The Rebuilding Years

1. The Rebuilding Years Chapter 15 The Condensed version

2. Lincoln’s Plan • Overall Purpose: to help end the war faster • Political purpose: to restore Southern states’ full political union with other states • He required that state governments create significant social change by recognizing the end of slavery

3. Lincoln’s Plan • Main parts: • Remove the government officials of the Confederate States of America and replace them with officials loyal to the Union • Punish high ranking Confederates by removing their right to vote • Confederates who took oath to constitution and Union laws would receive a pardon and get their land back • State would be readmitted when 10% of men took oath of allegiance to Union. State had to write new constitution and elect new officials

4. Johnson’s Plan • Not much different than Lincoln’s • Purpose: to humiliate Southern elite • Main parts • State would be readmitted when 10% of men took oath of allegiance to Union. State had to write new constitution and elect new officials • Southern elite had to request a pardon from the president • Approve the 13th amendment • Nullify the Ordinance of secession • South had to repay people and institutions that helped finance the Confederacy

5. Radical Republican Plan • Overall Purpose: to make the South pay dearly for the Civil War • Political purpose: to protect the rights of freedmen and protect the power of the Republicans

6. Radical Republican Plan • Main parts: • The Confederacy would be split into five military districts, under the command of a military governor • New legislatures had to approve the 14th amendment • Voting rights (suffrage) were given to black males and taken away from white males who participated in the war. • No person who participated in the war could hold a public office • State constitutions had to be approved by Congress

7. Amendments • 13th: freed the slaves • 14th: gave citizenship to all people born in the United States • 15th: gave black males the right to vote

8. Freedmen • Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was created to help people who need assistance after the war (food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and education) • Known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, it helped freed slaves find jobs, and establish courts to protect illiterate workers

9. Freedmen • Bureau originally promised land to freedmen that was abandoned or taken from white farmers. • Congress gave the land back to white farmers, but the anger that the whites had against the freedmen continued

10. Freedmen • African Americans enjoyed new freedoms but not for long • Southern whites tried to regain control with laws like the Black Codes and with vigilante groups like the KKK

11. Economic problems • South had economic problems after the end of slavery • They had to rebuild the state (buildings, houses, railroads) with no federal help • African American farmers now caused competition for white farmers

12. Sharecropping • Plantation owners were stuck with large plots of land, tools, and no one to work for them • Freedmen were willing to work, but had no land and no tools • Sharecropping allowed freedmen to use the tools and live in the old plantation slave houses, and use the land • Plantation owners would get part of the crop grown by the sharecroppers

13. Sharecropping • Sharecroppers were economically dependent upon land owner • In bad years sharecroppers could borrow a loan from the land owner, in the form of a lien, to buy supplies for the next year • The liens placed freedmen in a cycle of debt

14. Northern Immigration • To help out with the education and lives of freedmen, many northerners moved to South Carolina to establish schools • They were mistaken as carpetbaggers and were not accepted by Southern white society

15. Carpetbaggers and Scalawags • Carpetbaggers were Northerners who moved to the South to make an economic gain • Land and businesses were cheap and there was little competition • Scalawags were Southerners that supported the carpetbaggers to get the social, economic, and political benefits from them

16. Women • Women suffered alongside their husbands with the loss of farms and houses • Elite white women had to take on household jobs that slaves had once done • Women whose husbands had been injured in the war had to take on a more physical role around the house and farm • Former slaves, carpetbaggers, and scalawags pushed for more rights for women

17. South Carolina’s New Constitution • Under the Reconstruction Policy’s South Carolina had to write a new constitution • State representation was based on population alone, not on wealth and population as it had been previously • African Americans gained positions in offices of government and even sent six members to the United States House of Representatives

18. Political Corruption • Corruption became a problem, because of the poor economy many people were willing to take bribes • South Carolina wanted new schools, but complained about them when taxes were raised to pay for them • The Hamburg Massacre of 1876 took place in Aiken county when six Africa American militia members were killed by a white mob • This showed the whites trying to “redeem” their superiority

19. Election of 1876 • Tired of the corrupt Republicans, white Democrats, known as “Red Shirts” used violence, intimidation, and fraud to win the 1876 election • President Grant sent troops to help ensure a fair election • There were questions about the winners of the governor, as well as General Assembly

20. Election of 1876 • Neither side wanted to back down, and both Democrats and Republicans set up their own government in South Carolina • White taxpayers refused to support the Republican government • Voting problems also took place on a nation level • Congress let go of their focus to protect the freedmen as they tried to fight corruption

21. Election of 1876 • A compromise between Democrats and Republicans was reached • Democrats in SC would accept the Republican President Hayes • President Hayes would remove federal troops from South Carolina • Democrat and former Confederate General Wade Hampton became governor of SC • African Americans no longer had federal troops to help protect them from the violence in SC