Reconstruction

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

BELLWORK- Short Answer Question

What to do with the South?• What is the political and legal status of the former

Confederate States when the war ends?

• Lincoln’s Ten Percent plan – easy• Congress tried their own with the Wade-Davis Bill – harder• Lincoln killed it with a pocket veto.

• What is a pocket veto?

• Lincoln’s Ten Percent plan was going to be used until Ford Theatre.• New President Andrew Johnson was going to go with Lincoln’s

plan, but upset the Radical Republicans.

Radical Reconstruction• So Radical Republicans

take over• Led by

• Thaddeus Stevens (PA)• Charles Sumner (Mass)

• Remember him?• With Brooks?

• In 1866 they had 2/3 majority in Congress.

• Passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867• Johnson vetoed, but

overridden• Made Military districts

End of Slavery• Officially ended with

the 13th Amendment• But the South then

passed Black Codes.• What is the difference

between Black Codes and slavery?

• The Congress then passed the Civil Rights Act (1866) over Johnson’s veto.• Soon after passed the

14th Amendment.• Civil Rights• “No discrimination of

race, creed, or color”• Also rules for southern

states to rejoin Union.

IMPEACHMENT• President Johnson had vetoed many pieces of legislation.• The Radical Republicans set up a trap:

• Tenure in Office Act – President could not remove cabinet officers without 2/3 vote of Senate.

• Sec. of War Edwin Stanton was fired and the House drew up Impeachment charges against Johnson.

• In 1868, after a 3-month trial in Senate, Johnson was one vote short of being removed from office.

(Who is the only other President to be Impeached?)

15th Amendment• In 1870, the 15th Amendment passed which gave black men

the right to vote.• But what about women? How did Elizabeth Cady Stanton react?

• South would still try to limit voting of blacks (and poor whites) by:• Grandfather Laws• Poll taxes• Literacy Tests• Intimidation

Freedmen’s Bureau• The Freedmen’s Bureau was established in 1865 to assist the

newly freed slaves.• At first had authority to give them confiscated farmlands.

• 40 acres and a mule idea• Stopped when President Johnson pardoned Confederates and they

got their land back.• But most of the success came in the establishment of schools and

hospitals throughout the south (and some reuniting of families)

Southern Politics during Reconstruction• Scalawags – white

southerners who joined Republicans

• Mainly small farmers

• Carpetbaggers – Northerners who moved south

• Bad reputation because of some

• The new freedmen, Scalawags, and Carpetbaggers formed Republican majorities in many southern states around 1870. • Hiram Revels – 1st black U.S. Senator • Blanche Bruce - 2nd

• As more Democrats regained the right to vote and intimidation took over, they lost power.

Southern Economy in Reconstruction• Economy in ruins after the war.• Confederate bonds worthless• Physical damage - $100 million in GA and SC alone• Property values much lower• Cotton prices lower (India, Egypt now in world market)

• Sharecropping and Tenant Farming develop.• Bourbon Rule – (land) rich still had most of the power• Henry Grady – Atlanta Constitution – “change southern

economy”

Intimidation• Ku Klux Klan started out against Republican rule in the south.

• Nathan Bedford Forrest – founder, but later denounced it.• White Camellia Knights – another radical group

• Enforcement Acts and President Grant helped put the KKK down• Would come back later in the 1920s

• Ida B. Wells – would lead and anti-lynching campaign in the late 1800s

Reconstruction in North• Gilded Age Politics – notorious for corruption• Grant’s Presidency:

• Credit Mobilier scandal involving railroads skimming off the top• Whiskey Ring, Navy Ring, Indian Ring

• Panic of 1873• Railroad speculation (bubble) cause banking crises

• “Waving the Bloody Shirt” – Republicans use it to unite party• People in North grew tired of Reconstruction• Social Darwinism idea in business, but also with races

Redemption• Amnesty Act of 1872 left only the top 500 confederate unable

to serve• Democrats would take back over government

• “yellow-dog democrats”

• Election of 1876• Rep – Rutherford B. Hayes• Dem – Samuel Tilden

• Tilden had the most votes, but 3 states were in question for fraud

• Compromise of 1877• Hayes wins and military reconstruction ends

The New South• “Lost Cause” – looking back to “old south”• Redeemer Governments – South is democratically controlled

until after World War II• Jim Crow Laws – Segregation laws

• “as the army marched out, Jim Crow marched in”

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – Supreme Court supported “separate by equal” doctrine (legally allowed segregation)

• Atlanta Compromise speech by Booker T. Washington• “accepting of segregation,” idea of self-help with education and skills

Links• http://

www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/civil-war-and-reconstruction-1861-1877 -timeline

• http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/reconstruction/section1/section1_intro.html - Reconstruction

• http://www.mrburnett.net/civilwar.html - from another teacher

• http://www.mrburnett.net/civilwar.html - part 1 aftermath• http://www.mrburnett.net/civilwar.html - student project• http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVH26dfBL4w&feature=BFa&list=PLB40AC55D5CB1BC06 – review video

Reflection Questions• What would be some lasting effects on the South of

Reconstruction?• What could Abraham Lincoln have done differently if he had

been President during Reconstruction?• Why did the north tire of Reconstruction?• How did Reconstruction set the stage for the next 100 years in

the United States?• What are the three Reconstruction amendments and what do

each of them do?