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RECONSTRUCTION
High Hopes & Broken Dreams
1867-1877
Why does this story matter?
Fork in the road -- status quo or
radically change the social fabric
The choices made then, shaped the
next 100 years of American history
Why does this history matter to
us today?
BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR:
A Question of FEDERALISM
over the core Issue of
SLAVERY
From Nations Founding
(Deleted Declaration &
3/5th Compromise)
To Civil War
(Free or Slave?)
AFTER THE CIVIL WAR:
The North - Union (Republican)
The South - Confederate
(Democrats)
North won the war, but who won the
peace?
STAGES OF RECONSTRUCTION
1 - PRESIDENTIAL (Johnson)
RECONSTRUCTION
2 – RADICAL (Republican)
RECONSTRUCTION
3 - RETREAT
Part I Chp. 4- Uncertainty
 Part I Chp.7- White Men Alone

Southern Fears/Perceptions:

Economic, Social,
Political Insecurity

Northern
“Carpetbaggers”
Change “Way
Of Life”


Negro Rule
Southern Reaction: Black
Codes
“Black Codes”- 1 yr post war




No Land
No Vote
No Jury Rights
No Freedom of Mvmt
Slavery without the Chains
“To the freed man was given the
machinery of liberty, but there was denied
to them the steam to put it into motion.
They were given the uniform of soldiers,
but no arms; they were called citizens,
but left only subjects; they were called
Frederick
free, but left almost slaves. The old
Douglass
master class was not deprived the power
of life and death which was the soul of
the relation of master and slave. They
could not, of course, sell their former
slaves, but they retained the power to
starve them to death, and wherever this
power is held, there is the power of
slavery.”
Reestablishing the Old OrderKu Klux Klan
Lynching: Control through Terror
Part I Chp. 10- Slavery Without Chains
 Part I Chp. 7- War on Terror

Radical Reconstruction
Congressional Northern Republicans
 Free Public Education
 Build Infrastructure
 Voting Rights
 Hold Political Office
 Testify in Court & Serve on Jury
 Own Property
Radical Reconstruction:
Constitution 1865
13th Amendment
 Abolished
slavery
 Need to Ratify to
Rejoin Union
Radical Reconstruction:
Constitution 1868 & 1870
 14th
Amendment:
Defined Black males
as Citizens - Granted
protection of Civil
Rights/Due Process
 15th
Amendment:
Voting Rights to Black
males
Freedmen’s Bureau
 Provided Food, Clothes, Shelter
 Education Programs
 Employment Agency
Reuniting Families
Getting Married
“40 Acres & a Mule”
Part I Chp. 13- Radical Reconstruction
(start 1:16:15)
 Part II Chp. 6- New Order

3. The Demise of Reconstruction
Union Troops implementing
Reconstruction:






200,000 Union troops at end of war
17,000 troops in 1866
20,000 troops in 1867 (Radical Rec)
9,000 troops in 1870
6,000 troops in 1876
Basically gone after 1877- why?…
Playing Politics with 1876
Election- the real end of Rec.

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Tilden (D) vs. Hayes (R )
Down to 1 electoral vote- rested on 3 southern votes
(hey-Florida again!)- Congress decides
A deal is cut- Hayes will win, but North must pull
federal troops out of South
Remember- Lincoln was a Republican. White South
will not consistently vote as Republican block again
until Ronald Reagan in 1980!!!!
Impact of the 1876 Election Deal

Democrats rule south
 White supremacy again!
 Alliance between wealthy plantation owners
and poor whites
 Blacks in south abandoned by federal govt

Part II Chp.14- Secret Compromise
RETREAT (1877)
“40 Acres & Mule”
 Tenant Farming
 Return to “Old South”
 No
Old Powers Return
Why did Reconstruction Fail?
“The Lost Cause” by Thomas Nast

Part II Chp.15- Looking Back
Accomplishments of Radical
Reconstruction
Free
public schools (also + for whites)
1st Black participation in political activity
Abolished prison debt
Reduced illiteracy
Abolished property qualifications for
holding political office
Blacks and whites worked together in
politics, on social issues, etc.
And “Big Picture,” after
Reconstruction?

Huge expansion of industry
 Steel- Birmingham, AL founded after war
(coal, limestone,iron ore)
 Textile industry moves from New England to
Carolinas- cheap white labor in mills, cheap
black labor in nearby cotton fields, former
confederate leaders to manage mills
 New immigration wave goes north- south
does not need cheap labor- they have it!
Legacy of a Failed
Reconstruction:
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The “Color Line” -- Ingrained &
Legitimized Racist Attitudes
Jim Crow Laws -- Institutionalized Racism
Control of work, education, housing,
political life, recreation, travel, Plessy v.
Ferguson 1896 (segregation), etc..
The Second Reconstruction - 1950’s &
60’s Civil Rights Movement
Are we still ‘Reconstructing’ our nation?