Stella Lindsey

What is going on in Washington?

What is going on in the South?

Who is an American?What does freedom mean?What form should government take? (States’ rights vs. federal power)

How do you reunite a divided nation and who will take charge of the process?

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address Two Reasons…. 1. Constitutional Liberty (Contract Theory) 2. Human Equality In other words….. 1. States have no right to leave the Union 2. Slavery must be abolished

Very lenient on the SouthSouthern states had to abolish

slavery10% had to take an oath of loyalty to

the U.S.Some blacks would be allowed to

voteThree states said YES! (AR, LA, TN)(Lenient, Presidential, quick)

Wanted to punish the SouthSouth had to abolish slavery50% had to take loyalty oath States had to Deal with war debts

Confederate soldiers would not be allowed to vote

1861-1865 Civil War 1863 Gettysburg

Address 1863 10% Plan 1864 Wade-Davis Bill 1864 Lincoln reelected 1865-Feb House Votes

on 13th Amendment 1865 April 12 (9) Lee

surrenders to Grant 1865 WAR IS OVER! 1865-April 14 Lincoln is

Assassinated

Abolished Slavery in the US

Movie: Lincoln and the fight for the 13th Amendment

What did the war settle?

The Union had been preserved

Slavery was abolished

Federal government had more power than the states

QUESTIONS LEFT UNANSWERED….. How will the nation

deal with 4 million freedmen?

How will the Confederacy become part of the United States again?

1. Perhaps the greatest political crisis in American history

2. Social Crisis3. Economic Crisis4. Legal/ Constitutional crisis

End of slavery and freedom from white control

Hopes of owning land Freedom to move around and look for

loved ones Freedom to set up black schools,

churches, and clubs Equal rights, the right to vote,

citizenship Legal protection Freedom to work or not to work

African Americans fought in the Civil War. The movie, Glory, featuring Morgan Freeman, tells the story of a black battalion.

Freedom from Northern controlFreedom to put their world back the way it was

Many embraced the “Lost Cause,” a cult of mourning and romanticizing the Old South

Fought for local control and to maintain white supremacy

Civil War Monument, Oxford, MS

An agency of the army, the organization was set up to aid 4,000,000 African Americans and poor whites in the South

Distributed food, set up schools, and tried to settle blacks on land

An example in unprecedented government action to provide food, education, and economic opportunities for Americans

Set up for only one year It was too small and not very effective

Start on Tuesday Period 1

Both the Democrats and Republicans wanted to gain more political power through Reconstruction

4,000,000 free blacks could provide a boost to the Republican Party

1. Lincoln’s 10% plan, 18632. Wade-Davis Bill, 18643. Johnson’s Restoration Plan,

1865 (Presidential Reconstruction)4. Radical Reconstruction, 1866- (Congressional

Reconstruction)

Who was Andrew Johnson and how did he become Lincoln’’s vice

president?

Take Loyalty oath Wealthy landowners had to come to

him for pardon Abolish slavery (ratify the 13th

Amendment) Johnson appointed provisional

governors Deal with war debts Elect representatives to Congress

President Johnson's Reconstruction Plan (6 Minutes)

By 1865, ALL the Southern states had formed new governments and met the requirements of either Lincoln’s or Johnson’s plan and were prepared to rejoin the Union, but the Radicals in Congress would not agree these terms.

Between 1866 and 1868 Johnson vetoed 15 Reconstruction bills presented by the Radical Republicans—more than all previous Presidents put together. Congress simply overrode his vetoes

Radical Republicans, under Leaders Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, passed a series of Reconstruction Acts used to reconstruct the South

Enacted Black Codes Formed armed militias of former

Confederate soldiers Electing former Confederate leaders

to CongressRefusing to abolish slavery (ratify

13th Amendment) Race riots and violence in the South

1. Passed 14th Amendment, the first constitutional definition of citizenship.****

2. Introduced a very strict plan for readmitting the Southern states to the Union

3. Set up 5 military districts in the South with military governors

4. Wanted to give freedmen land 4. Passed the 15th Amendment—which

declared citizens could not be denied the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

Stopped the Supreme Court from interfering with their plans for Reconstruction.

In Ex parte Milligan, the Supreme Court ruled that military tribunals were unconstitutional in places where civil courts were functioning. This interfered with the military governments Congress had set up in the South.

Congress threatened to limit the authority of the Court.

Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act which stripped the President of some of his power. He could not remove civil officials from office—even his own cabinet—without consulting Congress.

Johnson dismissed Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton.

In 1868 the House of Representatives brought impeachment charges against Johnson, but the Senate was ONE vote shy of a majority to convict They failed to remove Johnson from office, but he lost all political power.

