Reconstruction

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Reconstruction
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Lincoln is Elected

• In 1860 Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln.
• He did not believe in slavery and wanted to
  outlaw it.
• After the election, S. Carolina seceded first and
  by Feb. 1, 1861, 6 S. states in the lower south
  followed suit.
• The secessionists seized all federal property in
  their states, including arsenals and forts.

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Founding the Confederacy

• Delegates met in Montgomery, Al.
• The Confederate Sates of America, or Confederacy
  was created.
• Each state was independent and guaranteed the
  existence of slavery in Confederate territory.
• The president had a six-year term.
• Jefferson Davis was the president of the
  Confederacy.

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The Civil War Begins

• Lincoln planned to re-supply Fort Sumter.
• Davis decided to take Fort Sumter before the
  supply ship arrived.
• For 33 hours Sumter took heavy bombardment.
• Eventually they surrendered.
• Upper states began to leave the union and join
  the S.
• Missouri was a border state.

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Important Players in the Civil War

• Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, William T.
  Sherman
• Jefferson Davis, Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson,
  Robert E. Lee

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Causes of the Civil War

• Disagreement over the legality, morality, and
  politics of slavery.
• Kansas-Nebraska Act, popular sovereignty, people
  living in a region had the right to decide by
  voting if slavery would be allowed there.
• S. states seceded from the Union.
• Confederates attacked Fort Sumter in S. Carolina.

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Effects of the Civil War

• Slavery was outlawed in the U.S.
• S. states rebuilt their economy.
• African Americans gained citizenship and voting
  rights.
• The first U.S. civil rights laws were passed.

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The Reconstruction Battle Begins

• By 1865 large areas of the former Confederacy lay
  in ruins.
• The Souths econ. was in a state of collapse.
• The value of land had fallen, Confederate money
  was worthless, transportation system was
  devastated, bridges and railroads were useless.
• Until the south developed a new system to replace
  enslaved labor, it could not maintain its
  agricultural output.
• Reconstruction, or rebuilding after the war.
• How the former Confederacy states would join the
  Union.

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Lincolns Plan

• In Dec. 1863, he set forth his plan in the
  Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction.
• Amnesty, or pardon to all Southern who took an
  oath of loyalty to the U.S. and accepted the
  Unions proclamation concerning slavery.

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The Radical Republicans

• The radicals did not want to reconcile with the
  South.
• They wanted to revolutionize southern
  institutions, habits, and manners.
• 3 main goals
• 1. wanted to prevent the leaders of the
  Confederacy from returning to power after the
  war.
• 2. wanted the republican party to become a
  powerful institution in the south.
• 3. wanted the fed. govt. to help African
  Americans achieve political equality by
  guaranteeing their right to vote in the south.

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Freedmens Bureau

• As Gen. William T. Sherman marched through the
  South, thousands of freed African Americans,
  known as freedmen, began following his troops
  seeking food and shelter.
• Union troops settled more than 40,000 African
  Americans.
• Congress thus est. the Freedmens Bureau, the
  task was to feed and clothe war refugees in the
  S. using surplus army supplies.
• The Bureau made a lasting contribution to
  education former enslaved African Americans.
• It provided schools, paid teachers, and est.
  colleges.

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Johnson Takes Office

• After Lincolns assassination, V.P. Andrew
  Johnson became president.
• He believed that a moderate policy was needed to
  bring the south back into the Union and to win
  southern loyalty.

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Johnsons Plan

• The Restoration Program, he offered to pardon all
  former citizens of the confederacy who took an
  oath of loyalty to the Union and to return their
  property.
• Each former Confederate state had to call a
  constitutional convention to revoke its ordinance
  of secession and ratify the 13th Amendment.
• Most of the former states accepted his
  conditions.

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Black Codes

• The new S. state legislatures also passed a
  series of laws called, black codes, which
  severely limited African Americans rights in the
  s.
• The codes seemed intended to keep African
  Americans in a condition similar to slavery.
• They were required to enter into annual labor
  contracts, black children had to accept
  apprenticeships and could be whipped or beaten
  while serving in these apprenticeships.
• These codes enraged Northerners.

