Download Reconstruction (1865-1876)

Ms. Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY
with additional slides by various publishers and myself (Mr. Cornwell)
Reconstruction (1865-1876
Key Questions
(Reconstruction)
1. How do we
bring the South
back into the
Union?
2. How do we
rebuild the
South after its
destruction
during the war?
4. What branch
of government
should control
the process of
Reconstruction?
3. How do we
integrate and
protect newlyemancipated
black freedmen?
Key Questions (Reconstruction)
Wartime Reconstruction
Reconstruction Plans
Lincoln’s
plan
• Denied pardons
to officers and
anyone who had
killed African
American war
prisoners.
• Permitted each
state to create a
new constitution
after 10 percent
of voters took
an oath of
allegiance.
• Offered
pardons to
Southerners
who swore
allegiance.
• States could
then hold
elections
and rejoin
the Union.
• Each state
could create a new
constitution without
Lincoln’s 10 percent
allegiance
requirement.
• States had to void
secession, abolish
slavery, and repudiate
the Confederate debt.
• Although it officially
denied pardons to all
Confederate leaders,
Johnson often issued
pardons to those
who asked him
personally.
Johnson’s
plan
President Lincoln’s Plan
 10% Plan
*
Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction (December 8, 1863)
*
Replace majority rule with “loyal rule” in the
South.
*
He didn’t consult Congress regarding
Reconstruction.
*
Pardon to all but the highest ranking
military and civilian Confederate officers.
*
When 10% of the voting population in the
1860 election had taken an oath of loyalty
and established a government, it would be
recognized.
President Lincoln’s Plan
President Lincoln’s Plan
1864 - “Lincoln
Governments” formed in
LA, TN, AR
*
“loyal assemblies”
*
They were weak and
dependent on the
Northern army for
their survival.
President Lincoln’s Plan
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
 Required 50% of the number
of 1860 voters to take an “iron
clad” oath of allegiance
(swearing they had never
voluntarily aided the rebellion
).
Senator
Benjamin
Wade
(R-OH)
 Required a state constitutional
convention before the election
of state officials.
 Enacted specific safeguards of
freedmen’s liberties.
Congressma
n
Henry
W. Davis
(R-MD)
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
 “Iron-Clad” Oath.
 “State Suicide” Theory [MA Senator
Charles Sumner]
 “Conquered Provinces” Position
[PA Congressman Thaddeus Stevens]
President
Lincoln
Pocket
Veto
Wade-Davis
Bill
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
Jeff Davis Under Arrest
Jeff Davis Under Arrest
Presidential Reconstruction
President Andrew Johnson
 Jacksonian Democrat.
 Anti-Aristocrat.
 White Supremacist.
 Agreed with Lincoln
that states had never
legally left the Union.
Damn the negroes! I am
fighting these traitorous
aristocrats, their masters!
President Andrew
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson (p. 431)
President Johnson’s Plan (10%+)
 Offered amnesty upon simple oath to all except
Confederate civil and military officers and those with property
over $20,000 (they could apply directly to Johnson)
 In new constitutions, they must accept minimum
conditions repudiating slavery, secession and state debts.
 Named provisional governors in Confederate states and
called them to oversee elections for constitutional
conventions.
1. Disenfranchised certain leading Confederates.
EFFECTS?
2. Pardoned planter aristocrats brought them back
to political power to control state organizations.
3. Republicans were outraged that planter elite
were back in power in the South!
President Johnson’s Plan
(10%+)
Growing Northern Alarm!
 Many Southern state constitutions
fell short of minimum
requirements.
 Johnson granted 13,500 special
pardons.
 Revival of southern defiance.
BLACK CODES
Growing Northern Alarm
Black Codes
 Purpose:
*
Guarantee stable labor
supply now that blacks
were emancipated.
*
Restore pre-emancipation
system of race relations.
 Forced many blacks to
become sharecroppers
[tenant farmers].
Black Codes
• As southern states were restored to the Union, they began to
enact black codes, laws that restricted freedmen’s rights. The
black codes established virtual slavery with provisions such as
these:
– Curfews: Generally, black people could not gather after
sunset.
– Vagrancy laws: Freedmen convicted of vagrancy– that is, not
working– could be fined, whipped, or sold for a year’s labor.
– Labor contracts: Freedmen had to sign agreements in
January for a year of work. Those who quit in the middle of a
contract often lost all the wages they had earned.
– Land restrictions: Freed people could rent land or homes only
in rural areas. This restriction forced them to live on
plantations.
th
13
Amendment
 Ratified in December, 1865.
 Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except as punishment for crime whereof
the party shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United States or any
place subject to their jurisdiction.
 Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.
13th Amendment
Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)
 Bureau of Refugees,
Freedmen, and
Abandoned Lands.
