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Mr. Giesler
American History
Reconstruction: 1865-1877
TTYN:
What is freedom?
According to former president James Garfield, “it is the bare privilege of not
being chained.”
Small Group Activity
Resolved: The problem of political reconstruction arose, in theory at least, as soon
as the Civil War began, because neither President Lincoln nor the Republican
majority in Congress ever doubted that the South would be defeated. …as to what
is to be the course of the government towards the southern states, after the rebellion
shall have been suppressed. - Abraham Lincoln
Your Task:
In respect to the knowledge you gained during our unit on the Civil War, consider
the following:
 How should the South be reconstructed?
 How should the Union be reconstructed?
 Punitive? Legal Issues? Monetary Compensation? Slaves? Land?
 Legal Participation?
Cast yourself as the president of a member of the Republican majority, how should
the Union be reconstructed?
K-W-L
What I Know about
Reconstruction
What I Want to Learn
about Reconstruction
What I Learned
About Reconstruction
What was Reconstruction?
Reconstruction- the process (politically, economically, socially, and morally)
of readmitting the former Confederate states to the Union after the
conclusion of the Civil War
Status of the South
 Cities, towns, farms…ruined
 Remember Sherman’s March to the Sea??
 High food prices + crop failure = starvation
 Confederate money is now worthless
 Southern economy on brink of total collapse.
 Banks failed & merchants went bankrupt
 People were unable to pay their debts
 White dismay
Submit to Northern demands
Negroes And The Meaning of Freedom
What did freedom mean to the former slaves?
 Escaping the injustices of slavery
 Identity
 Family; reconnection with sold-off and displaced family
members
 Church – abandoned white churches; redrew the religious map
 Education
Negroes And The Meaning of Freedom
What did freedom mean to the former slaves?
Political Freedom
 “Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot.”
- Frederick Douglas
Political Participation
 Held mass meetings as a method to demonstrate their liberation
from the regulations of slavery
 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
Negroes And The Meaning of Freedom
Personal Freedoms
 Free from white supervision, acquired dogs, guns, and liquor –
all bared under slavery
 No longer required to obtain a pass to travel
 Left plantations in search of better jobs
 Marriage
Negroes And The Meaning of Freedom
Land
 Value of land as a measure of a mans freedom
 Many former slaves insisted that through their unpaid labor they had
acquired a right to the land
”was nearly all earned by the sweat of our brows”
Political Freedom
Northern Vision for the South
Free Labor Vision
 Emancipated blacks enjoying the
same opportunities
for advancement as northern workers
 Combining Northern capital,
migrants,
and emancipated blacks –
the Southern economy
would be energized
 The South would come
to resemble a “free society”
Bureau agent as a promoter of racial
peace in the violent South
Reconstruction
Wartime Reconstruction
 Lincoln’s 10% Plan (1863)
“…not ideal, but a beginning, a rallying point to attract others”
 Amnesty and full restoration of rights, including property except for slaves, to all
white southerners
 Loyalty Oath – supporting emancipation
 When 10% of the voters of 1860 had taken the oath, they could elect a new state
government
Lincoln’s Plan
To Lincoln, restoring the old relationship between the southern states and
Union was the essence of reconstruction
Believed the task of reconstruction was the task of the President, not to
Congress
To help re-establish loyal states, Lincoln sought the co-operation of the
minority if white Southerners who remained faithful and to those who
returned to their former allegiance
Lincoln’s Plan
 States needed to re-establish loyal state governments
Army would be withdrawn as soon as state governments were formed
Election of respectable citizens to Congress, not a “a parcel of Northern
men….elected at the point of the bayonet”
 Abolish slavery
 No role in politics for blacks
 Goal of Plan: Shorten the War
Reconstruction
Radical Republicans Respond
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
 A majority (not one-tenth) of white male southerners to pledge support for the
Union before Reconstruction could begin in any state, and guaranteed blacks
equality before the law.
 “ironclad oath” – oath that a Southerner had to take, which affirmed that he had
never voluntarily given support to the Confederacy
 Lincoln responds with a pocket veto
The Second Confiscation Act
Formation of loyal state governments in South presented several issues
 What to do with those who had voluntarily supported the Confederate government
 Arrests, indictments, and trail for treason????
 Neither Lincoln nor Congress had the stomach for a season of mass trials and
executions
Confiscation Act - 1862
 Engaging in rebellion or insurrection – whose penalty was a fine, imprisonment, and
confiscation of property, including slaves
 Would have resulted in a vast social revolution
Radical Republicans
What they wanted
 To
make the process of political reconstruction relatively slow and
complicated
 Keep Southerners out of Congress a while longer in order to reduce
their political influence
 Consolidate their power within the Republican Parry
 Use federal power to extend civil and political rights to Southern
Negroes
Johnson Takes Control
 Believed that reconstruction was the responsibility of the Executive Dept.
