RECONSTRUCTION

1. RECONSTRUCTION The restoration of the former Confederate states to the Union 1865-1877

2. What Could Have Happened: chaos and vengeance • imprisonment of Confederate leaders • former rebel troops wage a guerilla war • slaves rage a racial war • What Did Happen: political stalemate • political conflict with some violence • Constitutional Amendments and legislative reform • impeachment crisis “It is intended to revolutionize their principles and feelings… a radical reorganization in Southern institutions, habits, and manners…or all our blood and treasure have been spent in vain.” ~ Thaddeus Stevens, Pennsylvania Representative

3. Questions to Consider • What issues (both short and long term) need to be addressed? • What other issues do you assume exist? Pre-existing conflicts – are they addressed? • Who is capable of and responsible for addressing them? • What are the priorities of reconstruction? Who decides what the priorities are? • Who or what is expendable or can be sacrificed in this process? • How can you measure the efficacy or success of the recovery plan? Pragmatism vs. ideology • When does it end?

4. Lincoln’s 10% Plan“With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds. “ 1863 Proclamation ofAmnesty and Reconstruction • Oath of allegiance and acceptance of emancipation by 10% of 1860 voters • Excluded Confederate officials and officers • Excluded blacks Attempt to undermine the Confederacy and build a southern Republican Party

5. Radical RepublicansWade-Davis Bill Passed by Congress in July of 1864, introduced by Radical Republicans, OH senator Benjamin F. Wade and MD representative Henry Winter Davis • majority of eligible voters required to swear oath of allegiance to the Union • repeal secession • abolish slavery Pocket-vetoed by Lincoln

6. Southern Senator, remained in Congress Anti-Confederate Military governor of TN Self-educated Jacksonian Anti-agricultural elite Supporter of emancipation AndrewJohnson

7. Johnson’s PlanMay 1865: AL, FL, GA, MS, NC, SC and TX still not readmitted

8. Governments of Southern Statesstatus quo ante bellum Confederate officers and large planters assumed state offices Former Confederate congressmen won election to Congress BLACK CODES Insure a landless, dependent black labor force through contracts Legalized segregation Banned intermarriage, jury service by blacks, testimony againstwhites Southern law allowed marriage to blacks, ownership of property and right to testify against other blacks Defended by Johnson

9. Congressional ReconstructionDemocrats;Radical, Moderate and Conservative Republicans 1865 – extend Freedmen’s Bureau 1866 (March) – Johnson vetoed it: the Constitution did not sanction military trials of civilians in peacetime, nor care for “indigent persons” 1866 (February) – Congress passed Civil Rights Act of 1866 guaranteeing African American citizenship Vetoed by Johnson; Overridden by Congress Freedmen’s Bureau Act then passed over a presidential veto

11. Midterm Election 1866: Republican Landslide Radical Republican Agenda: African American suffrage Federal support for public schools Confiscation of Confederate estates Extended military occupation of the South Three Reconstruction Acts passed over Presidential Veto Reconstruction Act of 1867All Reconstruction governments except TN were invalidated Remaining 10 states divided into 5 military districts Black males and enfranchised whites elect delegation for new constitution Grant African American suffrage and ratify 14th Amendment to be re-admitted Temporary military occupation No prosecution of Confederate leaders No confiscation or redistribution of property

12. Impeachment Crisis March 1867Congress passed Tenure of Office Act which prohibited the president from removing any executive officer confirmed by the Senate without Senate approval. (Eventually the law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.) February 21st, 1868, Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the last of several pro-Radical military officers Johnson had fired House approved 11 articles of impeachment, 9 based on Tenure of Office and 2 others for unbecoming conduct 7 Republican Senators voted with the Democrats and Johnson was spared conviction by one vote

13. Reconstruction Amendments

15. Carpetbaggers and ScalawagsAccording to Democrats, there were three types of Republicans Scalawags – poor, ignorant, white southerners who supported the Republicans Some former Whigs; mostly small farmers from the mountains (NC, BA, AL, AR); former Unionists who didn’t support the planter elite seeking their own economic improvement; no interest in black rights Carpetbaggers :northerners who had come south for wealth and power Former Union soldiers seeking land, factories, RR work or warmer climate; they held 1 in 3 political offices; recruited the black vote to the polls Hordes of uneducated freedmen: Backbone of southern Republicanism; 8 out of 10 Republican votes Sought land, education, civil rights and political equality Held only 1 in 5 political offices No black governors; only 2 Senators; 6% House members were black Black lawmakers sought equal rights; most freedmen sought land

16. White Counterattacks Ex-Confederates decried the “horror of Negro domination” NC constitutional convention delegates called “Ethiopian minstrelsy…baboons, monkeys, mules…and other jackasses” by democratic newspapers • Political Tactics – employed after readmission • contested elections • backed dissident Republican factions • elected Democratic legislators • lured away scalawags • Violent Vigilantism • shooting, murder, rape, arson, and “severe and inhuman beating” • 1866 six Confederate veterans formed KKK • by 1868 the Klan was a domestic terrorist organization targeting black voters

17. Emancipation Urban black population tripled as blacks left farms seeking lost family members and economic opportunity Black Churches:worship, relief, schools, political activism Education:Freedmen’s Bureau schools, Howard, Atlanta, Fisk Universities and Hampton Institute By 1877, 80% of blacks remained illiterate Sharecropping – Crop Lien Economy 40 acres and a mule 1866 Southern Homestead Act Obstacles to Black Landownership: Lack of capital White opposition to selling to blacks Preservation of a captive labor force

18. The Abandonment of Reconstruction • The Election of U.S. Grant, 1868 • popular candidate but incompetent President • surrounded by fraud, bribery and corruption (“Grantism”) • Liberal Revolt • radicals and others revolted; formed Liberal Republican Party • Horace Greeley 1872 Candidate for President • civil service reform, end to “bayonet rule”, qualified leaders • Panic of 1873 • Railroad speculation caused bank failure and five-year depression • bankrupt businesses, 3 million unemployed, labor violence • sound money vs. easy money and repayment of the debt • Specie Resumption Act, 1875 (Senator John Sherman) • Bland-Allison Act, 1878

19. End of Reconstruction • The Supreme Court • Ex Parte Milligan (1866) • Texas v. White (1869) • Slaughterhouse decision (1873) • U.S. v. Reese (1876) • U.S. v. Cruikshank (1876) • Invalidated the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and the KKK Act of 1871 (1883) • Plessy v. Ferguson (1898) • Redemption: the return of Democrats to power • Republican coalition crumbled • Democrats rewrote state constitutions • cut budgets, lowered taxes • eliminated social programs • limited rights of tenant farmers and sharecroppers • directed at blacks severe penalties for misdemeanors • restored conditions of slavery and prompted black exodus • Election of 1876: Hayes (Republican) vs. Tilden (Democrat) • Contested electoral outcome • Decided by electoral commission, certified by the House

20. “When you turned us loose, you turned us loose to the sky, to the storm, to the whirlwind, and worst of all… to the wrath of our infuriated masters… The question now is, do you mean to make good to us the promised in your Constitution?” Frederick Douglass

21. Don’t forget… • What issues (both short and long term) need to be addressed? • What other issues do you assume exist? Pre-existing conflicts – are they addressed? • Who is capable of and responsible for addressing them? • What are the priorities of reconstruction? Who decides what the priorities are? • Who or what is expendable or can be sacrificed in this process? • How can you measure the efficacy or success of the recovery plan? Pragmatism vs. ideology • When does it end? Choose AT LEAST three to address in your next journal entry…