Transcript Reconstruction

Ms. Adams
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?
Other Key Questions for
Georgians
• What would be done with the 4 million newly
freed slaves?
• How could sectional differences and emotional
war wounds be healed so that the nation could
be reunited?
• How could the south, which had suffered
most of the war damage, resurrect itself and
its economy?
• How would southerners be treated after the
Confederate defeat?
While the politicians in
Washington are trying
to answer these
questions
Georgia is in a mess…
Georgia after the Civil War
• 1 out of 5 soldiers never came
home. Those that did were
often so severely wounded
that they could not work.
Wives were now widows,
children were fatherless and
many of the things that
families depended on the men
to do were left stranded.
• Railroad tracks lay twisted,
bridges had been burned,
cotton mills and factories were
closed or had been burned
down. No jobs in Georgia.
Georgia after the Civil War
• Banks were closed. The
Confederacy had a war
debt of 700 million,
with Georgia owing 20
million. Confederate
money was useless.
• There was not enough
food and people were
starving.
• Most white Georgians
were struggling to find
food to eat every day
and for the men, women
and children who had
been freed from
slavery – life was even
worse.
President Lincoln’s Plan
 10% Plan
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*
*
2 Things
1. Pardon to all but the highest ranking
military and civilian Confederate
officers.
2. When 10% of the voting population in
the 1860 election had taken an oath of
loyalty and established a government, it
would be recognized.
President Lincoln’s Plan
 Congress and many
northerners felt the
south should be
punished. They
believed that the
Confederacy should be
treated like a
conquered country. In
1864, Congress passed
the Wade-Davis Bill –
which Lincoln saw as a
Radical Republican
attempt to punish the
south.
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
 Required 50% of the number
of 1860 voters to take an
“iron clad” oath of allegiance
(swearing they had never
voluntarily aided the
rebellion ).
Senator
Benjamin
Wade
(R-OH)
 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)
 President Lincoln simply refused to
sign it. He let it die quietly. This
action signaled that there would be a
fight over Reconstruction. Lincoln,
however, was not part of the fight.
President
Lincoln
Pocket
Veto
Wade-Davis
Bill
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
• You know the story – so I won’t tell it again.
• Why do you think that the assassination of
Abraham Lincoln did more harm to the south
than good?
Who Would Become President?
• Andrew Johnson
of Tennessee, the
only southern U.S.
Senator not to
resign his seat in
1861, was Lincoln’s
Vice President at
the time.
• He assumed the
presidency,
determined to
carry out Lincoln’s
program.
President Andrew Johnson
 Jacksonian Democrat.
 Rags to Riches story.
 White Supremacist.
 Agreed with Lincoln
that states had never
legally left the Union.
President Johnson’s Plan (10%+)
 Everyone was pardoned except:
Confederate civil and military officers and those with
property over $20,000
 In new constitutions, they must accept minimum
conditions rejecting slavery (13th Amendment) &
secession and accepting state debts
 Named provisional governors in Confederate states and
called them to oversee elections for constitutional
conventions.
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.
Slavery is Dead?
Black Codes
• Although the 13th Amendment abolished
slavery, it did not abolish discrimination.
By 1865, most of the southern states
including Georgia, had passed a number
of laws known as Black Codes – which
were designed to restrict the rights of
the freedmen.
 Regulations:
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*
*
Black Codes
Occupation regulations: some
states said that Blacks could only
work agricultural jobs and couldn’t
raise their own crops.
Permitted whipping as punishment
Established labor periods as
sunrise to sunset, 6 days a week
Jobless Blacks were put in prison –
forcing many Blacks to work jobs
for little pay
 Forced many blacks to
become sharecroppers
[tenant farmers].
Sharecropping
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Under this system, the landowners
provided land, a house, farming tools,
and animals, seed, and fertilizer. The
workers agreed to give the owner a
share of the harvest. Until they sold
their crop, the owners often let them
have food, medicine, clothing, and
other supplies at high prices on credit.
These farmers often did not
understand money or interest owed.
Sometimes they were charged as much
as 70% interest on money owed to
landowners for goods.
Example:
$1000.00 owed with 70% = $1700 at
the end of the year.
Example:
Crops worth $1000 owner gets %70
SAME AS SLAVERY!!
Sharecropping
Tenant Farming
•
The only difference is that the
tenant usually owns some farm
equipment and maybe a mule or
animal. They also bought their
own seed and fertilizer. At
the end of the year the tenant
would either give the landlord
an amount of money for the
rent or a share of the crop.
They sometimes didn’t have
enough crops left over to feed
their families. Even though
they may have made a very
small profit – they were just as
doomed as the sharecroppers.
• http://digital.library
.okstate.edu/ency
clopedia/entries/T/
TE009.html
Northern Republican Radicals
are not happy.

