THE POLITICS OF RECONSTRUCTION RECONSTRUCTING SOCIETY THE COLLAPSE

THE POLITICS OF RECONSTRUCTION RECONSTRUCTING SOCIETY THE COLLAPSE OF RECONSTRUCTION

The Defeated South Q: Based upon your observations of the map below, how were the North and the South effected differently as a result of the Civil War? A: Because the majority of battles took place in the South, many Southern houses, farms, bridges, and railroads were destroyed.

Main Idea • Northern leaders had different ideas for dealing with the many issues and challenges of restoring the southern states to the Union

After the Civil War • The Civil War was the most costly war in American History in terms of total devastation. • At least 618, 000 Americans died in the Civil War, and some experts say the toll reached 700, 000. • These casualties exceed the nation's loss in all its other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam.

Amazing War Losses

Ruins in Front of the Capitol – Richmond, VA, 1865

Grounds of the Ruined Arsenal with Scattered Shot and Shell - Richmond, VA, April 1865

Guns and Ruined Buildings Near the Tredegar Iron Works - Richmond, VA, April 1865

Above: Charleston, South Carolina Right: Atlanta, Georgia

Crippled Locomotive, Richmond & Petersburg Railroad Depot Richmond, VA, 1865

A Southern armored railroad gun has gone as far as it can on these rails, typifying Civil War destruction of Southern railroad tracks. (Virginia) This famous photo was taken looking across the ruins of the railroad bridge in Fredericksburg, Virginia

· Newly freed slaves, freedmen, had no land, jobs, or education. Left and right: post -Civil War Ohio Atlanta, GA

RECONSTRUCTION • Main Idea – Radical Republicans in Congress opposed Abraham Lincoln’s and Andrew Johnson’s plans for Reconstruction and instead implemented its own plan to rebuild the South after the Civil War.

RECONSTRUCTION • Reconstruction (18651877)– def. – period during which the United States began to rebuild after the Civil War and included the process by which the federal government readmitted former Confederate states

PLANS FOR RECONSTRUCTION • Lincoln and Johnson • Radical Republicans

LINCOLN AND JOHNSON • Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan • argued that the southern states had never left the Union because secession was illegal– one nation indivisible • when 10% of voters pledged allegiance to the U. S. – state could be readmitted to U. S. • very lenient – goal was to readmit southern states as quick as possible, not to punish the South • “with malice towards none, with charity for all…to bind up the nation’s wounds” • Nothing included about African. Americans • Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction – also very lenient toward the South

RADICAL REPUBLICANS • Radical Republicans – northern members of Congress, led by Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens, who opposed Lincoln’s Ten Percent plan and Johnson’s plan • Wanted to punish the southern slave owners • Wanted to give African. Americans the right to vote

CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION • Radical Republicans took control of Reconstruction policy in 1866 • 14 th Amendment – states were prohibited from denying equal rights under the law to any American • SIG - granted citizenship rights to African-Americans • Reconstruction Act of 1867 – divided former Confederacy into 5 military districts (military occupation), set up new requirements to gain readmission to the Union

CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION • Johnson’s impeachment – Radical Republicans impeached Johnson, but he was not removed from office • Impeach – def. formal charge of misconduct in office • 15 th Amendment – voting rights were guaranteed regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” • SIG - gave African American men the right to vote

POLITICS IN POST WAR SOUTH • Republican Party in the South relied on 3 groups • African Americans – right to vote guaranteed by 15 th Amendment • Sharecropping – many African. Americans rented land from plantation owners in return for a share or percentage of the total crop produced • Scalawags – Southerners who became Republicans • Carpetbaggers – Northerner Republicans who moved to the South

THE COLLAPSE OF RECONSTRUCTION • Anti-Black Violence • Election of 1876 • Compromise of 1877

THE COLLAPSE OF RECONSTRUCTION • Anti-Black violence – goal was to prevent African Americans from voting • Ku Klux Klan (KKK) – violent terrorist organization devoted to white supremacy

THE COLLAPSE OF RECONSTRUCTION • Election of 1876 – Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) vs. Samuel Tilden (Democrat) • Tilden won the popular vote, Hayes won the electoral college • South upset and disputed the election

THE COLLAPSE OF RECONSTRUCTION • Compromise of 1877 – agreement to settle the disputed election • Hayes (Republican) = president • Republicans would end military occupation South • White Democrats took control of southern state governments = “Redemption” • SIG – Reconstruction is ended • white southern Democrats passed “Jim Crow Laws” – called for segregation of the races throughout the South • African Americans denied their constitutional rights