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Reconstruction
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Condition of the Country at the End of the Civil War
A. The North: Prosperity to northern agriculture and industry
1. Factory system expanded
2. Larger cities
3. Morrill Tariff (1861) provided domestic manufacturers protection from foreign
competition
4. National Bank Act (1863) created a network of national banks for the 1st time
since Jackson destroyed the Bank of the United States
a. assured the nation of a sound national currency
5. European immigration added 800,000 to population
6. Homestead Act (1862) had stimulated western settlement
B. The South: left in ruins
1. The scene of most of the fighting—homes, farms, cities devastated
2. Economy crippled
a. Confederate currency and bonds were worthless
3. Local governments had broken down
4. Slaves freed—plantations untended, planters reduced to poverty
5. Former slaves were jobless, homeless, uneducated, and unprepared for citizenship
The Major Questions of Reconstruction
A. On what basis should the Confederate states be brought back into the Union?
B. How should the former Confederates be treated?
C. What should be done with the freed slaves?
D. Which branch of government—executive or legislative—should control
Reconstruction policy
1. the Constitution was silent on this issue
Lincoln’s Plan of Reconstruction—the 10% Plan
A. His view: the Southern states had not actually left the Union; they had only been in
rebellion
B. While the War had still been going on, he had put a plan into effect in areas occupied
by Union troops
1. Pardons to all Southerners (some exceptions) who had participated in the War,
provided they took an oath of allegiance
2. Restoration of a state to the Union after 10% of the whites who had voted in the
1860 election took an oath of allegiance
3. Southern states must guarantee the abolition of slavery
C. Congress opposed the plan
D. Lincoln believed that his presidential powers permitted him to implement his plan
Reconstruction, Phase I: President Andrew Johnson’s Attempts
A. Implemented Lincoln’s plan
B. By 1865, all but one Southern state had set up new governments, elected
representatives to Congress, and ratified the 13th Amendment (Abolition of Slavery)
Congress Rejected Johnson’s Program
A. When Congress reconvened in December, 1865, it refused to seat the newly elected
Southern representatives
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B. Reasons for rejecting Johnson’s program:
1. Radical Republicans dominated Congress—led by Charles Sumner & Thaddeus
Stevens
a. Believed that the Southern states were “conquered provinces”
b. Believed the Confederates should be punished for the War
2. Congress wanted to curb the powers of the President
a. Presidential powers had expanded dangerously during the War
b. Personal hatred for Andrew Johnson
3. Congressional leaders claimed that only the legislative branch had the authority to
readmit seceded states
4. State legislatures in the South had begun enacting “Black Codes” to regulated the
status of the freedmen
a. Congress viewed the Black Codes as evidence that Southern whites were
seeking to re-enslave the freedmen
1. excluded blacks from jury service
2. denied them the right to testify in court against whites
3. could be arrested for vagrancy, then hired out to work for whites who paid
their fine
4. required to obtain special license for any occupation other than farming
5. young blacks lacking “adequate” parental support could be bound out as
“apprentices” to former masters
5. Most Southern whites had the right to vote, but no provisions had been made to
enfranchise the freedmen
a. Southern whites were overwhelming Democratic
b. Blacks were pro-Republican—the party that had given them their freedom
c. Southern whites were therefore very unwilling to give Blacks the vote
Reconstruction, Phase II: Radical Reconstruction
A. Congress assumed control
1. Established Freedmen’s Bureau (over Johnson’s veto)
a. helped freedmen find jobs
b. furnished food, clothing, shelter
c. set-up schools
d. attempted to protect civil rights
2. Civil Rights Act (1866—over Johnson’s veto)
a. protect freedmen from discriminatory legislation, such as Black Codes
b. bestowed citizenship on Blacks
1. “equal and full benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of
person and property as is enjoyed by white citizens”
3. 14th Amendment: Constitutional guarantee of rights to Blacks
a. would prevent any future attempt to nullify Civil Rights Act
b. the amendment defined all native-born and naturalized person as citizens and
provided that no state shall
1. “make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and
immunities of citizens”
c. barred Confederates who had held government positions before the war from
holding public office
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VIII.
d. voided the Confederate war debt
e. forbade payment to slaveholders for losses arising from emancipation
4. Reconstruction Acts (over Johnson’s veto) spelled out the terms of reconstructing
the South
a. the 10 unreconstructed states were divided into 5 military districts
b. districts were policed by federal troops under the command of a military
governor
c. to qualify for readmission, a state had to write a new constitution
guaranteeing black suffrage and ratify the 14th A.
