Download Reconstruction08

Reconstruction
African American History
http://www.teacheroz.com/reconstruct
ion.htm
Juneteenth June 19, 1865
The oldest known celebration
commemorating the ending of slavery
in the United States.
Union soldiers, led by Major General
Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston,
Texas with news that the war had
ended and that the enslaved were now
free.
Two and a half years after President
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation which had become official January 1,
1863.
Reconstruction
Few periods in American past have
witnessed the drastic social, political, and
economic changes of the Reconstruction
era.
Over 600,000 people died in the Civil War
Four million slaves were emancipated.
Union’s victory symbolized a victory for the
North and industrialization.
Reconstruction
Men and women -- black and white--in the
North and South -- now began the work of
rebuilding the shattered union and of
creating a new social order.
It would hold many promises and many
tragic disappointments.
It was the beginning of a long, painful
struggle, far longer, and more difficult than
anyone could realize.
It was the beginning of a struggle that still
unfinished.
Key Questions
1. How do we
bring the South
back into the
Union?
2. How do we
rebuild the
South after its
destruction
during the war?
4. What branch
of government
should control
the process of
Reconstruction?
3. How do we
integrate and
protect newlyemancipated
black freedmen?
Northern Occupation = Freedom
Reconstruction
Jefferson Davis was held in prison for two
years; there were no treason trials.
Only one person — Captain Henry Wirz,
the commandant of the prison camp in
Andersonville, GA— was executed for
war crimes.
Jeff Davis
From 1865 to 1867 he was
imprisoned at Fortress Monroe,
Virginia. Davis was indicted for
treason in 1866 but the next year was
released on a bond of $100,000
signed by the American newspaper
publisher Horace Greeley and other
influential Northerners. In 1868 the
federal government dropped the case
against him.
“Forty acres and a mule”
General Sherman issued Special Field
Order, No. 15, a temporary plan granting
each freed family forty acres of tillable
land on islands and the coast of Georgia.
The army had a number of mules which
were also granted to settlers.
The orders were in effect for only one year.
Voter Registration
Freedmen
registered to
vote during
Congressional
Reconstruction in
drives conducted
by the U.S.
military.
Reconstruction Act of 1867
The Reconstruction Act of 1867
The Reconstruction Act of 1867 imposed
on the white South a regime more difficult
to bear than defeat.
Large numbers of white southerners were
disfranchised, blacks and their allies--loyal
whites and those from the North—
participated in politics in the South.
White home rule was discredited because it
was said that white southerners tried to
return to the years before the war.
The Constitutional Conventions
All conventions contained black members.
In SC, they were the majority of delegates,
LA equal 49-49.
The state constitutions drawn up in 1867
and 1868 were the most progressive the
South had ever known.
Most of them abolished property
qualifications for voting and holding office
and estab. public school systems,
modernized local govt, & all abolished
slavery.
State of Louisiana
Black Reconstruction
During Reconstruction,
sixteen African Americans
held seats in the U.S.
Congress.
They included Senators
Hiram Revels
(Mississippi), Blanche K.
Bruce (Mississippi), and
Congressmen James
Rapier (Alabama), Joseph
H. Rainey (South
Carolina) and John R.
Lynch (Mississippi).
Black Reconstruction
Officeholders
South Carolina 314
(60%)
Mississippi 226
(50%)
Louisiana 210
Alabama 167
North Carolina 180
Georgia 108
Virginia 85
Florida 58
Texas 46
Arkansas 46
Tennessee 20
DC 11
Public Offices
Congress
Governor
Lt. Governor
Supreme Court
Sec. Of State
Treasurer
Supt of Education
State House
State Senate
Customs
Justice of the Peace
City Council
Police/Constable
County Commissioner
Registrar
School Board
Militia Officer
Sheriff
Mayor
Leading Occupations
Barber
Blacksmith
Carpenter
Mason
Shoemaker
Tailor
Businessman
Lawyer
Merchant
Grocer
Minister
Teacher
Editor
Planter
Farmer
Laborer
Other Facts (PROFILES)
Born in the North 138
Abolitionists 31
Victims of Violence 154
Slave-owner 22
Union Veteran 129
Democrat 15
Held office after Reconstruction 285
(Robert Smalls Custom “Administrator”
until 1913)
P.B.S. Pinchback
Born to a white
Mississippi planter and a
former slave
Raised a company of
black volunteers called the
Corps d'Afrique.