 Many former northern
abolitionists risked their
lives to help southern
freedmen.
 Called “carpetbaggers”
by white southern
Democrats.
Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)
Freedmen’s Bureau Seen
Through
Southern
Eyes
Plenty to eat
and nothing
to do.
Freedmen’s Bureau Seen Through Southern Eyes
Freedmen’s Bureau School
Freedmen’s Bureau School
Slavery is Dead?
Slavery is Dead?
Reconstruction
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video 3 decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Civil Rights Act of 1866 and
The Freedmen’s Bureau
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video 3 decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Congress Breaks with the President
 Congress bars Southern
Congressional delegates.
 Joint Committee on
Reconstruction created.
 February, 1866 - President
vetoed the Freedmen’s
Bureau bill.
 March, 1866 Johnson
vetoed the 1866 Civil Rights Act.
 Congress passed both bills over
Johnson’s vetoes - 1st in
U. S. history!!
Radical (Congressional) Reconstruction
14th Amendment
 Ratified in July, 1868.
*
Provide a constitutional guarantee of the rights
and security of freed people.
*
Insure against neo-Confederate political power.
*
Enshrine the national debt while repudiating
that of the Confederacy.
 Southern states would be punished for
denying the right to vote to black citizens!
14th Amendment
Reconstruction Amendments
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video 3 decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
14th Amendment
“All persons born or naturalized in the
United States…are citizens of the United States
and of the state wherein they reside. No State
shall make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges… of citizens of the
United States… nor shall any State deprive
any person of life, liberty, or property
without due process of the law …”
The Balance of Power in
Congress
State
White Citizens
Freedmen
SC
291,000
411,000
MS
353,000
436,000
LA
357,000
350,000
GA
591,000
465,000
AL
596,000
437,000
VA
719,000
533,000
NC
631,000
331,000
The 1866 Midterm-Election
 A referendum on Radical Reconstruction.
 Johnson made an ill-conceived propaganda
tour around the country to push his plan.
 Republicans
won a 3-1
majority in
both houses
and gained
control of
every northern
state.
Johnson’s “Swing around
the Circle”
1866 Midterm Election
Radical Republicans who managed President Andrew Johnson’s
impeachment trial
Senator Charles Sumner
Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania: Leader of the
Radical Republicans
Radical Plan for Readmission
 Civil authorities in the territories were
subject to military supervision.
 Required new state constitutions, including
black suffrage and ratification of the 13th and
14th Amendments.
 In March, 1867, Congress passed an act
that authorized the military to enroll eligible
black voters and begin the process of
constitution making.
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
 Military Reconstruction Act
*
Restart Reconstruction in the 10 Southern states that
refused to ratify the 14th Amendment.
*
Divide the 10 “unreconstructed states” into 5 military
districts.
 Command of the Army Act
*
The President must issue all Reconstruction orders
through the commander of the military.
 Tenure of Office Act
*
The President could not remove any officials [esp.
Cabinet members] without the Senate’s consent, if the
position originally required Senate approval.
The Reconstruction Act of 1867
Calling for “reform not revenge,” Radicals in Congress passed the
Reconstruction Act of 1867.
Key provisions:
1. Southern states under military rule by northern generals.
2. Southern states create new state constitutions.
3. States required to give the vote to all qualified male voters
(including African Americans).
4. Supporters of the Confederacy temporarily barred from voting.
5. Southern states required to guarantee equal rights to all
citizens.
6. All states required to ratify the 14th Amendment.
Military Reconstruction Act
Reconstruction Act
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video 3 decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
The Tenure of Office Act
 Designed to protect
radical members of
Lincoln’s government.
 Question of the
constitutionality of this
law.
Edwin Stanton
President Johnson’s
Impeachment
 Johnson removed Stanton in February, 1868.
 Johnson replaced generals in the field who were more
sympathetic to Radical Reconstruction.
 The House impeached him on February 24
before even
drawing up the
charges by a
vote of 126 – 47!
The Senate Trial
 11 week trial.
 Johnson acquitted
35 to 19 (one short of
required 2/3s vote).
The Grant Administration (1868-1876)
The 1868 Republican Ticket
The 1868 Democratic Ticket
Waving the Bloody Shirt!
Republican “Southern
Strategy”
1868 Presidential Election
President Ulysses S. Grant
Grant Administration Scandals
 Grant presided over an era of
unprecedented
growth and
corruption.
*
Credit Mobilier
Scandal.
*
Whiskey Ring.
*
The “Indian
Ring.”
The Tweed Ring
in NYC
William Marcy Tweed
(notorious head of Tammany Hall’s political machine)
[Thomas Nast
crusading cartoonist/reporter]
Who Stole the People’s Money?
