Download CHAPTER 6 RECONSTRUCTION AND TRANSITION

CHAPTER 6
RECONSTRUCTION
AND TRANSITION
Section 1: After the War - Section 2: Presidential
Reconstruction - Section 3: Congressional
Reconstruction - Section 4: The Constitution of 1890
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● After the War
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Civil War ends in 1865
Mississippi face great challenges
Destruction and disorder were common
Roads and bridges were impassable
Town buildings burned down
Wealth of Mississippi no longer existed
Poverty affected everyone - black and white
1/3 of adult white males died during war - unable to work
Farms, homes, business - destroyed or badly damaged
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and
Transition
● After the War
○ Almost 400,000 freedmen faced greater challenges
■ Freedmen - former slaves
■ Homeless
■ Uneducated
■ Free for first time in their lives
■ Went town to town searching for jobs
■ Searched for spouses and/or children sold
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and
Transition
● After the War
○ Civil War broke the chains of slavery.
○ Destroyed the old social order
○ New relationships needed to be built
■ Attitudes of whites and blacks got in the way
■ Blacks feared being re-enslaved
■ Whites found it difficult to accept blacks as free
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and
Transition
● After the War
○ Political rights become questioned
○ Freedmen look forward to voting and holding office
○ White Mississippians political questions
■ How would they be treated by federal government
■ Punished for part in the war?
■ Would they be able to vote?
■ Would they be able to participate in government?
■ Would property taken away be returned to them?
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and
Transition
● After the War
○ Freedmen regarded:
■ Land, ballot, and education as primary means of
independence
○ Congress attempts to help freedmen
■ Created the Freedmen’s Bureau
■ Freedmen’s Bureau - an agency to help former slaves
with food, shelter, education, and health care. It also
helped them find jobs and arranged fair wages for
them from planters.
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and
Transition
● After the War
○ Freedmen believed
■ Freedmen’s Bureau would sell or lease land
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Land that was confiscated or abandoned during war
1865 Rumor that each adult black male would receive 40 acres
Over 800,000 acres seized during war
○ Very little permanently given to blacks
○ President Johnson ordered most returned to former owners
By 1867 even radical Republicans gave up on giving land
Without government help it was difficult for them to acquire land
After crop failures in 1866 and 1867 most lost everything
By 1870 about 12 percent still had land
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and
Transition
● Presidential Reconstruction
○ Reconstruction - a plan to rebuild the South and
restore southern states to the Union as quickly and
easily as possible.
■ Developed by Lincoln before the wars end
○ Lincoln’s plan was was based on two steps
■ All southerners, except high-ranking Confederate officials,
would be pardoned after taking an oath of loyalty to the
Union
■ 10% of voters take oath, state could form government
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and
Transition
● Presidential Reconstruction
○ Lincoln’s plan dies
■ April 14th, 1865 - Lincoln is assassinated
○ Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes President
■ Responsible for the reconstruction
■ Plan very similar to that of Lincoln’s
○ The difference
■ Expanded the group to all southerners for pardon
■ High ranking positions - owned property over 20,000
● Had to apply directly to the President for a pardon
● All southern states had to develop a new constitution
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and
Transition
● Presidential Reconstruction
○ State constitutions had to abolish slavery
○ Radical Republicans disappointed
■ Wanted stronger requirements for readmission
■ Johnson adds three more requirements to plan
● repeal their secession ordinances
● repudiate (void) their war debt
● ratify the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
○ Mississippi reconstruction
■ Sharkey named temporary governor
■ Directed to call convention to draft new constitution
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and
Transition
● Constitutional Convention of 1865
○ Convention started on August 14, 1865
○ Nation watched and waited
■ Belief that if Mississippi could write a fair constitution
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For blacks and whites
Met all requirements for readmission to Union
Other southern states would follow suit
○ Delegates made few changes
■ Most were prewar ruling class
■ State’s relations remained same with blacks
■ Did not want any responsibility for abolition of slavery
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and
Transition
● Constitutional Convention of 1865
○ President Johnson sends telegram to Sharkey
■ Encourages delegates to extend suffrage to blacks
● Suffrage - the right to vote
○ Only to educated blacks
○ Only to those who owned property
■ Delegates ignore Johnson’s advice
● Refuse to give right to vote
● Only passed resolutions voiding MS ordinances of
secession
● Did not ratify 13th Amendment or void war debt
○ Added after completion of their work
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and
Transition
● Election of 1865
○ White Mississippians agreed with delegates
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Opposed equal participation in state by blacks
Planters wanted restrictions forcing blacks back into fields
Feared black Union troops still in Mississippi
Elections occurred during tension
Humphrey opposed secession
● Fought with the Confederacy rank of General
● Won election without a pardon
■ Many that won election supported secession
■ Opposed granting suffrage and political position to blacks
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and
Transition
● Black Codes
○ New legislature meets
■ First and most important issue
● Civil and political rights of blacks
■ Passed four (4) acts known as the Black Codes
● Black Codes - codes designed to give the state control
over blacks’ behavior and, particularly, their labor; they
placed harsh economic and social restrictions on
blacks.
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and
Transition
● Black Codes
○ First Act
■ Entitled Civil Rights Act of 1865
● Provided 2 benefits
○ Legalized marriages
○ Right to sue in state courts
● Prohibited
○ Interracial marriages
○ Prevented blacks from testifying in court cases
involving whites
○ Limited black land ownership
■ Could rent or lease land but only in town
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and
Transition
● Black Codes
○ Required to have an employment contract
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Had to be witnessed by two whites
Broke contract arrested and returned to employer
Prohibited from carrying firearms
Provided blacks could be arrested for assembling without
permission
■ Unable to pay fine, could be hired out to whoever could
pay fine
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and
Transition
● Black Codes
○ John Richard Dennet
■ “while honest and industrious negroes are often
arrested and punished, there is no arrest of
notorious idle….white men.”
