Download Unit V Part 5

Unit VI
Part 5
The Reconstruction
The Reconstruction
1865-1877
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Was seen as the only way to prevent the South
from restoring their pre-war society
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Was an important first step toward Civil Rights
The Constitution v Social Changes
It will fail
But it was less of a failure than first thought
(there WAS an improvement in education for
black children in the South)
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Views on Reconstruction
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Lincoln The 10% Plan
Johnson The Restoration
Congress The Wade Davis Bill
Lincoln (Conservative Republican) had plans for
Reconstruction before his death but battled with
Congress (Radical Republicans) and THEY
came to blows with Andrew Johnson (War
Democrat)
The President(s) v Congress
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While they bickered over who was in charge,
Southerners had the opportunity to tie the freed
Black man to the land legally.
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Locally, the old order was briefly restored to the
South
The South
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The Southern economy was devastated
258,000 white males died in the war
Many more were wounded
Many lost their land (had not been paid as
soldiers)
4,000,000 former slaves were freed
After the war they had nowhere to go
The new Freedmen
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Often gathered around Northern occupational
forces (the South will be occupied by Northern
troops until the Southern States reenter the
Union)
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Most Blacks tended to pull out of white
organizations and begin their own (Churches,
etc)
The Freedmen’s Bureau
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Established by Congress in March of 1865 to
see to the needs of the Freedmen
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Was the only federal agency established to aid
both Blacks and poor whites after the war…
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When it failed (1874), there was nothing to take
its place.
The Freedmen’s Bureau
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Was run by the Army (General Howard)
To distribute food
Establish schools (4,000 in the end)
Give medical care
Redistribute land
Settled labor disputes
Freedman’s Bureau Bank
The Freedman’s Bureau
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Had a budget of $17,000,000
Divide by 4,000,000 Blacks
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= $4.25 each…The equivalent of a Happy Meal!
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So Why Will Reconstruction Fail?
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The Failure of the Freedman’s Bureau
Black Codes (Vagrancy laws, etc)
The KKK and other terrorist organizations
The Crop Lien System
Issues of Reconstruction
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The North thought the South should diversify
its economy
Many in the North thought the South should be
punished
When the Southern states were readmitted…they would come into the Union as a
united Democratic front
Meant the end of Republican nationalist
legislation.
So did the Republicans really want
Southern states back in the Union?
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Nope.
Could this be the real reason for Amendments
14 and 15? Maybe
Think…if the freed Black man could vote,
which party would he vote for? The party that
fought to free him or the party that enslaved
him?
The Radical Republicans

Many WERE committed to the welfare of the
Blacks in the South
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Their leaders:
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Charles Sumner
Thaddeus Stephens
Benjamin Wade
Lincoln
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A Conservative Republican
Was willing to put the issue of the Freedman on
the back burner for the sake of bringing the
South back into the Union as easily as possible
He knew that Southern whites would resist
social equality for Blacks
While alive, he was the President who led the
North to victory so he was a big obstacle to the
Radicals and had he lived, the Constitution may
have been different…
After Lincoln’s Death
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Andrew Johnson was undermined by the
Radicals in Congress
He was just as ineffective before his
impeachment as after.
The Radicals took firm control
Lincoln’s 10% Plan
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Lincoln wanted to make it easy for the Southern
states to reenter the Union
His Plan was in place by 1864 (before the war’s
end)
When 10% of the # of the voters in the election
of 1860 took an oath of loyalty to the U.S., then
that state could enter the Union
General amnesty for most Southern Whites
As early as 1864
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Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee tried to reenter
te Union under Lincoln’s 10% Plan
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When the above states sent representatives to
Congress, The Radicals in Congress refused to
seat them
Radicals will form their own plan
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The Wade-Davis Bill
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The President to appoint a provisional
government for each succeeded state
When a MAJORITY of the # of voters in the
election of 1860 took an oath of loyalty to the
U.S. the state could call for elections to a
constitutional convention
Those who voted in that election had to take the
Iron Clad Oath: Swear that they had never born
arms against the United States
THEN
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The new state constitutions had to:
Abolish Slavery
Disenfranchise Confederate military and
civilian leaders
Repudiate debts accumulated by the state
during the war
Lincoln
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Gave the Wade-Davis Bill a Pocket Veto
(in the meantime, the old order began to
reestablish itself in the South: Black codes, etc)
Johnson’s Restoration
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Johnson was a War Democrat
His plan for reconstruction was called the Restoration
Was similar to the Wade-Davis Bill
Exception: The President could personally grant
pardons to former Confederate leaders who petitioned
(groveled before him) for it
Johnson never had an issue with slavery but he DID
resent wealthy White guys (he was VERY poor and
always felt left out while growing up)
Johnson v Congress
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The conflict between Johnson and Congress
over reconstruction was not about HOW the
reconstruction would occur (because Johnson’s
Restoration was so similar to the Wade-Davis
Bill)
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The conflict was over who would be in charge
When States tried to enter under
Johnson’s plan
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Again, the Radicals in Congress would not seat
the representatives from the Southern States
December 1865
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Congress reconvened
The official beginning of Reconstruction
Congress established a Joint Committee on
Reconstruction:
To investigate conditions in the South
 To create a Reconstruction policy
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Congressional Elections 1866