 Announced that he would continue with Lincoln’s plan, but with a few changes
 Kept the oath of allegiance
 Take the oath and you would receive:
 All rights to property (except slaves)
 Amnesty and pardon
 Civil and political rights
 Immunity from prosecution for treason or conspiracy
 Exemption from the Confiscation Act
TTYN:
What do you think the Radical Republicans response to Johnson’s
initiative would be? In favor? Against? Explain
Johnson Takes Control
1865, Johnson ordered nearly all land in federal hands returned to its former
owners
 Confrontations – Army forcibly evicts blacks who settled on “Sherman Land”
No land distributions
 Majority of rural freed people remained poor and without property
 No alternatives – work on white-owned plantations
 Confined to farm work, unskilled labor, and service jobs
 Low wages – little or no wealth accumulation
 For most blacks, freedom was a word not a reality
The Radicals vs. The Johnsonian's
 From
1865 – 1868, Radical Republicans and Andrew Johnson would differ
on the proper course for the South
 Johnson contends that the Southern states were never out of the Union and
therefore needed only restoration of loyal governments
 The Radicals contend that they secede, and were conquered provinces and
subject to the liabilities of a vanquished foe
 Presidential Power vs. Congressional Power to restore/re-establish the
South
 Conflict of what to do with the Negro
 The Radicals believed that the South should be reconstructed in
accordance to the Declaration of Independence: “This is not a white man’s
government”
Reconstruction
 Andrew Johnson (1865) outlines his plan for reuniting the nation
 Series of proclamations – it is with these proclamations that officially
marked the beginning of the Presidential Reconstruction
 Pardon to nearly all white southerners who took an oath of allegiance
 Restored political and property rights, except for slaves
 Legislation designed to control the Negroes
Reconstruction
The Black Codes
Regulate lives of former slaves
 Legalized marriage
 Ownership of property
 Access to courts
 Denied the right to testify against
whites
 Serve on juries
Serve in state militias
 Can’t vote
 Required that the freedpeople be required to work on plantations
 Sign a yearly labor contract
Reconstruction
The Black Codes
TTYN:
 Not
Did the black codes truly resemble the death of slavery?
designed to help the Negro during transition from the status of slave tot
hat or a responsible freeman
 Not intended to prepare him for a constructive role in the social, political,
and economic life of the South
 Designed to keep the Negro, as long as possible, exactly what he was: a rural
laborer under strict control, without political rights, and with inferior legal
rights
 To put them in a kind of twilights zone between slavery and freedom
Radical Reconstruction
Radical Republicans React
Who Were they
Tended to represent constituencies in New England and the “burnedover” districts of the rural North
 Abolitionists
“The whole fabric of
southern society must
be changed. Without
this, this Government
can never be, as it has
never been, a true
republic” Thaddeus
Stevens, Rep, PA
Reconstruction
Radical Republicans React
What they wanted
 Revenge – to punish the South
 A larger role for government
 Maintain Republican control
Pro-business
 Support/fund the railroad
 Liberal policies for settlers
 dissolution of Johnson’s Black Codes
Give black men the right to vote
“The whole fabric of
southern society must
be changed. Without
this, this Government
can never be, as it has
never been, a true
republic” Thaddeus
Stevens, Rep, PA
Northern Vision for the South
The Freedmen’s Bureau
(1865-1870)
 Congressional Act
 Responsible for social policy
 Establish schools
 Provide aid to the poor
 Settle disputes between
white and blacks
Bureau agent as a promoter of
racial peace in the violent South
The “Great Constitutional Revolution”
Congressional Reconstruction
 Congress proceeds to adopt its own plan of Reconstruction
 14th Amendment Proposed– the principle of citizenship for all persons
born on the U.S.
 Prohibits the states from abridging the “privileges and immunities” of
citizens or denying them the “equal protection of the law”
 At Johnson’s urging, every southern state but Tennessee refused to ratify
Reconstruction Act
 Congress adopted
 Temporarily divided the South into five military districts
 Called for the creation of new state governments, with black men given
the right to vote
Radical Reconstruction
The Origins of Civil Rights
1866, Two bills proposed
 Extend the Freedmen’s Bureau
 Civil Rights Bill, which defined all persons born in the U.S. as
citizens regardless of race
 No longer could states enact laws like the Black Codes
 Right to make contracts, bring lawsuits, or enjoy equal
protection of one person or property
Radical Reconstruction
The Origins of Civil Rights
TTYN:
What is missing?
