RECONSTRUCTION

1. RECONSTRUCTION 1865-1877

2. RECONSTRUCTION • Definition: the post-war time, during which the focus of the nation was to “reconstruct” the United States

3. GOALS • Characterized by a focus on: • Readmitting the former rebellion states • Dealing with wartime disloyalty and renewing citizenship • Extending equal rights to African-Americans • Adjusting to a new social order of racial integration

4. A. Breakdown of Slavery • New freedom offered new opportunities to freed blacks: • Freedom of movement • Reunification of families • Freedom of worship and of forming organizations

5. Education • Land and property ownership • Right to choose their work and to bargain for their labor or products • Political involvement and representation

6. B. Confederate Interpretation of Reconstruction • A rather biased and one-sided view of the reconstruction era: “’Radical’ Republicans forced harsh sanctions on the south out of revenge and punishment. They took control of the state governments through the military, and allowed blacks to take office. However, northern republicans seeking office and political/financial gain

7. Confederate Myth (cont.) (carpetbaggers) and traitorous scoundrels in the south who turned republican just to be on the winning side (scalawags) and blacks, too soon out of slavery, created corrupt and inefficient governments. The slaves were left helpless, destitute, and without guidance after the war. They were

8. Confederate Myth (cont.) ignorant and needed more time to be integrated into the mainstream of working society. Finally, the nation grew tired of supporting the revenge-seeking politicians and corrupt, military-ran governments, and allowed white southerners to regain control of their states.”

9. C. The Reality of Reconstruction • PART 1: • “Radical Republicans” were those who sought political and economic equality, full citizenship and civil rights for African Americans. • They supported policies of anti-racism which the nation as a whole had begun to uphold since the mid-civil war.

10. Since Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in Sept. 1862, Republicans had identified their party with the move to bring freedom and equality to blacks. • Numerous southerners had also supported the Union throughout the Civil War.

11. PART 2: • “Carpetbaggers” - an insulting term applied to northern Republicans who supposedly hastily moved to the south to “take advantage of the political situation.” • They were in fact, similar to northerners, black and white, who went to the south to help blacks win civil rights during the 1960s.

12. So-called “carpetbaggers included: union soldiers, northern republican politicians, freed African-Americans, former abolitionists, and civil rights activists/workers.

13. PART 3: • “Scalawags” a derogatory term applied to “Southern whites who turned Republican”; means scoundrel and assumes that there were no Republicans in the South prior to Reconstruction. • In fact though, every southern state had volunteers who joined the Union army; Unionists then became Republicans after the war.

14. Some Confederates realized the immorality of slavery and the morality of equal rights for blacks, and so for this reason became Republicans—eg. General James Longstreet • Of the 113 Republicans in Congress during Reconstruction, 53 were southern.

15. *The majority of those called “carpetbaggers” or “scalawags” did not have selfish, greedy motives (the violence of southern whites made their activities life threatening, therefore we can assume that their dedication was evidence that they were willing to risk their lives for their cause—probably to do more than make a buck.)

16. PART 4: Military Districts • Congress did not resort to the Military Reconstruction Act of 1867 until the south refused to cooperate with previous, more moderate reconstruction plans to rejoin the union. • The south also refused to uphold federal laws upholding rights of blacks.

17. Instead, they created Black Codes—laws created by southern state governments that severely restricted the freedoms of blacks (carry passes, observe curfew, live in housing provided by landowners, restricted labor contracts, exclusion from occupations and from state-funded institutions—schools/orphanages). • Military rule ended in all but 3 states by 1868.

18. PART 5: Success of African-Americans • Southern reconstruction legislatures started many needed reforms and public improvements, strengthened public education, created a more equitable tax system, and reformed local governments and the judicial system. • MS had a less corrupt government during Reconstruction than in later 19th century.

19. Blacks operated plantations by themselves, contracted their labor for wages, attended colleges, and served in government at all levels. • About 27% of those who attended state conventions in 1867-69 were black; hundreds held local offices; about 600 were elected to state legislatures; 16 were in Congress; 1 in the Senate; 6 were Lieutenant Governors; and P.B.S. Pinchback served briefly as Governor of LA.

20. State governments under Republican control passed civil rights legislation, repealed black codes, and prohibited segregation. • By 1877, however, hostile white Democrats had regained control of every state government in the South.

21. PART 6: Southern White Violence • White violence, not black ignorance, was the key obstacle to successful reconstruction; white confederates, not blacks, needed integration into the new society. • The North executed only one Confederate officer (Henry Wirz of Andersonville prison) after the war, while the South executed hundreds of Union officers and other unionists.

22. In LA, 1868, white democrats killed 1081 persons. • In Hinds County, MS (1865-67) whites killed an average of 1 African-American a day. • In one judicial district of NC, a judge recorded 700 beatings and 12 murders. • 40 blacks were murdered and every black school and church in the city were burned in an 1866 riot in Memphis, TN.

23. Freedmen’s Bureau schools were harassed and teachers where flogged, threatened, and murdered. • Ku Klux Klan organized in 1866 in TN to “defend the social and political superiority” of whites; used harassment, beatings, burnings, whippings, lynchings, and murder. 10% of delegates attacked,‘67-68. • Much of this violence began before Republicans even gained control of southern state legislatures in 1867-68.

24. Prejudice—Not Just a Southern Problem • It should be noted that prejudice was found throughout the north as well as the south. • In 1865, for example, three northern states—Connecticut, Wisconsin, and Minnesota—rejected black suffrage.