A delegate to the
constitution convention in
Louisiana.
State senate, pro tempore,
& lieutenant governor.
From Dec. 9, 1872, to Jan.
13, 1873, he served as
acting governor.
Hiram R. Revels
Born free, barber,
minister, recruiter &
chaplain of a black
regiment. Miss. alderman
(1868) and a state senator
(1870). In 1870 Revels
was elected as the first
African American member
of the United States
Senate-- from Feb. 25,
1870, to March 4, 1871.
(vacated ten years earlier
by Jefferson Davis.)
Blanche K. Bruce
1st black person to serve a
full term in the U.S.
Senate, born in slavery in
VA. Tutored by his
master's son, worked as a
field hand, and printer's
apprentice. Escaped
slavery, rejected by the
military, he taught school,
briefly attended Oberlin
College, steamboat porter.
Robert Smalls
Elected to the South
Carolina legislature in
1868 to 1874, Smalls
was voted into
Congress in 1875,
where he served until
1886, longer than any
other African
American during
Reconstruction.
Robert Smalls (1839-1916)
Born a slave, mastered sailing and became the
pilot of a Confederate, the Planter.
Smalls smuggled his wife and three children
aboard the Planter and took command. Delivered
the ship to the Union.
Lincoln received Smalls in Washington and gave
him official command of the Planter as captain.
Entered South Carolina politics following the war.
The Balance of Power in
Congress
State
White
Citizens
Freedmen
SC
291,000
411,000
Miss
353,000
436,000
Louis
357,000
350,000
GA
591,000
465,000
AL
596,000
437,000
VA
719,000
533,000
NC
631,000
331,000
“Black Rule?”
Many of them were well-qualified in terms of
background, experience, and education; others
were not.
Of the nearly 1500 office holders, at least 378 had
been free before the war.
933 literate, 195 illiterate.
64 had attended college or professional school
farmers, tailors, carpenters, barbers, ministers,
teachers, soldiers, Freedman’s Bureau workers.
Several were wealthy and a few had own slaves.
Black Rule
in a
Reconstructed
State ?
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
 Required 50% of the
number of 1860 voters to
take an “iron clad” oath of
allegiance (swearing they
had never voluntarily aided
the rebellion ).
Senator
Benjamin
Wade
(R-OH)
 Required a state
constitutional convention
before the election of
state officials.
 Enacted specific safeguards
of freedmen’s liberties.
Congr.
Henry
W. Davis
(R-MD)
Lincoln’s Plan
Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
Lincoln ignored the past and asked voters to swear
that in the future they would support the Union.
Lincoln's 10% Plan-one tenth of that state's total
vote in the presidential election of 1860 took the
prescribed oath and organized a government that
abolished slavery
Lenient --Loyalty Oath-Any Confederate who
would swear to support the Constitution and the
Union.
Lincoln & Blacks
Initially assumed many blacks would leave
and thus supported colonization to West
Indies, Latin America, or Africa
Created Departments of Negro Affairs
Andrew Johnson
Humble beginnings/Self-taught man
Tailor by trade
Entered public service: local alderman,
mayor, state senator, 5 terms in Congress,
TN governor- worked to establish the first
tax-funded public schools in the state.
Johnson took a seat in the U.S. Senate as a
Democrat
Andrew Johnson
Johnson remained
loyal to the Union
Appointed military
governor of TN
Selected as running
mate/VP 1864
Became president
when Lincoln was
assassinated
President Andrew Johnson
 Jacksonian Democrat.
 Anti-Aristocrat.
 White Supremacist.
 Agreed with Lincoln
that states had never
legally left the Union.