By 1869-1870 all former states had been readmitted. Mississippi was the last in 1870.

What ‘s been going on in the South?

For some time, the traditional view of Reconstruction in the South was one of failure and white subjugation to Republican carpetbaggers, scalawags, and black freedmen.

It is a view of government corruption and incompetence. (Gone With the Wind and Birth of a Nation have perpetuated this myth)

More recent research reveals a more accurate account of the period.

African Americans gained access to the ballot box and elected offices, but they never dominated southern politics.

16 African Americans elected to Congress None was ever elected governor Blacks held 10-15% of state

offices Carpetbaggers and scalawags were not

particularly corrupt

Southern governments were no more corrupt than governments in the North

Taxes rose and debts increased because the Republican governments had to fund schools, rebuild infrastructure, and deal with debt after the war

United States

Senator from

Mississippi during

Reconstruction

African American US Senator from Mississippi during Reconstruction. Lived and farmed in Bolivar County near Rosedale, MS.

1. Said they were being governed by incompetent blacks

2. Argued that Reconstruction governments in the South were corrupt and state debts were soaring

3. Felt they had been denied their rights as citizens.

Argued that the state and federal governments had not acted to guarantee their basic rights of citizenship.

They had not gained access to land

South’s agricultural economy changed dramatically.

Tenancy and sharecropping emerged in place of slavery

Global changes in the cotton market had negative impact on the South

Small farmers lost land

Why did the Mississippi Delta have a lower rate of sharecropping than other areas of the South in 1880?

Tenant farming or sharecropping increased dramatically in the South during Reconstruction and the years that followed.

Poor whites and African Americans turned to sharecropping during Reconstruction.

A general for the Union army during the Civil War, he is considered a military genius by many historians.

Grant’s Presidency was riddled with scandals.

Reconstruction against increasing resistance and violence in the South, rise of the KKK

Scandals in his own administration: Credit Mobilier, Whiskey Ring, Indian Affairs

Economy: Panic of 1873 and monetary policy (gold standard and the greenback question)

Loss of Northern support for Reconstruction

The nation entered a financial depression that lasted 4 years.

The Greenback Question: What will we base the value of our currency on? Gold? Government authority? ***This is one of the most enduring political issues of the era.

Specie Resumption Act-”greenbacks” or paper money issued during the Civil War would be redeemed and new certificates would be backed by gold.

Secretary of State William Seward purchased Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million dollars—“Seward’s Folly”

Hamilton Fish struck a deal with England over the “Alabama claims.”

A bankrupt and dying Grant writing his memoirs.

1. Loss of interest in the North2. Financial crisis –the Panic of 18733. Organized and often violent

resistance by white Southerners4. The Compromise of 1877-Hayes –

Tilden Election 5. The widespread belief that blacks

were inferior=racism (Social Darwinism)

Reconstruction failed to resolve the problem of racism

Government did not protect the rights of freedmen

A divided racially, economically, and politically divided nation emerged from Reconstruction.

Delayed dealing with constitutional rights for all Americans for almost another century: 1950s, 1960s, 1970s

Gave some dignity and equality to African Americans

The three Civil War Amendments laid the legal foundation for the Civil Rights Movement

13th Amendment—Abolished Slavery 14th Amendment-Who is a citizen? Due

Process and equal protection 15th Amendment—Guaranteed the right

to vote

Who is an American?What does freedom mean?What form should government take? (States’ rights vs. federal power)

How do you reunite a divided nation?

The Presidents: Grant 11:22

Pick up 2 handouts on the book case at the front of the room

White democrats took control of state governments in all 11 former Confederate states. The South had been “redeemed” according to white Southerners

Free blacks were disenfranchised: Literacy tests, grandfather clauses, poll taxes, gerrymandering, and intimidation

KKK grew in number and violence increased: lynching

New South boosters including Henry O Grady promoted industrialization and modernization in the South with only limited success

Legalized segregation was adopted across the South: Jim Crow, Plessy v Ferguson

Black leaders emerged including Booker T Washington –who promoted education, job training and the growth of a black middle class

Agricultural labor system underwent a transformation from slave labor to tenant farming and sharecropping which led to a form of debt peonage.

In 1890s there was an average of 187 lynchings each year.80% took place in the South.

1. Founder and president of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama2. Embraced education and vocational training as the path for black improvement 3. He delivered a speech in Georgia in 1895 in which he said blacks should not “agitate for their rights.” He supported self improvement, education, and economic gains (jobs) as way to gain social, political and economic power in society.

Read: Plessy v Ferguson: The Shaping of Jim Crow

Answer the questions

Reconstruction: America's Second Civil War 1:30:00