Download Reconstruction & the South

Reconstruction & the
South
SS8H6c
Analyze the impact of Reconstruction on Georgia and
other southern states emphasizing Freedmen’s Bureau,
sharecropping and tenant farming, Reconstruction plans,
13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the constitution, Henry
McNeal Turner and black legislators, and the Ku Klux
Klan
After the War

Georgia and the rest of the former CSA lay in
ruins

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
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Houses badly run down or destroyed
Railroad tracks twisted; bridges burned
Cotton mills & factories closed or burned
People were starving
Many banks were closed
Confederacy war debt of $700 million
Georgia in debt for $20 million
The Freedmen

Thousands of freedmen
(former slaves) faced great
hardships


Most had just the clothes on
their backs
New relationships had to be
formed between whites &
former slaves

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Blacks fearful of reenslavement
Whites unable to accept former
slaves as equals

The Freedmen’s Bureau

Original purpose: to help both
former slaves & poor whites
recover after the war

Offered food, clothing &
other necessities

Focus changed to the “freedmen”

Focus on education +
education programs

4,000 primary schools

64 industrial schools

74 teacher-training institutes

Atlanta University,
Morehouse College,
Clark College
Reconstruction


Lincoln wanted to rebuild the
South & restore the southern
states to the Union as quickly
and easily as possible
(10% Plan)
Two step process
1)
2)
All southerners (except highranking civil & military leaders)
would be pardoned after taking
oath of allegiance to the U.S.
When 10% of voters in each state
took the oath, state would be
allowed to form a legal
government & rejoin the union

Typical oath of loyalty

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Citizens would pledge loyalty
to the US Government, and
would follow/accept all laws
passed during the Civil War,
including the 13th Amendment
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)

Confederate states that seceded
should be treated like a conquered
country

Lincoln saw this as an attempt
to punish the south & refused
to sign it in to law

Proved that Congress and
many northerners wanted to
punish the south
Assassination of President Lincoln


Famous actor & southern
sympathizer John Wilkes Booth
shoots President Lincoln as he
and his wife attend a play at
Ford’s Theater
Lincoln shot behind the left ear
at the exact moment of the
loudest part of the play  allows
Booth to escape fairly easily

Lincoln’s injury shortly
discovered and he is taken
across the street to a boarding
house where he dies the next
morning

Booth is cornered and shot
in a farmhouse 2 weeks
later

Does more harm than good
to the south
 Lincoln no longer
around to protect the
south from Radical
Republicans who
sought to punish the
south
Ford’s Theater & the place where
Lincoln died
John Wilkes Booth
Lincoln & Johnson
Andrew Johnson becomes President


Johnson the Vice President,
and a former Democrat
from North Carolina,
becomes the President
following Lincoln’s
assassination
He is responsible for seeing
through Lincoln’s plan for
Reconstruction

He uses Lincoln’s plan
but adds a few of his own
ideas

Expanded the groups
of Southerners who
would receive a
pardon

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Congress works with
Johnson at first but begins to
worry that the rights of the
freedmen will be taken away
by him.
Johnson reluctantly agrees to
add more requirements
1)
2)
3)
Southern states had to
approve the 13th Amendment
Southern states had to nullify
their ordinances of secession
Southern states had to
promise not to repay
people/institution that helped
finance the Confederacy
Thirteenth Amendment


Outlawed slavery
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except as a punishment for crime whereof
the party shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United States, or any
place subject to their jurisdiction.
Reconstruction in Georgia

Pres. Johnson appoints
Provisional Governors to
each southern state

James Johnson, former antisecession state congressman
appointed Georgia’s
Governor

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
Constitutional Convention
of 1865
Ratification of 13th
Amendment
Georgia readmitted to the
Union

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States must re-write
constitutions and submit to
President for approval
before a new Governor
could be elected

Elect 2 U.S. Senators:
Alexander Stephens &
Herschel Johnson
General Assembly votes to
extend (limited) civil rights
to the freedmen

Black Codes
Black Codes

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13th Amendment abolishes slavery,
but not discrimination
Most Southern states pass “Black
Codes”—laws limiting political and
civil rights of former slaves
 Controlled types of employment
 Whipping as a punishment
 Labor periods: sunrise to sunset 6
days a week
 Imprisonment of jobless blacks
 Cannot vote or serve on a jury
 Interracial marriages prohibited

The Radical
Republicans in
Congress were
FURIOUS and take
control of
Reconstruction
from Pres. Johnson
and Johnson is
ALMOST removed
from office…oops!
14th Amendment – Congressional
reaction to the Black Codes

Congress passes the 14th
Amendment

…No State shall make or
enforce any law which
shall abridge the
privileges or immunities
of citizens of the United
Stats; nor shall any State
dprive any person of life,
liberty, or property,
without due process of
law, nor deny to any
person within its
jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws.

