Reconstruction of the South 1865-1877

1. Reconstruction of the South1865-1877 AP U.S. History

2. Devastated South • Robbed of property. • Wealth diminishes from 25% (1860) to 12% (1870). • More racist than ever. • Notions of class & honor are altered.

3. Plans for Reconstruction: Lincoln • 1863: “Ten Percent Plan” • Respected private property • Opposed harsh punishment for rebellion. • Full pardon & restoration of property after swearing an oath of allegiance to US and ALL laws. • After 10% of the voters take the oath in that state they could establish a state government. • Goal: Get white support for EP and shorten reconstruction period. • Angers radical republicans. • AR and LA follow the 10% and congress refuses to seat their reps. in congress

4. Wade-Davis Bill-1864(Congressional Plan) • Radical Republicans: Lincoln is being too soft. • 50% before they can have a state convention to rewrite the constitution. • Transform southern society. • Give blacks equality but not suffrage. • Lincoln pocket vetoes.

5. Plans for “Restoration”: Johnson • Blame planter elite and not the whole state for the war. • Mild reentry terms for states. Amnesty and pardon (1865, Spring) restoration of property to all who pledged to US. • Southerners, mostly major confederate officials and wealthy land owners were excluded but could apply for a pardon. • Averages 100 pardons a day (90% of those who apply). • Congress was not in session when he instituted this plan. • Restoration: Fall, 1865, 10 of eleven states claim to have followed his orders. • Congress is angry.

6. Plans for Reconstruction: Radical Republicans • Reconstruction is congresses job. • Career has been shaped by the slave controversy. • Alter society of South. • Confiscate 400 million acres and redistribute to freed men and yeoman farmers. • If you leave your job before contract expires you can be arrested by any white person. • Free labor, universal education and equal rights. • Johnson’s plan has allowed elite to take hold. • Black codes reinforce discrimination.

7. Radical Republicans (Cont.) • Spring 1866 Civil Rights Bill: Full citizenship for blacks, overturned Dred and black codes. • Equal protection under the law. • Johnson vetoes bill. Government lacks jurisdiction over the 11 unrepresented states. • Congress overrides vetoes. • Freedman's Bureau • Aid refugees (slaves & poor whites). • Controlled confiscated land. • Give slaves autonomy. • to provide for education, & job skills. • Hurt by budget cuts disbanded by 1872. • Pass 14th Amendment: defined citizenship.

8. Congressional Reconstruction • Override Johnson’s vetoes and pass First Reconstruction Act. • Divides south into 5 military districts. Subject to martial law. • Call new constitutional conventions, with representatives elected by universal manhood suffrage. • Must ratify 14th Amendment and guarantee blacks the right to vote. • Eligible for readmission into the Union. • Congress also empowered the military to administer voter registration and an loyalty oath to U.S.

9. Reconstruction of the South, 1866–1877

10. Congress v. Johnson • Tenure of Office Act: Congressional control of reappointments and successions. • Johnson violates act and House votes to impeach him (1868). • Charged with 11 counts of high crimes and misdemeanors. • The House wants Johnson out because he does not agree with them. • Johnson agrees to Reconstruction Acts and Senate votes 35 to 19 (one vote short). • Set precedent that president may only be impeached for criminal actions, not political disagreements.

11. Election of 1868 • Republicans nominate Ulysses S. Grant. • Campaign does not endorse black suffrage in North (fails in 8 Northern states). • Successful in IA & MN. • Democrats nominate Horatio Seymour. • Goal is to overturn Reconstruction. • Get rid of Freedman’s Bureau & all “instruments of black supremacy.” • KKK (1866) begins its reign of terror. • SC, AK, GA, & LA white & black Republicans are whipped and murdered to prevent them from voting.

12. Election of 1868 (Cont.) • Grant wins by 300K votes (214 to 80). • 500K blacks voted for Grant illustrating their political clout. • Feb 1869: 15th Amendment is passed. • Remaining rebel states must ratify 14th & 15th (MS, TX & VA). • Technically Reconstruction, politically, is over.

13. Women • Frustrated by 14th & 15th Amendments. • S.B. Anthony, & E.C. Stanton found American Equal Rights Assoc. In 1866. • Republican Party & abolitionists remove support from women’s movement. • Lucy Stone & Frederick Douglass agree that, “this hour belongs to the negro.”

14. Freed People • 2 pillars of their life (family & church) desire economic, political & cultural autonomy. • Change gender roles. • Women stay out of field work and devote more time to children. Eventually had to continue to labor to make a living. • Black: Love freedom but must learn to make decisions on their own. • White: Cannot understand why slaves want to leave.

15. Making a Living • Money or share wage: Work in large gangs in a plantation and paid with a share of the crop of in cash. • Sharecropping: Family is responsible for a plot of land breaking large plantations into family sized farms. • Planters like sharecropping. Stabilizes workforce. • Tenant farming: paying a rent to land owner. • Majority do not achieve independence or land ownership. • Ultimately remain subordinate culture.

16. Southern Sharecropping and the Cotton Belt, 1880

17. Politics • Inclusion is the goal of political activity. • 1865-66: Mass organization: parades, meeting and participation. • Delegates at statewide conventions. • 1867: Registered by the military: 735K. • Less than half white voters participate in statewide elections, 4/5’s of African Americans participate.

18. Politics (Cont.) • Republicans split into African Americans, scalawags and carpetbaggers. • Dominate 10 southern state constitutional conventions. • Constitutions: • Political & civil rights form blacks. • Abolish property qualifications for office holding and jury duty. • State funded education, establish penitentiaries, orphanages and asylums.

19. The Barrow Plantation, Oglethorpe County, Georgia, 1860 and 1881

20. White Resistance-KKK • Southerners refuse legitimacy of Republicans. • Flog, beat & murder freed people. • Goal is intimidation in the name of racial order. • Easter 1873, LA: 100 African Americans murdered in courthouse during a contested election. • Federal Enforcement Acts to counter racial terrorism. • KKK Act of 1871: Violent infringement on civil & political rights a federal crime. • Civil Rights Act 1875: Outlaws racial discrimination in theaters, hotels RR and public places. • 1874: Democrats have majority in House for first time since 1856. • Win on platform of blaming Republicans for spending. • Begin to “redeem” one state after another. • 1883: CRA is unconstitutional. Private individuals can discriminate, but states cannot. Officially ends federal attempt to protect AA rights.

21. Depression of 1873 • Post war boom comes to a halt. • Result of commercial overexpansion and speculation in the RR industry. • 1876: ½ RR’s had defaulted. • Over 100 banks fold. • 18,000 businesses close. • Lasts 65 months. • Unemployment rises to 15%. NYC is 25%. • Public works jobs are rejected. • Workers & farmers question free-labor and class division.

22. The Election of 1876

23. Election of 1876 • Grant’s administration involved in the “whiskey ring” scheme. • NY Gov. Samuel Tilden wins democrat nomination. • Rutherford B. Hayes runs on Republican ticket. • Electoral Dispute: • Republicans dispute 20 electoral votes from FL, LA, SC & OR. • 3 southern states send two different electoral votes. • OR Hayes won but the Democratic governor replaced Republican elector with a Democrat. • Electoral Commission appointed & votes on partisan lines. • Hayes wins by 8 to 7 Democrats threaten to filibuster.

24. Compromise of 1877 • Federal money for southern internal improvements • Noninterference or “home rule.” • Southerner appointed to Hayes’ cabinet. • Remove federal troops from south. • Effectively abandoned freed people, carpetbaggers, scalawags & Radicals. • Nullified 14th & 15th Amendments & CRA of 1866.