Reconstruction

1. Reconstruction • Chapter 6

2. Chapter Preview • Freedmen Freedmen’s Bureau Reconstruction • Suffrage Black Codes • Scalawag Carpetbaggers • Universal Male Suffrage Disenfranchise • Ku Klux Klan Redeemers • Filibuster Reapportionment • Understanding Clause

3. People to Know • President Andrew Johnson William L. Sharkey • Benjamin G. Humphreys Edward O. Ord • James L. Alcorn Adelbert Ames • Hiram Revels Robert H. Wood • Blanche K. Bruce • James Zacharias George

4. Places to Know • Warren County • Clinton

5. Quotable History: • Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally. • ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Mar. 17, 1865

6. Reconstruction and Transition • In 1860, Mississippi was one of the South’s wealthiest states. • Cotton production with slave labor was the reason. • After the Civil War that changed.

8. The End Of the War • In 1865, the War was over and Mississippi was devastated • The damage to the state’s cities was severe • Roads and Bridges were impassable • Many hotels, stores and public buildings had been burned • The wealth the state had enjoyed prior to 1860 no longer existed. • 1/3 of adult white males returned home too injured to ever work again. • Many others returned to find their farms and businesses destroyed. • Both white and black families suffered from extreme poverty in the following years and everyone was affected.

9. Freedmen • The nearly 400,000 freedmen (former slaves) Faced extreme hardship. • Homeless, uneducated and free for the first time in their lives, the freedmen had little more than the clothes on their backs. • Many walked from town to town in search of work or just to exercise their newfound freedom • Others searched for lost family members that had been sold away into slavery. • The social dynamic of the state changed. Blacks were afraid of slavery returning and Whites were afraid of reprisals as well as unnaccepting of equal rights for former slaves

10. Political Rights • The question of political rights created both fears and expectations • Freedmen looked forward to exercising their new rights while many whites feared these rights being exercised. • Whites also feared the federal government and the inevitable punishment for the war. • Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau to help former slaves find food, shelter, education, paying jobs and healthcare. • General Sherman issued an order after his march to the sea for confiscated lands in SC and GA to be divvied up among freedmen and these rumors spread to Ms that every freedman would receive 40 acres and a mule. This, however, was not federal policy

11. Presidential Reconstruction

12. Presidential Reconstruction • Before the war ended, Lincoln developed a plan to rebuild the south and get them back into the Union as quickly and efficiently as possible. This was known as “Reconstruction”. • Reconstruction had 2 simple steps: • 1. All southerners, except high ranking officers would be pardoned after taking an oath of loyalty to the Union. • 2. When 10% of voters in a rebel state had taken the oath, that state could form a government and re-enter the Union. • However, Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865 and Andrew Johnson became President and altered Lincoln’s vision of post-war America.

13. Johnson’s Reconstruction • Johnson’s Reconstruction was different than Lincoln’s. • He expanded the group of people who were NOT allowed to get a pardon. • High-ranking officers, politicians and land-owners who owned property worth more than $20,000 had to apply directly to the president for a pardon • He required that new state constitutions be written • Southern states had to repeal their secession ordinances • They had to void their war debts • They had to ratify the 13th amendment to the US constitution • Reconstruction in Ms began in June 1865 when William Sharkey, a former slaveholder who opposed secession was named provisional governor.

14. Constitutional Convention of 1865 • Ms Constitutional Convention opened on August 14, 1865. • Ms was the first state to call for a convention under Johnson’s reconstruction plan. • Many believed that if Ms wrote a constitution that was fair to freedmen and met Johnson’s requirements that the other states would follow. • However, the convention was attended by 100 representatives who had opposed secession but were in favor of keeping the state constitution virtually unchanged and allowing few if any rights and privileges to freedmen. • They also did not want Ms to share any responsibility for the abolition of slavery or wellbeing of freedmen.

15. Suffrage • President Johnson encouraged Gov. Sharkey and the delegates to extend “suffrage” (Voting Rights) to educated Blacks and those who owned property. • The delegates ignored him • They refused to give freedmen the right to vote • They only passed resolutions voiding Mississippi’s ordinance of secession and officially accepted the abolition of slavery. • The delegates did not vote on the 13th amendment or reject the state’s war debt because these requirements were added to Johnson’s plan after the convention had completed its work. • The convention delegates made it clear that they did not want any black participation in government at all.

