Download Reconstruction - American Leadership Academy

Chapter 22
The problems of peace
 What to do with the leaders of the
Confederation?
○ Most were jailed for two years and released, which
southern jury would convict them?
○ Finally pardoned by President Johnson in 1868
 A generation was wiped out and the Southern
economic and social structures were gone
 Cities were in ashes with only foundations left
 Cotton fields lay in ruin with no seed and no
labor to sow them
 Slaves represented $2 billion worth of southern
investments
Freedmen define Freedom
 Ending slavery was inconsistent from place to
place and was freedom was very hard for the
blacks to obtain
 Many slaves were loyal to their masters and
refused to leave while others resorted to
violence against them on emancipation day
 Many took new names, clothes, etc, and
demanded respect
 Thousands hit the roads looking for family,
testing freedom, or leaving the South
The Freedmen’s Bureau
 Created by Congress March 3, 1865
○ Designed to help give them skills, education,
both formal and about how the world works
○ Set up as the first welfare agency
 Provided food, clothing, medical care, and
education
 Taught over 200,000 freedmen to read and
write
 Headed by General Oliver O. Howard
- Failed to redistribute the land to the
blacks
Political Reconstruction
Lincoln believed the South never had left the Union so their restoration
would be simple
○ 10% reconstruction plan
 When 10% of a states’ voters took an oath of allegiance, pledged to abide by
emancipation they could form a new state government, then the president had to
allow the state to reenter the Union
 Congress believed the states left the Union and lost all rights when they
left and could only be let in as a conquered province
○ Showed the split in the Republican Party over reconstruction
 Wade-Davis Bill 1864
○ 50% of the states’ voters had to take the oath of allegiance and demanded
more safeguards to protect emancipation
○ Lincoln pocket vetoed it
- Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction policy
- Any of the leading Confederates with more than $20,000 were
disenfranchised but they could still get pardons if they petitioned him
- Special state conventions to repeal the ordinances of secession, repudiate
all Confederate debts, ratify the 13th amendment, then they could be
readmitted
 The Governments that were created were anti black and upset the
Republicans
Lincoln’s 10% Plan
Amnesty (pardon those that fought
against the Union during the war)
 Abide by Emancipation and free the
slaves
 10% of the states’ voters had to take an
oath of allegiance to the Union
 Once that was all done the states could
reenter the union

Johnson’s Plan
Continuation of Lincoln’s Plan
 Rich southerners (with more than
$20,000) had to ask the president for a
pardon

 Couldn’t vote or hold public office until
granted a pardon
Governors appointed until they hold
special constitutional conventions to
uphold the 13 amendment
 After all that was done they could hold
elections

The Baleful Black Codes
 Black Codes
○ Were set up to regulate what the newly freed blacks could
○
○
○
○
do
Mississippi’s were the harshest and the first created
1st and foremost designed to maintain a subservient labor
force
Blacks were forced to sign labor contracts and severe
penalties were inflicted if they didn’t honor them
Blacks couldn’t serve on juries, couldn’t own land, lease it,
couldn’t vote
 These all but undid the 13th amendment and the ideals of
freedom
 Most blacks became sharecroppers, they got to use the
land in payment they gave up a large portion of their crop
○ The system kept them in debt and they couldn’t leave
Congressional Reconstruction
 Many Confederate leaders showed up in
December of 1865 to claim their congressional
seats, this made the Republicans very angry
and they expelled all of the Southern
representatives on December 4, 1865
 Emancipation actually increased the political
power in the South, blacks now counted as a full
person not 3/5’s
 On December 6, 1865 Johnson declared the
rebellious states were reconstructed and
accepted them into the Union
Johnson Clashes with Congress
 Johnson vetoed a bill renewing the Freedmen’s
Bureau, later passed over his veto
 Civil Rights Bill 1866
○ Gave the blacks citizenship and attempted to end the
Black Codes
○ Johnson vetoed it and Congress passed it over his veto
 14th Amendment
○ Conferred civil rights on the freedmen
○ Reduced representation to states that refused the
blacks’ right to vote
○ Disqualified from federal office confederate officers
○ Guaranteed the federal debt while it denounced the
confederate debt
○ Due process of law clause
Republican Principles and
Programs
 Republicans had a veto proof Congress, could
do what they wanted
 Radicals were led by Charles Sumner in the
Senate
○ Black equality and freedom
 Thaddeus Stevens in the House
○ Defended runaway blacks and was a friend of
blacks to the end
 Congress wanted to keep the South out as long
as possible to bring about a forced revolution in
their society
 Wanted above all to give the blacks the right to
vote
Reconstruction by the sword
 Reconstruction Act March 2, 1867
○ Divided the South into 5 military districts commanded
by a Union general and policed with Union troops
○ Also disenfranchised thousands of Confederates
○ Very strict conditions for readmission into the Union

 Ratify the 14th amendment
 Guarantee full suffrage to the freedmen
15th amendment
○ Guaranteed right to vote to every adult male regardless
of race
 Three states were ready for readmission by 1870
○ Started as Republican but once the troops were gone
they slipped back into “home rule” with the South being
solid democrats
Realities of Radical
Reconstruction
 Blacks voted in the South before they did in the North
 Union League
○ Network of political clubs that educated people about their
civic duties and campaigned for Republicans
○ Built black churches and schools, recruited militias to
protect blacks from whites
 Black men were elected as representatives to the state
constitutional conventions, they held the political power in
the South
○ 14 black congressmen and 2 senators, mayors, lt.
governors, etc
 Scalawags-Southerners that favored the Union
 Carpetbaggers-northern went South to make $
 The new governments made much needed reforms, most
stayed when the “home rule” returned
 Very corrupt governments in the North and South
Ku Klux Klan (Invisible Empire of
the South)
 Formed in Tennessee in 1866
 Used fear to intimidate the blacks
 Louisiana 1868 in 2 days 200 blacks were
beaten or killed
 Force Acts of 1870-71
○ Use of Federal troops to end the intimidation
 Most areas ignored the 14th and 15th
amendments
 By 1890 widespread disenfranchised by
intimidation, fraud, tricks, etc.
Impeachment
 1867 Tenure of Office Act-vetoed and passed
over it
○ Required the President to ask the Senate before
firing his cabinet
○ Designed to keep Stanton in office
 Johnson fired Stanton in 1868
 House voted 126-47 to impeach
 Senate tried the case and were one vote shy of
kicking him out
○ Afraid of setting a dangerous precedent
○ No VP, would have been Ben Wade the Pres. Pro
Temp of the Senate that many didn’t like
Heritage of Reconstruction
 South saw it as worse than the war itself
○ Empowerment of the blacks, federal
intervention, etc
 It was very confusing nobody was quite sure
what to do to solve the problem
 Racism kept both sides from carrying out the
necessary reforms to give blacks equality
○ Economic reforms, land redistribution, and
protection of the rights