Damn the negroes! I am
fighting these traitorous
aristocrats, their masters!
Johnson
Initially expressed a willingness to continue
Lincoln’s policies.
But developed a much more conservative
view and opposed Radical Republican
plans.
Vetoing an extension of the Freedmen
Bureau and offered amnesty to many former
Confederate officials.
Johnson’s Plan
Declared that he would be hard on
former Confederates especially
aristocracy.
They would have to appeal to him
personally
Sanctioned white home rule
Radicals considered his plan “soft”
President Johnson’s Plan (10%+)
 Offered amnesty upon simple oath to all except
Confederate civil and military officers and those with
property over $20,000 (they could apply directly to
Johnson)
 In new constitutions, they must accept minimum
conditions repudiating slavery, secession and state
debts.
 Named provisional governors in Confederate states and
called them to oversee elections for constitutional
conventions.
1. Disenfranchised certain leading Confederates.
EFFECTS?
2. Pardoned planter aristocrats brought them back
to political power to control state organizations.
3. Republicans were outraged that planter elite
were back in power in the South!
Growing Northern Alarm!
 Many Southern state
constitutions fell short of
minimum requirements.
 Johnson granted 13,500
special pardons.
 Revival of southern defiance.
BLACK CODES
Slavery is Dead?
Black Codes
 Purpose:
*
Guarantee stable labor
supply now that blacks
were emancipated.
*
Restore pre-emancipation
system of race relations.
 Forced many blacks to
become sharecroppers
[tenant farmers].
Congress Breaks with the
President
 Congress bars Southern
Congressional delegates.
 Joint Committee on
Reconstruction created.
 February, 1866  President
vetoed the Freedmen’s
Bureau bill.
 March, 1866  Johnson
vetoed the 1866 Civil Rights Act.
 Congress passed both bills over
Johnson’s vetoes  1st in U. S.
history!!
Radical Republicans
Joint Committee on Reconstruction December
1865--to determine whether the southern states
should be readmitted to the Union.
The committee investigated southern affairs and
confirmed reports of widespread mistreatment
of black people and white arrogance—black
codes.
Radical Republicans hoped to eliminate such
action and take this opportunity to uplift black
people.
What did they want?
A militant group of Republicans were especially
disturbed by Johnson’s “soft plan.”
They considered white Southerners disloyal
despite military defeat.
The Radical Republicans were determined to
transform the racial fabric of American society
by including black people in the political and
economic system.
Radical Proposals
Confiscate hundreds of acres of land from
the wealthiest Southerners and distribute to
freedmen
Voting Rights for black men
Radical Plan for Readmission
 Civil authorities in the territories were
subject to military supervision.
 Required new state constitutions, including
black suffrage and ratification of the 13th
and 14th Amendments.
 In March, 1867, Congress passed an act
that authorized the military to enroll eligible
black voters and begin the process of
constitution making.
Radical Republicans
vs. Johnson
Pres. Johnson vetoed Freedmen’s Bureau Bill &
Civil Rights Bill.
Feared expansion of the federal bureaucracy
Doing too much for blacks.
He believed blacks were not ready for the
privileges and benefits of citizenship.
Insisted the civil rights bill benefited blacks at
the expense of whites.
Johnson also condemned the proposed 14th
amendment—citizenship-- and verbally attacked
Republican leaders.
The Tenure of Office Act
 The Senate must
approve any presidential
dismissal of a cabinet
official or general of
the army.
 Designed to protect
radical members of
Lincoln’s government.
 Question of the
constitutionality of this
law.
Edwin Stanton
President Johnson’s
Impeachment
 Johnson removed Stanton in February, 1868.
 Johnson replaced generals in the field who
were more sympathetic to Radical
Reconstruction.
 The House impeached him on February 24
before even
drawing up the
charges by a
vote of 126 – 47!
The Senate Trial
 11 week trial.
 Johnson acquitted
35 to 19 (one short
of required 2/3rds
vote).
Impeachment
In 1866, the Republicans gained enough
strength to override presidential vetoes.