Johnson reacts
 Vetoed both bills
 Congress fails to override presidential veto of Freedmen’s Bureau by
one vote…Civil Rights would happen in 1866…stay tuned
 Suggested he would centralize power in the national government;
deprive states of the authority to regulate their own affairs
 Suggested that blacks did not deserve the rights of citizenship
 Created a breach between the president and the Republican party
13th Amendment
The “Great Constitutional Revolution”
The “Great Constitutional Revolution”
Impeachment
1867, Congress adopts the Tenure of Office Act
 barring the president from removing certain officeholders, including
cabinet members, without the consent of Senate
 Johnson considers this an unconstitutional restriction on his authority
 1868, he removed the Secretary of Defense, an ally of the Radicals
The “Great Constitutional Revolution”
Impeachment
1867, Congress adopts the Tenure of Office Act
 For the first time in American history, a president is placed on
trial for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
 Congress fails to get the two-thirds
 Johnson promises he would stop interfering with
Reconstruction policy
 Republican’s nominate Ulysses S. Grant
Impeachment
 Jan. 7, 1867
 The House adopted a resolution to inquire about the conduct of the president
 Considered charges that Johnson had
 illegally returned property to southern rebels
 pardoned men who were still traitors
 abused his veto power
 That he was implicated in the plot to assassinate Lincoln
 Escapes impeachment by one vote
The “Great Constitutional Revolution”
The “Great Constitutional Revolution”
15th Amendment
 1868, Grant Wins
 Wins by a very slime margin, which causes congress to act….WHY?
 15th Amendment Adopted
 prohibits the federal and state governments from denying any citizen
the right to vote because of race.
 Ratified in 1870
 Did not extend the right to vote to women, which marked the
culmination of four decades of abolitionist agitation
Stanton and Anthony opposed the amendment
Reconstructed South
 1870, All Confederate states readmitted to the Union
 Nearly all were under Republican control
 New state constitutions drafted with black representation
 State-funded public schools
State constitutions guaranteed equality
of civil and political rights
 Abolished practices such as whipping
as a punishment for crime
 Property qualifications for office-holding
Hiram Revels
Reconstructed South
Blanche K. Bruce
 No more imprisonment for debt
 Black voters provide the bulk of the
Republican Party’s support
 highest office remained almost entirely in
white hands
 2000 African-Americans occupied public office
 Revels and Blanche K. Bruce – first
black Senators
 Since 1875 only two African-Americans
Hiram Revels
have served as Senators
K-W-L
What I Know about
Reconstruction
What I Want to Learn
about Reconstruction
What I Learned
About Reconstruction
Reconstructed South
Carpetbaggers and Scalawags
 The New Southern government
brought power to new groups
 Many Reconstruction officials
were from the north
 Their opponents dubbed them
“Carpetbaggers” and “Scalawags”
Reconstructed South
Carpetbaggers
 Carpetbagger – a term that was applied to recent northern settlers in the South who
actively supported radical Republicans
 They were not all poor men who carried their possessions with them as the name
may and the definition may suggest
 They were a heterogeneous group who moved to the South for a variety of reasons
 They were not all ignorant; they view the South as a land of opportunity
 They were not all corrupt; they hoped to buy cotton lands or enter legitimate
enterprises: to develop natural resources, build factories, promote railroads, and/or to
engage in trade
 A large percentage of the carpetbaggers were veterans of the Union Army who
were pleases with the southern climate
Reconstructed South
Carpetbaggers
However, there was a small minority that….
 There were many who were disreputable opportunities and
corruptionists who went south in search of political and economic
plunder or to gain public office
 Their goal: expel the South’s experienced statesmen and natural
leaders and replace them with untrained men who were almost uniformly
incompetent and corrupt
“Everybody who was anybody in the good old days was nobody in
the radical regimes”
– Margaret Mitchell
Author of Gone With the Wind
Reconstructed South
Who were these Scalawags??
A Scalawag by definition is a scamp; White Southerners who collaborated with
the radicals joined this particular group
 James A. Longstreet
 Membership: Confederate Army
 West Point Grad
 One of Lee’s ‘main men’
 Moved to N.O.
 Co-Owner of a cotton factory and Insurance Company
 Argued that the “vanquished must accept the terms of the victors.”
 Joined the Republican Party and endorsed radical reconstruction
 Supported Grant for president
Reconstructed South
Who were these Scalawags??
 Joseph E. Brown
 Georgia’s Civil War Governor
 Brown would claim that he “had sense enough to know when he was
defeated”
 Quit the Democratic Party and urged Southerners to accept the radicals’
terms
 Made a fortune as a capitalist during the era of reconstruction
 When the radicals were overthrown in Georgia, Brown, once again,
switched sides…helped organize a powerful Democratic party.
