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Reconstruction
1865-1877
A. What was Reconstruction?
1. Attempt to achieve national reunification and
reconciliation after Civil War.
2. Attempt to improve status of former slaves.
3. Difficult to achieve both.
B. 4 Main Questions
1. How to rebuild South?
a. Richmond, Charleston and
Atlanta destroyed.
b. Economically in ruins
i. Runaway inflation
ii. Factories closed or
destroyed.
iii. Railroads destroyed.
c. Agriculturally depressed
i. Cotton fields abandoned
ii. Livestock taken
d. Slave value disappeared
Richmond, VA (1865)
1. How would South
be readmitted to
the Union?
2. What should be
done about the
leaders of the
rebellion?
3. Who will control
the process?
a. Southern states?
b. The President?
c. Congress?
C. African-Americans in Post-War South
1.
13th Amendment ratified in 1868 –
abolished slavery
1.
2.
2.
Many slaves not sure what to do
Some retaliated against masters, others
refused to leave plantations out of loyalty
Freedmen’s Bureau
a.
b.
c.
Created in 1865 by northerners to wanted
to help ex-slaves transition into freedom.
Authorized to provide “40 Acres and a
Mule” to each ex-slave.
Limited in its effectiveness
i.
ii.
iii.
Taught 200,000 ex-slaves how to read.
“40 acres” not a reality for most.
Violence against ex-slaves and the
“carpetbaggers” who helped them was
prevalent.
Many ex-slaves hired themselves back to
masters for little pay as sharecroppers
iv.
•
•
v.
vi.
tied them to the land as slavery had but now
in continual debt to landowner.
75% of Southern blacks sharecropping by
1880.
Some ex-slaves move West to Kansas
(“Exodusters”)
Bureau expires in 1872.
D. Presidential
Reconstruction
1. Lincoln’s 10 % Plan
a. 10% of southern state
would have to pledge
allegiance to Union and
obey 13th A. to be readmitted
b. Congress thought it was
too lenient.
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
Introduce Wade-David Bill
in 1864
Called for 50% loyalty oath
and stronger emancipation
rules
States would be considered
conquered provinces
Lincoln vetoes this
Congress splits into two
factions – radical and
moderate
E. Johnson’s Reconstruction
1. Follows late Prez. Lincoln’s
10% Plan
2. South takes advantage of
this
a.
b.
c.
d.
Elect former Confederate
leaders to high political
office.
Pass “Black Codes” to keep
slaves in state of near
slavery.
Violence against ex-slaves
erupts in South.
“Radical” Republicanism a
reaction to this – Many
northerners felt that the
South had not learned their
lesson from the war.
F. Angry Republicans
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Refused entry to newly
elected southern delegates
into Capitol.
Slaves now a full person
counted (not 3/5ths) giving
southern states 12 more
votes than before war.
Republicans ran Congress for
4 years and now faced
possible repeal of Morrill
Tariff and Homestead Act
and re-routing of
transcontinental RR
Black Codes could be
permanent
Who won this war anyway?
Thaddeus Stevens
Charles Sumner (post-caning)
G. Black Codes
1. Intended to keep
slaves in low status.
2. Could not serve on
juries or testify
against whites.
3. Could not
rent/lease land in
many places.
4. Could not vote.
5. Laws passed against
vagrancy.
6. Forced many into
sharecropping –
virtual slaves to the
land because of
constant
indebtedness to
plantation owner.
H. Congressional “Military”
Reconstruction
1. Civil Rights Act of 1866
a.
b.
c.
Passed by Republicans granting
black citizenship and equal
protection under the law over
Johnson veto (passed extension
of Freedmen’s Bureau over veto
also)
Feared Sup Ct overturn so
passed 14th Amendment giving
ex-slaves citizenship and equal
protection under law.
mid term elections of 1866
gave Republicans 2/3rds
majority in both houses. – veto
proof.
i.
ii.
iii.
Waved “the bloody shirt” to
garner pro-Union votes
Senate led by Chas Sumner(MA)
House led by Thad Stevens (PA)
3.
