Lecture 15

1. Lecture 15 Hist 110 American Civilization I Instructor: Dr. Donald R. Shaffer Upper Iowa University

2. Lecture 15The Issues of Reconstruction • The Civil War left significant issues to be resolved • The war had cost 62o,ooo lives and maimed many more • Devastated much of the South • It had brought a final end to the institution of slavery, leaving nearly 4 million former slaves glad to be free but wondering how they would live • Issues that needed to be resolved in Reconstruction • Status of former slaves: would they be full citizens or something less? • How would Southern economy be rebuilt? • Political relationship of the South to rest of the United States? Would they get treated as a conquered nation? Would the southern states revert to territories? Or would they return to the Union with the same status as before the war? Escaped slaves fleeing to northern-controlled territory Harper’s Weekly, 23 February 1863

3. Lecture 15Presidential Reconstruction • Lincoln: believed there should be a lenient Reconstruction that quickly restored the South to full status • 10 Percent Plan (December 1863): Confederate states would be restored when 10 percent of 1860 voters swore a new oath of allegiance to the U.S. • Congress: dominated by Radical Republicans wanted the South punished and under federal control • Wade-Davis bill (1864): demanded 50 percent of 1860 voters be able to swear the “Ironclad Oath”—that they had never voluntarily supported the Confederacy • Lincoln pocket vetoed the Wade-Davis bill—angling for a compromise prior to his assassination • Andrew Johnson continued Lincoln’s lenient policy through an amnesty program for ex-Confederates that allowed them to retain/regain control over southern state governments Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio and Rep. Henry W. Davis of Maryland, the principal sponsors of the Wade-Davis Bill Andrew Johnson

4. Lecture 15The Meaning of Freedom • Former slaves had their own Reconstruction aspirations • Freedom was not an abstract concept for them—but had tangible meanings • Throwing off “badges of servitude”: this meant avoiding behaviors characteristic of being a slave • Freed people tried to dress nicer, refused to treat white persons deferentially, etc • Taking new names, usually to assert family connections • Black men often took a last name they associated with their father, since free men inherited their father’s surname • Reuniting families separated under slavery • Leaving plantations where they had been enslaved • Learning to read and write • Becoming land owners Freedmen’s School Harper’s Weekly, 23 June 1866 Note that parents are learning side by side with their children

5. Lecture 15 Congress Challenges Johnson • When Congress came back into session in December 1865, they were angry with President Johnson for his lenient treatment of the South • They passed bills to give citizenship to African Americans and extend the life of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which Johnson then vetoed • The 1866 midterm election gave Republicans veto-proof majorities which they used to ram through their agenda • A majority northern public was upset with Johnson for his leniency, which they believed had allowed the old Confederate leadership to regain power and had revived southern intransigency, leading to violence against occupation authorities and African Americans Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, whose attempt in Dec. 1865 to claim a seat in the U.S. Senate became a symbol of the revival of the old Confederate elite

6. Lecture 15Congressional Reconstruction • Reconstruction Act of 1867 • Dissolved Johnson/Lincoln state governments • Put South under military occupation, except Tenn. • To regain status, states had to ratify 14th amendment and give black men suffrage • 14th Amendment (Ratified 1868) • Put into the Constitution a variety of Radical Republican goals, but most significantly created a national definition of citizenship that granted African Americans citizenship rights • 15th Amendment (Ratified 1870) • Granted black men voting rights • This amendment divided the nascent women’s suffrage movement because it did not include women—some women were willing to wait, others not Black men vote in the South for the first time under the provisions of the Reconstruction Act of 1867 Harper’s Weekly, 16 November 1867

7. Lecture 15Impeachment of Andrew Johnson • Andrew Johnson did not sit by meekly as Congress took over Reconstruction • After 1866, he could not veto laws passed by Congress but he could still use his executive power, especially his role as commander-in-chief, to interfere with their implementation • Tenure of Office Act (1867) • Law passed by Congress over Johnson’s veto which made it illegal for the president to replace officials without Congressional approval • Aimed at protecting friends of Congress inside Johnson’s administration, most especially Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton • Johnson fired Stanton in Feb. 1868 in defiance of Congress • He was impeached by Congress for violating the Tenure of Office Act, but acquitted by one vote Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial took place in the U.S. Senate and lasted 11 weeks (and was the hottest ticket in town)

