Reconstruction Lesson 2 Reconstruction Changes the South Reconstruction

Reconstruction Lesson 2 Reconstruction Changes the South

Reconstruction Lesson 2 Reconstruction Changes the South Learning Objectives • • Explain how Republicans gained control of southern state governments. Analyze how freedmen adjusted to freedom and the role of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Evaluate the South’s new economic system and its impact on poor farmers. Summarize efforts to limit African Americans’ rights and the federal government’s response.

Reconstruction Lesson 2 Reconstruction Changes the South Key Terms • • • Scalawags carpetbaggers segregation integration sharecropping Share-tenancy tenant farming Ku Klux Klan Enforcement Acts

Republicans Dominate Government Before the Civil War, a limited number of powerful men had controlled the South. In the wake of the war, a very basic question needed to be resolved. Who would gain power and how would they use it? How this question was answered at the time would have both immediate and lasting consequences.

Republicans Dominate Government • • • African Americans at the Polls Scalawags and Carpetbaggers Women and Reconstruction A Public School System Takes Shapes Corruption Hinders Reconstruction

Republicans Dominate Government � By 1870 all former Confederate state are back in the Union. � African Americans win many political offices � Superintendents, sheriffs, mayors, coroners, police chiefs, and representatives in state legislatures � 2 Senators and 14 Congressmen � Scalawag – white Southern Republican � Carpetbaggers – northern people who relocated to the South to improve their life or help freedmen � Republicans abandoned women as they believe they couldn’t fight for African American and women at same time. � Women helped freedmen – especially in education � Segregation – separation of the races (schools) � Integration – combining the separate schools – unpopular � Did get tax supported schools – not just rich � Corruption hurt also – many scandals from rebuilding railroads

Republicans Dominate Government Radical Republican members of South Carolina's first legislature after the war

Republicans Dominate Government Analyze Information Which states likely offered the most protections for African Americans in their state constitutions?

Freed People Rebuild Their Lives For newly freed African Americans, the importance of such issues as public corruption was matched by the importance of trying to work out new social institutions and economic relationships. Some freedmen deliberately moved away from the plantation, even if the owner had been a generous person. As one minister put it, “As long as the shadow of the great house falls across you, you ain’t going to feel like no free man and no free woman. ”

Freed People Rebuild Their Lives • • Jobs and Family The Role of Public Institutions

Freed People Rebuild Their Lives Before emancipation, few African Americans had been able to legally wed under Southern state laws. During Reconstruction, families could formalize their relationships.

Land Distribution in the South Many of the South’s problems resulted from the uneven distribution of land. As an agricultural region, the South’s wealth was defined by land ownership. Yet, in 1860, the wealthiest 5 percent of white southerners owned almost half the region’s land. Relatively few people held the rest of the land. In fact, more than 90 percent of southern land was owned by only 50 percent of the people. This meant that even before the war, the South had a large number of white citizens with little or no land. After the war, millions of landless southern white people were competing with millions of landless African American people for work as farm laborers on the land of others.

Freed People Rebuild Their Lives �Legalize and celebrate marriages, build homes, make choices where they could live �Were restricted by black codes on what work they could do. �Did much of the same work – hard labor for low pay. � 1866 – Freedman Schools had over 150, 000 adults and children learning to read. Doubled in three years �Black colleges formed by the Freedman’s Bureau �African American Churches formed (important today)

Land Distribution in the South • • Sharecropping and Share-Tenancy Tenant Farming

Land Distribution in the South Analyze Data Based on this graph, how did overall land ownership patterns in the South probably change during the time shown?

Land Distribution in the South African American farmers who sold their crops often found the value lower than anticipated.

Land Distribution in the South � Many problems resulted from the uneven distribution of land � Blacks and poor whites owned very little land � Thaddeus Steven’s suggested confiscating land giving to Freedman (Sherman). � Rich whites own land, Freedman need jobs. Hmmm…. . � Sharecropping – owner picked crop, paid for all, gave place to live and in return “shared” crop. �Always charged too much. Black code said you couldn’t leave land if you owed money – slavery? � Share-tenancy – worker picked what crop – more control – maybe save some money. � Tenant farming – farmer paid cash to rent land – choose and paid for everything else – had to have some money and farm equipment

Changes in the South Spark Violence The struggle to make a living in a region devastated by war led to fierce economic competition. Economic uncertainty in turn fueled the fire of white southerners’ outrage. Already resentful of the Republican takeover of local politics and of occupation by federal troops, white southerners from all economic classes were united in their insistence that African Americans not have full citizenship.

Changes in the South Spark Violence • • The Ku Klux Klan The Federal Response

Changes in the South Spark Violence Members of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists terrorized freed African Americans and their supporters during Reconstruction.

Changes in the South Spark Violence �White Southerners tried to keep freedman down �Ku Klux Klan – formed in Tennessee in 1866, used violence and threat of violence to keep blacks as second class citizens. �Attacked black teachers, schools, churches, minister, politicians and anyone who stood up for themselves. �Grant passes the Enforcement Acts - federal offense to interfere with voting. �Would send troops to SC and Sheridan to LA (White League) (1956) �Smolder hat but would rise again in coming decades.

Quiz: Republicans Dominate Government Most public school systems in the South were A. B. C. D. higher quality than schools in other parts of the nation. well-funded due to special education bonds issued by state governments. operated by carpetbaggers. segregated by race.

Quiz: Freed People Rebuild Their Lives What did many African American men, women, and children gain in the newly freed South? A. B. C. D. educational opportunities land property religious faith suffrage

Quiz: Land Distribution in the South Which method of farming in the South offered poor white and African American farmers the most control of their labor and harvest? A. B. C. D. plantation farming sharecropping share-tenancy tenant farming

Quiz: Changes in the South Spark Violence What was an immediate goal of the Ku Klux Klan? A. B. C. D. to break the power of the Republican Party to drive African Americans from the South to enslave African Americans to prevent African Americans from voting