Congressional Reconstruction
(1867)
a.
b.
Divided South into 5 military
districts each commanded by a
Union general and policed by the
Union Army.
Required states to pass 14th
Amendment.
4. States had to guarantee black
male suffrage
a.
b.
c.
5.
15th amendment passed and
ratified in 1870 to allow federal
protection of black voting rights.
Literacy tests, poll taxes and
grandfather clauses severely
restricted this.
Voting rights not fully realized
until 1965.
Military Reconstruction lasts
until 1868 on all but 3 states.
a.
b.
Slaves at mercy of state
legislatures
Subject to racism, discrimination
and violence.
6. Congress frustrated with
Johnson and his pro-South
tendencies.
a. Find reason to impeach
him for violating Tenure
of Office Act
b. Acquitted by one vote.
7. Civil Rights Act (1875)
a.
b.
c.
Crime for any individual
to deny full and equal use
of public facilities.
Great on paper – but
weakly enforced.
Civil Rights legislation not
attempted again for 90
yrs.
I. End of Reconstruction
1.
2.
3.
4.
By 1870, all former
Confederate states
reorganized, adopted 13th,
14th and 15th Amendments
and were readmitted.
Once a state was on solid
footing, Union troops were
removed.
By 1876, whites dominated
Southern politics again.
Northerners more concerned
about economic depression
of the 1870s than the plight
of ex-slaves.
J. Compromise of 1877
1.
2.
3.
Presidential
election of 1876
between Samuel
Tilden (D) and
Rutherford B. Hayes
(R).
Tilden seemed the
winner but, but
some election
results inconclusive
because of voter
fraud/violence in
FL, SC and LA.
Compromise –
Hayes will get
disputed electoral
votes if remaining
Union troops are
removed from
southern occupied
areas (FL, SC and
LA!)
K. Legacy of Reconstruction
1. Black male suffrage
brought temporary gains
a.
b.
c.
Blacks made up the
majority of voters in AL,
FL, LA, MS and SC
Blacks made up the
majority of SC lower
house.
But 14th and 15th A.
openly disregarded –
won’t be effectively
enforced until 1964!
2. Rise of the Ku Klux Klan
a. “Invisible Empire of the
South” formed in TN in
1866.
b. Used fear, violence
(lynchings) and
intimidation to “keep
blacks in their place”.
c. Force Acts passed by
Congress in 1870-71
that outlawed these
terrorist groups.
i.
Moderately successful
but damage and fear
already done.
3. “Solid South”
a.
b.
c.
d.
White supremacist south
dominated by Democratic
Party in each state.
Republican Party dead in
the south for nearly 100
yrs.
“Lost Cause” – refers to
southern resentment and
humiliation that lasted
for generations.
Increased discrimination
and resentment of blacks
as well as the
carpetbaggers
(northerners) and
scalawags (southerners)
who helped them.
South
Carolina State
House, 1999
4. Jim Crow Laws
a.
b.
Begin after Reconstruction
ends
Laws and customs in
southern states intended to
segregate blacks in public
facilities.
5. Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)
a.
b.
c.
d.
Homer Plessy
Nail in the coffin of
Reconstruction
Est. “separate but equal
doctrine”
Makes it constitutional to
segregate races
Remains intact until Brown v.
Board of Education (1954)
6. Civil Rights Pioneers
a.
Booker T. Washington
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
Born into slavery
Thought learning useful
trades was a way to earn
equality rather than
through education.
Wrote Up From Slavery
Advocated policy of
accommodation – he
reluctantly accepted
segregation until blacks
earned their rightful place
in society.
Urged blacks to adopt
white middle-class
standards of dress, speech
and habits
Ideas put forth in the
Atlanta Compromise, 1895
b. W.E.B. DuBois
i.
ii.
Born free in MA
First black male to
graduate from Harvard
iii. Opposed BTW and
advocated for immediate
social and economic and
educational equality for
blacks.
iv. Goal was to achieve
equal rights for blacks
through use of lawsuits in
federal courts.
v. Laid the groundwork for
the NAACP