Johnson argued that Reconstruction was a
presidential function; Congress wanted the
responsibility.
In the fall of 1867 Johnson was impeached
by the House of Representatives for
violation of the Tenure of Office Act
He escaped conviction (and removal) in the
Senate by a single vote.
War Amendments
Thirteenth Amendment - Abolished Slavery
Fourteenth Amendment - Gave blacks
citizenship
Fifteenth Amendment - Black male suffrage
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen
and Abandoned Lands
Federal Agency provided medical services,
food, labor contract negotiations, and
housing to black and white southerners
General Oliver O. Howard
Freedmen’s Bureau
Freedmen’s Bureau Seen
Through
Southern
Eyes
Plenty to
eat and
nothing to
do.
Freedmen’s Bureau School
Charles Sumner
Champion of Black
Rights
Radical Republican
Blacks needed to
vote:
1. Protection
2. Peace
3. Union
War Amendments
13th Abolished Slavery (12/65)
14th Gave blacks citizenship (7/68)
15th Gave black men the right to vote (2/70)
Home Rule
Southern Conservatives were restored to power
by:
political action & intimidation of blacks-destroying property and physical attacking those
who voted for Republicans.
Democrats also pointed to the bribery,
embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, and
other corrupt practices in the federal government
to discredit Republicans.
Thaddeus Stevens 1792-1868
Dartmouth grad
PA Politician
Antislavery Whig
Elected to Congress
1848
Da
"Great Commoner,"
pushed for
emancipation and
black suffrage.
Charles Sumner 1811-1874
Harvard grad
Critic of slavery and
the annexation of
Texas
Abandoned Whigs for
the Free Soilers
Republican-Antislavery leader
Radical Republicans
Champion of Black Rights
Thaddeus Stevens
Advocated the Freedmen's
Bureau bills and the
Tenure of Office Act
Favored confiscation of
the property of the
Confederate States
He led Congress in the
struggle with the president
(impeachment resolution)
The Fourteenth
Amendment and the
Reconstruction Act
Charles Sumner
Introduced the 13th
Amendment
Nominated a black
lawyer, John Rock,
to practice before
the U.S. Supreme
Court
Introduced the bill
that created the
Freedmen’s Bureau
Southern Republicans
Freedmen Scalawags
Carpetbaggers
Took control and promoted modernization
through railroads and public schools.
Charged with corruption by their opponents
Carpetbaggers
 Many former northern
abolitionists risked
their lives to help
southern freedmen.
 Called “carpetbaggers”
by white southern
Democrats.
Black Codes
Limited the newly freed blacks to 2nd class
citizenship
Cheap and controllable/submissive black
labor force.
Black Codes
(differed state to state)
Vagrancy laws
Blacks could not own property
Blacks were excluded from certain
businesses or from the skilled trades.
Former slaves were forbidden to carry
firearms or to testify in court, except in
cases concerning other blacks.
Interracial marriage was prohibited.
Black Codes
They limited areas where
blacks could purchase or
rent property
Vagrancy laws--blacks
could not miss work
Could not quit or breach
contracts
Blacks could not testify in
court in cases involving
whites
No firearms
Curfews
Often prohibited
using alcohol,
hunting, fishing, and
grazing livestock.
Freedmen could not
vote or serve on
juries.
Ku Klux Klan
Immediately after Civil War, racial
motivated brutality and violence swept
across the South.
Whites were embittered by defeat and the
loss of millions of dollars worth of slave
property.
Southern whites believed that they could
best handle blacks and resurrect the
Democratic Party. They were determined to
guide their own destiny and control blacks.
KKK
Nathan Bedford Forest Confederate
leader organized the KKK in TN.
WHY? To restore white conservative rule
and force blacks back into subordination.
Membership included businessmen,
lawyers, physicians, farmers, and skilled
and unskilled labors.
Well-organized- military structure.
