Reconstruction 1865 1877 Aftershock Beyond the Civil War

Reconstruction 1865 -1877

Aftershock: Beyond the Civil War �Part 1 Violence & Lincoln’s Assassination �Part 2 Freedman’s Bureau & Johnson* �Part 3 �Part 4 �Part 5 �Part 6 �Part 7 �Part 8 �Part 9

Effects of the Civil War �Creation of a single unified country �Abolition of slavery (13 th Amendment) �Increased power to federal government – killed the issue of states rights �U. S. now an industrial nation �A stronger sense of nationalism �Western lands increasingly opened to settlement �South was economically and physically devastated, w/ the plantation system crippled. . . thus Reconstruction (rebuilding the U. S. ) - but a deep hatred of the North remained. . .

Issues facing Reconstruction � 2 things that had to be resolved at the end of the Civil War � Seceded States � Freed Slaves None of these plans (so far) addressed issues facing freed slaves n Black Codes n KKK n Lynching

Lincoln’s Plan �Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction �Ten-Percent. Plan �Offered forgiveness to all southerners who pledged loyalty to the Union and support for emancipation �With 10% of the population pledging this, the state could then form a government that banned slavery and be readmitted into the Union �Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia �Angered Radical Republicans

Lincoln’s Plan upset Congress �Readmitting states to the Union was a power of Congress, not the president �Since secession was against the law, Confederates had never legally left the Union �So Congress responds with… �The Wade Davis Bill �Once a majority of a state’s white, male citizens pledged loyalty to the union, it would be readmitted into the Union �Lincoln Pocket vetoed

Andrew Johnson’s Plan � Becomes President after Lincoln is assassinated in 1865 � Similar to Lincoln’s Plan � Except… � Wanted to break the planters’ power by excluding high- ranking Confederates and wealthy Southern landowners from voting � Pardoned more than 13, 000 former Confederates so that “white men alone must manage the South” � All but Texas joined and sent Representatives to Congress, Congress refused to admit them � 1866 Congress voted to enlarge the Freedmen’s Bureau & forbid S. states from passing black codes � Freedmen’s Bureau provided food, clothing, hospitals, legal protection and education to former slaves � Johnson vetoed the Freedmen’s Bureau Act and the Civil Rights Act

What do you see (symbols, people, etc. )? What words are used? What can you infer from or about the cartoon?

Republicans in Congress �Favored tougher rules for restoring the states that had left the Union �Wanted to truly give freed slaves freedom �Overrode Johnson’s veto of the Freedman’s Bureau and drafted the 14 th Amendment � 14 th Amendment grants citizenship to “all person’s born or naturalized in the United States” n Reconstruction plan: A. B. C. Ratify the 14 th and 15 th Amendments Write new state constitution that guaranteed freedmen the right to vote Form new governments to be elected by all male citizens including African Americans

Congress Reconstruction �Congress drafted the Reconstruction Plan of 1867 �Denied state governments formed under the Lincoln and Johnson plans �Divided former Confederate states into 5 military districs �This would force southern states to grant African-Americans the right to vote and pass the 14 th amendment to reenter the union. �Johnson vetoed �Congress overrode Johnson’s Presidential Veto

�Congress upset with Johnson, look for grounds to impeach him. �Find it after he violates the Tenure of Office Act in 1868 by removing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton from office �Senate did not vote to convict so he remains in office

Presidential Election of 1868 �Ulysses S. Grant wins the election by 306, 000 votes �Over 500, 000 Southern African Americans had voted in which 9/10 voted for Grant �Radical Republicans introduce the 15 th Amendment after the election � 15 th Amendment no person can be kept from voting based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude. ”

Republicans in the Postwar South �Scalawags: white Southerners who joined the Republican Party �Mainly small farmers wanting to improve their economic position �Carpetbaggers: Northerners who moved to the South after the war �African Americans �Discontinuity in Southern Republicans �Scalawags and white Southerners resisted equal rights for African Americans

African Americans during Reconstruction � 95% of former slaves were illiterate �First public schools established in the South by the new African American churches �Voted and held office in local, state, and federal governments �Many forced into sharecropping because they were denied land � Sharecropping: landowners divided their land assigned each head of household a few acres, along with seeds and tools. � Sharecroppers kept a small share of their crops and gave the rest to the landowners

Reconstruction Collapses �Rise of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). � Goal was to destroy the Republican Party, Reconstruction governments, aid the planter class, and keep Af. Am. ’s from engaging in politics � Killed approximately 20, 000 men, women & children � Boycotted Af. Am. s who voted Republican �Congress passed a series of Enforcement Acts in 1870 and 1871 to try and block the KKK � Supervision of elections in Southern states � Gave President power to use fed. Troops where KKK was active �May 1872 Congress passed the Amnesty Act allowing 150, 000 former Confederates the right to vote and hold government offices �Also allowed the Freedman’s Bureau to expire

What do you see (symbols, people, etc. )? What words are used? What can you infer from or about the cartoon?

Reconstruction Collapses (Cont. ) �Panic of 1873 after a series of banks fail leads to a 5 year depression �Supreme Court undoes some of the social and political changes Radicals made �Republicans retreat from Reconstruction policies �Southern Democrats regain control of the South �Election of 1876 �Samuel J. Tilden (D) vs. Rutherford B. Hayes (R) �Tilden wins popular vote but misses by 1 electoral vote �S. Democrats agree to accept Hayes if federal troops are withdrawn from the South