Reconstruction

1865-1877

A. What was Reconstruction?

1. Attempt to achieve national reunification and reconciliation after Civil War.

2. Attempt to improve status of former slaves.3. Difficult to achieve both.

B. 4 Main Questions1. How to rebuild South?

a. Richmond, Charleston and Atlanta destroyed.

b. Economically in ruinsi. Runaway inflationii. Factories closed or

destroyed.iii. Railroads destroyed.

c. Agriculturally depressedi. Cotton fields abandonedii. Livestock taken

d. Slave value disappearedRichmond, VA (1865)

1. How would South be readmitted to the Union?

2. What should be done about the leaders of the rebellion?

3. Who will control the process?

a. Southern states?b. The President?c. Congress?

C. African-Americans in Post-War South1. 13th Amendment ratified in 1868 – abolished

slavery1. Many slaves not sure what to do2. Some retaliated against masters, others refused

to leave plantations out of loyalty

2. Freedmen’s Bureau a. Created in 1865 by northerners to wanted to

help ex-slaves transition into freedom.b. Authorized to provide “40 Acres and a Mule” to

each ex-slave.c. Limited in its effectiveness

i. Taught 200,000 ex-slaves how to read.ii. “40 acres” not a reality for most.iii. Violence against ex-slaves and the “carpetbaggers”

who helped them was prevalent.iv. Many ex-slaves hired themselves back to masters

for little pay as sharecroppers• tied them to the land as slavery had but now in

continual debt to landowner.• 75% of Southern blacks sharecropping by 1880.

v. Some ex-slaves move West to Kansas (“Exodusters”)

vi. Bureau expires in 1872.

D. Presidential Reconstruction1. Lincoln’s 10 % Plan

a. 10% of southern state would have to pledge allegiance to Union and obey 13th A. to be re-admitted

b. Congress thought it was too lenient.

i. Introduce Wade-David Bill in 1864

ii. Called for 50% loyalty oath and stronger emancipation rules

iii. States would be considered conquered provinces

iv. Lincoln vetoes thisv. Congress splits into two

factions – radical and moderate

E. Johnson’s Reconstruction

1. Follows late Prez. Lincoln’s 10% Plan

2. South takes advantage of thisa. Elect former Confederate

leaders to high political office.b. Pass “Black Codes” to keep

slaves in state of near slavery.c. Violence against ex-slaves

erupts in South.d. “Radical” Republicanism a

reaction to this – Many northerners felt that the South had not learned their lesson from the war.

F. Angry Republicans1. Refused entry to newly elected

southern delegates into Capitol.

2. Slaves now a full person counted (not 3/5ths) giving southern states 12 more votes than before war.

3. Republicans ran Congress for 4 years and now faced possible repeal of Morrill Tariff and Homestead Act and re-routing of transcontinental RR

4. Black Codes could be permanent

5. Who won this war anyway?

Thaddeus Stevens

Charles Sumner (post-caning)

G. Black Codes 1. Intended to keep slaves in low status.

2. Could not serve on juries or testify against whites.

3. Could not rent/lease land in many places.

4. Could not vote.5. Laws passed against

vagrancy.6. Forced many into

sharecropping – virtual slaves to the land because of constant indebtedness to plantation owner.

H. Congressional “Military” Reconstruction

1. Civil Rights Act of 1866a. Passed by Republicans granting

black citizenship and equal protection under the law over Johnson veto (passed extension of Freedmen’s Bureau over veto also)

b. Feared Sup Ct overturn so passed 14th Amendment giving ex-slaves citizenship and equal protection under law.

c. mid term elections of 1866 gave Republicans 2/3rds majority in both houses. – veto proof.

i. Waved “the bloody shirt” to garner pro-Union votes

ii. Senate led by Chas Sumner(MA)iii. House led by Thad Stevens (PA)

3. Congressional Reconstruction (1867)

a. Divided South into 5 military districts each commanded by a Union general and policed by the Union Army.

b. Required states to pass 14th Amendment.

4. States had to guarantee black male suffrage

c. 15th amendment passed and ratified in 1870 to allow federal protection of black voting rights.

d. Literacy tests, poll taxes and grandfather clauses severely restricted this.

e. Voting rights not fully realized until 1965.

5. Military Reconstruction lasts until 1868 on all but 3 states.

a. Slaves at mercy of state legislaturesb. Subject to racism, discrimination

and violence.

6. Congress frustrated with Johnson and his pro-South tendencies.

a. Find reason to impeach him for violating Tenure of Office Act

b. Acquitted by one vote.

7. Civil Rights Act (1875)c. Crime for any individual to

deny full and equal use of public facilities.

d. Great on paper – but weakly enforced.

e. Civil Rights legislation not attempted again for 90 yrs.

I. End of Reconstruction1. By 1870, all former Confederate

states reorganized, adopted 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments and were readmitted.

2. Once a state was on solid footing, Union troops were removed.

3. By 1876, whites dominated Southern politics again.

4. Northerners more concerned about economic depression of the 1870s than the plight of ex-slaves.

J. Compromise of 1877 1. Presidential election of 1876 between Samuel Tilden (D) and Rutherford B. Hayes (R).

2. Tilden seemed the winner but, but some election results inconclusive because of voter fraud/violence in FL, SC and LA.

3. Compromise – Hayes will get disputed electoral votes if remaining Union troops are removed from southern occupied areas (FL, SC and LA!)

K. Legacy of Reconstruction

1. Black male suffrage brought temporary gains

a. Blacks made up the majority of voters in AL, FL, LA, MS and SC

b. Blacks made up the majority of SC lower house.

c. But 14th and 15th A. openly disregarded – won’t be effectively enforced until 1964!

2. Rise of the Ku Klux Klana. “Invisible Empire of the

South” formed in TN in 1866.

b. Used fear, violence (lynchings) and intimidation to “keep blacks in their place”.

c. Force Acts passed by Congress in 1870-71 that outlawed these terrorist groups.

i. Moderately successful but damage and fear already done.

3. “Solid South”a. White supremacist south

dominated by Democratic Party in each state.

b. Republican Party dead in the south for nearly 100 yrs.

c. “Lost Cause” – refers to southern resentment and humiliation that lasted for generations.

d. Increased discrimination and resentment of blacks as well as the carpetbaggers (northerners) and scalawags (southerners) who helped them.

South Carolina State House, 1999

4. Jim Crow Lawsa. Begin after Reconstruction

endsb. Laws and customs in

southern states intended to segregate blacks in public facilities.

5. Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)a. Nail in the coffin of

Reconstructionb. Est. “separate but equal

doctrine”c. Makes it constitutional to

segregate racesd. Remains intact until Brown

v. Board of Education (1954)Homer Plessy

6. Civil Rights Pioneersa. Booker T. Washington

i. Born into slaveryii. Thought learning useful

trades was a way to earn equality rather than through education.

iii. Wrote Up From Slaveryiv. Advocated policy of

accommodation – he reluctantly accepted segregation until blacks earned their rightful place in society.

v. Urged blacks to adopt white middle-class standards of dress, speech and habits

vi. Ideas put forth in the Atlanta Compromise, 1895

b. W.E.B. DuBoisi. Born free in MAii. First black male to

graduate from Harvardiii. Opposed BTW and

advocated for immediate social and economic and educational equality for blacks.

iv. Goal was to achieve equal rights for blacks through use of lawsuits in federal courts.

v. Laid the groundwork for the NAACP