Download Unit 4 Mr. Knox GA Studies

Unit 4
Mr. Knox
GA Studies
GPS
SS8H6 The student will analyze the impact
of the Civil War and Reconstruction on
Georgia.
c. Analyze the impact of Reconstruction on
Georgia and other southern states,
emphasizing Freedmen's Bureau;
sharecropping and tenant farming;
Reconstruction plans; 13th, 14th, and 15th
amendments to the constitution; Henry
McNeal Turner and black legislators; and
the Ku Klux Klan.
Essential Questions
1. How did Reconstruction efforts and policies impact
Georgia and other southern states? (H6c)
2. How do sharecropping and tenant farming differ?
(H6c)
3. How did the KKK intimidate people in the South?
4. How did the Republicans and the Freedmen’s Bureau
affect African Americans?
5. How did resentment after the Civil War affect society?
6. How did the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th
amendments to the Constitution affect all Americans,
particularly African Americans? (H6c)
End of the Civil War
On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee
surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at
Appomattox Courthouse, VA.
 After 4 years the bloody war was finally over.
 About 25,000 of the 125,000 GA soldiers
who fought for the Confederacy died during
the war.

Reconstruction
•
Once the War was over, the Federal
Government had to decide what to do
with the states that seceded.
• The process of rebuilding the South was
known as Reconstruction.
• Lincoln wanted to rebuild the south
rather than punish them. He felt that all
Americans had suffered enough.
• Lincoln’s Reconstruction plan was
known as the “10 percent plan”
Reconstruction –
Lincoln’s Plan
Lincoln’s 10 Percent plan had 2 steps:
1. All southerners, except for high-ranking
Confederate civil and military leaders,
would be pardoned after taking an oath
of allegiance to the US.
2. When 10 percent of the voters in each
state had taken the oath of loyalty, the
state would be permitted to form a legal
government and rejoin the Union.

Reconstruction
•
Lincoln never got to see the South rebuilt
because he was assassinated by John
Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865.
• Andrew Johnson succeeded Lincoln and
became the USA’s 17th president and now
had the task of rebuilding the nation..
• President Johnson was a southern
Democrat who was loyal to the Union
during the war. He favored a form of
reconstruction that was less harsh on the
South but did little to guarantee the rights
of slaves.
Reconstruction
•
President Johnson was opposed by the Radical
Republicans.
• Radical Republicans favored a more radical
form of Reconstruction:
– Felt that the south should be punished for starting the
war.
– Believed a majority of the states’ voting population
should have to swear allegiance to the US before
being readmitted to the Union.
– Felt that the civil rights of slaves should be protected.
– Also thought Congress, not the President should be in
charge of Reconstruction.
Reconstruction

Johnson’s plan similar to Lincoln’s:
 His plan expanded groups of southerners
not granted a general pardon. Those who
owned property worth more than $20,000 or
held high civil or military positions had to
apply directly to the president for a pardon.
Reconstruction

Conflict over reconstruction grew so
much that Johnson was impeached.
 Impeach – bringing formal charges against a
government official in hopes of removing
them from office.

Johnson was saved by one vote from
being removed from office.
 What other president in the US’s history has
been impeached?
Reconstruction

Pressure from the Radical Republicans
forced Johnson to add more
requirements for the South:
 Southern states had to approve the 13th
amendment.
 Southern states had to nullify their
ordinances of secession.
 Southern states had to promise not to repay
individuals and institutions that helped
finance the Confederacy.
The Freedman’s Bureau
•
Created by Congress in 1865 to help freed
slaves.
• Was the first federal relief agency in history.
• The Freedman’s Bureau Provided:
–
–
–
–
•
Clothing
Medical Attention
Food
Education
It set up over 4,000 primary schools, 64
industrial schools, and 74 teacher training
institutions.
• Ended in 1869 because of lack of support, but
helped many slaves in GA transfer to freedom.
13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments
Amendment 13
1. Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the
United States, or any place subject to
their jurisdiction.
2. Congress shall have power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.
13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments
Amendment 14
1. All persons born or naturalized in the United
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,
are citizens of the United States and of the
State wherein they reside. No State shall make
or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States; nor shall any State deprive any person
of life, liberty, or property, without due process
of law; nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments
Amendment 15 –
1. The right of citizens of the United States
to vote shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or by any State on
account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude.
2. The Congress shall have power to
enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.