th
5. 15 Amendment (proposed in 1868): no state could deny the right of a citizen to
vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”
Congress Impeaches Andrew Johnson
A. Republican Congressmen disliked Johnson
1. He opposed their reconstruction plans
2. He vetoed their bills
3. He was uncouth and tactless in his dealings with Congress
4. He had been a Southern Democrat before the War
B. Congress enacted the Tenure of Office Act (1867) to prevent Johnson from
dismissing office holders who supported congressional reconstruction
1. required approval of the Senate for the dismissal of and federal official whose
appointment had been made with Senate approval
C. Johnson believed this Act to be unconstitutional and dismissed his Secretary of War,
Edwin Stanton—a Radical Republican
D. House of Representatives impeached Johnson (charged him with wrong doing)
E. Senate failed by vote to gain the 2/3 vote to remove Johnson
Reconstruction Governments Rule the South
A. State governments were controlled by Republicans
1. 80% of Republican voters were black males
2. 1869-1880, 14 Southern blacks served in the House of Representatives, 2 served
in the Senate
3. Blacks held seats in every Southern legislature; held the majority in South
Carolina
B. Carpetbaggers (fashionable suitcase of the day was made of carpet material)
1. White migrants from the North dominated the southern Republican party;
included:
a. Union army officers attracted by economic opportunities
b. Agents of the Freedmen’s Bureau
c. Businesspeople seeking to invest capital in the Southern economy
d. Self-serving politicians who sought to gain power with the aid of the black
vote
C. Scalawags (“animals of little value”)
1. Southern whites cooperating with carpetbaggers; included:
a. people who had always resented the slaveholders and secessionists
b. those who hoped to benefit by investing in the New South or aligning
themselves with the party in power
D. Accomplishments of the Reconstruction governments:
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1. established free public schools for both races
2. rebuilt infrastructure
3. expanded railroads
4. expanded state involvement in social welfare
5. enacted civil rights and anti-discrimination laws
E. Problems with Reconstruction governments:
1. many people serving in elected office were poorly educated and had no
experience in government
2. fairly widespread instances of dishonesty, bribery, and corruption (but such
practices in government were common at this time in other parts)
Redemption—Southern whites regain control
A. Unable to hold office, some Southern whites resorted to violence to help restore
themselves to power
1. KKK
2. Reign of terror against freedmen and white supporters
B. Southern whites gradually regained control of local and state government
1. fear of violence kept freedmen from polls
2. more young white males who had not participated in the war (and therefore had
the right to vote) reached voting age
3. 1872: Congress restored the rights to suffrage and office holding to all but 500
former Confederates
President Hayes ends military occupation of the South
A. Compromise of 1877—The end of reconstruction
1. In the presidential election of 1876, Tilden (Democrat) had more popular votes,
but was one electoral vote short needed for election
2. There were 20 electoral votes from 4 states uncounted because of election
disputes
3. Congress appointed an Electoral Commission to settle the dispute
4. The Commission was dominated by Republicans, they gave the electoral votes to
Hayes (Republican)
5. The Democrats in Congress agreed to support the decision in return for the
promise that the last federal troops would be withdrawn from the South
B. The remaining Republican-controlled reconstruction governments were swept out of
office
C. The South remained resentful of the Republican Party, and for the next 75 years the
former Confederate states voted almost unanimously for the Democratic party—The
Solid South
Southern blacks forced back into pseudo-slavery
A. economically deprived: share-cropping system keeps blacks trapped on the old
plantations by use of the crop-lien
B. socially deprived: total separation between blacks and whites through Jim Crow
C. politically deprived: disenfranchised through terror tactics, poll taxes, literacy tests
Black America after the Collapse of Reconstruction
A. Exoduster Movement (1877-1880_
1. benevolent committees raised funds so that many Blacks could leave the south
2. 30,000 Blacks leave the South
B. 1900 Census: 90% of Blacks still live in South
C. Congressional attempts to protect Blacks
1. 3 Enforcement Acts (1883)
a. passed to protect Blacks from KKK
b. elections were placed under federal jurisdiction
D. Supreme Court decisions that aid the growth of segregation
1. Civil Rights Cases (1883)
a. parts of the Civil Rights Act (1875) were unconstitutional that prohibited
racial discrimination in inns, public transportation, places of amusement
b. 14th Amendment only prohibited state abridgement of rights, but did not
regulate individual conduct in the area of racial discrimination
2. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): upheld the legality of segregation by ruling that
“separate but equal” access did not constitute discrimination
a. overturned in Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
E. Black spokesman—2 views emerged among Blacks on approaches to civil rights
1. Booker T. Washington
a. founder of Tuskegee Institute
b. Atlanta Compromise Speech (1895): proposed practical policy for Negro
advancement
1. Blacks should not agitate for social equality
2. Blacks should focus on acquiring skills through vocational training so
they could improve their economic situation
2. WEB DuBois
a. Harvard graduate, economics & sociology professor
b. Agreed that Blacks needed education, just as whites did
c. Opposed Washington’s attitude as one of submission to the notion of black
inferiority
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The New South
A. Cotton & tobacco still the main crops but agriculture became more diversified (corn,
wheat, vegetables, fruits, peanuts
B. Cotton mills previously located in New England moved South
1. raw materials
2. cheap labor
3. low taxes
C. Coal, iron ore, limestone deposits discovered and led to establishment of iron and
steel industry centered around Birmingham, Alabama (the “Pittsburgh of the South)
D. Other factories:
1. cigarette
2. paper mills
3. furniture factories