16. The Election of 1865 • Elections were called and three men ran for Governor of Ms: • Ephraim S. Fisher of Coffeeville • Benjamin G. Humphreys of Claiborne County • William S. Patton of Lauderdale County • Fisher opposed secession and remained loyal to the Union during the war. • Humphreys opposed secession but joined the Conf. Army • Patton opposed secession and it is unclear what role he had in the war. • Humphreys won. • Most others elected served in the Conf. government of the state and rejected the rights of freedmen

17. The New Black Codes

18. The New Black Codes • The new legislature immediately took up the issue of civil and political rights for blacks in the state. • They passed 4 Acts, hailed as “necessary” to “protect” freedmen and were known as the Black Codes: • 1st Act - Civil Rights Act of 1865: • Legalized marriage • Right to sue in court • Prohibited interracial marriage • Prevented blacks from testifying in court cases involving whites • Limited black ownership of land • They could only rent or lease land in towns, limiting their ability to farm.

19. New Black Codes (cont) • Another provision required black workers to sign employment contracts, witnessed by 2 whites. If they broke the contract they could be arrested and returned to their employer. • Other Provisions: • Prohibited blacks from carrying firearms or other weapons • Provided for the arrest, fining, or imprisonment of blacks who assembled without permission or who were unemployed • Blacks who could not pay the fine could be “hired out” to anyone who could pay it • These codes were seen by Republicans as Ms trying to reverse the outcome of the war and reinstitute slavery

20. The Feds React • As a result of the Black Codes Congress moved quickly to make them inconsequential. • They wrote and passed the 14th Amendment to the Constitution to make every state abide by the outcome of the war.

21. The 14th Amendment • AMENDMENT XIV • Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868. • Note: Article I, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 2 of the 14th amendment. • Section 1.All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. • Section 2.Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age,* and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

22. 14th Amendment (cont) • Section 3.No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. • Section 4.The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. • Section 5.The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

23. Congressional Reconstruction

24. Congressional Reconstruction • Mississippi and several other states refused to ratify the 14th Amendment so Congress took control of Reconstruction • On March 2, 1867, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act • Carved the South up into 5 military districts and set new, strict requirements for restoring the civil government. • Mississippi was in the 4th Military District. • General Edward O. Ord was put in command. • His first task was to register all eligible voters • He organized voter registration boards in each county • By Sept. 1867, 137,000 adult males (black and white) were registered. Blacks were the majority in 32 counties and whites in 29 counties

25. 1867 Politics • Mississippi’s Republican Party formed in 1867 during the electorate’s first real opportunity to vote • They included white Mississippians who supported Congressional Reconstruction, Northern whites who came after the war, and black leaders. • Native white Republicans were known as “Scalawags” • Northern white Republicans living in the state were known as “Carpetbaggers” • The Republican Party favored a new constitution and supported enfranchising black voters. • Blacks overwhelmingly became Republicans and with their support the Party got approval for a new constitution.

26. Constitution of 1868 • The convention met in Jackson in January 1868 • The composition of the 100 delegates differed dramatically from that of the 1865 convention • 17 Blacks, 29 Scalawags, 25 Carpetbaggers, 17 Democrats • The black delegates offered 2 important resolutions for the new constitution: • 1. Universal Male Suffrage of any race or color. • 2. Free public education for all children ages 6-18. • The constitution also forbade discrimination in public transportation, eliminated the property qualification for voting or holding office, and extended property rights to married women

27. Backlash • Not all Mississippians accepted the new constitution • Democrats objected to the provision that disenfranchised (to take the right to vote away) all persons who supported the Conf. or secession. • They also fought the provision that gave the governor more power and the oath that former Confederates had to take acknowledging that “All men are created equal.” • The ratification of this constitution failed because of KKK intimidation and Democrats refusing to vote.

28. Ratification • In November 1869, President Grant resubmitted it to the voters having removed the oath and the disenfranchisement provisions and it finally passed.

29. Republican Rule in Mississippi • Republicans ruled the state beginning in 1869 when James L. Alcorn won the Governorship • Republicans also won a majority in the legislature • In January 1870, the legislature met the final 2 requirements for readmission into the Union by ratifying the 14th and 15th Amendments.

30. The Prodigal State Returns • To represent the state in the US Senate, the legislature elected: • Adelbert Ames...who had originally come from Maine • Hiram Revels...a black minister from Natchez • Hiram Revels took Jefferson Davis’ seat and became the first African American to serve in the US Senate. • On February 23, 1870, Mississippi was finally readmitted into the Union.

