RECONSTRUCTION

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RECONSTRUCTION

• Civil Rights
• Or
• Return to the Power of the Planters

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Reconstruction How to Rebuild a Union

• 1. Lincoln wanted a quick and easy reconstruction
  one that changed American society as little as
  possible
• 2. Radical Abolitionists wanted to recreate
  American society creating equality among the
  races and attempting to make up for 250 years of
  slavery.
• 3. Many strong unionists wanted to punish the
  south for the Civil War. Some wanted to maintain
  American political and economic power in the
  North.
• 4. Southern whites especially southern planters
  were terrified that a free black population
  would demand equality take retribution refuse
  to be subservient
• 5. How would the southern economy be rebuilt?
• 6. What happens to millions of former slaves
  people with no money, no land, no power, and
  little education

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How Do the States that Seceded Re-enter the Union
or Did They Ever Really Leave???

• 7. IRONY many in the North fought the war
  because they refused to acknowledge the right of
  any state to leave the union many in the south
  fought the war because they believed they had the
  right to leave the union. NOW that the war was
  over and discussion of Reconstruction progressed
  many in the south said there could be no
  reconstruction because they never left the union
  and many in the north demanded reconstruction
  suddenly claiming that the south had to be
  re-admitted to the union.

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Bitter Feelings ANDERSONVILLE

• The Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia
  served as a symbol for those who demanded revenge
  against the South.
• 41,000 Union prisoners were placed there 13,000
  died of starvation, disease and misuse.

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• A Union soldier described his entry into the
  prison camp
• "As we entered the place, a spectacle met our
  eyes that almost froze our blood with horror, and
  made our hearts fail within us. Before us were
  forms that had once been active and
  erectstalwart men, now nothing but mere walking
  skeletons, covered with filth and vermin. Many of
  our men, in the heat and intensity of their
  feeling, exclaimed with earnestness. "Can this be
  hell?" "God protect us!" and all thought that He
  alone could bring them out alive from so terrible
  a place. In the center of the whole was a swamp,
  occupying about three or four acres of the
  narrowed limits, and a part of this marshy place
  had been used by the prisoners as a sink, and
  excrement covered the ground, the scent arising
  from which was suffocating. The ground allotted
  to our ninety was near the edge of this
  plague-spot, and how we were to live through the
  warm summer weather in the midst of such fearful
  surroundings, was more than we cared to think of
  just then. Kellogg, Robert H. Life and Death in
  Rebel Prisons. Hartford, CT L. Stebbins, 1865.

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Lincolns 10 Plan for Reconstruction

• Lincolns gentle Reconstruction called for the
  southern states to re-enter the union when
• 10 of the voters took a loyalty oath to the
  Union the state could set up a new government.
  Union troops remained throughout the old
  Confederacy until new local governments were
  established.
• If the states constitutions abolished slavery
  and provided education for the former slaves
  the state would regain its representation in
  Congress.

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• Lincoln wanted to pardon former Confederates and
  thought about compensating the southerners for
  lost property.
• Lincoln even recognized pro-union governments in
  Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee that denied the
  right of blacks to votes
• Was Lincoln also hoping to build the Republican
  Party in the South among whites???

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Radical Reconstruction

• The Thirteenth Amendment December 6, 1865
  slavery was abolished in the United States.
  Because of the Emancipation Proclamation
  slavery existed only in Delaware, Kentucky,
  Missouri, Maryland and New Jersey at the time of
  the passage.
• JUNETEENTH June 19, 1865 Despite the
  Emancipation proclamation and the Confederate
  defeat, where possible Southern whites maintained
  slavery. On June 19, 1865 Union General Granger
  read aloud the official order informing the
  people that slavery was abolished.
• The freed people of Texas began to celebrate the
  day known as Juneteenth.