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Radical Republicans Take Control

• In 1865, House and Senate Republicans created the
  Joint Committee on Reconstruction.
• Their goal was to develop their own program for
  rebuilding the Union.

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The 14th Amendment

• The Republicans introduced the 14th Amendment to
  the constitution.
• It granted citizenship to all persons born or
  naturalized in the U.S. and declared that no
  state could deprive and person of life, liberty,
  or property without due process.

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Military Reconstruction

• The Military Reconstruction Act, wiped out
  Johnsons programs (Rad. Rep. had a 3-1 majority
  in Congress) and divided the former confederacy
  into 5 military districts that would be governed
  by a Union general.
• Another constitutional convention would be held
  and the new constitution had to give the right to
  vote to all adult male citizens, regardless of
  race.
• By the end of 1868, 6 former confederate states
  had met all of the requirements and were
  readmitted to the union.

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Impeachment

• What is Impeachment?
• When the President is charged with wrongdoing
  (crime) in office by the House of
  Representatives.
• What happens after the President is impeached by
  the House of Representatives?
• Then the Senate holds a trial and votes to decide
  if the President is guilty
• 2/3 must vote for conviction of the President for
  him to be found guilty.

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Impeachment

• What if the President is found guilty by the
  Senate?
• He is removed from office and faces criminal
  charges in a courtroom.

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President Johnsons ImpeachmentSequence of Events

• Johnson tries to fire the Secretary of War Edwin
  Stanton.
• Firing Stanton was illegal because the Tenure of
  Office Act said that the President had to have
  the Senates approval to hire and fire cabinet
  officials.
• The House of Representatives voted to impeach
  Johnson. Johnson is the first Pres. to be
  impeached.
• Senate tries Johnson and he is found not guilty
  by one vote.

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The Election of 1868

• Most Americans wanted Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to
  run for president in 1868, he was a war hero and
  popular.
• He won.

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The 15th Amendment

• The Rep. led Congress passed the 15th Amendment
  to the Constitution.
• This amendment declared that the right to vote
  shall not be denied on account of race, color,
  or previous condition of servitude.

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Impacts of Radical Reconstruction

• Changed s. politics by bringing hundreds of
  thousands of African Americans into the political
  process.
• It changed s. society and many white southerners
  are going to fight back against the fed. Govt.

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Rep. Rule in the S.

• By 1870 all the former Conf. states had rejoined
  the Union under the congressional reconstruction
  plan.
• The Rep. Party took power and introduced several
  major reforms.

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Carpetbaggers and Scalawags

• Many northern began to move to the s.
• They took up office in the new souths state
  govt.
• Southerners referred to these newcomers as
  carpetbaggers, because some arrived w/ suitcases
  made of carpet fabric.
• Carpetbaggers disliked white southerners who
  worked with the republicans and supported
  reconstruction.
• They called these people scalawags, a term for
  weak, underfed, worthless animals.

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African Americans Enter Politics

• Thousands of formerly enslaved people also took
  part in governing the s.
• W/in a few years African Americans went from
  enslaved workers to legislators and
  administrators on nearly all levels of govt.
• They held jobs in state legislators, House of
  Reps., and the Senate.

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Republican Reform in the S.

• The Republicans repealed the black codes and made
  many more state offices elective.
• They est. state hospitals and institutions for
  orphans, the hearing and visually impaired, and
  the mentally ill.
• Rebuilt roads, railways, bridges, provided funds
  for the construction of new railroads and
  industries in the south.
• Helped with public schools.
• Many Rep. however, were corrupt and gaining money
  illegally through politics, Graft.

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African American Communities

• African Americans worked to improve their lives
  in other ways during the reconstruction.
• Many sought to gain an education and est. their
  own thriving communities.
• Schools, Universities, and Churches were all part
  of their communities.

