Download Freedman`s Bureau

1865-1877
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Different Views
Reconstruction Programs
Congress vs. President
Southern Resistance
Changes in South
End of Reconstruction
Conclusion
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After 4 years of war and over 200 years of slavery, could
Northerners and Southerners rebuild the South
together?
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Should the South have been treated as a defeated nation
or as rebellious states? Should they be punished?
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How would freed men and women be treated in the
Southern states? Did the Dred Scott decision matter?
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What were some major challenges that former slaves
faced?
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Does racial equality depend upon government action?
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How would Northerners address the issue of including
former slaves as citizens in society?
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Class reading of letter from Jourdan Anderson, 1865
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Please respond in writing to the following questions:
1. What is the most surprising thing about what
Jourdan Anderson wrote?
2. Why do you think he wrote the letter?
3. What does this letter tell you about the world in
which Jourdan Anderson lived?
4. If you could write a letter back to Mr. Anderson,
what are three questions you would ask him?
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Southern white views
 Lost cause and loss of power
Southern black hopes
 Independence and land ownership
 Citizenship and education
 Reunite with families
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Lincoln’s plan
 “with malice toward none and charity toward all”
1. Forgive if pledged Union loyalty (10% plan)
2. New state governments must ban slavery
▪ 13th Amendment = ~4 million slaves free
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President Andrew Johnson (Tenn., Democrat)
 “White men alone must manage the South.”
 Pardoned almost all that asked
 No plans for former slaves
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Struggled against Republican Congress
 Refused to admit Southern Congressmen elected
in 1865
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Radical Republicans desires
1) Reshape Southern society
2) Create government program to force change
▪ Freedman’s Bureau
▪ Civil Rights Bill of 1866 and 14th Amendment
▪ Military Reconstruction Act
▪ 15th Amendments
Central Historical Question
Why was the Radical
Republican plan for
Reconstruction considered
“radical”?
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Freedman’s Bureau
 Helped former slaves and poor whites
▪ Supplies, food, and medical services
 Supervised contracts
 Created schools
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By 1870, a quarter million black children and adults
attended more than 4,000 of these schools in the
South.
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Civil Rights Bill of 1866
 Give citizenship and rights to all males "without
distinction of race or color, or previous condition
of slavery or involuntary servitude.“
 Johnson vetoed it but Congress overrode the veto
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14th Amendment (ratified 1868)
 Gave citizenship to all men
 Equal protection of the law
▪ Most transformative Amendment in the Constitution
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Military Reconstruction Act
 Confederacy divided into 5 Military Districts
▪ Union Generals ruled each district
 2 requirements for Southern states
1. Write a new state constitution (all men can vote)
2. Ratify the 14th Amendment
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15th Amendment (1870)
 Section 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.
 All “citizens” can vote
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Congress annoyed at Johnson’s interference
 Passed the “Tenure of Office Act”
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Johnson tried to fire his Secretary of War (R.R)
 Congress “Impeached” Johnson!
▪ Acquitted by ONE vote
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South invented ways around Reconstruction
Black codes
 Laws that kept blacks in slave-like conditions
Gerrymandering
Terrorist groups formed
 Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
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Who could vote in the South in 1868?
 No Confederate Veterans!
 Freemen, White Southerners who opposed
secession, Northerners who moved south
Ulysses S. Grant (R) was easily elected President
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African Americans became members of governments
 17 elected to Congress (1870-1877)
 700 served in Southern legislatures
 Biggest part of Southern Republican votes
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Every Southern state readmitted by 1870
New public school system created
 Most schools “segregated” by race
New labor systems
 Sharecropping and tenant farming
▪ Kept former slaves in debt
▪ Kept South from diversifying its farms or
improving economically
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The South DID benefit from Reconstruction
 Cities grew
 Infrastructure repaired
 Textile mills created
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However, lower wages than the North & a big
cycle of debt with sharecropping and tenant
farming
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Northern support eventually declined as people tired
of taxes and government debt
 Freedmen’s Bureau closed 1872
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Grant distracted by corruption and economic collapse
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Amnesty Act pardoned most former Confederates
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Democrats re-took Power in South
 Began to look at White House
Election of 1876 close, results disputed
 Republican = Rutherford B. Hayes
 Democrat = Samuel J. Tilden
 Compromise of 1877
 Hayes President on 2 conditions
1. Troops withdrawn from South
2. Democrat placed in Hayes’ cabinet
 As troops left the south, Reconstruction ended.
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Permanent changes in America
 Former slaves = citizens with vote (males only)
 3 Amendments added
 Terrorist organizations in America (ex. KKK)
 Industrialization of South
 High debt problems
 “Solid South”
 Voted Democrat until 1970s!
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