Southern Reconstruction

Reconstruction

Reconstruction refers to the period from 1865 to 1877, when the process of

bringing the southern states that had seceded during the Civil War to be re-

admitted back into the Union. There were many disagreements about the best

way to accomplish this and many important pieces of legislation emerged as a

result.

Questions that had to be resolved:

•How should the Southern whites be treated?

•What should be done for the freed southern blacks?

Many people wanted the South to be punished for trying to leave the Union. Other people, however, wanted to

forgive the South and let the healing of the nation begin.

Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan

Lincoln’s plan was very forgiving to the South. Southern states could be re-

admitted into the Union when only ten percent of its voters (who were

registered in the 1860 presidential election) took a solemn oath to support

the Constitution of the United States and also acknowledge the emancipation

of the slaves.

When each southern state achieved this goal, then it could be re-admitted

back into the United States.

Since Abraham Lincoln

believed that the South had

never legally withdrawn

from the Union, restoration

was to be relatively simple.

Lincoln’s plan was lenient

and he believed that the

South shouldn't be treated

harshly.

Wade-Davis Bill (1864)

Wade-Davis Bill required 50% of the states’ voters to take oaths of allegiance

and demanded stronger safeguards for emancipation than the 10% Plan.

The bill also declared that the Reconstruction of the South was a legislative

(Congress), not executive (Presidential) matter, an attempt to weaken the

power of the president.

Benjamin Wade (OH) Henry Winter Davis (MD)

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

April 14, 1865

Lincoln’s assassination was the worse thing to happen to the South because he planned to be lenient

with his reconstruction policies.

Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson was a Tennessean who served in Congress as a Democrat who

became Lincoln’s vice presidential running mate in the 1864 election.

Andrew Johnson became president after Lincoln was assassinated.

He never earned the trust of the North and never regained the confidence of the

South who labeled him a traitor.

Johnson was the only Confederate congressman not

to leave Congress when the rest of the South seceded.

Because he was a Tennessean the people in the South

hated Johnson because they viewed him as a traitor.

The Radical Republicans hated him because he was

viewed as being too weak on Reconstruction.

Johnson’s Plan for Reconstruction

It was less severe than Radical Reconstruction and only required that

southerners swear allegiance to the Union and denounce their secession and

ratify the Thirteenth Amendment (abolish slavery).

President Johnson’s Proclamation of Amnesty

In May 1865, Andrew Johnson issued a new Proclamation of Amnesty which

pardoned many former members of the Confederate government and military

that became eligible to be elected to Congress. The Southern members of

Congress included 58 high-ranking army officers and members of the former

Confederate Congress; including former vice president of the Confederacy,

Alexander Stephens and six members of his cabinet.

To make matters worse for

the North, the Southern states

had more representation in

Congress that before the war.

Representation in the House

of Representatives was now

based on all people living in

the South. Before the war,

each slave was only counted

as three-fifths of a person.

Now they were counted as a

full person.

Radical Republicans

After the Civil War, a group called the Radical Republicans believed the

South should be harshly punished for all the years of strife.

The Radical Republicans thought that Lincoln was too compassionate

towards the South and feared that the leniency of the 10 % Plan would

allow the Southerners to become too powerful again.

Thaddeus Stevens

Stevens was a powerful member of the U.S. House of Representatives from

Pennsylvania. He had taken up the anti-slavery cause early on and

remained dedicated to the abolition of slavery for all of his life.

As a leader of the radical Republicans’ Reconstruction program after the

Civil War, Stevens believed in harsh punishments for the South and wanted

the Southern states to be treated as "conquered provinces."

The South should be treated as

“Conquered Provinces.” Not

only did Southern states secede

from the Union, but they should

be reverted to the status of

unorganized territory and

treated like a foreign nation

that the U.S. has conquered.

Thaddeus Stevens

Charles Sumner

Sumner, former abolitionist from Massachusetts, was an aggressive U.S.

Senator and one of the leaders of the radical Republicans’ Reconstruction

program and involved in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

Charles Sumner was the formulator of the state suicide theory, which stated

that when the Southern states seceded, they had destroyed themselves and

forfeited their status as states.

Charles Sumner

Call it “State Suicide.”

When the Southern states

seceded, they forfeited their

status as states.

Radical Republicans Plan for Reconstruction

• The southern states were put under military rule under the command of an

army general.

• African-Americans were allowed to vote.

• Southern states had to ratify the 14th Amendment (approve), which made

African Americans citizens of each state as well as the nation.

Freedman's Bureau (1866)

The purpose of the Freedmen’s Bureau was to provide assistance to the former

slaves who recently gained their freedom. The Freedmen’s Bureau provided

medical care, meals, assistance in finding jobs, and also built schools.

Lacking support, it eventually ended in 1869 however, during its brief

time, it helped many slaves transition to freedom throughout the South.

