Download The Legacy of War

The Legacy of War
• 360,000 Union soldiers & 260,000 Confederate soldiers died
over 520,000 total were wounded
• 3,000,000 of the nation’s 31,000,000 were still occupied by
military service (disrupted education, careers & families)
• Civil War was considered to be the 1st “modern” war
• new rifles, bullets, hand grenades & land mines
• Monitor (N) & Merrimack (S), ironclad ships(stand-off, the
era of wooden ship fighting was over)
• a combined $3.3 bil. Was spend on the war (4 yrs)
• 20 yrs later 2/3 of the federal budget still went to pay interest
payments on the war debt & veterans’ pensions
• Constitutional amendment abolishing slavery:
13th Amendment – “neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude…shall exist within the US”
• Many political leaders returned to civilian life
• Civilians tried to return to farm, market and village but many
left for large, growing cities to seek opportunities
• Walt Whitman, a nurse & poet, wrote 2 books of war poetry &
Lincoln
“Oh Captain! My Captain”
• Clara Barton returned to the US and est. the American Red
Cross in 1881
• the assassination of Lincoln while seeing the British Comedy
“Our American Cousin” @ Ford’s theatre in Washington; John
Wilkes Booth, a southern sympathizer shot him in the back of the
head, just like an action flick he jumped down from the box, broke
his leg & escaped after shouting “sic semper tyrannis” “thus be it
ever to tyrants” he was taken 12 days later, being smoked out,
shot & dragged from a tobacco shed
• 1st assassinated President, nearly 7 million (1/3 of the Union
pop) turned out for his casket journey “martyr”
Now to face 2 major problems: how to restore
Southern states to the Union & how to integrate 4 mil.
newly freed African American slaves into national life
Reconstruction
• Andrew Johnson succeeded Lincoln as President
• 1865-1877
• Lincoln’s 10% Plan –pardon all Confederate soldiers
who swear allegiance to the Union & agree to follow
laws
• 10% pardoned so state could form a govt. & send
reps to Congress
• Goal was to make return of S quick & easy
• Radical Republicans
• advocates of abolition & the war
• pushed for laws ensuring African-American rights
• Wade-Davis Bill -Congress responsible for Reconstruction
• maj. had to take an oath to rejoin the Union
• Lincoln pocket vetoed the bill causing confrontation
• Johnson’s Plan “Presidential Reconstruction” declared all
states (Alab, FL, GA, Missi., NC, SC & TX) could join,
• secession illegal
• oath of allegiance
• ratify the 13th Amendment
• ignored slaves rights
• recall Charles Sumner? Beaten on the floor of the Senate by
Brooks…Sumner & Thaddeus Stevens were radicals who wanted
to destroy all political power of former slaveholders. No other
country who had abolished slavery had given A. Americans
suffrage & these men though America should be 1st
• in 1865, Radical Republicans disputed Johnson’s claims that
reconstruction was over, many southern states were the same as
they were when the war ended
• Congress voted to expand the Freedmen’s Bureau –
organization that assisted formed slaves and poor whites by
distributing food, clothing & setting up hospitals, schools,
industrial institutes & teacher-training institutes
• Civil Rights Act of 1866 – granted citizenship to A.Americans
& made Black Codes illegal –black codes were discriminatory
laws passed in the S that severely restricted A.Americans (incl.
