life, liberty, or property without
due process of the law.
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
 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
President Johnson’s Impeachment
 Johnson removed Stanton in February, 1868.
 The House impeached him on February 24 by a
vote of 126 to 47.
The Senate Trial
 11 week trial.
 Johnson acquitted
35 to 19 (one short of
required 2/3s vote).
Sharecropping
Merchant
Tenant Farmer
Landowner
 Loan tools and seed
up to 60% interest
to tenant farmer to
plant spring crop.
 Plants/harvests
crop
 Rents land to tenant
in exchange for ¼
to ½ of tenant
farmer’s future
crop.
 Farmer also secures
food, clothing, and
other necessities on
credit from
merchant until the
harvest.
 Turns over up to ½
of crop to land
owner as payment
of rent.
•
Tenant gives
remainder of crop,
after own needs
are met, to
merchant in
payment of debt.
Sharecropping
Political Change
The Balance of Power in
Congress
State
White Citizens
Freedmen
SC
291,000
411,000
MS
353,000
436,000
LA
357,000
350,000
GA
591,000
465,000
AL
596,000
437,000
VA
719,000
533,000
NC
631,000
331,000
Black & White Political Participation
Black Senate & House Delegates
Colored Rule
in the South?
Blacks in Southern Politics
• Blacks could register and vote in states since
1867.
~Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
started in Tennessee in
1866 as a Confederate
veterans social club.
Many chapters turned
violent and sought to
restore white
supremacy.
The “Invisible Empire of the South”
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.
The 1868 Republican Ticket
1868 Presidential Election
Despite his status as
a Civil War hero,
Grant was an
ineffective president.
He was mired in a
corrupt political
environment, saddled
with the social,
political, and economic
problems of
Reconstruction, and
hurt by difficult
economic times with
the financial Panic of
1873. By 1876, the
country, in general,
was weary of
Reconstruction.
President Ulysses S. Grant
1876 Presidential Tickets
1876 Presidential Election
Compromise of 1877
• An electoral commission was called to
decide who would become president.
• Southern Democrats, who would decide
the vote in the House, demanded:
– The withdrawal of federal troops from
Louisiana and South Carolina.
– Federal money to build a railroad from Texas
to the West Coast and to improve Southern
rivers, harbors, and bridges.
– Wanted Hayes to appoint a conservative
Southerner to the cabinet.
Hayes Prevails