Reconstruction: Triumphs and Tragedies

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Reconstruction Triumphs and Tragedies
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Base Problems

• Treason?
• Status of the States
• Rights of ex-slaves
• Rights of Unionists
• Veterans Rights
• Law and Order
• Repairs
• Economic Wasteland

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The Freedman's Bureau

• Operates March 1865-1872
• Boss General Oliver Howard
• Assists Freedmen in many different ways, many
  unprecedented

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The Freedmans Bureau -- Education

• Biggest Success of the Agency
• No Southern Public Education Pre-War
• 3000 Schools, 150,000 students
• Originally Northern White Women Teachers
• Later staffed by Blacks
• Literacy Up to 30 by 1876, 70 by 1910

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Sea-Island School
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Black Universities

• 188013 Black Universities
• Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute
  (1870Land Grant University)
• Trained Teachers
• Head, Heart, and Hands--Mixed intellectual,
  moral, and craft instruction
• Booker T. Washington was a graduate

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Other Freedman's Bureau Activities

• Food Distribution (15 million rations)
• Reuniting Families
• 100 Hospitals
• Work Dispute Resolution and Contract Negotiations

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Land for the Freedmen

• Former Slaves wanted land (Forty Acres and a
  Mule)
• Sherman's Field Order Number 15January,
  1865Land for slaves on South Atlantic Coast
• 1866Southern Homestead Act Blacks get first
  Homestead rights in South

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Results

• 33 of Upper South Blacks own a farm
• 20 of all Blacks
• Why no redistribution? Too radical for a bunch
  of laissez-faire economists
• Most blacks and whites are tenant farmers /
  sharecroppers by 1900.
• Sharecroppers rent land with part of their crops

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Freedmen--Migration

• Many former slaves hit the road once free and
  move around a year or two
• Many move to the cities because there is lots of
  work, even if wages poor.

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Freedmen--Religion

• Churches usually segregated, but whites and
  blacks follow same religions
• Churches serve as a major community hub
• Provide experience in managing and organizing
  things
• Used for clubs, businesses, fraternities, etc.
• Focus for defense of civil rights

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A Black Church
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The Lincoln Plan

• States now federal territories
• 10 of voters must swear allegiance
• Must ban slavery
• A minimalist plan
• Lincoln dies, only applied in Tennessee.

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President Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)
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The Johnson Plan (1865-1867)

• States exist, but former Confederates can't vote
• Under 20,000 dollars property folk can get easy
  pardon
• Rich must apply to president
• No protection of former slaves
• Johnson hopes poor whites will rule!

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Southern Response

• Southerners resist any changes
• Re-elect ex-confederates
• Institute 'Black Codes', which limit freedom of
  ex-slaves, force them to work for others

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Congress Fights Back

• December 1865Congress in session
• Congress Desires
• Extend Suffrage to Blacks
• Protect Civil Rights of Ex-Slaves
• The Whites had to acknowledge these civil rights

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Congress vs. South, Round 1, Fight!

• Civil Rights Act of 1866
• All born in US are citizens!
• Mainly protects business / court rights
• Fourteenth Amendment
• All born in US are citizens!
• Defends basic rights of citizens to life, liberty
  and property
• No ex-Confederates in office
• Confederate debts NEVER to be paid

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1866 Mid-Term Elections

• Johnson opposes the Republicans
• Goes on a speaking tour before 1866 elections
• This is unusual
• He fails miserably
• Congressional Reconstruction Begins

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Military Reconstruction Act of 1866
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Congress vs. Andrew Johnson

• Tenure of Office ActNo firing anyone without
  Senate saying yes.
• Andrew Johnson fires Secretary of War Edwin
  Stanton to control the generals for Military
  Reconstruction
• Congress tries to impeach Johnson.
• House YES
• Senate No by 1 vote

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1868 Election
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1868 Election

• Ulysses S. Grant (Moderate Republican) vs.
  Horatio Seymour (Democrat)
• Grant wins 52.66 Popular, 214 EV vs 80.
• Grant takes 7 Southern states
• Black support is key

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The Grant Administration

• 1869 Fifteenth AmendmentAll adult males can
  vote, 21
• Grant is not very experienced
• Failure of oversight
• Some appointees are corrupt
• Conflict between reformers and 'stalwarts' (who
  are more interested in perks of office)

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1868 Election
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The Southern Republican Party

• Southern Poor to Middling Whites Scaliwags
• Debt Relief, Education, Roads
• Northern Whites Carpetbaggers
• Economic Development, Civil Rights
• Southern Blacks
• The Union Leagues.
• 90 of Blacks Vote
• Debt Relief, Land, Education, Civil Rights!

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Black PoliticiansSenator Blanche K. Bruce,
Frederick Douglass, and Senator Hiram Revels
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Expansion of State Government

• Debt and Stay Laws
• Building Projects
• Public Education
• Child Support
• Legal Aid
• Medical Assistance
• The Unfortunate Side Effects
• Higher Taxes
• Corruption

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Counter-Reconstruction

• Racism
• Racism used to divide poor whites and blacks in
  favor of 'white unity'
• Violence
• the Klu Klux Klan Ex-Confederate murderers,
  rapists, and thugs who attacked former slaves and
  their white allies
• Enforcement and Klu Klux Klan Acts
• Allowed calling in federal help against political
  violence

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The Union as it was, Thomas Nast, Harpers
Weekly, 1874
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Failure of Northern Will

• Many see Southern Republican governments as
  corrupt
• Many don't care about black rights
• Many care more about other issues
• Immigration
• Fiscal Responsibility
• Tariffs
• Hard Money (This is a priority for Grant)

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1872 Liberal Republican Insurgency

• Some Republicans now revolt against corruption of
  the 'Stalwarts'
• Platform
• Civil Service Reform
• Tariff Reductions
• End of Federal Grants to Railroads
• Amnesty for Southern Whites
• Southern Self-Government

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1872 Election

• US Grant (Rep.) vs. Horace Greeley (Liberal
  Republicans Democrats)
• Grant wins 55.58 of Popular, 286-66 EV
• Greeley then dies.

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1872 Election
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Redemption 1874-7

• Redeemers --Racist militia who aided Southern
  Democrats
• They triggered growing violence
• Civil Rights Act of 1875 No discrimination in
  public places
• Useless vs. Violence

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Grant's Failing Administration

• Corruption
• 1874 Sanborn Incident
• 1875 Whiskey Ring
• 1876 Indian Trading Post Ring
• Indian Wars
• Gold in Black Hills settlers invade Sioux land
• Battle of Little Bighorn (1876)

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1876 Tilden v. Hayes

• Samuel Tilden (D) vs. Rutherford B. Hayes (Rep.)
• Election results disputed in Florida, Louisiana,
  South Carolina
• No good way to resolve fairly
• Compromise of 1877
• Hayes becomes President
• Hayes abandons Reconstruction

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The Failure of Reconstruction

• The Lost Cause
• Survival of Segregation
• Sharecropping
• Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)
• United States vs. Cruikshank (1876)
• Gutting of Protections