Download Reconstruction

Reconstruction
1865-1877
Reconstruction: Major Questions
Reconstruction: the era in which the federal government struggled in
dealing with the issues of the Civil War:
1.
How will Southern states rejoin the union? Treat them like they
never left or continue military occupation? Are they equals?
2.
How will the Southern Economy be rebuilt?
3.
What rights will African Americans have? Whose job is it to protect
those rights-federal or state government?
4.
Who has authority to decide these answers-President or Congress?
*Come up with some ideas to fix these problems!*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nowsS7pMApI
Part 1
POLITICAL PLANS FOR
R E C O N S T R U C TI O N
Southern States Rejoin: YOU DECIDE
 Should leaders be tried




for treason?
How do Southerners
claim seats in Congress?
What about the
Constitution?
Should Congress or the
President lead?
Stipulations to joiningloyalty oaths?
Rights for African Americans
 13th Amendment:
abolition of slavery;
passed Dec. 6, 1865

Citizenship? Full rights?
 Republican Party
supports; Southerners
reject (power stance)
Southern Economy Rebuilt
 Left to the states; little
help given to them
 1860-1870: Wealth
declined from 30% to
12%
 ¼ of soldiers died in
war, land destroyed, no
farm equipment, no
workforce
 Land=most valuable
asset; who gets it?
Lincoln’s Stance: 10% Plan
 Felt some sympathy for the South; offered 10% Plan:

Full Presidential pardon to southerners who took
An oath of allegiance to the U.S. Constitution/Union
 Accepted emancipation of slaves


As soon as 10% of voters took a loyalty oath to the Union,
the state could set up a new government
 Opposition to 10% Plan:
Thaddeus Stevens/Charles Sumner “Radical
Republicans”
 Advocated full citizenship for AA and punishment for
South

Wade-Davis Bill
 Raised in opposition to
the 10% Plan; feared
disloyalty
 Demanded a majority
of voters to take loyalty
oath to the Union AND
guarantee AA equality
 Lincoln kills with a
pocket-veto
Freedmen’s Bureau
 1865 “Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and
Abandoned Lands” created by Congress
 Goal: provide food, clothing, healthcare, and
education for black and white refugees in the South





Reunited families separated at wartime
EDUCATION; Oliver O. Howard (3,000 schools)
Negotiated labor contracts
Represented black citizens in court; LEGAL RIGHTS
Fed funding stops 1870, disbands in 1872
Lincoln to Johnson
 Lincoln’s assassination
puts Johnson in charge
 Background:



TN senator
Picked as running mate to
show “friendship” during
wartime
Problem: white
supremacist
Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
 Picks up where Lincoln left off; agreed with Lincoln-
desired fast acting restoration of Union
 Required states to accept 13th Amendment and
abolish slavery in their state constitutions
 Did NOT agree that AA should vote- “White Man’s
Government”
 Supported state’s rights: laws and customs of state
can outweigh federal regulations
Black Codes
 Laws that sought to limit
the rights of African
Americans and keep them
as landless workers
1. Could not borrow money
2. Could not testify against
a white man in court
3. Limited occupations and
property rights

Vagrancy laws: any black
person who did not have a
job could be sent to work as a
prison laborer
“Who won the war?”
-Republicans
Congressional Reconstruction
 Round 1: restoration of Union; completed by Presidents

Disagreed with black codes and return of C. officers
 Round 2: Congress imposes own version of
Reconstruction on South (focus on tmw)

Harsher on whites, protective of freed blacks
 Radical Republicans take lead in 1866; Sumner/Stevens

Angry at South; want them to pay
 Civil Rights Act of 1866: federal guarantee of civil rights
and superseded state laws

Johnson vetoes law
Congressional Reconstruction
 With 2/3 majority,
Congress overrides
President Johnson to pass
Civil Rights Act of 1866

Moderate + Radical
Republicans work together
 14th Amendment:
equality under FEDERAL
law for naturalized citizens


If states refused, they lost seats
in the House
South under military control
Congress Tries to Impeach Johnson
 Crisis of 1867: Congress
and Pres. don’t agree
 Tenure of Office Act: Pres
needs senate approval for
removal of certain offices
(is this constitutional?)
 1968: Impeachment
debate in House after
Johnson dismisses of Sect.
of War

failed by ONE vote
Grant and the 15th Amendment
 1868: Ulysses S. Grant is elected president
 Wins electoral vote, significant lead in popular vote thanks to
African American population
 1869 15th Amendment: no state can deny suffrage
on the grounds of race, color, or previous conditions
of servitude


