Reconstruction Era (1865-1876)

1. Reconstruction Era (1865-1876)

2. Jumpstart • Pick up the notes packet and your folder. You will need a pencil, a highlighter, and a sheet of paper for class today. • Consider: At the end of the war, the country had to be put back together (reconstructed), which meant letting the rebel states back into the Union. Lawmakers had to decide whether to punish them or forgive. • How might the states respond if the government punishes them? • Is there any danger in being too forgiving?

3. What If? At the end of the Civil War, the Southern states had to become part of the U.S. again. Which of these steps would you recommend if you were in charge of creating a united country in 1865? Discuss these with your group and pick 5. • Punish the South, so those states don’t try to secede again. • Forbid former Confederate leaders from voting or holding office. • Make the Southern states rewrite their constitutions, pass the 14th amendment, and give former male slaves voting rights before they can get back into the Union. • Send troops into the South and have them keep an eye on things. • Replace the old state governments with new officials who will protect the rights of African Americans and follow the new rules. • Let Southern states come back into the Union without being punished. • Pardon (officially forgive) former Confederate soldiers if they promise to support emancipation. • Let Southern states decide how they will enforce civil rights laws. • Allow the people that were in charge before the war to regain control of the state governments. • Try to forgive and forget. It will be better if everyone puts this mess in the past.

4. Who were the Radical Republicans? • Radical Republicans wanted: • Revenge • To protect freed slaves • To continue controlling the government

5. Reconstruction before Surrender • Wade–Davis Bill (1864): idea for Reconstruction written by two Radical Republicans (Wade and Davis) • Required a majorityin each Southern state to take the Ironclad oath against the Confederacy • Passed both houses of Congress on July 2, 1864 • Vetoed by Lincoln and never took effect • Lincoln believed this plan would make it too difficult to repair the Union

6. Presidential Reconstruction • 10% Plan • Pardon to all BUT the highest ranking Confederate officers • 10% of the voting population had to take an oath of loyalty and establish a new state government • Designed to end Reconstruction quickly • Andrew Johnson took over this plan when Lincoln was assassinated • Johnson did not provide protection for former slaves

7. Congressional Reconstruction • Reconstruction Act of 1867 • Effected the 10 Southern states that refused to ratify the 14th Amendment • Divided them into 5 military districts • Each governed by a Union general and military troops

8. You Decide! • You are a U.S. Senator in 1865. • We are going to take a vote on whether to implement the plan for Reconstruction presented by the President (10% Plan) or the one presented by Congress (Radical Republican Plan). • We will do a roll call vote. Be prepared to present your reasons for voting as you did.

9. 13th Amendment- “FREED” • Ratified in December, 1865 • Outlawed slavery • Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, […] shall exist within the United States

10. 14th Amendment- “CITIZENS” • Ratified in July, 1868. • Provide citizenship regardless of race • Former slaves were now citizens and had all the rights of white citizens • Southern states could be punished for interfering with these

11. 15th Amendment- “VOTE” • Ratified in 1870 • Freedmen gained the right to vote • “The rightof citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

12. Quick Quiz - 13th, 14th, or 15th? • Get out a sheet of paper and number 1-5 and write the sentences. For each of the following, indicate which of the Civil War amendments protects that right. • Former slaves and men of all races can vote. • 15th • If you are born in the U.S., you are a U.S. citizen. • 14th • Slavery is illegal in the United States. • 13th • Former slaves are protected by laws and are considered citizens. • 14th • Due process (people have the right to be treated fairly by the government) and equal protection are guaranteed to all. • 14th

13. Freedmen’s Bureau (1865) • Created by Congress: • Provided food and supplies • Established schools • Anyone who pledged loyalty to the Union could lease forty acres of land • Not very successful • Southerners threatened former slaves into selling their forty acres • Many bureau agents accepted bribes

14. Jumpstart • Pick up your folder and the Jim Crow handout (half-sheet). • Get out your notes from yesterday.

15. Sharecropping Simulation

16. You are a sharecropper. I am the landlord. You are a former slave - now freed. Landlord: “I will provide you with 40 acres of land, a house, food, tools, seed and other essentials for the year. You will grow what I tell you and you will pay me back with the proceeds from the sale of your crop each year. You can keep the rest of the money for yourself.”