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All southern states (except
Tennessee) refuse to sign
Reconstruction started over
basically with these states being
removed from the Union and
occupied by the military

These states had to sign the 14th
amendment, write a NEW constitution,
and allow ALL men to vote

Some former Confederate solders
were not allowed to vote, but all
former slaves were.

When all of this was done,
Georgia was re-admitted.
Carpetbaggers & Scalawags and the
Constitutional Convention of 1867

Georgians voted for/against
constitutional convention &
delegates at capital in Milledgeville

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African Americans were denied
rooms at Milledgeville hotels
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First time that African American
males voted in Georgia
169 delegates elected
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12 were conservative whites
9 were Carpetbaggers (northerners
who moved south after the war)
36 were African Americans
Most were scalawags (southerners
who supported the Republicans)
Gen. Pope orders that the
convention be moved to Atlanta
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Many accomplishments
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Leads to the city becoming the
permanent capital
New constitution gives civil rights
to all citizens
Free public education for all
children
Allowed married women to control
their own property (1st state to do
so)
New constitution approved in April
1868 & Rufus Bullock elected Gov.

GA readmitted to the Union
Cartoons depicting Carpetbaggers
Elected Blacks expelled from the General Assembly, the
KKK and Reconstruction (again!)

29 African Americans,
including Henry McNeal
Turner (leader of the black
legislators) were elected to
the General Assembly in
1868
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The KKK began in Tenn. as a
social club for returning
soldiers, but quickly changed
to a force of terror

All were expelled from the
G.A. on the grounds that while
the GA Constitution gave
blacks the right to vote, it did
not specifically give them the
right to hold office
At the same time, the KKK
(Ku Klux Klan) became a
force in GA


Kuklos in Greek = circle
Klan = family/friends
Terrorized and intimidated
African Americans to keep
them from voting
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Numerous reports of
beatings, whippings and
murders
Pressure also put on whites to
support Democratic
candidates
Hostilities between whites &
blacks high, and many
conflicts begin

Gov. Bullock appeals to
Washington for help
Elected Blacks expelled from the General
Assembly, the KKK and Reconstruction (again!)
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U.S. Congress passes the
Georgia Act in 1869
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GA under military rule again
(re-Reconstruction) through
Gen. Alfred Terry & Gov.
Bullock allowed to be
provisional Governor
GA must ratify 15th
Amendment in order to rejoin
Union

The right of citizens of the
United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by
the United States or by any
State on account of race,
color, or previous condition
of servitude.

GA readmitted to Union (for
the last time) in July 1870
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Only after:
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Democrats regained both
houses of the General
Assembly
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Ratifying 15th Amendment
Reinstating African American
General Assembly members
Governor Bullock (R) resigned
rather than being impeached
Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871

Militia members were sent out to
arrest KKK members  leads to
the decline of the KKK
The KKK in Georgia

In response to the Leo Frank
case, the KKK is revived in
Georgia
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Klansmen meet on top of
Stone Mountain in 1915 and
light a cross on fire to signify
that the Klan is back in
Georgia
Economic Reconstruction:
Sharecropping
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Planters & Farmers needed
laborers
Former slaves & landless
whites needed jobs
Sharecropping
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Landowners provide
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Land
A house
Farming tools & animals,
seed and fertilizers
Workers give landowners a
share of the harvest
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Until workers sold their
crops, owners often let them
have food, medicine, clothing
and supplies at high prices on
credit
Credit was their undoing

Many often did not make
enough to cover credit & new
needs; and many were taken
advantage of by dishonest
landowners
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Most had little hope of being
able to save enough to buy
their own land and equipment

Legal slavery?
Economic Reconstruction: Tenant
Farming
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Tenant Farming similar to Sharecropping
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At the end of the year, tenant farmers either paid the
landowner a set amount of cash or an agreed-upon
share of the crop
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Tenants usually owned some agricultural equipment &
farm animals
They bought their own seed and fertilizer
Some even made a small profit
Both systems still allowed landowners to keep their
farms in operation without having to spend money
for labor
Not so good for the landowners

Even though it seemed as if landowners were
profiting without risk through sharecropping
& tenant farming, this wasn’t the case
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Many did not have the tools, seeds, fertilizers,
etc., so they took out loans, with the crops as the
backing

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Crops often were not profitable enough to pay off the
interest on the loans
Over-planting had a devastating effect on the soil and
therefore on crops
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The poor get poorer…
Growth of Business, Industry, Railroads & Shipping.
Atlanta rises from the ashes like the great Phoenix

Resurgens = rise again
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1847 = first charter
1865 = beginning of reconstruction