Download Reconstruction - Trimble County Schools

Reconstruction
Angela Brown
http://www.archives.gov/research_room/research_topics/civil_
war/civil_war_photos.html
Reconstruction
• Americans struggled
to rebuild the South
from 1865-1877
• Four presidents were
involved
•
•
•
•
http://encarta.msn.com/
media_461530633/
American_Civil_War_
Destruction.html
Physical and Human Toll
• 2/3 of southern
shipping destroyed
• 9000 miles of
railroads destroyed
• Farms, livestock,
homes, bridges
destroyed
• Property value
dropped 70%.
• The North had lost
364,000 soldiers
including 38,000
African Americans.
• The South lost
290,000 or 1/5th of its
adult white men.
• One out of three
southern men were
killed or wounded.
• http://www.civil-war.net/cw_images/files/images/695.jpg
Southerner’s Hardships
• The south was made
up of three major
groups..
– Black Southerners
– Plantation owners
– Poor white
southerners
• http://www.cityofbarnesville.com
• /5/images/2080.jpg
Lincoln’s Plan
• Lincoln wanted to restore the Union gently.
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/Thomas
_Nast/Thomas_Nast_Grant_Lee.jpg
Provision One
Offered a pardon to
nearly all Southerners
who pledged an oath
of loyalty and
accepted the
elimination of slavery.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/j1.html
Provision Two
• Once 10 percent of a
Confederate state’s
voters had taken a
loyalty oath, that state
could resume full
participation in the
union.
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/l
eefoundation/Confederate_
Cabinet.htm
Lincoln’s Plan
• It denied pardons of
all Confederate
military and
government officials
and to southerners
who had killed African
American war
prisoners.
• It did not require the
new constitutions to
give voting rights to
black Americans.
• Nor did it “readmit”
southern states to the
Union. Lincoln
viewed their
succession as
unconstitutional.
http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/HIUS403/
freedmen/images/blackworkers.JPG
Radical Republicans
• Some Republicans
criticized Lincoln’s
plan as to easy on
the South.
• They wanted to
punish the
Confederate states
and make major
changes in the South.
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/
Southern_Exiles.htm
Congressional
Reconstruction
• Congress passed its
own tough
Reconstruction bill,
the Wade Davis Act,
in July 1864.
• It proposed putting
the South under
military rule.
• Lincoln refused to
sign it.
Abraham Lincoln
http://www.civil-war.net/cw_images/files/images/188.jpg
Lincoln’s Assassination
• Lincoln was murdered
by John Wilkes Booth
on April 14, 1865.
• Vice-President
Andrew Johnson
became President.
• A one-time slave
owner from the South;
with a strong hatred
of southern planters.
John Wilkes Booth
http://www.civil-war.net/cw_images/files/images/198.jpg
The Thirteenth Amendment
• This amendment
abolished slavery in
the United States.
• It became law in
December 1865.
http://www.sonofthesouth.
net/slavery_pictures.htm
Johnson’s Plan
• Johnson’s plan was
known as Presidential
Reconstruction.
• Johnson followed most of
Lincoln’s Reconstruction
plan.
• He offered amnesty and
the return of property to
all Southerners who
would take an oath of
loyalty to the Union.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Johnson
More Generous to the South?
• States were required to void secession,
abolish slavery, and ratify the Thirteenth
Amendment.
• It officially denied pardons to all
Confederate leaders but Johnson often
issued pardons to those who asked him
personally.
• He pardoned 13,000 southerners in 1865.
http://members.aol.com/historybks/images/gasoldr1.gif
The Freedmen’s Bureau
• Created by Congress in
March 1865 to help black
southerners adjust to
freedom.
• It was the first federal
relief agency.
• 250,000 African American
students received their
first formal education.
• Largely dismantled in
1869
• http://cla.calpoly.edu/~lcall/204/freedmans_cartoon.jpg
Black Codes
• Laws that restricted freedmen’s rights.
• Curfews (couldn’t gather after sunset)
• Vagrancy Laws (not working = fined, whipped,
sold for a year’s labor)
• Labor Contracts (sign in January for a year)
• Limits on women’s rights (forced farm labor)
• Land restrictions (rent land or homes only in
rural areas)
http://www.africanaheritage.com/graphics/images
/AfricanAmericanFamilyLiveOak400.jpg
The Fourteenth Amendment
• Outraged over the
black codes…
• The Radicals drafted
a constitutional
amendment which
gave African
Americans the rights
of citizens.
• Ratified by the states
in 1868
http://www.schoolhousevideo.org/media/MRcartoon.jpg
Election of 1866
• The Radicals gained
control of the House
and Senate.
