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Reconstruction
Triumph of Race, Politics, and
Redeemers, 1863-1877
• The South’s economy after the war was
in a pitiful state.
• In the North the government in
Washington had to revolve what terms
the southern states should be remitted
to the Union, and how the rights of
former slaves were to be protected.
• The form of treatment that Lincoln
favored towards the South was lenient
treatment.
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Lincoln wanted the seceded states to join
the Union as not as conquered territories,
but as states equal in status to the North.
Lincoln’s two conditions for readmission
into the Union were ten percent of the
state’s voters would be required to take an
oath of allegiance to the United States, and
the new state government would be
required to guarantee the abolition of
slavery.
• Following Reconstruction, the
term New South was most often
used to describe changes in the
Southern economy.
• A major result of the Civil War
was that the power of the central
government was strengthened.
• What changes do you think were
happening in the South following
the Civil War?
Frederick Douglass, 1866
• The arm of the Federal
government is long, but
it is far too short to
protect the rights of
individuals in the
interior of distant
States. They must have
the power to protect
themselves, or they will
go unprotected, in spite
of all the laws the
Federal government
can put upon the
national statute-book.
Who Should Control
Reconstruction—Congress or
President?
• Wade-Davis Bill
• Lincoln Pocket Veto
• Assassination of Lincoln left question
unresolved when Andrew Johnson
became president.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural
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 his orphan--to do all
which may achieve and cherish a just and
lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all
nations.
Freedman’s Bureau
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned
Land, often referred to as the Freedmen's Bureau,
was established in the War Department on March
3, 1865. The Bureau supervised all relief and
educational activities relating to refugees and
freedmen, including issuing rations, clothing and
medicine. The Bureau also assumed custody of
confiscated lands or property in the former
Confederate States, border states, District of
Columbia, and Indian Territory.
Built Schools—many of whom were forerunners of
the “Historically Black Colleges” in the South.
Freedman’s Bureau Schools
Andrew Johnson
• Rags to Riches Story
• “Treason must be made odious”
• Initially a darling of and later a
disappointment to Radical
Republicans
• Reconstruction Plan (Proclamation
of Amnesty—May 1865) similar to
Lincoln’s
• In their plans for Reconstruction, both
President Abraham Lincoln and
President Andrew Johnson sought to
allow the Southern States to reenter
the nation as quickly as possible.
• A major reason the Radical
Republicans opposed President
Abraham Lincoln’s Reconstruction
plan was that his plan offered amnesty
to nearly all Confederates who would
swear allegiance to the United States.
Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction
Plan
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Ten percent of the state’s voters would
be required to take an oath of loyalty to
the U.S. Constitution, the state must
ratify the Thirteenth Amendment
abolishing slavery, and it must deny the
right to vote to a few Confederate
leaders, while granting that right to all
other southern white men.
Radical Republicans
Reconstruction Plan
• That the south should be
punished for its role in the war
and that the seceded states
should be treated as conquered
territories. They also believed
that the newly free slaves
should be given political rights.
• No state would be allowed to deprive
anyone born on American soil of the rights
of citizenship/vote. No military leader or
political officeholder of the defeated
Confederacy would be permitted to hold
state or federal office in the postwar
period. The South would be occupied by
federal troops and governed by army
generals. The troops would be withdrawn
from a state after it had adopted a new
state constitution acceptable to Congress.
Andrew Johnson
Radical Republicans: Thaddeus
Stevens, Charles Sumner, Ben
Wade
Thirteenth Amendment
• Declared slavery illegal in every
state of the union.
Fourteenth Amendment
• “All persons born or naturalized
in the United States, and subject
to the jurisdiction thereof, are
citizens of the United States and
if the state wherein they reside.”
Fifteenth Amendment
• This amendment said that
voting rights could not be
denied to a person because of
that person’s “race, color, or
previous condition of
servitude.”
Southerners Don’t Get It
• Elect ex-CSA leaders to Congress,
including Alexander Stephens
• Black Codes-Prohibited blacks from carrying
firearms; starting businesses, appearing on the streets
after sunset; renting or leasing farmland; and
traveling without a permit.
• Race Riots
• Jim Crow Laws- segregated, or separated the
races like forbidding blacks to mix with whites in
public places (railroad cars, streetcars, restaurants,
and hotels).
• The Jim Crow laws of the postCivil War Era were attempts by
state and local governments to
restrict the freedoms of African
Americans
• Poll taxes and grandfather
clauses were devices used to deny
African Americans the right to
vote
• For Southern whites, already
embittered by Confederate
defeat, northern control of their
state governments was an insult.
• The chief interests of southern
whites during Reconstruction
were to revive their war torn
economy, regain control of their
state governments, and reduce
the political power of southern
blacks.
