Download Reconstruction

Reconstruction
1865 to 1877?
Reconstruction
 Rebuilding
the former Confederate states
and reuniting the nation
 Reconstruction Era has two areas of focus


the first covers the entire nation in the period
1865–1877 following the Civil War.
the second one, covers the transformation of
the South from 1863 to 1877, with the
reconstruction of state and society in the
former Confederacy.
 What
were consequences and significant
problems that the US needs to be address
after the Civil War?
Consequences & Future Issues
the of Civil War
Destruction of farms, property, buildings…
 Relationship between Southerners and Freedmen?
 Relationship between the North and the South?
 Lack of Maintenance of Productivity on the Farms (No
cheap labor)
 Limited Maintenance of
Law and Order
- Disruption of
Transportation
 War Casualties
 Inadequate Quality of Health and Sanitary Conditions

http://www.archives.gov/research/civil-war/photos/images/civil-war-096.jpg
Future Issues after Civil War
 What
is the plan for how the South will be
readmitted back into the Union? Who will
have the Constitutional Authority to
monitor the reconstruction process?
 To what extent will the Dems & Reps work
together to unite the nation?
 How (or to what extent) will the status of
A.A. change?

Political, Social, & Economic
 What
is the plan for how the South will be
readmitted back into the Union? Who will
have the Constitutional Authority to
monitor the reconstruction process?
 Who is in charge of the Reconstruction
Process: Executive or Legislative Branch?
Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan

Proclamation of Amnesty aka 10% Plan (Dec. 8,
1863)




Executive Branch
should be in charge
of Reconstruction
10% must swear
allegiance to US govt.
Govt pardons all Conf.
except for high-ranking
Confederates
Abolishment of Slavery (13th Amendment)
http://www.classic-literature.co.uk/american-authors/19th-century/abrahamlincoln/abraham-lincoln.gif
Radical Republican
Reconstruction Plan

Wade Davis Bill (passed by Congress in July, 1864)


Congress should be in charge of Reconstruction
Majority should swear allegiance to US govt
Many Radical Rep.
(ex: Charles Sumner &
Thaddeus Stevens) supported
African Americans and that they
should be
given full citizenship
& right to vote
* Plan was pocket vetoed by Lincoln
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/daybyday/im
ages/thaddeus_stevens.jpg
Abe Lincoln’s second Inaugural
Speech
“With malice toward none, with charity for all,
with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see
the right, let us strive on to finish the work we
are in, to bind up the nation’s as God gives us to
see the right, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to
care for him who shall have borne the battle and
for his widow and his orphan, to do all which
may achieve and cherish a just and lasting
peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
 -March 4, 1865

March 1865 to April 1865
Surrender at Appomattox
Courthouse on April 9, 1865:
End of Civil War
March 1865 to April 1865
Death of Lincoln: April 15,
1865 (7:22 am)
Inauguration of Andrew
Johnson
April 15, 1865 (10-11 am)
Johnson’s (Presidential)
Reconstruction Plan

Similar to Lincoln’s Plan (10% Plan)

However, major exception was
• The Exclusion of high-ranking Confederates and wealthy
Southern
landowners from
taking the oath needed
for voting privileges
(pardon these individuals
on an individual basis)
• Southern States must
repudiate Confederate debt


Johnson’s Plan was
supported by South
According to Johnson,
Reconstruction was completed by December 1865
http://www.ralphmag.org/AF/andrew-johnson310x468.gif
Carpetbaggers & Scalawags!!!!!

Derogatory name still used by historians to
describe the following…
 Scalawags


Traitor (to the Southern cause)
White southerners who joined the Republican Party
• Most were small farmers, who are now In favor of
Industrialization ASAP

Carpetbagger


Northerners who moved to South after the War,
Perceived as opportunists by the South
• Mixed motives: Freedmen Bureau agents, teachers,
ministers, union soldiers, businessmen, adventurers…


Most of the Carpetbaggers supported the Republican
Both Scalawags & Carpetbaggers most likely got
politically involved, representing the Republican
Party
 Reconstruction

Legislation?
What do you propose?
Congressional Reconstruction:
Legislation (during Johnson’s Era)
13TH Amendment (supported by Johnson)
 Abolished Slavery
 Freedmen’s Bureau (passed over Johnson’s veto)
 Educational and medical assistance to Freedmen
 Civil Rights Act of 1866 (passed over Johnson’s veto)
 First Civil Rights Act in US History
 Granted Citizenship and equal protection under the law to
African Americans
 14th Amendment (not supported by Johnson)
 Constitutional Amendment equivalent to Civil Rights Act of
1866
 Prohibited states from denying any citizens of “life, liberty,
or property without due process of law” and “Equal
Protection”
 States who do not give freedmen the right to vote cannot
count them in census
 …