8. Lecture 15Economic Reconstruction • Three groups had a significant stake in and a vision of what should be the outcome of economic Reconstruction • White Southern planters: wanted slavery back or tight control of black laborers • Former slaves: wanted to become land owners to achieve independence • Northern occupation authorities: wanted to keep the plantation system but substitute free labor for slave labor • Black Codes: during Presidential Reconstruction the planters tried to impose their solution through laws forcing blacks to sign annual contracts as field workers or servants and threatening them with arrest if they didn’t • Congressional Reconstruction ended the Black Codes and soon sharecropping emerged largely on its own • Former slaves worked the land and paid the planter ½ to 1/3 of the crop after the harvest as rent While sharecropping gave former slaves day-to-day control over their labor, It essentially forced them to give up the dream of land redistribution asthe path to landownership

9. Lecture 15Vulnerability of Reconstruction • Reconstruction was vulnerable because it attempted to impose biracial democracy on the South • For example, not only did black men receive the vote, at least 1,465 served in elective or appointive political office between 1867 and 1877 • Including 2 U.S. Senators and 14 men in the U.S. House of Representatives • About 60 percent of these black officeholders had been slaves before the Civil War • Such a radical overturning of order of the Old South made white Southerners determined to overthrow it by any means necessary • A few white Southerners—called “scalawags” supported the new order, but the biggest failure of Reconstruction was its failure to obtain significant white support Black members of the 41st and 42nd Congress (1869-1873)

10. Lecture 15Other Reasons Reconstruction Failed • Factionalism • Republicans in South wasted energy fighting for dominance within the party • Black-white tensions • Intra-racial factionalism • Disorder plays into hands of opponents who suggested they would bring order back to politics • Corruption • Republican regimes in South were undeniably corrupt (as was most politics across the nation at this time) • Reputation for corruption also benefited opponents—they presented themselves as reformers • Violence • The biggest single reason for Reconstruction’s end • Goals of violence • Weaken the Republican party in the South • Terrorize former slaves into submission • Ku Klux Klan: secret society and terrorist paramilitary group--one of many so-called “regulators” • Whites used violence because it was effective and they could get away with it Cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly, 14 March 1874 What does it suggest about public opinion in the North concerning Reconstruction by the mid-1870s?

11. Lecture 15The Election of 1876 and Compromise of 1877 • 1876 was arguably the most controversial election in American history • Candidates • Samuel J. Tilden (D) • Rutherford B. Hayes (R) • Initial Outcome • Tilden won the popular vote • Electoral College: Tilden (184) and Hayes (166) • 19 disputed electoral votes in Florida, S. Carolina, and Louisiana • Congress established an electoral commission—which awarded the disputed votes to Hayes meaning he became President • Compromise of 1877 • Democrats mollified with the promise Reconstruction in the South would end • Hayes sweetened the deal by appointing a Democrat to his cabinet and promising the South federal development funds Samuel J. Tilden Rutherford B. Hayes

12. Lecture 15The Legacy of Reconstruction • With the Compromise of 1877, Republicans abandoned blacks in the South • African Americans were the biggest losers in the compromise • Exodusters: some African Americans left the South for Kansas or elsewhere rather than resubmit to racial subordination • Black position declined • Disfranchisement: southern states gradually took away black voting rights through poll taxes, literacy tests, and the “grandfather clause” • Rise of Jim Crow: formal segregation • Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): U.S. Supreme Court gave its blessing to segregation laws • Crop-Lien system: forced sharecroppers to assume more risk for crop failures, sometimes leading to debt peonage • Lynching: over 1700 blacks killed between 1889-1909 • African Americans managed to retain some of their Reconstruction gains • Independent institutions, especially the black church • Autonomous family life: no longer could family members be sold away from one another Lynching (extralegal execution) became the ultimate means of enforcing white supremacy in the South