Radicals were at first willing to go along with the plan because
Johnson offered a reward for Jefferson Davis. After he was
caught they began to not like the plan again. And because…

Johnson granted 13,500 special pardons.

Republicans were outraged that planter elite
were back in power in the South!

Some of the south’s laws threatened to disenfranchise
the freedman. (Black Codes, sharecropping, KKK, etc…)

They felt that the South needed further punishment.
Congress Breaks with the President
 Congress bars Southern
Congressional delegates.
 Joint Committee on
Reconstruction created.
 February, 1866  President
vetoed the Freedmen’s
Bureau bill.
 March, 1866  Johnson
vetoed the 1866 Civil Rights Act.
 Congress passed both bills over
Johnson’s vetoes  1st in
U. S. history!!
U.S. Military Takes Over Georgia
& the South
We’ll talk more
about this in
just a minute!
Georgia’s New Government
• President Johnson named James
Johnson, who opposed secession, as
Georgia’s provisional Governor. He
set up an election for the people of
Georgia to vote people into the
General Assembly.
• The folks elected met in October
of 1865 and drafted a new state
constitution and a governor for
Georgia.
• The Assembly chose Alexander
Stephens and Herschel Johnson to
be the 2 U.S. senators.
• The Capital was placed in
Milledgeville.
Freedman’s Bureau
• A Federal assistance program established to
assist the 4 million freed slaves in making the
transition from slavery to freedom.
• The agency distributed trainloads of food and
clothing to freed slaves.
• They built hospitals for the freed slaves and
gave direct medical aid to more than 1 million of
them.
• The greatest successes of the Freedmen's
Bureau were in the field of education. More than
4,000 schools for freed slaves were built and
staffed with qualified instructors.
Freedmen’s Bureau School
Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)
 Many former northern
abolitionists risked their lives
to help southern freedmen.
 Carpetbaggers: northerners
who moved south after the
war. Called “carpetbaggers” by
white southern Democrats who
claimed they toted all their
possessions in a carpet bag.
 Scalawags: southerners who
supported the northern
republicans.
 Southerners hated them,
especially the carpetbaggers
saying they came to the south
to get rich off the poor
southerners. Not true.
Freedmen’s Bureau Seen Through
Southern
Eyes
Plenty to
eat and
nothing to
do.
Establishment of Historically
Black Colleges in the South
3 Reconstruction Schools in in
Atlanta founded to Educate the
Freedmen
• 1. Georgia’s Atlanta University
• 2. Morehouse College (still there)
• 3. Clark College (still there)
Now that the Radical Republicans have
taken control in Congress – they really
start passing some laws!!!
th
14
Amendment
 Ratified in July, 1868.
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Provide a constitutional guarantee of the
rights and security of freed people.
Insure against neo-Confederate political
power.
Enshrine the national debt while repudiating
that of the Confederacy.
 Southern states would be punished for
denying the right to vote to black
citizens!
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

Radical Republicans took power
in both houses of Congress and
told the southern states that
they would have to ratify the 14
amendment before they could
rejoin the Union. All the
southern states refused, except
Tennessee. So the U.S. sent
the military in to sign up all
eligible black and white MALE
voters who swore allegiance to
the United States.