Freedmen’s Bureau As Seen Through Southern Eyes

"Forty Acres and a Mule"

"Forty acres and a mule" refers to the desire of Radical Republicans such as

Thaddeus Stevens to carry out land redistribution in the South. He wanted to

subdivide confiscated land and distribute it among the freedmen. Proposals

such as these failed in Congress and state legislatures.

Sharecropping System and Debt Peonage

Share Cropping

The farm tenancy system that arose from the cotton plantation system after the

Civil War. Landlords provided land, seed, and credit. The croppers contributed

labor and received a share of the crop’s value, minus their debt to the landlord.

This along with the crop lien system held back African Americans economically.

Debt Peonage

As time passed, many landowners began to abuse this system. The landowner

would force the tenant farmer to buy seeds and tools from the land owner’s

store, which often had inflated prices. Thereby keeping the sharecropper in

perpetual debt to the landowner.

Storekeepers granted credit until the farm was

harvested. To protect the creditor, the storekeeper

took a mortgage, or lien, on the tenant's share of

the crop. The system was abused and uneducated

blacks were taken advantage of. The result, for

Blacks, was not unlike slavery.

African American Universities

Morehouse College “The Black Harvard”

College founded in 1867 to train African American men

to be ministers and/or teachers.

In 1913, the institution changed its name to Morehouse

College and has traditionally been one of the most

prestigious African American colleges in the nation.

Did You Know? Howard University in

Washington, D.C., was founded in 1867 by the

Freedmen’s Bureau in order to educate newly

freed slaves and their descendants. Today it is

the largest predominantly African American

university in the United States. The school

offers degrees in professions such as law,

medicine, dentistry, religion, engineering,

architecture, and social work. The school has a

large collection of materials on African

American life and history in the United States.

Many formerly enslaved African Americans attended schools in the South

during Reconstruction. An important network of African American colleges

and universities began to grow in the South.

Tenure of Office Act (1866)

In 1867, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which prohibited the

president from dismissing any cabinet member or other federal

officeholder without the required the consent of the Senate. (It was meant

to prevent Johnson from removing radicals from office and to keep Edwin

M. Stanton, a Republican spy, in office).

Johnson’s violation of this act caused the impeachment crisis.

Secretary of War Stanton

Edwin Stanton served as the secretary of war under Abraham Lincoln during

the Civil War.

President Andrew Johnson dismissed Stanton in 1867 who he considered a spy

for the Radicals during closed-door cabinet meetings. His subsequent dismissal

by President Johnson led to the impeachment of President Johnson in 1868.

Johnson Receiving Summons for Impeachment: The

House charged Johnson with illegally removing the

secretary of war from office and for violating several

Reconstruction acts.

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson Congress impeached President Johnson after he tried to fire Secretary of War

Edwin Stanton because such a move violated the Tenure in Office Act.

The impeachment was led by a fiery Radical Republican congressman named

Thaddeus Stevens and brought to a head the conflict between Congress and

the president over Reconstruction.

The Senate voted to spare Johnson's presidency by just one vote. Many

politicians feared establishing a precedence of removing the president through

impeachment.

Final VOTE = 35 guilty

19 not guilty

(One vote short of the 2/3 required)

Did You Know? In 1866 the House of

Representatives brought 11 articles of

impeachment against President Andrew

Johnson. Tickets of admission to the president’s

Senate trial were sold. In 1974 President

Richard M. Nixon was charged with 3 articles

of impeachment. Nixon resigned from office

before there was a trial in the Senate. In 1998

the House of Representatives brought 2 articles

of impeachment against President Bill Clinton.

Like Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton was not

convicted.

13th Amendment (1865)

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1865. It

prohibited "slavery or involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime

whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." This amendment

guaranteed freedom for African Americans.

14th Amendment (1866)

The Fourteenth Amendment was passed in 1868. It said that no state can

make or enforce any law which "deprives any person of life, liberty, or

property, without due process of law." Also, states could not "deny to any

person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Fourteenth Amendment confirmed African Americans citizenship and barred

most former Confederate leaders from political office.

15th Amendment (1869)

The 15th Amendment was ratified on March 30, 1870. It explicitly forbids the

denial of the right to vote for citizens "on account of race, color, or previous

condition of servitude."

Some women suffrage advocates

were disappointed by the 15th

Amendment, since it didn’t give

women suffrage.

Carpetbaggers

Deceitful Northern politicians who migrated south during Reconstruction.

Carpetbaggers tried to manipulate new black voters for their own power and

profit and to obtain lucrative government contracts. The African-American

vote won them important posts in Republican state governments.

They carried their belongings in

carpetbags, and most intended to

settle in the South and make money

there.

Scalawags

White Southerners who joined the Republican Party during the Reconstruction

period. Scalawags were considered traitors to the Southern cause and were

condemned by Southern Democrats. The term scalawag was applied both to

entrepreneurs who supported Republican economic policies and Whig planters

who had opposed secession.