The Panic of 1873
 It raises “the money
question.”
*
debtors seek inflationary
monetary policy by
continuing circulation of
greenbacks.
*
creditors, intellectuals
support hard money.
 1875 - Specie
Redemption Act.
 1876 - Greenback Party formed & makes gains in
congressional races The “Crime of ’73’!
Legal Challenges
 The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)
 Bradwell v. IL (1873)
 U. S. v. Cruickshank (1876)
 U. S. v. Reese (1876)
Sharecropping
Sharecropping & the Cycle of Debt
1. Poor whites and
freedmen have no
jobs, no homes, and
no money to buy land.
5. Sharecropper
cannot leave the
farm as long as he
is in debt to the
landlord.
4. At harvest time, the
sharecropper owes
more to the landlord
than his share of the
crop is worth.
2. Poor whites and
freedmen sign contracts
to work a landlord’s
acreage in exchange for
a part of the crop.
3. Landlord keeps track of
the money that
sharecroppers owe him
for housing and food.
Tenancy & the Crop Lien System
Furnishing Merchant
Tenant Farmer
Landowner
 Loan tools and seed  Plants crop, harvests  Rents land to tenant
up to 60% interest to
in autumn.
in exchange for ¼
tenant farmer to plant
to ½ of tenant
spring crop.
farmer’s future crop.
 Turns over up to ½ of
crop to land owner
 Farmer also secures
as payment of rent.
food, clothing, and
other necessities on
 Tenant gives
credit from merchant
remainder of crop to
until the harvest.
merchant in
payment of debt.
 Merchant holds “lien”
{mortgage} on part of
tenant’s future crops
as repayment of debt.
Establishment of Historically
Black Colleges in the South
Black & White Political Participation
Black Politicians from
Reconstruction
Black Senate & House Delegates
Colored
Rule
in the
South?
Blacks in Southern Politics
 Core voters were black veterans.
 Blacks were politically unprepared.
 Blacks could register and vote in states since
1867.
 The 15th
Amendment
guaranteed
federal voting.
The Fifteenth Amendment
• In February 1869, Congress passed the Fifteenth
Amendment, granting African American males the right
to vote.
• In 1867 and 1868, voters in southern states chose
delegates to draft new state constitutions. One quarter of
the delegates elected were black.
• The new state constitutions guaranteed civil rights,
allowed poor people to hold political office, and set up a
system of public schools and orphanages.
• In 1870, southern black men voted in legislative
elections for the first time. More than 600 African
Americans were elected to state legislatures, Louisiana
gained a black governor, and Hiram Revels of
Mississippi became the first African American elected to
the Senate.
th
15
Amendment
 Ratified in 1870.
 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.
 The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.
 Women’s rights groups were furious that they
were not granted the vote!
Negro Suffrage Amendment
Cartoon
First Black Voter
The Republican South
• During Radical Reconstruction, the Republican Party was a
mixture of people who had little in common except a desire to
prosper in the postwar South. This bloc of voters included
freedmen and two other groups: carpetbaggers and scalawags.
– Northern Republicans who moved to the postwar South
became known as carpetbaggers. Southerners gave them
this insulting nickname, which referred to a type of cheap
suitcase made from carpet scraps. Carpetbaggers were
often depicted as greedy men seeking to grab power or
make a fast buck.
– White southern Republicans were seen as traitors and called
scalawags. This was originally a Scottish word meaning
“scrawny cattle.” Some scalawags were former Whigs who
had opposed secession. Some were small farmers who
resented the planter class. Many scalawags, but not all,
were poor.
Sharecropping & Tenant Farming
Sharecropping
• A family farmed a portion of a
planter’s land.
• As payment, the family was
promised a share of the crop at
harvest time.
• After the harvest, some planters
evicted the sharecroppers
without pay or charged the
sharecroppers for housing and
other expenses, so that the
sharecroppers were in debt at
the end of the year.
• Many sharecropping families
were in dept to the planters and
trapped on the plantation.
Tenant Farming
• Tenant farmers did not own
the land they farmed.
• The tenant farmer paid to rent
the land and chose which
crops to plant and how much
to work.
• Tenant farming created a
class of wealthy merchants
who sold supplies on credit.
• Sharecropping and tenant
farming encouraged planters
to grow cash crops, such as
cotton, tobacco, and sugar
cane. The South had to import
much of its food.
Klan Portrait (p. 445)
Nathan Bedford Forrest in Uniform, c. 1865 (p. 446)
KKK Flag (p. 447)
Worse than Slavery Cartoon
The “Invisible Empire of the South”
Spreading Terror
The Ku Klux Klan
• The Klan sought to eliminate the
Republican Party in the South by
intimidating voters.
