RECONSTRUCTION…….The 2nd Civil War?

The Assassination of Lincoln April 14, 1865 - Shot by

John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre

1st president to be assassinated

Assassin John Wilkes Booth escaped but was trapped by Union cavalry 12 days later & shot in Virginia

7 million people paid respects to Lincoln’s funeral train (almost 1/3 of population

Presidency now fell to Andrew Johnson (a southern sympathizer)

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THE MAJOR ISSUES THAT FACED THE U.S. AT THE END OF THE WAR WERE:

HOW SHOULD THE NATION BE REUNITED?

WHAT SYSTEM OF LABOR SHOULD REPLACE SLAVERY?

WHAT WOULD BE THE STATUS OF THE FORMER SLAVES?

RECONSTRUCTION

AFTER THE WAR WAS OVER THE NATION NEEDED TO REBUILD. THIS PERIOD WAS KNOWN AS

RECONSTRUCTION. IT BEGAN DURING THE CIVIL WAR(1861-1865) AND ENDED IN 1877.

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LINCOLN PROPOSED HIS PLAN IN 1863:

HE OFFERED A PARDON TO ALL SUPPORTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY IF THEY

SWORE ALLEGIANCE TO THE UNION AND PLEDGED TO

ACCEPT THE END OF SLAVERY. WHEN 10% OF

THE MEN ELIGIBLE TO VOTE IN 1860 DID THIS, THE STATE

QUALIFIED FOR REENTRY INTO THE UNION

NEW STATE CONSTITUTIONS HAD TO

OUTLAW SLAVERY

NO PROTECTION FOR FREED AFRICAN-

AMERICANS

JOHNSON’S PRESIDENTIAL

RECONSTRUCTION

1. SOUTHERNERS WHO SWORE ALLEGIANCE TO THE UNION WERE

PARDONED (FORGIVEN OF ANY

CRIMES)

2. FORMER CONFEDERATE STATES COULD HOLD

CONVENTIONS TO SET UP STATE

GOVERNMENTS

3. STATES HAD TO CANCEL SECESSION

AND RATIFY THE 13TH AMENDMENT

4. ONCE THE 13TH AMENDMENT WAS RATIFIED, STATES

COULD HOLD ELECTIONS AND BE

PART OF THE UNION

RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION

1. SOUTHERN STATES WERE PUT UNDER MILITARY RULE

2. SOUTHERN STATES HAD TO HOLD

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS

3. AFRICAN AMERICANS WERE ALLOWED TO

VOTE

4. SOUTHERNERS WHO SUPPORTED

CONFEDERACY WERE NOT ALLOWED TO

VOTE (TEMPORARILY)

5. SOUTHERN STATES HAD TO GUARANTEE EQUAL RIGHTS TO AFRICAN

AMERICANS

6. SO. STATES HAD TO RATIFY 14TH

AMENDMENT (CITIZENSHIP)

THREE PLANS FOR RECONSTRUCTION

JOHNSON V. RADICAL REPUBLICANS

Radical republicans favored much tougher stance on former Confederate states

Felt Johnson’s approach did not do enough

Believed Congress should oversee Reconstruction and states should pledge allegiance to U.S. before being readmitted to Union

Southern States

Enacted Black Codes: laws that limited rights of freed blacks basically keeping them living like slaves (precursor to legal segregation)

Curfews (not allowed to gather after sunset), could be whipped or sold into forced labor if convicted of vagrancy (not working), banned from owning farmland, had to rent in rural areas

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CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT BATTLED OVER RECONSTRUCTION

WHEN CONGRESS CONVENED IN DECEMBER OF 1865, PRESIDENT JOHNSON CLAIMED

RECONSTRUCTION WAS OVER. RADICAL REPUBLICANS DISAGREED AND FOUGHT TO DENY NEWLY ELECTED SOUTHERN MEMBERS, MOST OF WHOM WERE FORMER CONFEDERATE OFFICERS, THEIR SEATS IN CONGRESS. A JOINT COMMITTEE

ON RECONSTRUCTION PROPOSED THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1866, WHICH GAVE AFRICAN AMERICANS EQUAL RIGHTS IN COURT, AND AN

EXTENSION OF THE FREEDMEN’S BUREAU ACT. PRESIDENT JOHNSON VETOED BOTH LAWS WHICH

CREATED A SHOWDOWN BETWEEN THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS. FOR THE FIRST

TIME IN HISTORY THE CONGRESS OVERRODE THE PRESIDENT'S VETO ON MAJOR

LEGISLATION.

REPRESENTATIVE THADDEUS STEVENS

SENATOR CHARLES SUMNER

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THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT, 1865 - ABOLISHED SLAVERY THROUGHOUT THE U.S.

FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT, 1866 – GRANTED FULL CITIZENSHIP TO ALL INDIVIDUALS BORN IN THE U.S. AND GRANTED EQUAL PROTECTION OF THE LAWS

FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT, 1870 – (RATIFIED DURING GRANT’S ADMINISTRATION) GUARANTEED AFRICAN AMERICANS THE RIGHT TO VOTE

FREEDMEN’S BUREAU, 1865FIRST FEDERAL RELIEF AGENCY IN US, PROVIDED EDUCATION,

MEDICAL CARE, CLOTHES, FOOD, AND EVEN LAND TO AFRICAN AMERICANS COMING OUT OF SLAVERY

RADICAL REPUBLICANS PASSED LEGISLATION WITH LINCOLN’S APPROVAL PRIOR TO HIS DEATH

Reconstruction Act

Divided South into five military districts placing each under control of a military officer

Prevented former Confederate officers from holding public office

Conflict erupted between President Johnson and Congress over harsh measures Congress imposed on South

Johnson’s Impeachment

1868, Johnson tried to fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton because he was closely tied to the Radical Republicans

This violated a limit on the power of the president to hire and fire public officials

Congress voted to impeach (charge with wrongdoing to remove from office)

Johnson was spared with just one vote (needed 2/3 majority)

African Americans and Reconstruction

African Americans in South now had freedom but no land or money

Many turned to sharecropping (family farmed portion of white landowner’s land in return for housing and share of crop) some treated as slaves

Some advanced to tenant farming – paid rent to farm the land and owned crops they grew (still designed to keep African Americans working on white-owned land)

Education and Church

African American Churches became centers for African American social and political life

Ministers became seen as political/social leaders

Morehouse College (Atlanta): helped pave way for higher education among blacks following emancipation; founded to train African American men to be ministers and/or teachers

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AS A RESULT OF THE RECONSTRUCTION ACTS MANY AFRICAN AMERICANS SERVED AT THE LOCAL, STATE,

AND NATIONAL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT!!

COLLAGE SHOWS THE FIRST GROUP OF AFRICAN AMERICAN

CONGRESSMEN, HOWEVER OVER A

DOZEN REPRESENTATIVES WERE ELECTED AS

WELL AS AROUND 600 MEN WHO SERVED AS

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR,

SECRETARY OF STATE, SCHOOL

BOARD OFFICIALS, SHERIFFS, AND OTHER LOCAL

OFFICES.

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SENATOR HIRAM R. REVELS

SENATOR BLANCHE K. BRUCE

THE FIRST TWO BLACK SENATORS REPRESENTING MISSISSIPPI

Questions to answer

Why did Lincoln and Johnson’s plans fail?

How did the Radical Republicans succeed with the Reconstruction Act of 1877?

Resistance

Freedmen’s Bureau began registering African American voters

Ku Klux Klan: used violence, murder, and threats to intimidate blacks and those who supported equal rights

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IN RESPONSE TO NEW AFRICAN AMERICAN RIGHTS

SEVERAL HATE GROUPS SPRANG UP THROUGHOUT THE SOUTH. THE KU KLUX

KLAN WAS THE MOST POWERFUL ONE. IT WAS

CREATED IN 1866 BY A GROUP OF FORMER CONFEDERATE

SOLDIERS WHO PLANNED TO UTILIZE VIOLENCE TO

TERRORIZE BLACKS AND WHITE SYMPATHIZERS TO

PREVENT THEM FROM EXERCISING THEIR NEW

RIGHTS.

New Order in the South

Many in South grew bitter toward those who profited from Reconstruction

Carpetbaggers: Northerners who came South to do business, southerners saw them as taking advantage of southern suffering

- In reality they brought capital

Scalawags: southern Republicans who supported Reconstruction, were often persecuted by KKK

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MAP OF THE DATES THE STATES REENTERED THE UNION

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ELECTION OF 1868

GRANT WAS A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT FOR TWO

TERMS, FROM 1869-1877. HE WAS A CIVIL WAR HERO. HIS ADMINISTRATION WAS PLAGUED BY SCANDALS

OF BRIBES AND CORRUPTION SINCE MOST OF HIS APPOINTEES WERE

FRIENDS WHO WERE CORRUPT AND GREEDY,

RATHER THAN QUALIFIED FOR THEIR POSITION.

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THE ECONOMIC HEALTH OF THE SOUTHERN REGION DID NOT RECOVER

THE REFORMS IN THE SOUTH DID NOT FOCUS ON A DIVERSIFIED ECONOMY AND SHARECROPPING DOMINATED THE SOUTH. THIS

PREVENTED SMALL FARMERS FROM OWNING LAND AND MADE THEM DEPENDENT ON THE PRICES CHARGED BY THE LANDOWNER WHICH LEFT

THEM CONSTANTLY IN DEBT. BOTH SMALL FARM-OWNING WHITES AND SHARECROPPING BLACKS WERE NEGATIVELY AFFECTED AND LEFT IN

POVERTY.

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ELECTION OF 1876THE ELECTION WAS SO CLOSE THAT THE

SENATE FORMED A 7 PERSON COMMISSION TO CAST VOTES FOR THE

TWO CANDIDATES. REPUBLICAN RUTHERFORD B. HAYES WON BY ONE

VOTE AND BECAME PRESIDENT

A DEAL IS STRUCK: HAYES WITHDREW TROOPS FROM THE SOUTH AFTER STATE GOVERNMENTS PROMISED TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF BLACKS (COMPROMISE

OF 1877) ENDING RECONSTRUCTION

WITHOUT MILITARY PROTECTION, BLACKS LOST MANY OF THE

OPPORTUNITIES AND RIGHTS GAINED DURING RECONSTRUCTION.

SEGREGATION OF PUBLIC FACILITIES CONTINUED UNTIL THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN THE 1950s. HELPED

MAINTAIN THE “SOLID SOUTH” DEMOCRAT RUN SOUTH

Segregation

Jim Crow Laws: required whites and blacks to use separate public facilities

Literacy tests: required that a citizen prove he could read/write to vote

Poll taxes: voters required to pay set amount of money to vote

Grandfather Clauses: exempted citizens from restrictions if ancestors voted or served in army (designed to allow poor and illiterate whites to vote)

Final Question

How did the Radical Republicans fail in their plan for Reconstruction?