○ Black Codes and refusal to ratify 13th Amendment
■ Troubled freedmen
■ Angered white northerners
■ Blacks send petition to governor
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ask if state has really abolished slavery
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● Congressional Reconstruction
○ Several states refuse to ratify 13th Amendment
○ Congress takes control of reconstruction
○ March 2, 1867 - Reconstruction Act
■ Divides South into 5 military districts
■ MS falls into 4th Military District
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Maj. Gen. Edward O. Ord in command
First task - register all eligible voters
Registered any adult male regardless of race
○ Had to live in the state for at least one year
○ September 1867 - 137,000 registered to vote of 160,000
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● Congressional Reconstruction
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61 counties total in MS
32 counties more blacks were registered than white
29 counties more whites than blacks
November 1867 first test
■ Voters needed to decide on whether or not to
write a new constitution
■ Delegates were to be chosen in same election
■ Opposed by conservative Democrats
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● Congressional Reconstruction
○ New Republican Party - formed in 1867
■ People that supported Congressional Reconstruction
○ Scalawags - native whites (turncoats) who
supported the Republican party.
○ Carpetbaggers - term for northern whites
because it was believed that they came to the
state carrying their belongings in suitcases
made of carpet.
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● The Constitution of 1868
○ 100 delegates total ■
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17 blacks
29 scalawag
25 carpetbaggers
17 conservative Democrats
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Beroth B. Eggleston (Oh) elected as president of convention
2 Resolutions offered
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Universal Male Suffrage - extended the vote to male
citizens regardless of race or color
Provided for a free public education - children 6 - 18
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● The Constitution of 1868
○ Was not accepted by all Mississippians
■ Conservative Democrats
● Objected to provisions that disfranchise all person
who supported secession or aided the
Confederacy
● Disfranchise - to take the right to vote away
from an individual or group
● Did not agree with governor having more power
● Had to take oath stating all men are created equal
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● The Constitution of 1868
○ Constitution was put to voters in 1868
■ Failed
● conservative whites refused to vote
● Ku Klux Klan - militant organization that used
violence and intimidation to keep blacks from
the polls
■ President Grant resubmits constitution to the
people of Mississippi without the disfranchising
and an equal oath - Ratified
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● Republican Rule in Mississippi
○ Election of 1869
■ Republican James L. Alcorn elected governor (Ill)
■ 1870 Legislature meets
● Ratifies the 14th and 15th Amendments
● Elect Adelbert Ames and Hiram Revels to U.S.
Senate
○ Hiram Revels was first black to serve on U.S.
Senate
● February 23, 1870 - Mississippi readmitted to Union
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● Black Political Power
○ Began with election of 17 blacks as delegates
○ General Ord appoints black planter Justice of
Peace - Benjamin T. Montgomery
○ Blacks did not dominate state politics
○ I.D. Shadd and John R. Lynch served as
Speaker of the House
○ James Lynch elected as secretary of state 1869
○ Numerous blacks have held high political offices
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● Education
○ Major accomplishment of Reconstruction
government
■ Creation of tax-supported public schools
■ 1850 - 13% white children attend school
■ 1870 school system in each county
● allocated more than $1 million
● One state superintendent
● One superintendent per county
■ 1875 school enrollment - 89,813(b) 78,404(w)
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● The End of Republican Rule
○ Democrats opposed Reconstruction
○ Objected to Union troops - especially blacks
○ Charged Republicans with corruption and waste
○ Claimed taxes were too high
○ Resisted public schools - especially for blacks
○ Said blacks were ignorant voters and politicians
○ Considered themselves to be redeemers
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● The End of Republican Rule
○ Employers
■ Threatened jobs of blacks if they did not vote a
certain way
■ KKK used violence to prevent blacks from voting
■ 1874 - 500 whites gather at courthouse
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force black sheriff Peter Crosby to resign
blacks came to help get job back - riots erupted
Federal troops were required to restore order
Democratic strategy worked - regain control
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● The End of Republican Rule
○ Presidential election of 1876
■ Hayes (R) and Tilden (D)
● Tilden 184 electoral votes
● Hayes 165 electoral votes
○ 185 needed for majority
● Congress appoints commission of 27 to decide
● Hayes receives all 27 and becomes President
● Decided only after an agreement to end a
filibuster
● Filibuster - continuous speech making to
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● The End of Republican Rule
○ Following Reconstruction
■ Democrats reverse many decisions of
Republicans
■ Include reducing taxes
■ Decrease in government jobs
■ Dramatically reduce public funds
● Became to low to support schools and colleges
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● The Constitution of 1890
○ 1880s calls for change to constitution of 1868
■ Did not feel that they should be governed by laws
created by blacks and carpetbaggers
○ Whites from northern counties wanted
reapportionment of the state
■ Reapportionment - redrawing the lines of
voting districts throughout the state
■ Felt Delta region was gave to much power to
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● The Constitution of 1890
○ 1880s calls for change to constitution of 1868
■ Did not feel that they should be governed by laws
created by blacks and carpetbaggers
○ Whites from northern counties wanted
reapportionment of the state
■ Reapportionment - redrawing the lines of
voting districts throughout the state
■ Felt Delta region was gave to much power to
Chapter 6: Reconstruction and Transition
● The Constitution of 1890
○ Section 12 of the Constitution
■ Adult males wanting to vote must
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Register at least 4 months in advance
Live in the state for 2 years district 1 year
Pay an annual poll tax of $2
Read any section of the state constitution or
understand it when read to them
■ Understanding Clause - added to the
constitution to allow illiterate whites to