17. Cost per year: 40 acres and a house: $100 Seed: $5.00 Tools: $20.00 Food: $50.00 Other stuff: $20.00 TOTAL? _____________ $195

18. It is now September and you have harvested your crops. How much did you make? $100 1,000 lbs. of cotton @ 10 cents per lb _______ $20 200 bushels of corn @ 10 cents per lb _______ $15 100 bushels of tomatoes @ 15 cents per lb _______ $30 300 pounds of melons @ 10 cents per lb _______ $165 TOTAL: ______

19. How much did you owe for the year to the landlord? Do you still owe me money? How about next year you farm twice the amount of land to make up the difference?

20. Cost per year: 80 acres and a house: $180 Seed: $10.00 Tools: $20.00 Food: $50.00 Other stuff: $40.00 TOTAL? _____________ $300

21. Was this a good situation for the freedmen? How did it benefit the landlords? What are the implications for the future?

22. Sharecropping • Freedmen rented plots of land in order to provide for their families • Sharecropping emerged • Many ended up renting from their former masters • Kept blacks indebted to white landowners • Could not earn much and remained poor

23. End of Reconstruction • Election of 1876 – Hayes (Republican) vs. Tilden (Democrat) • Democrats won electoral AND popular vote • Republicans charged Democrats with corrupt voting • A commission was formed to recount and decide who truly won the election • Republicans won by ONE electoral vote BUT had to negotiate with the Democrats to have them go along with it: • Pulled out of all federal troops from South • South decides on enforcement of new Amendments • South gradually reclaimed old power structures • Black codes and Jim Crow laws economically and socially oppressed freedmen

24. Black Codes/Jim Crow Laws • Purposes: • Laws used to limit rights of the freedmen • Helped Southern planters find workers to replace former slaves (freedmen could be arrested without a job) • Kept freedmen at the bottom of the social and political order (segregation in public) • Segregation = legal separation

25. Which Does it Violate? • Employment was required of all freedmen; violators faced vagrancy charges. • 14th Citizenship • Freedmen could not assemble without the presence of a white person. • 1st Assembly • Public facilities were segregated. • 14th Citizenship • Freedmen who were not in the military service could not carry fire-arms, or any kind of weapons, without written permission of their white employers. • 2nd Bear Arms • Freedmen were not permitted to preach or lead congregations of colored people, without a special permission in writing. • 1st Religion • Every freedmen was required to be in the regular service of some white person, or former owner, who was held responsible for the conduct of those freedmen. • Very Close to violating 13th

26. Ku Klux Klan • Angry whites resorted to violence to intimidate freedmen • The KKK was the main group • Secret society of white supremacists formed in Tennessee in 1866 • Klansmen, who wore white hoods, harassed, beat, and sometimes even lynched (hung) freedmen • Used these tactics to scare blacks away from the polls during elections • Also punished those who did not obey their demands

27. Homestead Act (1862) • Purpose: Encourage economic growth and expansion to the West • Provided families with 160 acres of land if they agreed to “improve” it (build a home and plant crops) • In 5 years they could own the property • 140,000 homesteads granted under this act http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbbk0O8-70w 3 minutes

28. Morrill Act (1862) • Purpose: Provide federal land for agricultural and mechanical colleges • Gave each state 30,000 acres of federal lands times the # of its members in Congress • 15 members: 30,000 x 15= 450,000 acres of land • States sold the land and used the money to create universities for agriculture and mechanical arts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vh5Bim3Enw Morrill Act 1862– Penn State 3 min

29. Dawes Act (1887) • Purpose: Promote the assimilation of the American Indians into American society • Gave each Indian family 160 acres of farmland. The remaining tribal farmlands were “surplus” and open to white settlement • Nearly destroyed Native Indian culture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTfRNtjTMKs Dawes Act – 1:49 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxlhXz62L_k Dawes Act – Animation 1 min