Download Background reading on Reconstruction

Introduction
Reconstruction, one of the most turbulent and controversial eras in American history, began
during the Civil War and ended in 1877. It witnessed America's first experiment in
interracial democracy. Just as the fate of slavery was central to the meaning of the Civil
War, so the divisive politics of Reconstruction turned on the status the former slaves would
assume in the reunited nation. Reconstruction remains relevant today because the issues
central to it -- the role of the federal government in protecting citizens' rights, and the
possibility of economic and racial justice -- are still unresolved.
Northern victory in the Civil War decided the fate of the Union and of slavery, but posed
numerous problems. How should the nation be reunited? What system of labor should
replace slavery? What would be the status of the former slaves?
Central to Reconstruction was the effort of former slaves to breathe full meaning into their
newly acquired freedom, and to claim their rights as citizens. Rather than passive victims of
the actions of others, African Americans were active agents in shaping Reconstruction.
After rejecting the Reconstruction plan of President Andrew Johnson, the Republican
Congress enacted laws and Constitutional amendments that empowered the federal
government to enforce the principle of equal rights, and gave black Southerners the right to
vote and hold office. The new Southern governments confronted violent opposition from the
Ku Klux Klan and similar groups. In time, the North abandoned its commitment to protect
the rights of the former slaves, Reconstruction came to an end, and white supremacy was
restored throughout the South.
For much of this century, Reconstruction was widely viewed as an era of corruption and
misgovernment, supposedly caused by allowing blacks to take part in politics. This
interpretation helped to justify the South's system of racial segregation and denying the
vote to blacks, which survived into the 1960s. Today, as a result of extensive new research
and profound changes in American race relations, historians view Reconstruction far more
favorably, as a time of genuine progress for former slaves and the South as a whole.
For all Americans, Reconstruction was a time of fundamental social, economic, and political
change. The overthrow of Reconstruction left to future generations the troublesome problem
of racial justice.
A New Birth of Freedom:
Reconstruction During the Civil War
The Civil War, in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, brought to America "a new birth
of freedom." And during the war began the nation's efforts to come to terms with the
destruction of slavery and to define the meaning of freedom.
By the war's end it was already clear that Reconstruction would bring far-reaching changes
in Southern society, and a redefinition of the place of blacks in American life.
The Civil War did not begin as a total war, but it soon
became one:
a struggle that pitted society against society. Never
before had mass armies confronted each other on the
battlefield with the deadly weapons created by the
industrial revolution.
The resulting casualties dwarfed anything in the American experience. Some 650,000 men
died in the war, including 260,000 Confederates -- over one-fifth of the South's adult white
male population.
At the war's outset, the Lincoln administration insisted that restoring the Union
was its only purpose. But as slaves by the thousands abandoned the plantations
and headed for Union lines, and military victory eluded the North, the president
made the destruction of slavery a war aim -- a decision announced in the
Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863.
The Proclamation also authorized the enlistment of black soldiers.
By the end of the Civil War, some 200,000 black soldiers had served in the Union army and
navy, staking a claim to citizenship in the postwar nation.
During the war, "rehearsals for Reconstruction" took
place in the Union-occupied South. On the
South Carolina Sea Islands, the former slaves demanded
land of their own, while government officials and
Northern investors urged them
to return to work on the plantations.
In addition, a group of young Northern reformers came to the islands to educate the freed
people and assist in the transition from slavery to freedom. The conflicts among these
groups offered a preview of the national debate over Reconstruction.
Introduction
The most difficult task confronting many Southerners during Reconstruction was devising a
new system of labor to replace the shattered world of slavery. The economic lives of
planters, former slaves, and nonslaveholding whites, were transformed after the Civil War.
Planters found it hard to adjust to the end of slavery. Accustomed to absolute control over
their labor force, many sought to restore the old discipline, only to meet determined
opposition from the freedpeople, who equated freedom with economic autonomy.
Many former slaves believed that their years of unrequited labor gave them a claim to land;
"forty acres and a mule" became their rallying cry. White reluctance to sell to blacks, and
the federal government's decision not to redistribute land in the South, meant that only a
small percentage of the freedpeople became landowners. Most rented land or worked for
wages on white-owned plantations.
During Reconstruction, many small white farmers, thrown into poverty by the war, entered
into cotton production, a major change from prewar days when they concentrated on
growing food for their own families.