• 1900 Juneteenth Celebration

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• With most of the old Confederate states not
  readmitted to Congress, the radical abolitionists
  began to reorganize society hoping to bring
  equality to the south.
• They were led by Senator Charles Sumner of
  Massachusetts and Senator Thaddeus Stevens of
  Pennsylvania

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While the north debated how to treat the former
Confederates the greater debate was over the
place of the former slaves in American society.
The Radical Deconstructionists referred to these
people as FREEDMEN.
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Wade-Davis Bill

• Stevens and Sumner opposed Lincolns 10 Plan in
  favor of a harsher plan of re-admittance. They
  passed through Congress their own WADE-DAVIS BILL
  which called for 51 of a states pre-war voters
  to swear loyalty to the union and demanded
  African-American equality.
• Lincoln rejected the bill with a POCKET VETO

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Lincoln did support the creation of the Bureau of
Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands
otherwise known as the FREEDMENS BUREAU
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The Freedmens Bureau distributed food and helped
establish homes for the former slaves who were no
longer on the lands of their former white
masters.Perhaps the best aspects of the Bureau
were the establishment of schools and banks.
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• Former slaves of all ages attended the Bureaus
  schools the ability to read and write was
  necessary to avoid being taken advantage of by
  southern whites. This was in opposition to old
  southern laws making it illegal to teach slaves
  how to read and write.
• http//www.freedmensbureau.com/

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• The Bureau established banks for the former
  slaves in large part because the southern
  whites who operated the banks refused to take
  black money offer loans, etc.
• The Bureau also organized thousands of weddings
  among the freed people people who were not
  allowed legal marriage in the days of slavery and
  who were often barred from white churches.

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Reaction Against the Freedmens Bureau

• Southerners and many northern Democrats hated the
  Freedmens Bureau in large part because it
  offered racial equality and threatened the loss
  of southern white economic power.
• After Lincolns death, President ANDREW JOHNSON
  tried to follow a reconstruction plan similar to
  Lincolns but the Radical Republicans in
  Congress began to run RECONSTRUCTION.

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• The success and power of the Freedmens Bureau
  has been overshadowed by southern criticism.
• White Southerners ignored the massive benefits
  the Bureau brought to the former slaves and
  instead claimed the Bureau was created to get
  Republican votes and to allow the former slaves
  to be idle ironic isnt it?
• Many of the Bureaus teachers were single white
  women from the north southern whites often
  presented them as near prostitutes
• Southern whites attacked fellow whites who worked
  for racial equality or for the union
• SCALAWAG southern whites who became a
  Republican durign Reconstruction
• CARPET BAGGER southern white term for
  northerners who went south to help the freedmen
  the white southerners claimed the carpetbaggers
  were thieves who used the blacks to take over the
  south.

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Question

• If the Freedmens Bureau did so much good for the
  former slaves, why was the Bureau disbanded in
  1872 and why did the southern depictions of
  carpetbaggers and scalawags prevail??????

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• As the southern states came back into the union,
  many tried to reassert white power and the power
  of the old Confederates.
• BLACK CODES laws that were designed to limit
  the liberties of blacks in the former
  Confederacy.
• Blacks could only work in specified occupations
  mainly as servants or farm laborers
• Some states prohibited blacks from purchasing
  land
• Vagrancy laws arrested and put to work (slavery?)
  blacks who were traveling in search or family or
  work any black person without a job could be
  arrested.

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• Congress tried to empower blacks by giving the
  Freedmens Bureau the right to punish people who
  tried to stop its work President Johnson vetoed
  the bill.
• Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866
  making federal rights for blacks supersede state
  black codes President Johnson vetoed the bill.
• Johnson argued that Congress was trying to
  Africanize the southern half of our country.