• They wanted to keep African
Americans as submissive
laborers.
• They planted burning crosses on
the lawns of their victims and
tortured, kidnapped, or murdered
them.
• Prosperous African Americans,
carpetbaggers, and scalawags
became their victims.
The Federal Response
• In 1870 and 1871, Congress
passed a series of anti-Klan
laws.
• The Enforcement Act of 1870
banned the use of terror, force,
or bribery to prevent people
from voting.
• Other laws banned the KKK
and used the military to protect
voters and voting places.
• As federal troops withdrew from
the South, black suffrage all but
ended.
Failure of Federal Enforcement
 Enforcement Acts of 1870 & 1871
[also known as the KKK Act].
 “The Lost Cause.”
 The rise of the
“Bourbons.”
 Redeemers
(prewar
Democrats and
Union Whigs).
The Civil Rights Act of 1875
 Crime for any individual to deny full &
equal use of public conveyances and
public places.
 Prohibited discrimination in jury
selection.
 Shortcoming - lacked a strong
enforcement mechanism.
 No new civil rights act was attempted
for 90 years!
Northern Support Wanes
 “Grantism” & corruption.
 Panic of 1873 [6-year
depression].
 Concern over westward
expansion and Indian wars.
 Key monetary issues:
*
should the government
retire $432m worth of
“greenbacks” issued during the Civil War.
*
should war bonds be paid back in specie or
greenbacks.
The Election of 1872
 Spoilsmen v. reformers.
 Rumors of corruption
during Grant’s first
term discredit
Republicans.
 Horace Greeley runs
as a Democrat/Liberal
Republican candidate.
 Greeley attacked as a
fool and a crank.
 Greeley died on
November 29, 1872!
1872 Presidential Election
Popular Vote for President: 1872
And They Say He Wants a Third Term
1876 Presidential Tickets
“Regional Balance?”
1876 Presidential Election
The Political Crisis of 1877
 “Corrupt Bargain”
Part II?
The Compromise of 1877
• The presidential election of 1876 was disputed.
Rutherford B. Hayes lost the popular vote, but the
electoral vote was contested.
• Democrats submitted a set of tallies showing Samuel
Tilden, who had the support of the Solid South, as the
winner.
• Finally, the two parties made a deal. In what became
known as the Compromise of 1877, the Democrats
agreed to give Hayes the victory. In return, the new
President agreed to support appropriations for rebuilding
the levees along the Mississippi River and to remove the
remaining federal troops from southern states.
• The compromise opened the way for Democrats to regain
control of southern politics and marked the end of
Reconstruction.
Hayes Prevails
Alas, the Woes of Childhood…
Sammy Tilden—Boo-Hoo! Ruthy Hayes’s got my
Presidency, and he won’t give it to me!
A Political Crisis: The
“Compromise” of 1877
Reconstruction Map
Election of 1876 Map
Cities and Industry
• Southern leaders saw the industrialized northern
economy and realized a unique opportunity to
build an industrialized economy in the South.
• Atlanta, the city that had been burned to the
ground by Sherman’s army, began to rebuild and
was becoming a major metropolis of the South.
• One problem with the industrialization of the
South was that most southern factories handled
the earlier, less profitable stages of
manufacturing. The items were shipped north to
be made into finished products and sold.
Funding Reconstruction
• Rebuilding the South’s infrastructure, the public property
and services that a society uses, was one giant business
opportunity.
• Roads, bridges, canals, railroads, and telegraph lines
had to be rebuilt.
• Funds were also needed to expand services to southern
citizens. Following the North’s example, all southern
states created public school systems by 1872.
• Congress, private investors, and heavy taxes paid for
Reconstruction. Spending by Reconstruction legislatures
added another $130 million to southern debt.
• Much of this big spending was lost to corruption. The
corruption became so widespread that it even reached
the White House.
An End to African American Suffrage
1860s
Reconstruction
begins.
1900s-1940s Jim Crow
laws prevent African
Americans from voting
1870s
Reconstruction
ends.
1950s-1960s
Civil Rights
movement begins.
Successes and Failures of
Reconstruction
Successes
Failures
Union is restored.
Many white southerners remain bitter
toward the federal government and the
Republican Party.
The South’s economy grows and new
wealth is created in the North.
The South is slow to industrialize.
Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments
guarantee African Americans the rights
of citizenship, equal protection under the
law, and suffrage.
After federal troops are withdrawn,
southern state governments and terrorist
organizations effectively deny African
Americans the right to vote.
Freedmen’s Bureau and other
organizations help many black families
obtain housing, jobs, and schooling.
Many black and white southerners
remain caught in a cycle of poverty.
Southern states adopt a system of
mandatory education.
Racist attitudes toward African
Americans continue, in both the South
and the North.