Download Reconstruction the Nation

The Agony of Reconstruction
The U.S. after the Civil War
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Questions for Discussion
• What were the opposing views of
Reconstruction in the wake of the Civil War?
• Who supported these competing views and
why?
• Was Reconstruction a success? Why or why
not?
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Abraham Lincoln
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Lawyer
Statesman
16th President (1861-1865)
Assassinated April 14, 1865
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Andrew Johnson
• Succeeded Lincoln as President
• Southern Democrat
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Reconstruction Raised 3 Questions
• Can the US ever truly be united?
• Can blacks and whites live together?
• Who runs this country?
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Carl Schurz
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Born in Cologne, Germany
Revolutionary figure in Germany
Public speaker and abolitionist
Hated Southerners
Reported on the effect of the Civil War on the
South at Johnson’s request
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What the War did to the South
• Physically
• Legally and Constitutionally
• Emotionally
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Wade-Davis Bill
• Asserted congressional power over
Reconstruction.
• Required that a majority of a seceded state’s
white men take a loyalty oath and guarantee
back equality.
– Sound familiar to anyone?
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Four theories of Reconstruction
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Presidential Theory
Southern Theory
Conquered Provinces Theory
“Forfeited Rights” Theory
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Presidential Theory
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Southern states never out of the Union
Not “Reconstruction,” but “Restoration.”
Minor modifications
Restore political rights
Appointment of governors
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Southern Theory
• War proved secession could not take place
therefore they’d never left the union.
• Therefore, no Constitutional question
• Everythign should revert back to the way it
was
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Conquered Provinces
• Backed by Thaddeus Stevens and Radical
Republicans
• Shattered the Constitution
• Southern states subject to international law as
a “conquered province.”
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Forfeited Rights
• Ultimately governed Reconstruction
• Secession null and void but emphasized that
governments had rebelled
• Because rebellion, they forfeited rights under
the Constitution
• Becomes the duty and right of Congress to
ensure republican form of government
• Became the theory that underlay the
Reconstruction Act of 1867
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Radical Republicans
• After 1866 elections, “Radical” meant being
committed to destroying slavery and
guaranteeing civil rights for African Americans
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Thaddeus Stevens
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Influential leader of Reconstruction
Served in congress
Abolitionist
Led impeachment forces against Johnson
Sponsored radical plan of Reconstruction
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Wendell Phillips
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Abolistionst
Labor reformer
Speaker
Abandoned practice of law to speak on
social/policital issues
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Charles Sumner
• Senator
• Deeply devoted to cause of civil rights
• Joined Stevens as leader of Radicals
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Bills Johnson Vetoed
• Freedman’s Bureau Bill of 1866
• Civil Rights act of 1866
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Jefferson Davis
• President of the CFA
• Only military leader of Cnfederacy to be
placed in prison
• Served two years
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The Lost Cause
• In response to Reconstruction, many
Southerners embraced “the lost cause,” an
image of Confederate soldiers battling to
maintain Southern traditions and institutions.
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THE NEW SOUTH
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Questions
• How did the Civil War transofrm the South?
What I really a “new” south? Why or why not?
• Were freed slaves better off in the South after
the Civil War? Why or why not?
• What were the 13th, 14th, and 15th
amendments? Did they transofrm American
society? Why or why not?
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• By the late 1860s some Southerns were
already calling for a more diversified economy
• Slow shift from famrs to factories
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General observations about the South
• Never monolithic – never a monopoly on racism,
violence or one –party politics. Just seemed that way
in comparison to the rest of the country.
• Only white Southerners have been defeated in way
and had their territory occupied by enemy
• Until 1950, majority of blacks in US lived in the South
• “Solid South” refers to no Republican presidential
candidate carrying the South between 1877-1920
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“New South”
• No longer two separate nations – erased the
Mason-Dixon line
• Southern economy had changed
• Race relations had changed
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Henry W Grady
• Native of Atlanta, GA.
• Correspondent of New York Herald
• Conceptualized “new south”
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Economically
• Reconstruction of infrastructure
– Railroads
– Ports
– Roads
– communications
• Industrialization
– Cotton
– Iron
– tobacco
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Race Relations
• 13th amendment: slavery punishable by law
• 14th amendment: citizenship granted to any
person born in the US
• 15th amendment: right for all adult males to
vote
– This annoyed women
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More on Race Relations
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KKK
Redeemers
“Mississipi Plan”
“Grandfather Clause”
“Jim Crow” laws
Plessy v. Ferguson
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