The people that the United
States allowed to vote chose
delegates to go to the state
capital to hold a constitution
convention so that a new state
constitution – which ratified the
13th & 14th amendment – could
be drafted.
1866
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
 Military Reconstruction Act
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*
Restart Reconstruction in the 10 Southern states
that refused to ratify the 14th Amendment.
Divide the 10 “unreconstructed states” into 5
military
districts.
Black & White Political Participation
“Regional Balance?”
Black Senate & House Delegates
Georgia Constitutional Convention
of 1867
• This was the first year
that Blacks could vote in
Georgia. As delegates
convened in Milledgeville it
turned into a fiery mess!
Black representatives were
refused rooms at local
hotels. Riots broke out.
• General Pope requested
the convention to be moved
to Atlanta – which led to
the city becoming the
states permanent capital.
Atlanta Becomes the
Capital.
Georgia Constitutional Convention
of 1867
• Once in Atlanta – a lot got done…
• A new constitution, which gave civil rights to
ALL state citizens, approved free public
education for all children, and allowed women
to control their own property was written.
Georgia was the first state to allow women to
do this. I love Georgia!!!!
• Georgia chose Rufus Bullock as governor and
after Georgia met readmission requirements
for the 2nd time – troops left the state.
Who were Georgia’s first VERY
brave African American
Congressmen?
• 69 African Americans served as delegates to the
Constitutional Convention of 1867 or were
elected as members of the state legislature (29
House / 3 Senate).
• Jefferson Franklin Long is Georgia first Black
state legislator.
• The 3 most prominent black legislators during
Reconstruction were Aaron A. Bradley, Tunis
Campbell and Henry McNeal Turner.
African Americans in Politics
• For the first time, many Blacks realized
that power of voting. Thousands would
show up to the polls to vote in order to
keep the republicans in power.
Republican carpetbaggers helped them
get to the polls and continued to
support their efforts for civil rights.
•
•
•
•
KKK – Ku Klux Klan
A secret organization that tried to keep freedmen from exercising the
new civil rights.
Began in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1865 as a social club for returning
soldiers. It quickly turned into a force of terror.
The members dressed in hoods and robes.
They terrorized and intimidated African American voters to keep
them from voting and by doing so return the state to the control of
the Democrats.
The “Invisible Empire of the South”
Racial Conflict
• Freedmen who were not frightened away from the
polls were carefully watched – and those voting
republican would lay in their beds at night listening to
the sounds of horses around their homes – indicating
the Klan was nearby. The right for suffrage could be
death.
• The Klan’s activities were increasing and there was
large evidence that they were keeping African
Americans from voting. So, the Georgia Act was
passed and for the third time – Georgia was returned
to military control.
• 15th Amendment is passed.
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!
13th, 14th & 15th Amendment
• 13th Amendment: Abolished slavery
• 14th Amendment: Said that no citizen
could denied protection under the U.S.
or state laws and that every citizen had
a right to civil liberties (freed slaves)
• 15th Amendment: Gave all males in the
country the right to vote regardless of
race
Henry McNeal Turner
•
•
•
Turner was born "free" in Newberry
Courthouse, South Carolina . Instead
of being sold into slavery, his family
sent him to live with a Quaker family.
Despite the law he was taught to read
and write.
He was the Chaplain of the first
Federal regiments of Black Troops by
Lincoln and later appointed to work
with the Freedman’s Bureau by
Johnson. During this time he moved
to Georgia where he helped found the
Republican Party. After getting into a
legal battle with the Supreme Court,
Turner became a proponent of the
“back to Africa” movement.
http://www.todayingeorgiahistory.org/c
ontent/henry-mcneal-turner
“God is Black”
• He was known as a fiery orator and he scandalized
many Americans when he preached that God was black.
• Here are his words:
– "We have as much right biblically and otherwise to believe that
God is a Negroe, as you buckra or white people have to believe
that God is a fine looking, symmetrical and ornamented white
man. For the bulk of you and all the fool Negroes of the country
believe that God is white-skinned, blue eyed, straight-haired,
projected nosed, compressed lipped and finely robed white
gentleman, sitting upon a throne somewhere in the heavens.
Every race of people who have attempted to describe their God
by words, or by paintings, or by carvings, or any other form or
figure, have conveyed the idea that the God who made them and
shaped their destinies was symbolized in themselves, and why
