Reconstruction

2. Reconstruction Reuniting a Broken Nation

3. The Problems of Peace Reconstruction: The process of rebuilding the South and reunifying the Union.

4. Presidential Reconstruction • Lincoln’s 10% Plan: Ten percent of Southern voters would be required to take an oath of loyalty before the state would be readmitted to the Union. • The intention was to bring the South back into the Union as quickly and painlessly as possible – to heal the wounds of the war.

5. Congressional Reconstruction • "Radical Republicans" thought this approach was too soft; they wanted to punish the South for the war. • Felt the Southern states had voluntarily seceded; therefore, Congress could set the rules of re-admittance. • Wade-Davis Bill: Required that more than 50 percent of white males take an “ironclad” oath of allegiance before the state could call a constitutional convention. The bill also required that the states abolish slavery. • Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill and killed it.

6. The Martyrdom of Lincoln • On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot and killed at Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth.  Andrew Johnson took over as President.

7. A President Watching A President Future President Teddy Roosevelt, 6 years old

8. O Captain! My Captain! – Walt Whitman O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done;The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won;The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring: But O heart! heart! heart!O the bleeding drops of red,Where on the deck my Captain lies,Fallen cold and dead.O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;Here Captain! dear father!This arm beneath your head;It is some dream that on the deck,You’ve fallen cold and dead.My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!But I, with mournful tread,Walk the deck my Captain lies,Fallen cold and dead.

9. Johnson: The Tailor President • Johnson was a Tennessean from very humble origins. • Although Tennessee seceded during the war, he was the only Southern Congressman to not join the South. This fact got him named to be Lincoln's Vice President in 1864. • He was known as a fighter, dogmatic, and short, with a quick temper. • The North never accepted him because he was a Southerner and the South distrusted him because he sided with the North.

10. Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan • Johnson essentially followed Lincoln’s 10% plan, adding the following stipulations: • Leading Confederates were to be disenfranchised • The states must protect the rights of freedmen

11. Johnson Clashes with Congress • Time-and-again Johnson butted heads with Congress, vetoing Republican bills. • Civil Rights Bill: Would grant citizenship to blacks. • Congress then planned to pass the Civil Rights Bill by making the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. • Civil Rights and citizenship for freedmen (but not the right to vote). • To cut state Congressional representation if blacks were denied voting. • Disqualified Confederate leaders from federal offices. • Guaranteeing the federal debt and repudiating the state debt. • The Fourteenth Amendment would be ratified in 1868.

12. Swinging ‘Round the Circle with Johnson • Election of 1866: Johnson went on "'round the circle" speeches. He was heckled by observers and the president yelled back. • Johnson's speech tour backfired and Congressional Reconstruction gained support at the president's expense. • Republicans gained a “super-majority,” which made their causes veto-proof. • Radical Republicans were led by Sen. Charles Sumner (of the caning incident) and Thaddeus Stevens in the House. • The Radicals wanted a slower Reconstruction where they could bring about major social and economic change to the South. • Moderate Republicans just didn't want to go quite that far with Reconstruction. They were reluctant to get the federal government directly involved in people's lives.

13. Military Reconstruction • The Reconstruction Act of 1867: Divided the South into 5 military districts. U.S. soldiers would be stationed in each to make sure things stayed under control. • To be readmitted, States must • Pass the 13th and 14th Amendments • 13th Amendment: Officially ended slavery in the United States • 14th Amendment: Gave citizenship to all freedmen • Guarantee black suffrage • Radical Republicans still worried that even if black suffrage was granted, it could later be removed. • To resolve this once and for all, the 15th Amendment was written and would be ratified in 1870.

14. Bell Ringer What were the major differences between Lincoln's 10% Plan, the Wade-Davis Bill, and Military Reconstruction plans?

15. All Men Are Created Equal?

16. Freedmen Define Freedom Freed blacks, or "freedmen" were in a perplexing situation. • They'd heard that they were free, but most still stayed on the plantation where they'd always lived because they had nowhere else to go. • Some blacks fled northward, away from the memory of slavery. • Some blacks let their frustrations erupt by destroying white homes, land, etc. Sometimes, the white master even had the table turned on him and was whipped by his former slaves.

17. With the blacks' social structure torn down, churches became a strong pillar of the black community • The prospect of black education was a hope, but not necessarily a reality. Discrimination and economic resources still held most black children out of school. That hope would not become a reality until much later.

18. The Freedman’s Bureau • The freed slaves were largely unskilled, uneducated, and untrained. Congress created the Freedmen's Bureau sought to remedy those shortfalls. • The bureau was essentially an early form of welfare, providing food, clothing, health care, and education . • Gen. O. O. Howard headed the bureau (and later founded Howard University in D.C.). • The Freedmen's Bureau's success was minimal at best. • Unsurprisingly, Southerners disliked the bureau.

19. Congressional Reconstruction • In December of 1865 many Southern Congressmen returned to Washington to reclaim their seats. • With the slaves freed, the 3/5 Compromise was over. This meant the Southern population went up thereby forcing Southern representation in Congress to go up (and the North's down).

20. Realizing there's strength in numbers, freed blacks began to organize mainly through the Union League. • The League was essentially a web of clubs. In it, blacks were informed of their civic duties, built churches, pushed for Republican candidates in elections, sought to solve problems, and even recruited a black militia for defense. • Despite the changing times, black women made no tangible gains. Their participation came by offering support at parades, rallies, church events, and conventions. • With many white Southerners unable to vote (until taking the oath of allegiance to the U.S.) black Congressmen were elected.