Reconstruction Acts of 1867:
Military Zones

Reconstruction Acts of 1867 (passed over Johnson’s
veto)
 South divided into five military districts (exception=
Tennessee)
 South states must
ratify 14th Amendment
to be reenter the Union
 Essentially became the
New Reconstruction Plan
 Called for new State
Constitutions & inclusion of AA in process
http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/tdgh-mar/reconstructionmap.jpg
\
 How
might Johnson’s continual veto of
legislation passed by Congress affect his
relationship with Congress?
Radical Republicans vs. President
Johnson

Reasons why Republicans disliked Johnson?
 Affiliated with the Democratic Party
 Pardoned many Confederate Leaders
 Continual Veto of Reconstruction
of legislation
Swing Around the Circle
Speeches
 Refusal to enforce
Reconstruction
legislation and rights
of freedmen
-Alienated his Rep. Cabinet
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co
mmons/5/5f/Nast_on_Andrew_Johnson.j
pg
Johnson’s Impeachment Trial
March to May 1868
Tenure in Office Act (Passed over Johnson’s veto)
 President couldn’t remove Cabinet officers without
Congressional Consent
 Johnson fires
Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton
 House brings 11
impeachment charges
against Johnson
 Acquitted by one vote
(Edmund Ross)

http://www.picturehistory.com/images/products/0/0/6/prod_601.jpg
http://prod.americaslibrary.gov/assets/jb/recon/jb_recon_impeach_1_e.jpg
What if…
 How
is the acquittal of A. Johnson
historically significant?

Think Check & Balances.
Significant Reconstruction
Legislation (during Grant’s Era)

15th Amendment (supported by Grant)


Enforcement Act of 1870 (supported by Grant)


All male citizens (including African American males)
have the right to vote
Federal Govt has power to protect voting rights of
African Americans
Civil Rights Act of 1875 (supported by Grant)


Outlawed racial segregation in public places
Assured the right of African Americans to serve on
juries
Obstacles Faced by Freedmen &
Southern Control over Freedmen
-Black
Codes (1865 to 1866)
-state laws that restricted Freedmen’s daily life
-prohibiting blacks from carrying weapons,
serving on juries, marrying whites,
starting their own businesses, etc…
-Voting Restrictions
-Poll taxes, Literacy Tests, Intimidation,
Grandfather Clause, etc…
-Organization of the KKK
-Nathan Bedford Forrest
was the First Grand Wizard
-Organized in Tennessee
-Anti-African American, Republican
Party, etc.
-Sharecropping & Tenant Farming
-Freedmen fell victim to Crop-lien
System
http://www.nathanbedfordforrestudc.org/nbf.jpg
Sharecropping Cycle
http://cfbstaff.cfbisd.edu/wallm/Texas%20Main/Frontier%20and%20Industry/Images/texas_1.jpg
Coping Strategies used by
Southern African Americans

Union League
• Network of political clubs that educated members in their civic
duties and campaigned for Rep. candidates

Became involved in national politics


African American Churches


Hiram Revels & Blanche K. Bruce became Mississippi Senators
(African Methodist Episcopal (AME), Methodist Episcopal Zion
(AMEZ), Colored (now "Christian")
Methodist Episcopal Church,
National Baptist Convention
Migration to the West

Exodusters (Benjamin
“Pap” Singleton) to Kansas
http://www2.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/african/west/single_l.jpg
Events that led to end of
Reconstruction

Scandals during Grant’s administration



Amnesty Act of 1872


(ex Credit Mobilier & Whiskey Ring)
Rise of Liberal Republicans who favored less govt control and more control of
the govt (1872 election)
Pardoned many southern rebels
Supreme Court Case ruled that
14th amendment only applies to
federal govt

US vs Reese & Slaughter-House
Cases

Financial Panic of 1873

Redeemers of the South
(Less control from scalawags and
carpetbaggers)

Election of 1876…
http://www.corbisimages.com/images/67/785281FFCC84-4F40-9465-88D2BF8BCE38/BE031416.jpg
1876 Presidential Election
http://www.trinityhistory.org/AmH/images/1876election.jpg
Compromise of 1877 & End of
Reconstruction?

Bargain to secure Hayes
victory
• Hayes will remove all remaining
federal troops from South
Carolina and Louisiana (Rec.
Acts of 1867)
• Federal aid to southern
railroads and for internal
improvements
• Southern Democrats will
accept Hayes as president
• South promises to protect
African American rights
Frederick Douglas

When you turned us loose, you turned us loose
to the sky, to the storm, to the whirlwind, and
worst of all…to the wrath of our infuriated
masters…. The question now is, do you mean
to make good to us the
promises in your
Constitution? The
answer provided by the
1876 election and the
1877 compromise was “No.”
Aftermath of Reconstruction
 African
Americans continue to deal with
prejudice and discrimination (Jim Crow
Laws, Segregation, Plessy vs Ferguson
etc….)
 Republican
stronghold on presidency until
1932 election (w/ few exceptions)
 To
what extent should Reconstruction be
perceived as a success or failure?