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Reconstruction
The Civil War
• The Civil War was much worse than anyone
had imagined it would be:
– In the 1850s, the U.S. gov’t was spending
– By mid-1861, the first year of the war, the Union alone
was spending
The Civil War
• The Civil War was much worse than anyone
had imagined it would be:
– By the end of the war in 1865, the Union's wartime tab
was about
–
This was a huge sum of money in those days, especially
since the word
The Civil War
• The Civil War was much worse than anyone
had imagined it would be:
All told, the Union's official 1879 estimate of
wartime expenses amounted to over $
In today's money, that total would be
equivalent to over
The Civil War
• The Civil War was much worse than anyone
had imagined it would be:
– The South spent nearly $
the Civil War.
fighting
• In today’s money, that’s equivalent to about
$
The Civil War
• GDP is complicated (which is why we leave it to the economists), but at its most basic,
you add up what everyone earned in a year.
The Civil War
• The Civil War was much worse than anyone
had imagined it would be:
• The Civil War finally answered once and
for all, the great debate that began with
Jefferson and Hamilton of where power
should lie; at the State or Federal level.
The Civil War
• Before the war, the South was one of the
five richest societies in the world.
• But that was over…
Reconstruction
• The largest slave system in the modern
world was in shambles
As the Civil War came to an end, the problem
was that now the South had to rejoin the
United States of America.
Reconstruction
• Issues of anger, defeat, destruction, ruined
economies, ruined lives and race would all
have to be solved and just as this was to
begin, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.
Andrew Johnson
• Democrat from
• Chosen because
Andrew Johnson
• As it turned out, nobody
trusted him from either side
and he was much more angry
at the South for seceding than
Lincoln had been.
Reconstruction
• In 1860, the Democratic party had been
split and Lincoln was able to win with 40%
of the votes cast.
Reconstruction
• In 1864, the South didn’t vote in the
election so the Democrats lost easily.
Reconstruction
• The Republicans feared the 1868 election:
Reconstruction
• As a matter of fact, the South was
politically stronger
the war than
they were
Reconstruction
Reconstruction
• Southerners would be in a position to
The
th
39
Congress
• Congress, led by Radical Republicans
(because there were no Democrats) was
now in a position to run Reconstruction as
they saw fit.
Plans for Reconstruction
The Freedman’s Bureau
• Established by the Federal Gov’t and run by
the Army, it was to help transition slaves to
freedom.
Reconstruction
• From the Southern point of view, the
months following the War were terrifying:
Reconstruction
• As a matter of fact, more than a few
plantation owners were so delusional about
slavery, that they were actually surprised to
learn that their former slaves were really
angry at them!
Civil Rights
• According to Merriam Webster, Civil
Rights are defined as:
The rights that every person should have regardless
of his or her sex, race, or religion.
Sherman’s Order #15
• Soon after the war ended, General William T.
Sherman ordered roughly 400,000
Sherman’s Order #15
Sharecropping
• The South,
Sharecropping
• Since control of land was back in the hands
of whites and the realities of feeding their
families was the primary concern for
Freedmen, deals got made.
Voting!
• A major part of the
Radical Republican
plan to help Freedmen
was extending the
right to vote to black
men.
Voting!
•
•
•
•
Schools for black children (paid for with taxes)
Legal standing for blacks
Recognition by the Legal system
Black Congressmen and Senators at both
the State and Federal level
• This was a frightening thing for most
Southerners because they had in effect, lost
control of what they felt was their birthright
• If the Gov’t would not defend what they felt
were their rights and the lives they felt they
deserved, then they would do it themselves.
Election of 1868
• Now the country, with Southern voters had
to elect a new President.
Election of 1868
• Democrats ran Horatio
Seymour, Governor of
New York.
Election of 1868
Election of 1868
• Republicans knew if they lost this election,
the gains made in the Civil War
Election of 1868
• Republicans ran an
unbeatable candidate,
• Grant supported Reconstruction, but felt it was
time to start bringing it to a close.
Besides…
• In the South, Reconstruction was fought at
every opportunity, was growing expensive,
and appeared to be having little success in
changing attitudes because it was seen by
whites as unfair.
• Throughout the South, violence was the
preferred method by Southern whites to
protest Reconstruction, and to stop the
advancements made by Freedmen.
Economic Crash of 1873
• For years, the North hadn’t cared what the
South thought. They had started the war,
these were the repercussions.
• Then came the Economic Crash of 1873
Economic Crash of 1873
• Once the North was distracted by economic
issues of their own, they became less
willing to force Reconstruction on the
South.
• Reconstruction had been difficult,
expensive, led to great violence in the
South, was beginning to cost Republicans
politically and had really not benefitted the
North at all.
Election of 1876
Election of 1876
• The 1876 election hinged
largely on disputed votes from
Florida, Louisiana and South
Carolina.
• Allies of
Election of 1876
• The Democrats agreed to
give Hayes the victory
on the condition that he
1877
• Northern troops
• Leaving the Freedmen
alone and at the mercy
of a society that was
determined to reclaim
what it felt was their
lost birthright.