Johnson’s Reconstruction

1. Johnson’s Reconstruction • Southern states were pardoned • Whites dominated politics and society • Quickly rewrote state constitutions • Violent riots against African Americans in southern and northern cities • South enacted Black Codes.

2. Black Codes • Laws limiting the rights and freedoms of Freedmen • Curfew laws • Vagrancy – freedmen must work • Labor contracts – yearly contracts that restricted labor options • Living restrictions – could not rent a place to live in cities, only rent in rural areas • What is the overall effect of Black Codes?

3. Radical Republican Reconstruction • Radical Republicans and moderate republicans controlled Congress • Didn’t like Johnson’s reconstruction plans • Passed many laws over Johnson’s veto • Controlled reconstruction from 1867 to mid 1870’s • Passed three main actions • Reconstruction Act of 1867 • 14th amendment • 15th amendment

4. Reconstruction Act • Military rule in the South • Southern states had to create new state constitutions • All qualified men could vote, including Freedmen • Banned those men who supported the Confederacy • Southern states had to ratify the 14th amendment and guarantee equal rights to all citizens • What effect do you think this act will have on the South?

5. Effects of the Reconstruction Act • More freedmen voted in the south and fewer whites voted • Helped by the 15th amendment • Many of the delegates at state constitutional conventions were black or republican • Many new state constitutions gave civil rights, public schools, public offices to all classes of people • Many African Americans were elected to state government positions and congress • Senate refused to seat P.B.S. Pinchback –a black senator from Louisiana Hiram Revels

6. Reconstruction • Andrew Johnson was impeached, but not removed from office • Partisan act – no real wrong doing • No power to stop radical republican reconstruction • Ulysses Grant is elected president in 1868 • Puppet to radical republicans • Carpetbagger came from the north to try and prosper in the south • Most were honest and educated • Took advantage of the political and economic state of the south • Scalawags – southern white republicans – viewed as traders

7. “New South” Main Concept: The opportunity for freedmen was tied to land • Policies to give freedmen land were unpopular • Few freedmen could afford land • Few whites would sell or rent land to freedmen Plantation owners had land but no labor, and freedmen had labor but no land. • Sharecropping was the result

8. Sharecropping – Cycle of Debt

9. Effects of Sharecropping • More poor whites were harvesting cotton – considered slave work • Cash crops in the south increased • Cotton, tobacco, sugarcane • Imported food – northern farmers • Cycle of debt continues to grow • 1 in 20 black families owned land • Merchant class rises • Stores open to sell farming goods to sharecroppers • Many owned by the landlords

10. Sharecropping Map

11. Effects of Reconstruction Positive • Railroads expanded • Cities grew • Industry grew – mostly unfinished products • Rebuilt infrastructure – dams, roads, canals, etc Negative • Corruption with government contracts • Paid for by southern taxes • Rise of the Ku Klux Klan • Used terror tactics to keep African Americans in a submissive role

12. End of Reconstruction Causes • People thought that reconstruction was the cause of corruption in the government • Economic downturn of 1873 – disliked the taxing and spending • Federal troops begin to return north • More violence against African Americans • Less African American suffrage • More white control of politics in south • Supreme Court weakens the federal governments ability to enforce the 14th amendment • Solid South is formed - democratic • Compromise of 1877 – Hayes (Republican) wins the presidency, but all reconstruction ends