Reconstruction Challenges and Triumphs in South Carolina

1. Reconstruction (1865-1876)

2. Essential Questions How did Reconstruction attempt to resolve problems left from the Civil War? What were the successes and failures in SC Related to Reconstruction ? How did Reconstruction affect people in South Carolina? What political events occurred in SC that were related to the Constitution of 1868 ?

3. Secession is illegal. States’ Rights can exist but the federal government is sovereign. Slavery is ended. What the Civil War Decided

4. Land, homes, public buildings destroyed. Charleston in ruins from shelling. Columbia in ruins from fire. Wealth consumed by war and worthless Confederate bills. 35% of white male population is dead. Problems left from the war

5. The Twelve year (1865-1877) process of rebuilding the South following the Civil War. The federal government was more concerned with rebuilding the South politically and socially, and expected the South to rebuild itself physically and economically. What is Reconstruction?

6. What needed to be rebuilt? PHYSICALLY: How can SC afford to rebuild homes, buildings, railroads, when they have no money? POLITICALLY: Who will run the Government now? SOCIALLY: How will former Slaves be helped? How will whites deal With a new social class? ECONOMICALLY: What will planters do without slave labor? What jobs will former slaves find?

7. Presidential Reconstruction

8. President Lincoln’s Plan • 10% Plan • Replace high level Confederate officials with “loyal rule” in the South. • Did not consult Congress regarding Reconstruction. • Pardon to all but the highest ranking military and civilian Confederate officers. • When 10% of the voting population in the 1860 election had taken an oath of loyalty and established a government, it would be recognized.

9. President Lincoln’s Plan • Slavery must be prohibited in the new governments. • Lincoln’s plan was easy on the Confederacy. • He did not believe they had ever left the Union and did not want harsh feelings after the war was over.

10. Lincoln’s plan was not finished before he was assassinated. April 14, 1865: He was shot in Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth. Booth was a southern sympathizer who thought he was helping the south by killing Lincoln. Lincoln's Assassination

11. John Wilkes Booth • Southern sympathizer who had spied for the South during the war. • Actor who lived in Washington, D.C. • Part of a large conspiracy to kill top Union officials

12. John Wilkes Booth escaped but was shot to death later by federal troops. Others were arrested and convicted of conspiracy. Four others were hanged for their involvement. Others received prison sentences. PUNISHMENT

13. President Andrew Johnson • Became President when Lincoln died. • Democrat. • Anti-Aristocrat. • White Supremacist. • Agreed with Lincolnthat states had neverlegally left the Union.

14. Similar to Lincoln’s. Appointed provisional governors for each state. Benjamin Perry (of Greenville) became SC provisional governor. Pardoned many ex-Confederates. Said each state had to approve the 13th amendment. Johnson’s Plan

15. 13th Amendment • Ratified in December, 1865. • Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction. • Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

16. Freedmen’s Bureau (1865) • Created by federal gov’t to help former slaves. • Provided food, clothing, and medical supplies • Established schools • Helped freedmen find jobs

17. Freedmen’s Bureau School

18. The Freedmen’s Bureau fell short • Promised “forty acres and a mule” to freed blacks, but could not deliver this. • Did not provide money to teach new professions to freed blacks. • Did not have enough funds to provide for all.

19. Adopted a new state constitution in 1865. Many delegates were old leaders of the Confederacy. Some changes helped women and poor whites Owning land no longer necessary to hold office Women allowed to own property SC Constitution of 1865

20. Passed a series of laws intended to restrict freedoms of blacks. BLACK CODES Voting limited to whites Blacks could not own weapons Banned marriages between blacks and whites Limited types of jobs blacks could have SC Constitution of 1865

21. Growing Northern Alarm! • Many Southern state constitutions recreated governments just like pre-Civil War times. • President Johnson granted 13,500 special pardons. • Revival of southern defiance. BLACK CODES

22. Slavery is Dead?

23. Black Codes • Purpose: • Guarantee stable labor supply now that blacks were emancipated. • Restore socialsystem of slavery days. • Forced many blacks to become sharecroppers[tenant farmers].

24. Congress Breaks with the President • Congress does not allow SouthernCongressional delegates into Congress. • Committee on Reconstruction created. • President Johnson vetoes everything! • Congress passed bills over Johnson’s vetoes

25. President Johnson’s Impeachment President Johnson continued to fight Congress and appointed people to positions without Congressional approval. • The House impeached Johnson by a vote of 126 – 47 but did not vote to remove him from office.

26. Radical (Congressional) Reconstruction

27. 14th Amendment • Ratified in July, 1868. • Provided rights of citizenship to all freed African Americans. • Promised African Americans equal rights under the law. • Southern states would be punished for denying the right to vote to black citizens!

28. The Balance of Power in Congress

29. Radical Plan for Reconstruction • Military occupation of each state. • Divided into 5 districts. • SC and NC were Second District. • Daniel Sickles- commander • Required new state constitutions, including ratification of the 13th and 14th Amendments and right to vote for blacks. • This new plan went into effect in March of 1867.

30. END OF LESSON 1

31. Social "Adjustment" in South Carolina

32. Lost their labor force Lost most of their wealth Felt betrayed by former slaves who left Entered into sharecropping relationships with former slaves Used Black Codes to try to hold on to slave-like conditions Engaged in violence and intimidation against African Americans Plantation Owners

33. Not devastated economically by war Felt threatened by presence of freedmen (competition) Some joined KKK to intimidate African Americans Some cooperated with Republicans in hopes of gaining status. Called “scalawags”. Yeomen Farmers

34. Liberated and displaced by Reconstruction While some left after the war, many came back looking for jobs Freedmen’s Bureau helped them establish communities Left white churches and formed their own Many became sharecroppers, still economically dependent on planters Freedmen

35. Sharecropping

36. Tenancy & the Crop Lien System

37. Elite white women had to take on household chores once performed by slaves Many women had to face loss of husband from war and had to take on non-traditional roles Gained some rights during Reconstruction, including right to own property and file for divorce. Women

38. Came to SC as teachers, missionaries, businessmen or Union soldiers Found political and economic opportunity Resented by southern whites, who called them “carpetbaggers.” Northern Immigrants

39. Northern immigrants were resented by southern whites and called carpetbaggers.

40. Provided help to African Americans that the Freedmen’s Bureau could not. Northern Aid Society established the Penn School in Beaufort Northern churches established African American colleges like Benedict and Allen in Columbia. Northern Immigrants

41. Establishment of Historically Black Colleges in the South

42. END of LESSON 2

43. South Carolina Constitution of 1868

44. The Constitution of 1868 was written by 70 black and 54 white delegates. Most democratic constitution in SC so far Provided universal manhood suffrage (all males- black and white- can vote) Representation based on population, not possession of property. Public education established! Restructuring of SC Government

45. Blacks in Southern Politics • Core voters were black veterans. • Blacks were politically unprepared. • Blacks could register and vote in states since 1867. • The 15th Amendment guaranteedfederal voting.

46. 15th Amendment • Ratified in 1870. • The right of 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. • The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. • Women were not granted the vote!

47. END OF LESSON 3

48. Successes and Failures of Reconstruction

49. Republican party offered full participation Land Commission gave land to a few Fourteenth and fifteenth amendments granted citizenship and voting rights Freedmen’s Bureau helped with immediate relief Public schools were established Progress for African Americans

50. The Ku Klux Klan was organized shortly after the war. Created to intimidate blacks and keep them from voting. Also targeted carpetbaggers and scalawags. The Klan used intimidation, violence, and fear to preserve the power of Southern whites. WHITE BACKLASH