should not the Negroe believe that he resembles God."
• When, in 1883, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Civil
Rights Act of 1875, forbidding discrimination in hotels, trains, and
other public places, was unconstitutional, Turner was incensed:
– "The world has never witnessed such barbarous laws
entailed upon a free people as have grown out of the
decision of the United States Supreme Court, issued
October 15, 1883. For that decision alone authorized
and now sustains all the unjust discriminations,
proscriptions and robberies perpetrated by public
carriers upon millions of the nation's most loyal
defenders. It fathers all the 'Jim-Crow cars' into which
colored people are huddled and compelled to pay as
much as the whites, who are given the finest
accommodations. It has made the ballot of the black
man a parody, his citizenship a nullity and his
freedom a burlesque. It has engendered the bitterest
feeling between the whites and blacks, and resulted
in the deaths of thousands, who would have been
living and enjoying life today."
African Americans in Politics
• All of these men were expelled in
September because in 1868 the General
Assembly ruled that though these men
were given the right to vote – they were
never given the right to hold political
office.
• WHAT!!!!????
Georgia Begins to Behave… sort of
 Georgia Supreme Court ruled that
African Americans CAN hold public
office, in 1870 they were reseated
and the 14th & 15th Amendment were
ratified in the state constitution.
 Democrats regain control of both
houses of the General Assembly, the
republican Governor is thrown out
and a new Democratic Governor is
sworn in.
Georgia Begins to Rebuild
• Increasing cotton production brought
industry to some parts of Georgia. Northern
investors put money into building textile mills.
Banks began to reopen and loan money.
• In the 8 years following the Civil War, rail
companies laid 840 miles of rail lines and
Savannah began exporting cotton again.
• It would be slow, but Georgia would eventually
recover.
Georgia’s Reconstruction Timeline
First Reconstruction
• June 17, 1865 James Johnson appointed
Provisional Governor by President Johnson
June 29, 1865 Governor Joe Brown resigns..
November, 1865 Legislature and other officials
elected.
December 9, 1865 Legislature ratifies 13th
amendment.
December 14, 1865 Charles J. Jenkins, governor.
April 30, 1866 Joint Committee sends 14th
amendment to Congress.
June 8, 1866 Congress passes 14th amendment.
November, 1866 Georgia rejects 14th amendment.
• Second Reconstruction
• March 2, 1867 Georgia placed under the 3rd Military
district by the Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867.
March 30, 1867 General John Pope arrives in Georgia
to take command of the 3rd military district.
May, 1867 General Pope closes the University of
Georgia.
December 9, 1867 Constitutional Convention meets in
Atlanta. 169 total delegates. 37 Black delegates.
January 1, 1868 General Meade succeeds General
Pope.
March 11, 1868 Constitutional Convention adjourns.
March 13, 1868 President Johnson impeached.
Acquitted by one vote on May 26.
April 20-24/21-23, 1868 Voting on new constitution.
May 11, 1868 First convicts leased in Georgia. General
Thomas Ruger USA, Provisional Governor of Georgia,
leases 100 able-bodied and healthy Negro convicts to
William A. Fort.
July 4, 1868 New legislature meets.
• July 21, 1868 Georgia ratifies the 14th amendment
• July 22, 1868 Rufus B. Bullock, governor.
July 25, 1868 Congress approves Georgia's
readmission to the United States but adjourns before
Georgia's Senators could be seated.
September, 1868 Legislature expels 28 Black members.
Four are so light skinned that it is not possible to
determine if they meet the 1/8 requirement and they are
left alone.
1868 Georgia's Representatives seated in congress.
March 10-18, 1869 legislature rejects 14th amendment
March, 1869 Georgia's Representatives barred from
their seats in congress. Georgia's Senators were never
seated.
June 28, 1869 Rufus B. Bullock leases Grant, Alexander
and Co. all convicts in the Georgia penitentiary for two
years.
Third Reconstruction
– December, 1869 United States Army reoccupies
Georgia. General Alfred H. Terry military governor.
January, 1870 Terry's Purge. Blacks returned to
legislature and 29 whites removed.
February, 1870 Fifteenth amendment ratified at point
of Terry's bayonets.
July 15, 1870 Georgia readmitted to the United
States.
October, 1870 Bullock secretly resigns and flees
Georgia.
October 30, 1871 Benjamin Conley, President of
Senate and acting governor.
December 14, 1871 Governor authorized to farm
convicts out for not less than one year or more than
two years. The lease to Grant, Alexander and Co.
which had expired on June 28, 1871 is extended until
April 1, 1871.
December, 1871 Special election called to replace
Bullock.
1872 United States forces evacuate Georgia. Georgia
was the last State readmitted to the United States.