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14th Amendment proposed 1866 ratified 1868

• Despite the ending of slavery with the 13th
  amendment, many places in the south tried to keep
  the freed slaves from having full participation
  in American political life. One method used was
  to deny the former slaves citizenship.
• The amendment was part of the Radical
  Reconstruction attempt to alter southern society.
  The amendment called for
• 1. all former slaves were citizens recognized by
  the federal government and states governments
  had to recognize their citizenship
• 2. states could not deprive people of life,
  liberty, or property without DUE PROCESS of law
• 3. no state may deny a citizen of EQUAL
  PROTECTION under the law.

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14th Amendment Controversy among Reformers

• The amendment also called for representation in
  Congress to be determined by the counting of all
  citizens (remember the 3/5 Compromise). It also
  stated that if a state were to deny people the
  right to vote that state would lose
  representation. This section of the amendment
  used the word MALE for the first time in the
  Constitution.
• The old abolition movement had been linked to the
  woman suffrage movement for decades. Now in
  1866, the amendment caused some women such as
  ELIZABETH CADY STANTON and SUSAN B. ANTHONY to
  reject the amendment because it promoted the
  cause of black men over women. Some woman
  suffragists believed that getting black men their
  rights was part of their goal which should be
  taken and then they would work for woman
  suffrage. Stanton and Anthony represented the
  radical suffragists who rejected any amendment
  that did not liberate both groups.

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The 14th Amendment caused a rift between Stanton
and Anthony and their old friend Frederick
Douglass. It also split the woman suffrage
movement for several decades.
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Military Reconstruction Act 1867

• Over the veto of Johnson, Congress passed the
  Military Reconstruction Act in 1867.
• The south was divided into military occupation
  zones. States had to rewrite constitutions that
  ensured black suffrage and to approve the 14th
  amendment before readmission to the union.
• The presence of Federal troops in the south
  helped to enforce laws protecting the freedmen.

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Tenure of Office Act

• The Radicals Republican in Congress grew tired of
  President Johnson trying to thwart their radical
  social agenda.
• Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act stated
  that the president needed Senate approval to
  remove people from certain offices in the
  Executive branch.
• John regarded the law as unconstitutional and
  fired Secretary of War EDWIN STANTON.

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Impeachment of President Johnson

• The Radical Republican used Johnsons action to
  impeach him the in House of Representatives and
  to try him in the Senate.
• Johnson survived removal from office by one vote.

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15th Amendment

• The right of citizens of the United States to
  vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
  United States or by any State on account of race,
  color, or previous condition of servitude.
• The fact that the 15th amendment was needed
  after the passage of the 13th and 14th
  indicates the tremendous hostility the freedmen
  faced in their search for civil rights.

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What Happens When Millions of Enslaved People Try
to Participate as Equal in Society?

• In a matter of weeks after gaining civil rights
  and under the protection of the Federal troops in
  the south hundreds of blacks in the south moved
  into positions of power. Most had been part of
  the small, but vital, free black population in
  the south before the war.
• Representatives, senators, mayors, state
  legislators, coroners, school superintendents,
  etc. were among the roles assumed by black men in
  the Reconstructed south.
• Hiram Rhodes Revels first black member of
  Congress 1870

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Southern whites especially the leaders of the
old Confederacy and the Confederate soldiers who
returned to a poor and defeated south, did not
accept any moves to ensure racial equality. They
viewed the freedmen as the source of all of their
problems.
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White Reaction

• Many blacks rose to positions of prominence in
  the Reconstructed South.
• Many freedmen established their own farms and
  grew food to support themselves.
• Many freedmen became educated in academics and
  business.
• In a very short time, the former slaves were
  quickly assuming new places in society.
• This meant for white society
• 1. fewer workers on plantations
• 2. less power for whites
• 3. poor whites could no longer use slavery as a
  means to bolster their own pride.
• 4. black success refuted centuries of propaganda
  which said that blacks needed to be slaves
  because they were inferior.
• White society responded in many places with
  terror KU KLUX KLAN KNIGHTS OF THE WHITE
  CAMILIA often comprised of Confederate
  veterans.