Southern Violence
Nathan Bedford Forrest
No formal military
training
Lt. General of the
Calvary
Highly effective in
guerilla warfare
Fort Pillow Massacre
The “Invisible Empire of the
South”
The Enforcement Acts
The Enforcement Acts 1870 and 1871- The
federal government expanded its authority over
the states.
The 1870 Act outlawed disguises and masks and
protected the civil rights of citizens.
The 1871 Act aka Ku Klux Klan Act made it a
federal offense to interfere with an individual’s
right to vote, hold office, serve on a jury, or enjoy
equal protection of the law.
The Failure of Federal
Enforcement
 Enforcement Acts of 1870 & 1871
[also known as the KKK Act].
 “The Lost
Cause.”
 The rise of the
“Bourbons.”
 Redeemers
(prewar
Dems. and Union
Whigs).
Enforcement Acts
Between 1870 and 1871 Congress
passed the Enforcement Acts -criminal codes that protected
blacks' right to vote, hold
office, serve on juries, and
receive equal protection of laws.
The target of the acts was the Ku
Klux Klan, whose members were
murdering many blacks and some
whites.
Sharecropping
An uneven economic arrangement between
the laborer and landowner.
Housing, tools, seed, animals, so on -provided by the landowner
Labor/Work –provided by the former slaves
Profits from the crops were to be shared
Sharecropping
Reuniting Families
Redeemers
The Redeemers were a loose political coalition
in the during who sought to re-establish the
rule of white supremacy by overthrowing the
Radical Republican coalition of Freedmen,
carpetbaggers, and scalawags.
Opposed the Republican system: corruption,
high taxes, and black political participation
Redemption/Redeemers
Once they regained political influence Redeemers
turned back the Reconstruction civil rights
measures. They passed laws that expanded racial
segregation and discrimination throughout
Southern institutions and everyday life.
In exchange for its acceptance of return to the
Union, the South (along with the rest of the
country) was allowed to reestablish a segregation,
racially discriminatory society.
Election of 1876/Compromise of
1877
Reconstruction continued in SC, LA, & FL
until 1877. After Republican Rutherford B.
Hayes won the disputed U.S. Presidential
election of 1876, the South agreed to accept
Hayes's victory if the President withdrew
the last Federal troops from the South.
Election of 1876
1876 Presidential Tickets
“Regional Balance?”
1876 Presidential Election
The Political Crisis of 1877
A Political Crisis: The
Compromise of 1877
Why did the North lose interest in the
cause for African Americans?
Northern politicians become more concerned with
winning elections/patronage, veterans’ pensions,
railroads, taxes, tariffs, economic/financial policy,
and industrial interests
Northern voters had grown weary of the crusade
for blacks.
The champions for black rights had grown old—
many had been abolitionists and had been fighting
for black rights for decades. (Brooks-Sumner1856), younger people had less passion for the
black cause.
The Republican Party
Generally- wanted a satisfactory settlement of the
southern problem so that southern markets and
resources could be exploited.
The new order of things seemed to be result of the
triumph of industrialism over the agrarian way of
life, and urbanization-growth of cities was their
vision.
Republican Party refused to elevate blacks to
equal footing.
A Look Back
By this point, everyone had agreed that
Reconstruction was finished.
African-Americans who wanted their legal
rights guaranteed by the Federal
government were repeatedly frustrated for
another 75 years.
Reconstruction’s Legacy
Most scholars considered Reconstruction a
failure
Another lost opportunity to make things
right
White southerners took their defeat out on
blacks
Northerners abandoned blacks for
industrialization and westward expansion
From Slavery into Poverty
Lost Cause
A literary and intellectual movement that sought to
reconcile the traditional southern white society to
the defeat of the Confederate States of America.
Those who contributed to the movement tended to
portray the Confederacy's cause as noble and most
of the Confederacy's leaders as exemplars of oldfashioned chivalry, defeated by the Union armies
not through superior military skill, but by
overwhelming force, and tended to condemn
Reconstruction.
"Waving the bloody shirt"
Political slang for a Republican political
tactic used successfully after the Civil
War for winning votes, particularly black
votes.
