“radical reconstruction”??? failure to implement truly radical measures during reconstruction...
TRANSCRIPT
“Radical Reconstruction”???
Failure to implement truly radical measures during reconstruction failed
to truly help southern Blacks while thoroughly angering and alienating
southern whites.
I. After Appomattox: The Ultimate Questions
• How do you reconstruct the Union?
• How far should the federal government go to insure Black freedom and civil rights?
II. Philosophies of Reconstruction
• Presidential--quick restoration with minimal protection for southern Blacks
• Congressional-- “loyal” southern governments to replace ex-confederates--Southern Blacks need basic rights of American citizenship
III. Presidential Reconstruction
• Lincoln’s 10% plan
• Battle over who had the power to reconstruct the Union
• Andrew Johnson’s background
--hated southern planters
--no friend of Blacks
• Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan (May, 1865)
IV. Radical Republicans Gain the Upper Hand
• Johnson’s controversial vetoes
• Johnson’s opposition to the 14th amendment
• The “Swing Around the Circle” (1866)
• Republicans won veto-proof majorities in the 1866 election
V. Congressional Reconstruction (Begins in 1867)
• Reconstruction Act of 1867
• Military rule of the south• Readmission of states with
guarantees of Black suffrage
• Exclusion of ex-Confederates from government office
• Radicals wanted redistribution of land to Blacks—too radical
VI. The Impeachment Crisis
• Johnson tries to obstruct congressional reconstruction with executive privilege
• Tenure of Office Act• Johnson tries to remove
Secretary of War Stanton• Impeachment and Trial in
the Senate• Process neutralized
Johnson
VII. Reconstruction in the South
• A Condition of Ruin• “Forty Acres and a Mule”• Blacks resist gang labor
after the War• Development of
Sharecropper system• Black Codes• The Segregated South• Freedmen faced violence
if they tried to vote
VIII. The Southern Republican Party
• Hastily organized for 1868 elections
• Three constituencies:--southern Blacks--northern businessmen--poor, white farmers
• Some success, some corruption
• Blacks held only limited political offices in the south
IX. The Fifteenth Amendment
• Highpoint of Reconstruction era
• Ratified in 1870
• Ambiguous wording allowed the future use of literacy tests, poll taxes, and property requirements
• Worked to divide the feminist movement
X. Grant and the Retreat from Reconstruction
• Rise of the Ku Klux Klan between 1868-1872
• Inconsistent use of federal troops to protect Black voters
• Northern disenchantment with “propping up” corrupt southern state governments
• Open southern appeal to white supremacy after 1872
X. Retreat from Reconstruction (cont.)
• Grant administration facing charges of corruption
-- Credit Mobilier scandal
• Radical Republicans dying or out of office
• Civil service reform replaces Black civil rights as the major political issue of the time
XI. The Compromise of 1877
• The election of 1876• Tilden vs. Hayes• Disputed votes in the
electoral college• Electoral commission fell
under Republican control• Hayes’ victory in
exchange for southern “home rule”
• Eliminates Republican party in the south
XII. The “New South”
• Redemption governments
• Laissez-faire policies and white supremacy
• Northern industry attracted to no taxes and low wages for workers
• Corrupt governments
XII. “The New South” (cont.)
• Lynchings common
• Poor whites neglected just as much as Blacks
• Some Blacks continue to vote until the 1890’s
• Supreme Court decisions between 1875-1896 gutted Reconstruction
--Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)