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The North disgusted with the South:
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Black Codes
KKK
Race riots in the South
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Radical Republicans made great gains in the
election
The Radicals in Congress
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Passed an extension of the Freedmen’s Bureau
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Widened powers
More Money
Special courts for labor disputes
Thaddeas Stephens: 40 Acres and a mule
Was vetoed by Johnson
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The Civil Rights Act of 1866
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Was passed by Radicals in Congress
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Declared Blacks to be citizens of the U.S. and
empowered the Federal Government to
intervene to protect individual rights
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Johnson vetoed this one too
Congress overrode the vetoes
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On both the Extension of the Freedmen’s
Bureau AND the Civil Rights Act of 1866
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The FIRST time in American History that a
major piece of legislation became law after a
presidential veto
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It was so easy! They did it again and again
It was like there WAS no President
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The
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th
14
Amendment
April 1866
Second of the National Supremacy Amendments
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First constitutional definition of U.S. Citizenship: If
you are born in the U.S. or are a naturalized citizen,
you are entitled to equal protection under the law
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States who denied citizens equal rights would be
punished (federal funds or electors in elections
The 14th Amendment
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Did not apply to women (race and condition of
previous servitude mentioned…not gender)
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Prohibited state or federal office to anyone who
supported the Confederacy after taking the oath to
support the Constitution (2/3 vote of Congress could
pardon individuals)
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Southern states could only be admitted now if they
approved the 14th amendment
NOTE
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The 14th Amendment reduced the power of
ALL of the states
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Tennessee DID ratify it…no other states
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Amendments needed ¾ states approval for
passage. Most Southerners preferred occupation
by the North rather than give Blacks equal rights
So Congress had to change the rules
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To ratify an amendment each state had to come
up with a vote that represented a majority of the
voters of that state
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Was changed: only a majority of the actual
voters was necessary…so 14th Amendment was
passed
1867 3 Reconstruction Bills
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Johnson vetoed all 3 and Congress overrode all
vetoes
1.
The South to be divided up into 5 military districts,
each headed by a U.S. General
20,000 northern soldiers to occupy the South,
register Black voters, remove the old guard from
office & supervise elections for state constitutional
conventions
Clarified procedures for above
2.
3.
1870 The
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th
15
Amendment
Gave the Freedmen the right to vote
Note: many states in the North had not done this yet!
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Blacks in the South DID vote…as long as Northern
troops occupied the South and supported Black and
Tan Governments there
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But when the South was redeemed…most Blacks
were kept from the polls
Black and Tan Governments
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State governments while the North occupied the
South
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Were made up of Scalawags and Carpetbaggers
Were seen as traitors by most Southern whites
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Scalawags: Southerners who had never owned slaves
and who believed the South should industrialize
Carpetbaggers: Northerners who saw the South as the
new frontier (some had come with the Freedmen’s
Bureau)
The
th
15
Amendment
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How did the Southern states get around it?
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Literacy Tests
Grandfather laws
Poll Taxes
Threats by white employers
Threats by the KKK
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Also
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The 15th Amendment guaranteed the right to
vote…not to hold office
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If Blacks were illiterate, how did they know how
to vote? How did they work in State
Constitutional Conventions?
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The B & T’s told them how to vote and wrote
the constitutions
When occupational troops left
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The B & T’s were voted out of office and the
Redeemers were voted in
AKA the Bourbons
And the South looked just like it did before the
war…The Black man was still tied to the land
but NOW, he had to feed, cloth, house himself
and his family with token wages
The
th
15
Amendment
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Split the Women’s Movement
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NWSA (Anthony, Stanton,) worked AGAINST
the 15th Amendment…wanted a new
amendment that included women
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AWSA (Stone) supported the 15th Amendment
and continued to work for women
Later
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The AWSA and the NWSA will reunite to work for
the 19th Amendment in 1920
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Will be called the National American Woman’s
Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
1866 Equal Rights Association: worked for women’s
suffrage on the state level
1868 Working Women’s Association: Feminist and
labor causes
The Freedman’s Bureau Bank
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Helped Blacks and poor whites buy land, homes
Freedman’s Bureau put its federal $ in its own
bank as a investment
Panic of 1873 (Grant) Bank failed in 1874
Freedmen’s Bureau folded too
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No other agency to take its place
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40 Acres and a Mule
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Thaddeas Stephens
800,000 acres of land taken from Southern
Whites who had held high positions
(government and military) in the Confederacy
It was distributed to about 10,000 Black families
who ended up losing the land after the
Reconstruction…land was taken illegally
Education
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Failed to integrate and bring education to all
black BUT
It was the least of the failures of Reconstruction
Freedmen’s Bureau established 4,000 schools
Were open to black and white children but
whites would not integrate in spite of the 1875
Civil Rights Act