 Would eventually represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate….as a Democrat
Reconstructed South
Scalawags
 Former Confederates reserved their greatest scorn for Scalawags
Native white Southern politicians who joined the Republican party after the war
 Advocated the acceptance of and compliance with congressional Reconstruction
 Unprincipled group of traitorous opportunists who had deserted their countrymen
and ingratiated themselves with the hated Radical Republicans for their own material
gain.
 Most scalawags were non-slaveholding white farmers (but not all)
 Many had been Unionist and sided with the Republicans in order to prevent
“rebels” from returning to power
The Overthrow of Reconstruction
Who?
 South Traditionalists (planters, merchants, and Democrats – bitterly
opposed the new governments
Why?
 Republicans in their view = “Black Supremacists”
 Most white southerners could not accept the idea of former slaves voting,
holding office, and enjoying equality before the law
The Overthrow of Reconstruction
How?
“A Reign of Terror”
 Civil War ended in 1865, but pockets of violence continued
 Blacks were assaulted and murdered for refusing to give way to whites
 Secret Societies, which were aimed at preventing blacks from voting and
destroying the organization of the Republican Party by assassinating local
leaders
The Overthrow of Reconstruction
KKK
 Served as the military arm of the Democratic Party in the South
Tennessee, 1866
Led by planters, merchants, and Dems
Attacked white and black
 Anyone who defied White Supremacy
Carpetbaggers and Scalawags
A Reign of Terror
 Southern governments appeal to Washington for help
 Enforcement Acts
 outlawing terrorist societies
 allow the president to use the army
 These laws continued the expansion of national authority during
Reconstruction
 Terror lasted until 1872
A Reign of Terror
A Reign of Terror
The North’s Retreat
 Liberal Republicans – a new flock of Northern politicians
increasingly felt that the South should now be able to solve its own
problems without the help from Washington
 In their opinion – the gov’t had fed the slaves, made them citizens,
and given them the right to vote. Now, blacks should rely on their own
resources, not demand further assistance
The North’s Retreat
 A new Republican Party formed – Liberal Republicans
 Believed that men of talent and education had been pushed aside
 They were convinced that the “best men” of the South had been excluded
from power
 Believed ignorant votes controlled politic
 Capitalism
 Rise of the Northwest
 Business interests shift to the Northwest
 Republicans now dominate this area of the country
 Despite loss of South equilibrium achieved, both financially and
politically
The Redeemers
 1876, the South falls to the Southern Democrats
 1877, Rutherford B. Hayes withdraws the last federal troops
 Called themselves Redeemers
 Redeemed – to white Democrats, it meant the federal government had
renounced responsibility for reconstruction, abandoned the Negro, and turned
over the political, social, economic processes to the South
 Claimed to have redeemed the white South from corruption,
misgovernment, and northern and black control
What’s Next for the South
 Race Demagoguery
 “White Men’s Club”
 The Ultimate Goal – To hurt the Negro
 The Ku Klux Klan- white social club started in 1866
 Sole purpose -terrorize and prevent Negroes, Scalawags, and
Carpetbaggers
 Prevent the Negroes from exercising their new freedoms and voting.
 Institute Sharecropping – Negroes and the poor white of the South
would work on a pro-south farm for a small share of the crops as payment.
(seen as an alternative to slavery) ….Remember Feudalism????
 Tenant Farming- farmers that paid cash to farm a portion of a plantation
owners farm.
What’s Next for the South
 Literacy Tests- reading test that needed to be completed in order to vote.
 Grandfather Clause (a workaround) – exemption to the literacy test if your
grandfather had voted before 1867.
This allowed many illiterate whites to still vote; however Negroes fail the
test and lose the vote….so much for the 15th amendment
 Jim Crow Laws – Hello Segregation
 Local Laws throughout the South, which allowed for segregation in such
places as schools, restaurants, hospitals, hotels, train, etc.
 As mentioned earlier – The Black Codes- local laws in the South that
required blacks to have curfews and chaperones around town.
K-W-L
What I Know about
Reconstruction
What I Want to Learn
about Reconstruction
What I Learned
About Reconstruction
To be continued during our next unit….
The New South
Unit Assessment
In short-answer format
Answer each of the following topics
 Compare and contrast Lincoln’s Plan the plan of the Radical Republicans
regarding reconstruction for the South
 Describe the role of a carpetbagger and a scalawag during the Era of
Reconstruction. Additionally, compare and contrast each faction
 Describe the events that led to the impeachment of President Johnson
 Explain whether you believe or not if the American Slave achieved
freedom, true freedom, as a result of the Civil War and the enacted policies
during the Era of Reconstruction
See rubric for grading attributes