Topic 8: Reconstruction

What was “Reconstruction”?

Program implemented by the federal government between 1865-1877 to repair damage to the South caused by the Civil war and restore the southern states to the Union.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nowsS7pMApI

Thesis StatementAfter three brutal years of death, destruction and carnage, the new challenge put forth to the United States was to answer the question of how to mend the physical, economic, social, and psychological damage that was inflicted on the nation by the Civil War. Despite what seemed the best intentions, the period that came to be known as “Reconstruction” was not successful in solving the nation’s social, economic, physical, and political problems due to continued sectional attitudes, political differences, and racism that developed after the Civil War

13th 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.

14th Amendment! Ratified in July, 1868.

* Provide a constitutional guarantee of the rights and security of freed people.

* Due Process - protection of a citizen’s legal rights* Equal Protection - support the tenant “all men are

created equal” Aimed at State Governments

! Southern states would be punished for denying the rights of black citizens!

15th 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!

Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)

Freedmen’s Bureau School

Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)! Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and

Abandoned Lands.

! Established to provide help for former slaves & their families

! Clothes, fuel, food, education, etc.! Many former northern abolitionists risked

their lives to help southern freedmen.

Plessy v. Ferguson

10https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoOlEPoc1PE&list=PLucCVgd_F0EPKwxWykjYwHrF1-SmZUxeA&index=3

Wor

se th

an S

lave

ry

11

W.E.B Dubois

13

Share Cropping

14

Share Cropping

15

Sharecropping and the Cycle of Debt

Susie Taylor King

17

Election of 1876

18

Election of 1876

19

Relevant Outside Info

• Political • Social • Economic • Physical

20

Lincoln’s plan

Johnson’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.

Reconstruction Plans

Reaction to Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan

• Radical Republicans felt that the Civil War had been fought over the moral issue of slavery.

• Main goal of Reconstruction = restructuring of society to guarantee black people true equality.

• Lincoln’s plan as too lenient. Wanted to punish the South• In July, 1864 - stricter Reconstruction plan, the Wade-Davis

Act. • Required ex-Confederate men to take an oath of past and

future loyalty (50% of voters)• Lincoln let the bill die in a pocket veto.

Wade-Davis Bill (1864)

Senator Benjamin

Wade(R-OH)

Congressman Henry

W. Davis(R-MD)

PresidentLincoln

Wade-DavisBill

Pocket Veto

Civil Rights Act of 1866

24

The Reconstruction Act of 1867Radical Republicans

1. Southern states would be under military rule by northern generals.

2. Southern states would have to create new state constitutions.

3. States would be required to give the vote to all qualified male voters (including African Americans).

4. Supporters of the Confederacy were temporarily barred from voting.

5. Southern states were required to guarantee equal rights to all citizens.

6. All states were required to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.

Con

gres

sion

al R

econ

stru

ctio

n

Black Senate & House Delegates

Republican Government Brings Change to the South

Scalawags • Scalawag was the name

given to southerners who supported the shift in power to Congress and the army.

• Many were farmers who had never owned slaves.

• Some joined the Republicans to prevent the planter class from returning to power; others were southerners ruined by the war; still others wanted to end the dependence on plantation agriculture.

Carpetbaggers • The scalawags allied with

carpetbaggers, northerners who came south to take part in the region’s political and economic rebirth.

• Scorned as low-class persons who could carry their belongings in a carpetbag, many were educated and came from a variety of backgrounds.

• Many bought abandoned land cheaply or formed partnerships with planters.

Impeachment of a President

29

• In a final humiliating gesture, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which stripped the President of the power to remove federal officials without the Senate's approval.

• In direct opposition to the act, he fired Secretary of War Stanton.

• Congress then voted to impeach Johnson by a vote of 126 to 47 in February 1868.

Impeachment of a President• Citing his violation of the

Tenure of Office Act and charging that he had brought disgrace and ridicule on Congress, an impeachment trial was held.

• By a margin of one vote, the Senate voted not to convict Johnson, and he served the duration of the term won by Lincoln.

30

“Solid South”

31

•“Solid South” describes the re-emergence of Southern Democrats / former Confederates to political power in the South at the end of Reconstruction. •Elimination of the Republican Party in the South •Affected the lives of Freedman / African Americans in the South. •Worked to block or reverse Federal Reconstruction laws & policies.

The Taste of Freedom• Freedom of movement: • Freedom to own land: • Freedom to worship: • Freedom to learn: • Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau to help

black Southerners adjust to freedom. This was the first major relief agency in United States history.

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.

South After Reconstruction – Political Changes

• Literacy Tests- voter must take a test to prove they could read - most blacks could not read.

• Poll Tax – citizens must pay a tax to the state before being allowed to vote – most blacks could not pay the tax

• “Grandfather Clause” – if your grandfather had voted before 1867, you did not have to take the literacy test – only whites had grandfathers who voted before 1867

South After Reconstruction – Social Changes

• Jim Crow laws – laws passed in Southern states that created segregation in public places – restaurants, railroad cars, hotels

• By the 1890s segregation was the norm in the South.

Sharecropping and Tenant Farming

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.

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.

Three Views of Atlanta

Atlanta 1864

Atlanta 1887

Atlanta 1904

Reconstruction DBQTask(s): Was Reconstruction successful in solving the nation’s social, economic, physical, and political problems?Following the disastrous Civil War, a plan arranged by President Abraham Lincoln, and implemented by the federal government, as referred to as “Reconstruction.” The object of this program was to repair the war damage inflicted upon the South and restore solidarity withing a broken union. Though the twelve year plan’s intention was to create peace by restoring southern states to the union through setting rules and regulations, Reconstruction instead, resulted in a harsh loss for the nation, as bitter turmoil was aroused, and conflict between blacks and whites mounted, potentially scaring America forever.