13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments
•
Radical Republicans in Congress passed
major legislation to help African-Americans
after the war.
– Prior to Lincoln’s death, the 13th Amendment
was added to the US Constitution ending
slavery.
– 1868 – the 14th Amendment was ratified
granting citizenship to African Americans.
– 1870 – the 15th Amendment guaranteed that no
citizen could be denied the right to vote by either
the Federal Government or a State because of
the color of their skin or because they use to be
a slave.
Sharecropping & Tenant Farming
African Americans had to adjust to life
after slavery.
 Former slaves had no money, no land,
and no property.
 Many turned to sharecropping and
tenant farming in order to make a living.

Sharecropping vs. Tenant Farming
•
•
•
Sharecroppers agreed to
farm a portion of a white
landowner’s land in
return for housing and a
share of the crop.
Some landowners were
dishonest and cheated
the sharecroppers.
As a result of cheating,
sharecropping became
almost like slavery.
Sharecropping



A family rented a portion
of land and owned the
crops they grew.
Tenants were less at the
mercy of landowners.
Tenant farmers also may
have owned equipment
and animals and also
purchased their own
seed and fertilizer.
Tenant Farming
Georgia’s Reconstruction
Government
After the war, the Federal Government
took over GA’s government and
appointed a provisional governor.
 1866 – GA abolished slavery.
 1867 – GA ratified the 13th Amendment.
 The US Army governed GA for a while
(martial law) until Washington set up a
new GA State Government.

Georgia’s Reconstruction
Government
•
Scalawags met in 1867 to adopt a new GA
State Constitution that lasted until 1877.
– Scalawags – White southerners who supported
the Republican Party.
•
1867 Rufus Bullock, a Radical Republican,
became governor of GA until he was forced
from office in 1871 by the Ku Klux Klan.
• GA ratified the 14th Amendment in 1868.
• 32 African-Americans were elected to the
GA State House and Senate.
Henry McNeal Turner
Was one of the 32 African Americans elected
to serve in GA’s Legislature in 1868.
 Was a Bishop in the African Methodist
Episcopal Church.
 Doubted that whites and blacks could ever
live together peacefully after slavery.
 He urged African Americans to move back to
Africa rather than stay in the US.
 Few blacks listened, but Turner did draw a
great deal of attention to the plight of African
Americans in the South.

Unrest in GA during
Reconstruction
A faction of conservative Democrats
ousted 28 of the 32 African Americans
who were voted into the State
legislature.
 This group based their actions on the
argument that blacks’ right to vote in the
south did not give them the right to hold
office.
 Some groups used violence to frighten
African Americans.

Ku Klux Klan
Group who organized to terrorize African
Americans and whites who assisted
them.
 Klansmen would dress up in white
sheets and hooded masks
 The KKK would often lynch those they
targeted.

Unrest in GA during Reconstruction
Gov. Rufus Bullock was concerned about the
unrest in GA and outraged at the ousting of
the African American legislators.
 He asked the federal government to
reinstitute martial law and in 1869 GA
reorganized its government including the
previously ousted African Americans.
 In January of 1870, GA ratified the 15th
Amendment.
 In 1871, GA was readmitted to the Union.

Presidential Election of 1876
In 1876, both Democrats and Republicans
claimed their candidates had won the
election.
 Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was named
president after a compromise (Compromise
of 1877).
 The compromise ended reconstruction and
the Federal Government’s “occupation” of
the south in exchange for Hayes becoming
president.

Presidential Election of 1876
Southern States could now run their own
governments.
 GA and its neighbors became the “solid
south”, a period of time in which only
Democrats won elections for high offices.
 All civil rights efforts stopped in the south
until the 1950’s because of Democrats’
control.
 Georgia would not have a Republican
Governor again until 2002 when Sonny
Perdue was elected.
