Abraham Lincoln

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Abraham Lincoln
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Abraham Lincoln

• With malice toward none, with charity for all,
  with firmness in the right as God gives us to see
  the right, let us strive to finish the work we
  are in.
• Lincolns primary goal was to restore the Union
  and reintegrate the former Confederate states
  into the United States as smoothly as possible

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Reconstruction

• There were differing opinions in the North about
  how to deal with the South
• some wanted to teach them a lesson
• others wanted to forgive and welcome back
• Some felt that the South had been punished enough
  with 1/4 million casualties and destruction of a
  lot of their land
• The North had lost 1/3 million people
• The South saw the war as a war against states
  the North saw it as a war against a Rebellion
• Lincoln agreed with the South

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Radicals in Congress

• Radicals in Congress were very angry with the
  South and wanted revenge
• They wanted to punish the South and ensure that
  all Blacks received fair treatment (all Blacks
  should have the vote)
• Believed that the Southern States should have no
  rights under the constitution, no right to govern
  themselves or have representation in congress
• Only after they had proven their loyalty to the
  Union should they be granted the right of
  self-government

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The Wade-Davis Bill

• During the war Congress was developing The
  Wade-Davis Bill
• Majority of citizens had to take the oath in
  order to establish a new constitution
• You had to take the oath in order to vote for the
  new constitution
• You had to swear that you never held office for
  the Confederacy or fought in their army
• The Bill was passed just before the war ended but
  it needed Lincolns signature
• He refused to sign

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Lincolns Plan

• Lincoln wanted to move forward
• Amnesty for all Southerners
• Readmission to the Union (10 of the state had to
  take oath of loyalty)
• Freedom for all enslaved voting for literate
  Blacks and former soldiers

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Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

• On April 14, 1865, just 5 days after Lees
  surrender, President Lincoln was murdered
• Shot by a Confederate sympathizer named John
  Wilkens Booth
• On April 26th Booth was found hiding in a barn
• Unwilling to give himself up the barn was set on
  fire and Booth was shot to death
• Booths co-conspirators were arrested by the
  government, tried by a military tribunal, and all
  were found guilty and hanged on July 7, 1865

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After Slavery
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New Way of Life

• The South was in economic, social and political
  disarray
• The government at every level was gone
• Confederate money was useless and the banks were
  ruined
• Greatest economic blow for planters was the loss
  of their slaves (worth 2 billion) - The
  plantation system had collapsed

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Plight of the Landowner

• Example Planter Harry Hammond
• After he surrendered at Appomattox he said that
  all he had was a pipe and some tobacco
• Owned a large plantation but know one could
  afford to buy it
• Saved when most of his 300 former slaves agreed
  to work the land in exchange for housing,
  firewood, weekly food allotments, Saturdays off
  and 15/year in cash
• Also agreed to loan the workers a mule and plough
  so they could grow their own crops

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Plight of the Workers

• Many became tenant farmers - farming land that
  they rented
• This was difficult for many of the poor workers
  so some became sharecroppers- people who worked
  the owners land sometimes using their owners
  tools, animals and seed and received a share of
  the crops in return

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The Freedmens Bureau

• Collapse of the plantation economy left many
  slaves with no means of support and nowhere to
  live
• At the end of the war the department created a
  Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands
  - Freedmens Bureau
• Freedmens Bureau 1) distributed emergency food
  and clothing to poor Southerners 2) Negotiated
  disputes between blacks and whites 3) supported
  more than 3000 schools across the south 4)
  provided medical help and founded 45 hospitals in
  14 states and 5) help former slaves find jobs

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Land

• Most freed men and women dreamed of owning their
  own land
• A lot of the land that was seized during the war
  by the Union was redistributed to some of the
  former slaves
• When Andrew Johnson became president he pardoned
  Confederates and restored their land therefore,
  and land given to Africa Americans was returned
  to its former owner

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Reconstruction
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Andrew Johnson

• Senator from Tennessee - only senator from a
  Confederate state that remained loyal to the
  Union
• Become President after the death of Lincoln
• Shared Lincolns goal of reintegrating the
  Confederate States into the United States as
  smoothly as possible

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President Johnson

• Republicans wanted Johnson to call a special
  session of Congress to decide new rules for the
  South - he refused
• He wanted to continue with Lincolns policy
• any Southerner that was willing to swear an oath
  of allegiance was pardoned
• all confiscated land was given back to those who
  took the oath
• state conventions were to be elected (whites
  only) to draw up new constitutions that included
  the abolition of slavery - then the state could
  be readmitted into the Union