The shirt being, for example, the shirt of
a black man, freed by the Civil War,
thanks to the righteous Republicans, but
whipped to death in the reconstruction
South, by despicable Democrats.
Positions
Sheriffs, mayors, coroners, police chiefs,
tax collectors, school superintendents, Lt.
Governors (6) and one Governor- one
month- PBS Pinchback, 14 U.S.
representatives, U.S. Senators, state
representatives (majority in MS and SC—
two black speakers in both of these states),
judges, secretary of state, treasurers, etc.
Supreme Court
Much of the civil rights legislation was overturned
by the Supreme Court.
Most notably, the court suggested in the
Slaughterhouse Case (1873) that the 14th applied
only to former slaves. Then held in the Civil
Rights Cases (1883), that the 14th amendment only
gave Congress the power to outlaw public, rather
than private, discrimination.
Re-admission to the union
Tennessee - July 24, 1866
Arkansas - June 22, 1868
Florida- June 25, 1868
North Carolina - July 4, 1868
South Carolina - July 9, 1868
Louisiana - July 9, 1868
Alabama- July 13, 1868
Virginia - January 26, 1870
Mississippi - February 23, 1870
Texas - March 30, 1870
Georgia - July 15, 1870
13th Amendment
 Ratified in December, 1865.
 Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist within
the United States or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.
 Congress shall have power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.
The 1868 Republican Ticket
The 1868 Democratic Ticket
Waving the Bloody Shirt!
Republican “Southern
Strategy”
1868 Presidential Election
Legal Challenges
 The Slaughterhouse Cases
(1873)
 Bradwell v. IL (1873)
 U. S. v. Cruickshank (1876)
 U. S. v. Reese (1876)
Corruption and Economic Crises
Grant’s Administration -Scandals
Boss Tweed
Panic of 1873
Greenback Party
Tenancy & the Crop Lien
System
Furnishing Merchant
 Loan tools and seed
up to 60% interest
to tenant farmer to
plant spring crop.
 Farmer also secures
food, clothing, and
other necessities on
credit from
merchant until the
harvest.
 Merchant holds
“lien” {mortgage} on
part of tenant’s
future crops as
repayment of debt.
Tenant Farmer
 Plants crop,
harvests in
autumn.
 Turns over up to ½
of crop to land
owner as payment
of rent.
 Tenant gives
remainder of crop
to merchant in
payment of debt.
Landowner
 Rents land to tenant
in exchange for ¼
to ½ of tenant
farmer’s future
crop.
Black & White Political Participation
Black Senate & House Delegates
Blacks in Southern Politics
 Core voters were black veterans.
 Most white southerners were unprepared
to give Blacks political power.
 Blacks could register and vote in states
since 1867.
The 15th
Amendment
guaranteed
federal
voting.
15th Amendment
 Ratified in 1870.
 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.
 The Congress shall have power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.
 Women’s rights groups were furious that
they were not granted the vote!
The Civil Rights Act of 1875
 Crime for any individual to deny full &
equal use of public conveyances and
public places.
 Prohibited discrimination in jury
selection.
 Shortcoming  lacked a strong
enforcement mechanism.
 No new civil rights act was attempted
for 90 years!
Northern Support Wanes
 “Grantism” & corruption.
 Panic of 1873 [6-year
depression].
 Concern over westward
expansion and Indian wars.
 Key monetary issues:
*
should the government
retire $432m worth of
“greenbacks” issued during the Civil War.
*
should war bonds be paid back in specie or
greenbacks.
1872 Presidential Election
Popular Vote for President:
1872
The 1866 Civil Rights Act
Congress passed the first law written to protect
black Americans' rights amid turmoil and violence
after the Civil War.
First Civil Rights Bill in American history: It
made any person born in the US citizens (except
Indians) and entitled them to rights protected by
the US government, it was designed to invalidate
the black codes
The 1875 Civil Rights Act
This law, designed to provide blacks with
equal access to public accommodations,
was a major Reconstruction achievement
doomed to fail in a racist era.