21. Maintaining Southern Tradition Methods used to keep Southern blacks “in their place”

22. Scalawag Southerners who joined the Republican party after the war and supported Reconstruction. Southern whites accused the scalawags of betraying the South. Carpetbagger Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction, seen with a "carpet bag" (suitcase) in their hand. Some came to honestly help the South, but were seen to be outsiders exploiting the broken South. Carpetbaggers and Scalawags

23. The Introduction of Jim Crow • White Southerners now had a problem: without slavery, how could they ensure a stable labor force? • Sharecropping: A system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land (e.g., 50% of the crop). Most sharecroppers were in continuous debt.

24. The Introduction of Jim Crow • Black Codes: Local laws passed to keep freedmen in a subservient position, banning them from juries, holding local office, and arresting them for “idleness.” • Jim Crow Laws: Laws that created segregation of the races in public places (schools, RR, restaurants, doctors offices, etc.). • Plessy v. Ferguson: Upheld the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal.” Homer Plessy

25. The Ku Klux Klan • Upset whites were driven underground. They started the "Invisible Empire of the South", better known as the "Ku Klux Klan" in Tennessee (1866). • The KKK thrived on fear—horses were masked, men were masked, no one knew exactly who was in it. • They burnt crosses, threatened blacks who didn't "know their place", and lynched then murdered blacks. • Nathan Bedford Forrest - First Grand Wizard of the KKK

26. Ku Klux Klan

27. Saving the Dumb White Folk ‘Cause a mah dear ol’ granpappy I gitstuh vote! Southern whites used a variety of methods to disenfranchise blacks: • Poll taxes: Taxes required at the polls that would limit blacks’ ability to vote. • Literacy Tests: Tests that were meant to test someone’s ability to read, and therefore vote. Purposefully made more difficult for black voters. • “Grandfather clause“: Anyone whose grandfather had been able to vote could also vote. This meant whites were grandfathered in (regardless of their ability to read), blacks not.

28. A little fun A “White Literacy Test” C M SNAKS? M R SNAKS? S, M R SNAKS. M R Not. S A R ... C M B D Is? – M R SNAKS. L I B!

29. The Heritage of Reconstruction • To many in the South, the shame of Reconstruction was worse than the war. • The war and Reconstruction also bred generations of animosity. • The lot of many Southern blacks, despite good intentions, was likely as bad, or even worse, than before the war.

30. Seward’s Folly • Seward would later be redeemed when large deposits of gold and oil were discovered in Alaska. • Russia was willing to sell Alaska in 1867. William H. Seward, the Secretary of State, was an expansionist. He bought Alaska for $7.2 million. • Seward's decision was not popular at the time. People called it "Seward's Folly," "Seward's Icebox," "Frigidia," and "Walrussia."

31. Johnson Walks the Impeachment Plank • The Radical Republicans in Congress were tired of Pres. Johnson and his veto stamp. They plotted to remove him. • The plan was to put the president in a lose-lose situation. Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act which said the president needed the Senate's okay to fire anyone who'd been previously appointed by him and approved by the Senate. • The argument was that the Senate approved appointees into office, thus the Senate must approve them out. • If Johnson fired Edwin M. Stanton (Radical Republican spy already in hot water with the president) despite the new rule, they would put him up for impeachment for not following the letter-of-the-law. • Sure enough, early in 1868, Pres. Johnson fired Stanton and Congress impeached him—a formal accusation of wrong doing.

32. Johnson’s Impeachment

33. A Not-Guilty Verdict for Johnson • At his Senate impeachment trial, Johnson stayed silent. His lawyers argued that Johnson was operating under the Constitution, not the Tenure of Office Act. • To kick out a president, a 2/3 vote was needed. The Senate vote came short by 1 meaning Johnson stayed in office. • Seven Republicans voted with their conscience and voted to not remove Johnson. • The fear of creating instability and setting a dangerous example were factors in the not-guilty verdict.

34. Andrew Johnson Dates in Office: 1865-1868 Nickname: The Tennessee Tailor Political Party: Democrat Major Events: • Replaced Lincoln • Beginning of Reconstruction • Freedmen’s Bureau • 13th and 14th Amendments • Seward’s Folly • Impeachment

35. Waving the Bloody Shirt • Grant won the election against Horatio Seymour by “waving the bloody shirt” – he constantly reminded voters of is military record and that he led the North to victory. • Had no political experience and would earn a position as one of the worst presidents in US history.

36. No Women Voters • Women suffragists had put their campaigns on hold during the struggle for black rights (seeing women and blacks as equally disenfranchised). But when the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were adopted, women leaders were displeased. • The 14th even made reference to "males" as citizens—a step back in many women's rights' eyes. • Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony fought hard to stop the 14th Amendment on the basis of the word "males" entering the Constitution. • Additionally, in the 15th Amendment read that voting shouldn't be denied based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The ladies wanted the word "sex" added in too. • When finished, women gained nothing with the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.

37. Ulysses S. Grant Dates in Office: 1869-1877 Nickname: “Unconditional Surrender” Grant, Political Party: Republican Major Events:

38. Literacy Test!