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Reconstruction

Reconstruction. 1865-1877. A. What was Reconstruction?. Attempt to a chieve national reunification and reconciliation after Civil War. Attempt to improve status of former slaves. Difficult to achieve both. B. 4 Main Questions. How to rebuild South?

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Reconstruction

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  1. Reconstruction 1865-1877

  2. A. What was Reconstruction? • Attempt to achieve national reunification and reconciliation after Civil War. • Attempt to improve status of former slaves. • Difficult to achieve both.

  3. B. 4 Main Questions • How to rebuild South? • Richmond, Charleston and Atlanta destroyed. • Economically in ruins • Runaway inflation • Factories closed or destroyed. • Railroads destroyed. • Agriculturally depressed • Cotton fields abandoned • Livestock taken • Slave value disappeared Richmond, VA (1865)

  4. How would South be readmitted to the Union? • What should be done about the leaders of the rebellion? • Who will control the process? • Southern states? • The President? • Congress?

  5. C. African-Americans in Post-War South • 13th Amendment ratified in 1868 – abolished slavery • Many slaves not sure what to do • Some retaliated against masters, others refused to leave plantations out of loyalty • Freedmen’s Bureau • Created in 1865 by northerners to wanted to help ex-slaves transition into freedom. • Authorized to provide “40 Acres and a Mule” to each ex-slave. • Limited in its effectiveness • Taught 200,000 ex-slaves how to read. • “40 acres” not a reality for most. • Violence against ex-slaves and the “carpetbaggers” who helped them was prevalent. • Many ex-slaves hired themselves back to masters for littlepay as sharecroppers • tied them to the land as slavery had but now in continual debt to landowner. • 75% of Southern blacks sharecropping by 1880. • Some ex-slaves move West to Kansas (“Exodusters”) • Bureau expires in 1872.

  6. D. Presidential Reconstruction • Lincoln’s 10 % Plan • 10% of southern state would have to pledge allegiance to Union and obey 13th A. to be re-admitted • Congress thought it was too lenient. • Introduce Wade-David Bill in 1864 • Called for 50% loyalty oath and stronger emancipation rules • States would be considered conquered provinces • Lincoln vetoes this • Congress splits into two factions – radical and moderate

  7. E. Johnson’s Reconstruction • Follows late Prez. Lincoln’s 10% Plan • South takes advantage of this • Elect former Confederate leaders to high political office. • Pass “Black Codes” to keep slaves in state of near slavery. • Violence against ex-slaves erupts in South. • “Radical” Republicanism a reaction to this – Many northerners felt that the South had not learned their lesson from the war.

  8. F. Angry Republicans • Refused entry to newly elected southern delegates into Capitol. • Slaves now a full person counted (not 3/5ths) giving southern states 12 more votes than before war. • Republicans ran Congress for 4 years and now faced possible repeal of Morrill Tariff and Homestead Act and re-routing of transcontinental RR • Black Codes could be permanent • Who won this war anyway? Thaddeus Stevens Charles Sumner (post-caning)

  9. G. Black Codes • Intended to keep slaves in low status. • Could not serve on juries or testify against whites. • Could not rent/lease land in many places. • Could not vote. • Laws passed against vagrancy. • Forced many into sharecropping – virtual slaves to the land because of constant indebtedness to plantation owner.

  10. H. Congressional “Military” Reconstruction • Civil Rights Act of 1866 • Passed by Republicans granting black citizenship and equal protection under the law over Johnson veto (passed extension of Freedmen’s Bureau over veto also) • Feared Sup Ct overturn so passed 14thAmendment giving ex-slaves citizenship and equal protection under law. • mid term elections of 1866 gave Republicans 2/3rds majority in both houses. – veto proof. • Waved “the bloody shirt” to garner pro-Union votes • Senate led by Chas Sumner(MA) • House led by Thad Stevens (PA)

  11. Congressional Reconstruction (1867) • Divided South into 5 military districts each commanded by a Union general and policed by the Union Army. • Required states to pass 14th Amendment. 4. States had to guarantee black male suffrage • 15th amendment passed and ratified in 1870 to allow federal protection of black voting rights. • Literacy tests, poll taxes and grandfather clauses severely restricted this. • Voting rights not fully realized until 1965. • Military Reconstruction lasts until 1868 on all but 3 states. • Slaves at mercy of state legislatures • Subject to racism, discrimination and violence.

  12. 6. Congress frustrated with Johnson and his pro-South tendencies. • Find reason to impeach him for violating Tenure of Office Act • Acquitted by one vote. 7. Civil Rights Act (1875) • Crime for any individual to deny full and equal use of public facilities. • Great on paper – but weakly enforced. • Civil Rights legislation not attempted again for 90 yrs.

  13. I. End of Reconstruction • By 1870, all former Confederate states reorganized, adopted 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments and were readmitted. • Once a state was on solid footing, Union troops were removed. • By 1876, whites dominated Southern politics again. • Northerners more concerned about economic depression of the 1870s than the plight of ex-slaves.

  14. J. Compromise of 1877 • Presidential election of 1876 between Samuel Tilden (D) and Rutherford B. Hayes (R). • Tilden seemed the winner but, but some election results inconclusive because of voter fraud/violence in FL, SC and LA. • Compromise – Hayes will get disputed electoral votes if remaining Union troops are removed from southern occupied areas (FL, SC and LA!)

  15. K. Legacy of Reconstruction • Black male suffrage brought temporary gains • Blacks made up the majority of voters in AL, FL, LA, MS and SC • Blacks made up the majority of SC lower house. • But 14th and 15th A. openly disregarded – won’t be effectively enforced until 1964!

  16. 2. Rise of the Ku Klux Klan • “Invisible Empire of the South” formed in TN in 1866. • Used fear, violence (lynchings) and intimidation to “keep blacks in their place”. • Force Acts passed by Congress in 1870-71 that outlawed these terrorist groups. • Moderately successful but damage and fear already done.

  17. South Carolina State House, 1999 3. “Solid South” • White supremacist south dominated by Democratic Party in each state. • Republican Party dead in the south for nearly 100 yrs. • “Lost Cause” – refers to southern resentment and humiliation that lasted for generations. • Increased discrimination and resentment of blacks as well as the carpetbaggers (northerners) and scalawags (southerners) who helped them.

  18. 4. Jim Crow Laws • Begin after Reconstruction ends • Laws and customs in southern states intended to segregate blacks in public facilities. • Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) • Nail in the coffin of Reconstruction • Est. “separate but equal doctrine” • Makes it constitutional to segregate races • Remains intact until Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Homer Plessy

  19. 6. Civil Rights Pioneers • Booker T. Washington • Born into slavery • Thought learning useful trades was a way to earn equality rather than through education. • Wrote Up From Slavery • Advocated policy of accommodation – he reluctantly accepted segregation until blacks earned their rightful place in society. • Urged blacks to adopt white middle-class standards of dress, speech and habits • Ideas put forth in the Atlanta Compromise, 1895

  20. W.E.B. DuBois • Born free in MA • First black male to graduate from Harvard • Opposed BTW and advocated for immediate social and economic and educational equality for blacks. • Goal was to achieve equal rights for blacks through use of lawsuits in federal courts. • Laid the groundwork for the NAACP

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