Black Legislators

Thousands of formerly enslaved people took part in governing the South. They

were delegates to state conventions, local officials, and state and federal

legislators. Scholars have identified more than 1,500 African American

officeholders during the Reconstruction period (1865–1876). All were

Republicans. Florida had one of the highest number of African Americans

elected or appointed to office. Did You Know? As a result of Reconstruction,

most Southern whites became firm supporters

of the Democratic Party. For more than 40

years after Reconstruction, no Republican

presidential candidate received a majority of

votes in any state in the “Solid South.”

Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan was a secretive organization established in 1866 of white

Southerners whose members often used violence, murder, and threats to

intimidate blacks and those who favored giving African Americans equal

rights and the opportunity to vote.

White-supremacist group formed by six former Confederate officers after the Civil War. The name is

essentially Greek for "Circle of Friends."

Hatred

Waving the Bloody Shirt

“Waving the bloody shirt" refers to the practice of politicians making

reference to the blood of martyrs or heroes to criticize opponents.

In American history, the phrase gained popularity with a fictitious incident

in which Benjamin Franklin Butler of Massachusetts, when making a

speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, allegedly held up a

shirt stained with the blood of a carpetbagger whipped by the Ku Klux

Klan.

Knights of the White Camellia

Founded in May 1867 in Franklin, Louisiana. Chapters existed primarily in

he southern part of the Deep South.

Unlike the Klan, which drew much of its membership from lower-class

southerners (primarily Confederate veterans), the White Camelia consisted

mainly of upper crust southerners, including physicians, landowners,

newspaper editors, doctors, and officers.

White League

A white paramilitary group started in 1874 that operated to turn

Republicans out of office and intimidate freedmen from voting and political

organizing.

Through violence and intimidation, its members reduced Republican voting

and contributed to the Democrats' taking over control of the Louisiana

Legislature in 1876.

Red Shirts

The Red Shirts were white paramilitary groups that adopted red shirts to

make themselves more visible and threatening to Southern Republicans, both

white and freedmen.

In contrast to the Ku Klux Klan, the Red Shirts worked openly and were

better organized: they had one goal, the restoration of the Democrats to

power by getting rid of Republicans.

Ulysses S. Grant (U.S. President 1873-1877)

As commander of the Union forces, Ulysses S. Grant had led the North to

victory in the Civil War. He had little political experience, however. He believed

his only role as president was to carry out the laws. He let Congress develop

policy. This left the president weak and ineffective. It also helped divide the

Republican Party and undermined public support for Reconstruction.

Grant was one of the most popular men in America after the Civil War, as a full-fledged war hero. Grant was a naïve

president who appointed many of his friends to cabin positions, as personal favors. These men included Secretary of

War William Belknap and Secretary of Navy George Robeson, who received illegal payments. These repeated

scandals damaged Grant’s repetition and until recently, he was thought of as one of the worst presidents.

Compromise of 1877

Hayes promised to show concern for Southern interests and end Reconstruction

in exchange for the Democrats accepting the fraudulent election results. He

took Union troops out of the South.

Rutherford B. Hayes

Reconstruction ended in 1877 during his presidency.

Black Codes

Southern laws aimed at keeping African Americans in submission and in a

state of servitude. They were not “slaves,” but in reality, their lives were little

different than before the war.

The codes forbade African Americans:

• From serving on a jury

• Barred African Americans from renting or leasing land.

• African Americans could be punished for “idleness” by being subjected

to working on a chain gang.

Examples of Black Codes

Curfews:

Generally, African Americans could not gather after sunset.

Vagrancy Laws:

Freedmen could be convicted of vagrancy, that is, not working and could be fined, whipped, or sold for a year’s labor.

Labor Contracts:

Freedmen had to sign agreements in January for a year of work. Those who quit in the middle of a contract often lost all the wages they had earned.

Land Restrictions:

Freed people could rent land or homes only in rural areas. This restriction forced them to live on plantations.

Jim Crow Laws

All the efforts of the North to guarantee the civil rights of African-Americans

in the South were made more difficult by the Jim Crow laws. These laws were

adopted by many Southern states in the 1880s. The Jim Crow laws made

segregation laws legal. The segregation laws required blacks and whites to use

separate facilities.

Literacy Tests

Tests designed to keep blacks from voting by requiring predominantly

uneducated African Americans to prove they could read and write before

allowing them to vote.

They were designed to disfranchise educated blacks as well by asking questions

most people, white and black, could not answer.

Poll Taxes

Special taxes passed in the South after Reconstruction to prevent blacks from

voting by requiring them to pay money to vote.

Grandfather Clause

Said that a citizen could vote only if his grandfather had been able to vote.

At the time, the grandfathers of black men in the South had been slaves

with no right to vote. Another method for disenfranchising blacks.