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The Ku Klux Klan

• Southerners formed secret societies.
• Ku Klux Klan started in 1866, formed by conf.
  troops.
• The goal was to drive out the Union troops and
  carpetbaggers and regain control of the s. for
  the democrat party.
• Hooded, white-robed Klan members rode in bands at
  night terrorizing supporters of the Rep. govt.
• President Grant and congressional rep. were
  outraged by the Klan.
• They formed an act called the Ku Klux Klan Act,
  outlawing the activities of the Klan.

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The Grant Administration

• Grant had little experience in politics.
• He believed that the presidents role was to
  carry out the laws and leave the development of
  policy to congress.
• Congress didnt mind, but it left the president
  weak and ineffective.

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Republicans Split

• Sin Taxes, the rep. kept in place the taxes on
  alcohol and tobacco that had been introduced as
  emergency measures during the war.
• This money helped pay off the bonds for the civil
  war.
• Dem. attacked these policies saying they only
  benefited the wealthy, because they were gaining
  too much out of Grants admin.
• Liberal Rep. broke away and joined the Dem. point
  of view. Thus, breaking away from the Rep. party.
• Despite the tension, Grant won reelection in
  1873.

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Scandals During Grants 2nd Term

• William Belknap, Grants secretary of war, was
  found to have accepted bribes from merchants
  operating at army posts in the west.
• Whiskey Ring, Govt. officials and distillers
  in St. Louis cheated the Govt. out of millions
  of dollars by filing false tax reports.

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The Panic of 1873

• Grant and the nation endured a severe econ.
  crisis that began during Grants 2nd term.
• The turmoil started in 1873 when a series of
  railroad investments forced the powerful banking
  firm Jay Cooke and Company to declare bankruptcy.
• A wave of fear known as the Panic of 1873 quickly
  spread through the nations financial community.
• The panic prompted scores of smaller banks to
  close and the stock market to plummet.
• Businesses shut down, tens of thousands of
  Americans were thrown out of work.
• The scandals and panic embarrassed Grant and the
  Rep. Party.

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Reconstruction Ends

• The rising power of the Dem. in congress meant
  that enforcing reconstruction policies became
  more difficult.
• Northerners were more concerned with their own
  econ. problems than with the political situation
  in the s.

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Election of 1877

• Rutherford B. Hayes a Rep. vs. Dem. Samuel
  Tilden.
• Hayes won.
• Hayes expressed his desire to move the country
  beyond the quarrelsome years of reconstruction,
  by putting an end to the nations regional
  distinctions.

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A New South Arises

• Southern leaders realized the South could never
  return to the pre-civil war agricultural economy
  dominance.
• Southerners called for the creation of a New
  South. The S. region had to develop a strong
  industrial economy.

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New Industries

• Northern financers helped the S. to build
  railroads. Laying over 40,000 miles of railroad
  track.
• A thriving iron and steel industry developed
  around Birmingham, AL.
• Tobacco processing became big business in NC and
  cotton mills also grew in stature.

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Sharecropping

• Many African Americans returned to plantations
  owned by whites, because they never received
  their own land.
• Back on the plantations, they worked for wages or
  became tenant farmers, paying rent for the land
  they farmed.
• Most tenant farmers eventually became
  sharecroppers, who did not pay their rent in
  cash, instead they paid a share of their crops to
  cover their rent as well as the cost of the seed,
  fertilizer, tools, and animals they needed.

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Sharecropping

• Country stores and local suppliers, known as
  furnishing merchants, provided sharecroppers with
  the supplies they needed on credit but at
  interest rates often as high as 40.
• Crop liens, meant that the merchant could take
  some of the crops to cover the debts.
• This was to make sure the sharecroppers paid
  their debts.

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Sharecropping

• Many fell into a financial condition known as,
  Debt Peonage.
• This condition trapped sharecroppers on the land
  because they could not make enough money to pay
  off their debts and leave nor could they declare
  bankruptcy.
• Failure to pay off debts could lead to
  imprisonment or forced labor.