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Radical Reconstruction

• Radical Republicans in Congress resented the
  leniency toward the Southern states, who
  continued to limit the civil rights of former
  slaves
• Many of the Southern states passed Black Codes -
  laws restricting the labour rights of blacks,
  preventing land ownership by former slaves, and
  prohibiting interracial marriages
• In response, Congress passed 14th Amendment in
  1866
• ensured that states could not deny former slaves
  their civil rights
• restricted the rights of former Confederate
  politicians to seek election to congress

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Reconstruction Continued

• Johnson opposed the 14th Amendment and campaigned
  against its ratification but it passed
  nonetheless
• Congress would now control the direction of
  reconstruction
• Passed the Reconstruction Act in 1867, which
  imposed harsher conditions on the South
• divided the South into military districts that
  were occupied by soldiers and ruled by generals
• ensured that Confederate sympathizers were
  removed from government
• States had to draft a new constitution that
  guaranteed the vote to former male slaves

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• Johnson tried to veto the bill but it passed
  anyway
• Congress passed Tenure of Office Act - a federal
  officer could not be dismissed without permission
  of the Senate
• This was the last straw for Johnson - he tested
  the Act and fired an officer
• February 1868 the House of Representatives voted
  to impeach Johnson with high crimes and
  misdemeanours
• The Senate needed 2/3rds majority vote for
  removal - one vote shy Johnson held on to his
  post

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A New President

• Republicans chose General Ulysses S. Grant as
  their candidate for president
• Grant easily won the 1868 election
• Giving the vote to blacks in the South was the
  reason Grant won the election - receiving more
  than 500,000 of their votes
• February 1869 the Republican Congress passed the
  15th Amendment - the right to vote should not be
  denied on the account of race, colour or previous
  conditions of servitude
• Congress forced the remaining 3 unreconstructed
  states (Mississippi, Texas and Virginia) to
  accept 14th and 15th Amendments before rejoining
  the union

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Reconstruction in the South 1867-1877

• By the early 1870s the remaining unreconstructed
  states had rejoined the Union, completing the
  process of reconstructing the Union
• A big change was the number of African Americans
  who were able to get involved in politics
• 2 Senators and 20 Congressmen were African
  American and several others were elected to state
  legislatures
• Since many white Southerners were unable to vote
  because of their involvement in the Old
  Confederacy, African American voters outnumbered
  the white voters
• Republicans were secure in knowing that they had
  the African American vote so they put forth white
  candidates in order to gain more white support in
  votes

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The End of Reconstruction

• Crisis and Corruption

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1876 Election

• During the early 1870s the U.S. faced a severe
  economic depression which undermined the support
  for the governing Republican Party
• A succession of scandals shook the Republican
  administration of President Grant
• 1876 President Grant retires
• 1876 election
• Republican candidate - Rutherford B. Hayes
• Democratic candidate - Samuel Tilden

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• During the campaign Republicans tried to gain
  support by bringing up memories of the civil war
• Democrats attacked the excesses of Radical
  Reconstruction and the corruption they claimed
  was rampant during the Grant admission
• Both sides accused the other of election fraud
• Samuel Tilden needed one more vote to win a
  majority and their were 20 disputed votes
• Congress appointed 5 members from the House, the
  Senate and the Supreme Court to settle the matter
• The Commission awarded the election to Hayes -
  Marks the end of Reconstruction

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The Compromise of 1877

• Democrats who controlled the House of
  Representatives, threatened to block Hayess
  inauguration
• Republicans wanted to keep control of the
  presidency so they began to talk of compromise
• Negotiation results
• Democrats agreed to accept election results
• Republicans agreed to
• halt further government intervention in Southern
  states
• withdraw the remaining federal troops from the
  South
• promised federal funds for internal improvements
  in the South

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After Reconstruction
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Separate but Equal ?

• In many ways the south was the same after
  reconstruction as it was before the civil war
• After reconstruction the South began to pass the
  Jim Crow Laws - legal separation of blacks from
  whites
• 1875 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act
  requiring that all people have equal access to
  public places and transportation facilities
• 1883 the Supreme Court ruled the act was
  unconstitutional
• 1890 Jim Crow laws were common throughout the
  South
• New alliances between powerful white Southerners
  and Northern financiers brought about the
  economic rebuilding of the South

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• Northern capital helped to build railroad and
  better transportation which encouraged the
  industrialization of the South
• By 1900 Southern industrial production was four
  times what it had been in 1860
• The Democrats would dominate political life in
  the South for a century
• Abolitionist idealism declined and many Radicals
  were more interested in African American votes
  than their welfare
• Congress closed the Freedmans Bureau only after
  5 years
• Without federal protection, the black codes left
  African Americans involved in a new kind of
  slavery - still attached to the white man as
  sharecroppers or tenant farmers