Reconstruction and Its Effects

1. Reconstruction and Its Effects Chapter 12

2. Reconstruction • 1865 – 1877 • Rebuilding the country – readmitting southern states • Lenient or harsh? • Would the Civil War have been for naught?

3. The Cast • Radical Republicans • Supported abolition before the Civil War and the War – Moral issue -- equality of rights for Blacks • Opposed Lincoln’s lenient reconstruction plan • Minority - worked w/Republican majority to impose harsher plan • Lincoln – Lenient plan • Johnson – follows Lincoln • Freed Blacks • Southern White power structure

4. Reconstruction Plans

5. Reconstruction Plans Legislative Branch Argument Executive Branch Argument Presidential power to pardon placed responsibility for Reconstruction in the executive branch Secession had been illegal so the states did not have to be readmitted to the Union The states were “out of their normal relationship to the Union”

6. Radical Republicans Impeach Johnson • Obstructing Radical Republican plan of Reconstruction • Violated Tenure of Office Act • One vote kept him in office

7. Carpetbagger/Scalawags • Carpetbaggers – Northerners who moved to the South for “economic opportunity” • Scalawags – Southern Democrats who joined the Republican Party after the Civil War

8. Amendments • 13th Amendment • Ended slavery • 14th Amendment • Equal protection under the law -Civil Rights • 15th Amendment • right to vote

9. Freedmen’s Bureau • Program set to help former slaves and poor whites • Hospitals • Schools • Training programs • Distributed clothing • Forty Acres and a Mule

10. Emancipated Slaves Exercise Freedom • Traveled • Reunited with families • Organized schools, colleges, universities, churches • Participated in politics

11. Sharecropping/Tenant Farming • Sharecropping • Use of land/tools/seed in exchange for portion of crop grown • Tenant Farmer • Cash paid for use of land • Cycle of poverty

12. 1. Sharecropper is given land and seed by owner Becomes Tenant Farmer if he has leftover cash 2. Buys food and clothing on credit 6. Pays of debts Crooked merchants charge unfair fines – Can’t leave until debts are paid. Farming methods deplete soil At the mercy of the market 5. Sells remaining crop at market 3. Plants crop 4. Harvests crop and gives landowner his share

13. Southern Whites Regain Political Power • Black Codes • Curfews, vagrancy laws, Labor contracts, land restrictions • Amnesty Act of 1872 • KKK • Infighting within the Republican Party • Supreme Court Decisions • Limited equal protection – to a few basic rights • Limited voting rights – what couldn’t be used to limit voting rights • Northern support fades

14. Successes Failures Union is restored. Many white southerners remain bitter The South’s economy grows and new wealth is created in the North. The South is slow to industrialize. 14th and 15th amendments Southern state governments and terrorist organizations deny African Americans the right to vote. Organizations help many black families Many remain caught in a cycle of poverty. Racist attitudes continue, in the South and the North. Southern states adopt a system of mandatory education. Successes and Failures of Reconstruction