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• White supremacist groups terrorized blacks who
  tried to use their civil rights. Thousands were
  attacked many killed LYNCHING.
• Blacks who tried to vote were intimidated,
  assaulted, or killed. Radical Republicans who
  still controlled Congress responded with the
  ENFORCEMENT ACTS 1870 1871. It became a federal
  offense to interfere with a citizens right to
  vote.

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Sharecropping

• Freedmen who established their own farms were
  threats to the economic power of the planters.
  Some northern textile mill owners needed southern
  cotton to once again flood their northern mills.
  People in the north were unconcerned when moves
  were made to recreate the plantation system.
• Sharecropping white planters owned the land but
  needed workers a system of renting white own
  land initially gave freedmen a source of income.
  Their need to have seed, tools, food, etc until
  crops were harvested led to white planters
  lending money at high interest rates. When the
  crops were harvested, a share of the crop went to
  the planter and the farmer had to repay his debt.
  However, high interest rates, poor harvests,
  etc. led to a form of economic slavery. Many
  sharecroppers were never able to get out of debt
  or save money and became virtual prisoners in
  tiny shacks on the white planters lands.
• The sharecropper was always threatened with
  eviction if he voted, etc. Economic repression.
  There were white sharecroppers as well!

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• The End of Reconstruction
• Southern Whites Resume Power
• The North Becomes More Concerned with the
  Industrial Revolution
• The Federal Governments Attention is Drawn
  Toward Western expansion and the Indians

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President Ulysses S. Grant

• The cause of Reconstruction was dealt a blow with
  the election of General Ulysses S. grant to the
  presidency in 1868. While he was a
  reconstructionist he also had one of the most
  corrupt administrations in history although he
  was honest.

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• Corruption and scandal was not only part of the
  Grant administration but governments of many of
  the big cities of the north. People became
  disillusioned with the reforming nature of
  government and that allowed many people to
  think that they should moved beyond
  reconstruction. This was NOT the opinion of
  American blacks or those white who still felt
  that American society could be reformed and
  equalized.

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Boss Tweed

• William Boss Tweed ran the Democratic Party in
  New York City TAMMANY HALL
• He stole over 100 million dollars and was
  sentenced to jail.
• He used immigrant votes, corruption, bribery,
  intimidation, fraud, etc. to run New York City.

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THOMAS NAST political cartoonist brought the
exploits of Tweed and others to national
prominence.
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Redemption ?

• Many whites in the south referred to their
  assumption of power and the removal of blacks
  from positions of power as the Redemption of
  the South.
• Northern apathy, economic decline, terrorism,
  Supreme Court decisions (see UNITED STATES vs.
  CRUIKSHANK), the movement west, etc. all led to
  the attention of the government leaving the south
  and the freedmen.

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The Compromise of 1877

• The Radical Republicans lost power within the
  Republican Party to those Republicans who thought
  the party needed to focus on industry, movement
  west, and economic growth rather than
  reconstruction.
• In 1876, the Republicans nominated Civil war
  veteran RUTHERFORD B. HAYES and the Democrats
  nominated New York Governor SAMUEL TILDEN.
• Tilden won 51 of the popular vote but there
  was dispute over the southern vote and the lack
  of free black voting. Some viewed Hayes as
  having more electoral votes. How to count votes
  in disputed areas in Georgia, Florida, and
  Louisiana?
• Congress created a commission to investigate. 5
  senators from the Republican dominated senate, 5
  representatives from the Democratic dominated
  House, and 5 Supreme Court justices.

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• The commission developed a plan that led to
• Rutherford B. Hayes named presidential victor
• Federal troops removed from the south
• Federal money going south to help build railroads
• The End of Reconstruction

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1877

• Republicans were the Party of Lincoln and where
  blacks could vote most supported the
  Republicans
• Democrats were the party of the southern whites,
  northern urban immigrants.
• The promise of 1865 offered to the freedmen was
  gone.