25. D. RECONSTRUCTION POLICIES • PART 1: • 13th Amendment—submitted and ratified in 1865—abolished slavery in the U.S. • Freedmen’s Bureau—created in 1865, provided aid to war refugees and freed people including food, medical services, and education.

26. PART 2: • President Lincoln & Vice-President Johnson (later, President Johnson after Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865) supported a moderate reconstruction plan in order to reunite the nation and bring the confederate states back into the union. • Plan to pardon Confederates willing to swear allegiance to the Union (excluded officers and murderers of POWs).

27. When 10% of a state’s population had pledged, then a state convention could be held to write a new constitution and ratify the 13th Amendment—voiding secession and abolishing slavery in the state constitutions.

28. PART 3: • Congressional Republicans wished to secure the civil rights and equality of free blacks: • Passed Civil Rights Act of 1866—giving citizenship to African-Americans—but, Johnson vetoed it. Congress overrode his veto (the first presidential veto to be overridden in US history).

29. 14th Amendment—submitted in 1866 and ratified in 1868—guaranteed citizenship to African-Americans, guaranteed due process of law and equal protection of the law for all people, and prohibited states from legally violating rights and privileges guaranteed by the federal government.

30. Reconstruction Acts of 1867—created process for reentering the union: military districts, protected voters and delegates to state conventions; new constitutions that must guarantee equal rights and voting rights of blacks; and ratify the 14th Amend. • 15th Amendment—1870—right to vote is not to be denied on the basis of race or skin color.

31. KKK Acts of 1871—made acts by individuals against the civil and political rights of others federal crimes. (Most southern prosecutors ignored this law however). • Civil Rights Act of 1875—meant to protect blacks’ rights in public places; it contained weak enforcement measures however.

32. Weakening of Republican Policies • US v. Reese (1876): 15th Amend. did not guarantee a citizen’s right to vote: left open discrimination in voting by other means—women, literacy, poll taxes, etc. • Slaughter-House cases (73): narrow interpretation of “privileges and immunities” clause of 14th Amend.; separated national & state citizenship.

33. US v. Cruikshank (’73): Undermined the Enforcement Acts (KKK Acts) of 1870-71. Stated that the 14th Amend. does not empower the Federal government to prosecute whites oppressing blacks. Claimed that it was the duty of States to protect the rights of their citizens.

34. E. Election of 1876 • Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, lost the popular vote to Democrat, Samuel Tilden, but needed one more electoral vote for a majority—19 electoral votes from LA, SC, & FL were disputed. • Congress created a commission to resolve the issue (8 R / 7 D): they named Hayes the winner, along party lines.

35. Democrats threatened to reject the decision, but did not have much power to do so. • Compromise of 1877—Some evidence suggests that they would support giving the presidency to Hayes if he promised to remove federal troops from the southern states and provide more federal aid.

36. White citizens of the north refused to support Republican Reconstruction efforts any longer. While the rights of blacks had been secured legally at state and national levels, they were far from being enforced and upheld effectively in the states yet.

37. After the North refused to make it a priority any longer, the South: • broke its promises of fair and equal treatment of blacks • denied them the right to vote and the right to fair trials • reduced them to second class citizens • restored the black codes • segregated them in public places • intimidated them by harassment & lynchings

38. F. EFFECTS OF ABANDONING RECONSTRUCTION • During the period, 1890-1920s, the nation experienced the height of its division in race relations: • White supremacy was restored throughout the country. • Lynchings were at an all time high. • 1896, Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson upheld legal segregation.

39. Elimination of blacks from pro-athletics (Major League baseball in 1889; Kentucky Derby in 1911) • Forced from skilled occupation and later from unskilled jobs as well (like postal carriers) • Popularity of Vaudeville and “blackface”—portrayed blacks as ignorant, silly, lying, stealing, idiots

40. 1892, Grover Cleveland wins presidency after labeling Republicans with attempts at “Negro domination” • Woodrow Wilson, 1912, segregated the federal government. • “Birth of a Nation”—movie that showed blacks as obsessed with interracial sex and having been corrupted by ‘carpetbaggers’ • 1915, KKK membership hits all time high (>1 million)

41. President Warren G. Harding was inducted into the KKK at the White House • KKK briefly dominated politics in state of Indiana • Race riots in cities (Chicago, 1919; Tulsa, 1921) • Midwest “sundown” towns—threatened lives of blacks who remained in the town overnight • Exodus of blacks out of communities: out west and into urban ghettos in the north.

42. G. Political Division during Reconstruction—Impeachment • With the ill feelings developed out of differing approaches to reconstruction, and the veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, Congressional Republicans sought to reduce their obstacle to policymaking by limiting the power of the President.

43. Presidents have the power to appoint certain government officials (federal court judges, cabinet secretaries, and ambassadors), but must seek the “advice and consent” of the Senate. • Johnson had developed conflicts with certain members of his administration who supported the more “radical” republican policies.

44. Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act—although the Constitution does not mention any limit on the President’s power to dismiss or fire appointed officials, this law would require the consent of the Senate, since the Senate had approved these appointments in the first place. • Johnson attempted to fire his Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, and the House of Representatives declared the action unconstitutional and voted to impeach him.

45. The House tried Johnson in 1868, but fell one vote short of the necessary 2/3 majority in the Senate, so Johnson remained in office. • This set a precedent: that a President should only be removed for the most serious offenses, and not just political differences.