Both 14th/15th amendments ratified by 1870
Loopholes: literacy/property/gender qualifications
 Civil Rights Act of 1875: last of civil rights reforms
 Guaranteed equal accommodations in public places
 Cannot exclude African Americans from juries
Part 2
R E C O N S T R U C TI O N I N T H E
SOUTH
REVIEW: POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
In your opinion, what was the biggest problem
faced at the end of the Civil War?
What was Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction? How
did Johnson’s Plan compare?
What group in Congress led the fight against
Johnson? What did they disagree on?
What event led to Johnson’s impeachment?
What 3 Amendments were passed between 18651870? What did they state?
How did the South get around the 3 Amendments?
VOCABULARY REVIEW
 Wade-Davis
Bill
 13, 14, 15th Amd.
 Freedmen’s Bureau
 Civil Rights Act of
1866
 Black
Codes
 Impeachment
 Civil Rights Act of
1875
Congress takes the Power
 2nd round of Recon:
Congress leads
 Ex-Confederate States:
Rep. controlled gov’t under
military protection of the
US army until “ALL
RECONSTRUCTION
REQUIREMENTS ARE
MET”

Republicans rule :TN (1
year), FL (9 years)
 Southern Government:


Majority in both houses
are white men
Only exception: SC


Freedmen control 1873
House of Rep.
Legislators included
native-born white
southerners, freemen, and
northerners
Supporters of Reconstruction
 Scalawags: nickname
given to Southerners who
joined the Rep. Party



Former Whigs
Rival of S. Democrat
Economic development
and peace for their state
 Formed allies in the
north and with
whites/blacks in the
south
Supporters of Reconstruction
 Carpetbaggers:
northern newcomers
seeking to improve their
economic/political
situations
 “Make a fortune out of
the South’s misfortune”
 Young, basic education,
worked to get political
career
African Americans Get Power
 1500 black men help Republicans Party
 Superintendents, sheriffs, coroners, police, state legislature
 Legislators: well-educated property holders, moderate stance

Blanche K. Bruce, Hiram Revels-Senators (took J. Davis’s seat!)
 Loyalty Oaths required to vote-AA men quickly sign
up to vote


White southerners struggling to accept-many avoid voting all
together
Black majorities rising throughout the South
Reconstruction: Success v. Failure
Successes
 Freedman’s Bureau
 Liberalized state const.
 Debt relief
 Universal male suffrage
 13, 14, 15 Amendments
 Internal growth (roads)
 Societal Growth; schools,
hospitals/asylums
Failures
 No woman suffrage
 Segregation of schools
 End of F.B.; illiteracy, low
quality med care, housing,
and econ opportunities
 Limited protection of legal
rights for AA
 Political corruption (took $)
 Mismanagement of money
Freedmen: New Life
Family Life
Schools and Churches
 AA men and women have
 Freedmen’s Bureau combats
legal rights: can build
families and get married
 Start schools, churches, and
social institutions
 Issues in the South:
 Settle for substandard
living conditions
 Hard to find jobs
 Black codes
illiteracy
 Black Colleges est.
 Black churches flourish
 Helped build community,
employment, political
rallies, and schools
 Black activists start off as
ministers
Southern Economy: Problems
Uneven distribution of land
1.

90% of land owned by only 50% of the population
2. Competition between landless whites and blacks
3. Sherman:“40 acre and a mule” plan did not offer a
solution
4. Did not want to take land from wealthy (Stevens)
Systems for Sharing Land
 Sharecropping:
landowner chooses the
crop AND provides
sharecropper with shelter,
seeds, and tools in return
for a “share” of the harvest
 Problems:


Tools: costly, high int. rate
Sharecropper perpetually in
debt to landowner; often
lied to about debt
Systems for Sharing Land
 Share-tenancy: similar
to sharecropping BUT
worker chose his crop
and bought own supplies
 More autonomy, could
better judge prices,
possible to save $$$
System for Sharing Land
 Tenant Farming: paid
rent to landowner then
free to manage his own
crops and free to choose
where he lives
 All depended on
management skills
Grant Administration: 1st Term
 Concerned with railroads, labor, and money
 Gilded Age & Violence
 Public obsessed with material interests
 From reformers to Spoilsmen: political manipulators (spoils
system back again)


Business/Political bosses scheme to enrich themselves


Senator Roscoe Conklin, James Blaine
Boss man Tweed, Jay Gould, James Fisk
Formation of the KKK

Purpose: keep freed people from the polls
End of Reconstruction
 Grant is reelected for a 2nd term: Corruption again
 Panic of 1873=Economic Depression
 Over-speculation and overbuilding (railroads)
 Businesses fail, jobless/homeless population
 Inflation rampant; farmers in debt
REDEEMING THE SOUTH:
*Radical Republicans waning, Southern conservatives called
“redeemers” take back Southern government

State’s rights, reduced taxes, reduced spending on social
programs, white supremacy
Election of 1876
 Federal troops withdrawn
from all but SC, FL, and LA
 Democrats return to power
in other S. states


R: Rutherford B. Hayes (OH)
D: Samuel J. Tilden (NY)
 Hayes wins 1876:

“Compromise of 1877”:
Immediate end to
Reconstruction in South if
Democrats vote Hayes
End of Reconstruction
 Hayes withdraws all
troops from South
 1880s-1890s: Supreme
Court strikes down
Reconstruction laws
that protected blacks


Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
Blacks remain poor
farmers; fall further
behind