Mr. Giesler American History. Reconstruction: 1865-1877 TTYN: What is freedom? According to former...

Reconstruction

Mr. GieslerAmerican 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?

What I Know about Reconstruction

What I Learned About Reconstruction

What I Want to Learn about Reconstruction

K-W-L

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


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


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


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: Did the black codes truly resemble the death of slavery?

Not 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

“The freedmen were sent away empty handed,

without money, without friends, and without a

foot of land to stand upon. Old and young,

sick and well, they were turned loose to the

open sky, naked to their enemies.”

– Frederick Douglas

Radical Reconstruction

Radical Republicans React

Who Were they

Tended to represent constituencies in New England and the “burned-

over” 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


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


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

Naturalization is the process by which people can become citizens of a country hey were not born in. The United States Constitution grants Congress the power "to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization" (Article I, section 8, clause 4). Soon after the Constitution was ratified Congress passed the Naturalization Act of 1790 (1 Stat. 103). The act provided that:

any alien, being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof, on application to any common law court of record, in any one of the States wherein he shall have resided for the term of one year at least, and making proof to the satisfaction of such court, that he is a person of good character, and taking the oath or affirmation prescribed by law, to support the Constitution of the United States

13th Amendment


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


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


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-holdingHiram Revels

Reconstructed South

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

have served as Senators

Hiram Revels

Blanche K. Bruce




K-W-L

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??

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

A Scalawag by definition is a scamp; White Southerners who collaborated with the radicals joined this particular group

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


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


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

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.

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.

What’s Next for the South




K-W-L

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

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