31. Governor James L. Alcorn • In his inaugural address he denounced secession and pledged to be the Governor of ALL the people. • He was popular but did not have the support of white Democrats who railed against equality of the races. • The economy of the state improved • Land values increased • Public school system was expanded

32. The Party’s Over • In 1871, Alcorn resigned to replace Revels in the Senate. • Revels became the first President of Alcorn State College, a newly established college for African Americans • In 1873, Alcorn and Ames both ran for Governor • Ames accused Alcorn of deserting Republican philosophies and siding with white Democrats in the state. • Ames also accused Alcorn of not protecting African Americans from the KKK. • Ames won but the Republican party was split and weakened in the state

33. African American Political Power • In 1868, Gen. Ord appointed Benjamin T. Montgomery, a planter, to be Justice of the Peace. He was the first African American in the state to hold public office. • Between 1869-1881 African Americans held a number of seats in the legislature. • Several served as Speaker of the House and Secretary of State • Many local political offices were also held by African Americans • Robert H. Wood was elected the mayor of Natchez and was likely the first African American mayor in the nation’s history. • Blanche K. Bruce became the first African American to serve a full term in the US Senate

34. Education • Education was always bad in the state but the Civil War hurt it even further. • Whites had been unwilling to institute a public school system before the war and after the war there were virtually no functioning schools. • Education was revived in 1868, when the new constitution required it. • In 1870, the legislature established a school system in each county under the leadership of an elected state superintendent and county superintendents appointed by a state board of education. • Over $3 million was spent on education and school construction and by 1875 there were nearly 90,000 African American and 79,000 white students

35. The End of Republican Rule

36. Return of the Democrats • Democrats desperately wanted to regain political power. • They argued that Republicans were wasting money • They hated federal troops still present in the state • They argued that carpetbaggers controlled the African American vote • They considered themselves “Redeemers” of the old way of life. • The Democrats used intimidation to coerce white Republicans to switch parties and violence to prevent African Americans from voting • In December 1874, 500 white Democrats in Warren County gathered at the courthouse and forced the sheriff to resign

37. Violence Continues • African Americans came out to support Sheriff Crosby but a riot ensued and 29 African Americans were killed along with 2 whites and violence did not end until federal troops stepped in. • Similar violence occurred across the state. • After riots broke out in Clinton in 1875 and a prominent Republican was murdered people began to fear speaking out. • The federal government had pulled back and the Democrats’ strategy worked. • On November 4, 1875 the Democrats won back the state legislature and used it to bully and impeach Republican leaders across the state. • The legislature was able to appoint an interim governor and take control of the state

38. Presidential Election of 1876 • Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes basically tied in the Electoral College • There were disputed votes in Louisiana, South Carolina, Oregon and...surprise, surprise Florida • Congress set up a commission to decide on the disputed votes • It was composed of 8 Republicans and 7 Democrats awarded all 20 electoral votes to Hayes. • Congress accepted the decision after a secret deal was reached ending a “Filibuster” (Continuous speechmaking to delay a vote) by Southern Democrats • They agreed to end the filibuster if Hayes would remove all troops from the south

39. Effects • The removal of federal troops from the south was the last obstacle the Democrats had to taking complete control of the politics of the state • Now they could intimidate voters, use violence, conduct voter fraud and basically engineer elections at will • The Democrats reversed the Republican’s policies and cut taxes and funding for schools and colleges. • The Democrats decreased the number of state jobs and institutionalized racism throughout the state.

40. The Constitution of 1890

41. It All Comes Full Circle • By the mid-1880’s white Democrats had decided that they could no longer accept a state constitution that they perceived as having been written by scalawags, carpetbaggers and African Americans • The whites from the northern counties favored “Reapportionment” (redrawing the voting districts) of the state to take power away from Republicans • The convention met in August 1890, and was dominated by white Democrats. Only 1 African American delegate was sent (Montgomery) • The Democrats devised a scheme to eliminate African American political participation • James Zacharias George wrote much of the scheme which is outlined in Sect. 12 of the state constitution

42. The Scheme • Adult Males who “wanted” to vote had to: • Register at least 4 months before an election • Live in the state for 2 years and in that district for at least 1 year • Pay an annual $2 poll tax • Be able to read any section of the state constitution OR “understand it when read to them” • This is known as the “Understanding Clause” which was added as a loophole to allow illiterate whites to vote • Two years after the adoption of the Second Mississippi Plan, African American registered voters dropped from 142,000 to 8,615. • 30,000 poor whites were removed from the rolls because of the $2 tax

43. End Chapter 6 • Read Chapter 7