prohibiting carrying weapons, renting farmland & marrying
whites…) Johnson Vetoed (alienated many pol. groups)
• 14th Amendment – granted citizenship to all people born or
naturalized in the US
• males, did not say blacks specifically but a state preventing
them from doing so would lose an equal percentage of seats
Reconstruction Act of 1867 –divided all Confederate states,
except TN into 5 military districts headed by Union gens. states
would
• 13th Amendment
• Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as
punishment for convicted crime…shall exist within
the US
• 14th Amendment
• granted citizenship to all peop9le born or
naturalized in the US (1868)
• 15th Amendment
• stated no one could be denied the right to vote
due to “race, color, or previous condition of
servitude” (*not gender)
• Republican govts. worked to rebuild the shattered
south
• public works programs (bridges, railroads,
orphanages, institutions etc…)
• social services
• increased taxes
• Republican party splits
• Carpetbaggers –Northerners who moved S after
the war (to help, to profit…)
• Scalawags –White Southerners who joined the
Rep. party to profit economically, politically or
encourage industry
• African Americans –supported the Rep. party
committed to civil rights & suffrage
• Newly Freed Slaves
• major adjustments just for SURVIVAL
• Freedom meant movement: leaving plantations
for cities, searching for displaced family,
marriages, education, churches, volunteer
organizations, politics = DESEGREGATION
• Hiram Revels -1st Af. Am. Sen.
• Southern Economy
• African Americans promised land –couldn’t afford
to purchase “40 acres & a mule”
• Southern Homestead Act (1866) –attempted to
rebuild the plantation system –set aside 44 mil acres
but it was swamp, unsuitable for farming & the
blacks had no tools etc…
• Restoration of plantations:
• Sharecropping –landowner divided land &
provided seeds & tools, portion of harvest went to
land owner
• Tenant farming –after building-up enough to
but their own tools, farmers could rent the land;
difficult as goods were expensive & purchased on
credit
• Cotton no longer the key cash crop
• Democrats regain strength in the South –redemption
• KKK:
• Klu Klux Klan est in TN by 2 Confed. (1866);
Southern whites who use terror to win back white
supremacy…still active today
What do you think about this?
Should they have freedom of speech?
• Violence & threats kept Af. Ams from voting &
allowed Democrats to win in several southern states by
1875
• Enforcement Acts: passed by Congress to stop
Klan violence & Democratic intimidation tactics
• caused a decrease in Klan activity
• Amnesty Act (1872): returned the right to vote and
hold federal offices to former Confederates causing a
shift in power
• Freedman’s Bureau comes to an end
• Republican Party Scandals
• Credit Mobilier scandal –Rep. incl. Grant’s VP
skimmed large amounts of $ from govt. railroad
contract
• Whiskey Ring –officials accepted bribes from
whiskey distillers in exchange for not collecting
taxes from these distillers
• Liberal Republican Party –(1872) caused a split in
the Republican Party weakening the Radical
Republicans and their Reconstruction plans
• “Panic” or Depression of 1873
• results from borrowing too much too fast,
companies collapse & go bankrupt
• currency becomes a key issue distracting the
govt. greenbacks v. gold standard
• Supreme Court Decisions weakened the impact of
the 14th & 15th Amendments
• Northern support fades as they become weary of
Southern problems and the question over Af. Am’s
place in society
• Political Shift…
• Election of 1876 –Hayes v. Tilden
• Tilden 1 vote short of electoral req. 20 disputed
• Rep. dominated; committee resolved situation
by giving election to Hayes
• Compromise of 1877 –final blow to
Reconstruction
• withdrawal of all fed troops
• fed $ to build a railroad & improve lines
• appoint a southern consv. To Hayes’ cabinet
• Home Rule –south able to run their govt. without
fed. Interference
• redeemers –passed laws to restrict Af. Ams.
Lowered taxed, cut social programs etc…
Failure of Reconstruction
“Success” of Reconstruction
• Repub. Parties couldn’t
continue support to make
reforms
• Af. American participation in
ALL levels of govt.
• Rad. Rep parties unwilling
to provide former slaves w/
economic support
• Racial biases
• Panic of 1873 (eco fear)
• public school systems (& other
state govt. successes)
• Af. Am est. families &
institutions such as schools &
churches
• Redistribution of land disbursed
from plantations
• Supreme Court undermined
power of 14th & 15th Amnds.
• 14th & 15th Amnds. helping Af.
Am attain full civil rights in 20th C.
Migration & Industrialization 1877-1917 (Ch. 13)
Changes on the Western Frontier: Cultures Clash on the Prairie
•Pressure of advancing white settlement: views of land use &
ownership
• legislating Indian life: reservations, treaties & legal status