Out of the conflicts on the plantations, new systems of labor slowly emerged to take the
place of slavery. Sharecropping dominated the cotton and tobacco South, while wage labor
was the rule on sugar plantations.
Increasingly, both white and black farmers came to depend on local merchants for credit. A
cycle of debt often ensued, and year by year the promise of economic independence faded.
Free Labor
The postwar South remained overwhelmingly agricultural. The implements of work were the
same as before the war, but relations between planters, laborers, and merchants had
changed forever.
As under slavery, most rural blacks worked on land owned by whites. But they now
exercised control over their personal lives, could come and go as they pleased, and
determined which members of the family worked in the fields.
In early Reconstruction, many black women, seeking to devote more time to their families,
sought to withdraw from field labor, a decision strongly resisted by plantation owners.
Children, whose labor had been dictated by the owner under slavery, now attended school.
As a result, landowners complained of a persistent "labor
shortage" throughout Reconstruction, another way of saying
that free labor could not be controlled as rigidly as slave
labor.
Some urban growth occurred during Reconstruction, both in
cities like Richmond and smaller market centers scattered
across the cotton belt. Cities offered more diverse work
opportunities for both black and white laborers.
Reconstruction was an era of unprecedented political conflict and of far-reaching changes in
the nature of American government.
At the national level, new laws and constitutional amendments permanently altered the
federal system and the definition of citizenship.
In the South, a politically mobilized black community joined with white allies to bring the
Republican party to power, while excluding those accustomed to ruling the region.
The national debate over Reconstruction centered on three questions:
On what terms should the defeated Confederacy be reunited with the Union?
Who should establish these terms, Congress or the President?
What should be the place of the former slaves in the political life of the South?
During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln announced a lenient plan, with suffrage
limited to whites, to attract Southern Confederates back to the Union. By the end
of his life, however, Lincoln had come to favor extending the right to vote to
educated blacks and former soldiers.
Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson, in 1865 put into effect his own
Reconstruction plan, which gave the white South a free hand in establishing
new governments. Many Northerners became convinced that Johnson's policy,
and the actions of the governments he established, threatened to reduce
African Americans to a condition similar to slavery, while allowing former
"rebels" to regain political power in the South.
As a result, Congress overturned Johnson's program.
Between 1866 and 1869, Congress enacted new laws and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
amendments to the Constitution, guaranteeing blacks' civil rights and giving black men the
right to vote.
These measures for the first time enshrined in American law the principle that the rights of
citizens could not be abridged because of race. And they led directly to the creation of new
governments in the South elected by blacks as well as white - America's first experiment in
interracial democracy.
Presidential Reconstruction
In 1865 President Andrew Johnson implemented a plan of Reconstruction that gave the
white South a free hand in regulating the transition from slavery to freedom and offered no
role to blacks in the politics of the South. The conduct of the governments he established
turned many Northerners against the president's policies.
The end of the Civil War found the nation without a settled Reconstruction policy.
In May 1865, President Andrew Johnson offered a pardon to all white Southerners except
Confederate leaders and wealthy planters (although most of these later received individual
pardons), and authorized them to create new governments.
Blacks were denied any role in the process. Johnson also ordered nearly all the land in the
hands of the government returned to its prewar owners -- dashing black hope for economic
autonomy.
At the outset, most Northerners believed Johnson's plan deserved a chance to succeed. The
course followed by Southern state governments under Presidential Reconstruction, however,
turned most of the North against Johnson's policy. Members of the old Southern elite,
including many who had served in the Confederate government and army, returned to
power.
The new legislatures passed the Black Codes, severely limiting the former slaves' legal
rights and economic options so as to force them to return to the plantations as dependent
laborers. Some states limited the occupations open to blacks. None allowed any blacks to
vote, or provided public funds for their education.
The apparent inability of the South's white leaders to accept the reality of emancipation
undermined Northern support for Johnson's policies.
Succeeding to the presidency after Lincoln's death, Johnson failed to provide the nation with
enlightened leadership, or deal effectively with Congress. Racism prevented him from
responding to black demands for civil rights, and personal inflexibility rendered him unable
to compromise with Congress.
Johnson's vetoes of Reconstruction legislation and opposition to the Fourteenth Amendment
alienated most Republicans. In 1868, he came within one vote of being removed from office
by impeachment.
He was returned to the U.S. Senate in 1875, but died within a few months of taking office.