Radicals Respond
• Barely failed to override Johnson’s Veto
of Bill to Extend Life of Freedman’s
Bureau
• Overrode Johnson’s Veto of CRA of 1866
• Enacted a new Freedman’s Bureau
• Sent 14th Amendment to States—ratified
by them in 1868
• Radical’s insisted on Civil Rights for
former slaves and a federal enforcement
mechanism
Radicals on a Roll—March 2,
1867
• Military Reconstruction Act
• Command of the Army Act
• Tenure of Office Act
Military Reconstruction Act-1867
• Divided South into Military District
• Southern States—Tn. Excepted—
would write new constitutions w/
Universal Adult Male Suffrage
• States had to ratify 14th amendment
• Subsequent legislation gave Army
power to register voters and to
disqualify “disloyal persons” from
registering.
South Readmitted
• By 1870, Southern states were readmitted
• Some had to ratify 15th amendment too
• Reconstruction Constitutions were most
LIBERAL—yes, that’s a mighty fine word,
look it up—in history of Southern States.
• Legal means to overturn Reconstruction often
culminated with rewriting these Reconstruction
Constitutions.
Johnson Impeached
•
The Radical Republicans impeached
President Andrew Johnson because many
personally disliked him, and he had used
the power of the presidency to block many
of their Reconstruction plans. The Radical
Republicans laid a trap for Johnson by
passing the Tenure of Office Act, which
required that the president obtain
congressional approval before dismissing a
cabinet officer.
Johnson Impeached
• Vote to remove was 35 to 18, one
shy of the 2/3rds needed
• Radicals didn’t need to remove
Johnson; by the time of his trial
it was 1868, an election year; he
could simply be ignored.
Major Achievements of
Reconstruction
• 14th and 15th Amendments
• African American Participation
in Public Life
• Readmission of Southern States
th
14 Amendment
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National Definitions of Citizenship
Equal Protection Clause
Due Process Clause
High Confederate Official banned from
national office
• Confederate debt repudiated
th
15 Amendment
• “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.”
Failure of Reconstruction
• Southern whites were violently opposed
to black rights; many in north were
indifferent
• Rise of KKK
• Where army was present, KKK leaders
were apprehended and imprisoned. (The
Force Acts of 1870-1871)
• Land Reform—blacks (and poor whites)
left to farm tenancy
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Many Northerners moved to the South
after the Civil War was seek economic
gain and political power.
Carpetbaggers were fortune hunters
from the north that carried all their
belongings in a single travel bag.
Scalawags were Southern whites who
cooperated with the northerners. Their
motives were thought to be corrupt and
their goal was to make money by any
scheme necessary.
• Many plantation owners could
not afford to keep their land so
they sold it. Most of the land
went to white buyers, although
a small number of blacks also
managed to become landowning
farmers.
• Instead of selling the land what
the other options plantation
owners had was renting sections
of their land to tenant farmers.
In order to live and work on the
land, tenant farmers provided
their own seed, mules, and
provisions.
Sharecroppers
•
Sharecroppers were the poorest southerners
(whites as well as blacks) lacked the money
either to pay rents or to buy mules for
plowing. In return for farming a piece of
land, they paid a certain share of crop to the
landlord. They were often unable to pay their
debts for many reasons worn out land, low
prices for their cotton, and relatively high
prices for farm supplies.
“Boy, You ain’t a votin’ here”!
WHITE SUPREMACY
• In every southern state, groups
of whites formed secret societies
such as Knights of the White
Camellia and the Ku Klux Klan
(KKK).
• These groups often beat and
killed African Americans and
scalawag whites were also
intimated.
Freedmen’s Bureau
• Aiding 4 million former slaves
(freedmen) in adjusting to freedom. It
built and operated schools in the South
for blacks, recognizing that as slaves,
they had been deliberately deprived of
the skills of literacy. The bureau also
provided emergency aid in the form of
clothing, food, and medical supplies.
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The differences between the two great African
American leaders of the late 19th and early 20th
centuries were due, in part, to the fact that Booker T.
Washington had been born a slave in the South, while
W.E.B. Du Bois was raised as a free man in
Massachusetts. Washington did not view equal rights
as a goal that blacks should pursue. He stressed
vocational education as a means of achieving economic
security.
While Du Bois accepted Washington’s view of
vocational education as a useful tool, he advocated a
college education for the most academically gifted
black students. His major difference with Washington
was in the area of social and political equality.
Washington avoided social protest and the two leaders
differed greatly over the need for African Americans to
achieve equality and speak out against discrimination.
Grant Presidency
• Did attempt to enforce
Reconstruction
• Presidency clouded by scandals
• Republican party divided
between Stalwart and Liberal
Republicans—little energy left to
devote to Reconstruction.
President Grant
1876 Presidential Election
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Disputed results between Hayes and Tilden
The Compromise of 1877 settled the controversy
and conflict created by the election of 1876.
Southern Democrats agreed to accept the
Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes as
president. In return, Hayes agreed to withdraw all
federal troops from the South. Hayes’ actions had
the effect of abandoning southern blacks, and
ended the brief period of racial equality that had
existed during Reconstruction.