• They now had the
strength to implement
their plan.
• Congress passed the
Reconstruction Act of
1867.
Radical Reconstruction
• It abolished the
South’s new state
governments and
required new state
constitutions.
• It placed them under
military rule, five
districts were
governed by a
northern general.
http://www.swcivilwar.com/RichmondDestruction7.html
More Restrictions
• Required all qualified
male voters, including
African Americans to
be allowed to vote.
• Temporarily barred
southerners who had
supported the
Confederacy from
voting.
• It required southern
states to guarantee
equal rights to all
citizens.
• It required the
ratification of the
Fourteenth
Amendment.
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/
media_content/m-8877.jpg
The Fifteenth Amendment
• In 1869, Congress protected African Americans
right to vote by passing the Fifteenth
Amendment.
• In 1870, with federal troops stationed across the
south, proud African Americans
voted…republican.
• Many whites refused to vote = landslide
republican victories and African American office
holders.
• http://www.allenscreations.com/images/mkmor.jpg
Carpetbag Government
• Government in the
Southern States was left
to “scalawags” and
“carpetbaggers”.
• Carpetbaggers were
Northern Republicans
who moved to the south.
• Scalawags were white
southern republicans.
http://encarta.msn.com/media_461520820/
Cartoon_of_the_Carpetbaggers.html
The Tenure of Office Act
• This act passed by
Congress in March
1867, prohibited the
President from
removing certain
government officials
without Senate
approval.
• Johnson ignored the
act and removed his
secretary of war,
Edwin M. Stanton –
the only cabinet
member who openly
sided with the
Radicals.
http://www.picturehistory.com/find/p/598/mcms.html
Impeachment
• In response to
Johnson’s violation of
the Tenure of Office
Act, the House voted
to impeach the
President in February
1868.
• The Senate narrowly
found Johnson not
guilty. He was
acquitted by one vote.
http://www.picturehistory.com/find/p/12157/mcms.html
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-11,
GGLD:en&q=Ulysses+S+Grant+pictures
Election of 1868
• The Radical
Republicans
nominated Civil War
hero Ulysses S.
Grant.
• The Democrats chose
Horatio Seymour, a
former governor of
New York.
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1862/
horatio-seymour.htm
Did you know?
• Upon leaving office, President Andrew
Johnson won election to the U.S. Senate
from Tennessee in 1874.
• He died in July 1875, just months after
taking his Senate seat.
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=
GGLD,GGLD:2005-11,GGLD:en&q=us+flag+pictures
Reconstruction Ends
• President Grant won reelection in 1872.
• He tried to pursue the goals of
Reconstruction.
• Government corruption reminded voters of
the faults of reconstruction.
• Legislature taxed and spent heavily.
• Reconstruction came to symbolize
corruption, greed, and poor government.
Solid South
• As federal troops
withdrew from the South,
white-dominated southern
states blocked many
federal Reconstruction
policies.
• Northern voters never
fully supported the
Radicals’ goal of racial
equality.
• 1872 the last exconfederates were
pardoned.
• They joined with other
white southerners to form
a new bloc of democratic
voters called the solid
south.
• They reversed many
reforms of the
Reconstruction
legislatures.
The Election of 1876
President Hayes
• Republican
Rutherford B. Hayes
lost the popular vote
to Democrat Samuel
Tilden of the solid
south.
• The electoral vote
was disputed.
http://www.civil-war.net/cw_images
/files/images/198.jpg
Compromise of 1877
• Democrats agreed to
give Hayes the
Presidency.
• The new President
would remove the
remaining federal
troops from the
South.
• He would give huge
subsidies to Southern
railroads.
• Democrats regained the
control of southern
politics.
• This marked the end of
Reconstruction.
• For years historians
marked Reconstruction
as a dismal failure.
• The truth is more
complex.
Successes of Reconstruction
• The union was rebuilt and the South was
repaired.
• Economic growth was stimulated in the South
and new wealth created in the North.
• The 14th and 15th Amendments were passed.
• The Freedmen’s Bureau helped black families.
• Southern States adopted the system of taxsupported, mandatory education practiced in the
North.
Failures of Reconstruction
• Most black southerners remained in a cycle of
poverty with little hope of escape.
• After federal troops withdrew Southern State
governments and the Ku Klux Klan denied
African Americans the right to vote.
• Left bitterness toward the federal government
and the Republican party by most southerners.
• Racial attitudes continued in the South and
North.
• Southern economy (agricultural) lagged behind
the industrialized North.
• http://www.cursor.org/images/klan.jpg