the rebuilding years chapter 15. unit 4 timeline march 3, 1865 freedmen’s bureau created april 9...

The Rebuilding YearsChapter 15

Unit 4 Timeline

March 3, 1865 Freedmen’s

Bureau created

April 9 1865 General Lee surrenders at

Appomattox Courthouse VA

1877 Compromise resolves disputed

US and SC elections

1877 Compromise ends

Reconstruction Era

1876 Alexander Graham Bell invents the

telephone

December 24, 1865 1st meeting of the Ku

Klux Klan

1867 Reconstruction

Acts

April 9, 1868 14th

Amendment Ratified

1868 President Johnson

Impeachment and trial

1869 Ulysses S Grant inaugurated

as President

February 3, 1870 15th Amendment

Ratified

1872 Yellowstone National Park

created

1876 South Carolina’s governor’s election

ends with two governors and two state legislatures

December 8, 1865 13th Amendment

Ratified

April 14 1865 Abraham Lincoln

assassinated; Andrew Johnson

becomes president

Civil War Damage

After the Civil War, South Carolina had to rebuild its destroyed state and economy. 1.The federal government did not believe it was their responsibility to rebuild the South economically and left much of the work to the Southern states themselves.

Damage to the Confederate capitol, Richmond, VA.

Civil War Damage

South Carolina was responsible for rebuilding 2.their towns, factories, farms, and transportation systems. The problem with this was that individuals and state government 3.did not have the money to do this because the economy was destroyed now that slave labor was gone.

Damage to Archdale Hall plantation in Dorchester County

The Freeing of Slaves

The federal government created reconstruction plans that focused on the South’s social and political roles, although each plan had a slightly different purpose. Now that there were hundreds of thousands of freemen now living in South Carolina, the federal government wanted to make sure 4.that they received fair treatment from the white Southerners.

Emancipation did not guarantee equal treatment


Reconstruction did little to help the South’s economic recovery from the devastation of the Civil War. The economy continued to rest on agriculture and cotton, 5.but now depended on sharecropping rather than slave labor. The national government did not see its role as taking an active hand in managing the economy until the 20th century and so the national government did not rebuild the war-torn region economically. The South remained in a state of economic depression well into the 20th century (1900s).

Freedmen working in the fields in Port Royal, South Carolina.


As a result of the war and the 13th amendment, South Carolina plantation owners lost their labor force and a very large part of their wealth. Many were astonished that their former slaves, who they thought were loyal to them, left the plantations. 6.Feeling betrayed and resentful of the former slaves’ attitudes, many former slave owners became more hostile to the freedman.

Abandoned plantation in Lousiana.


At the end of the war, many freedmen left the plantation looking for relatives sold “down the river” or seeking a taste of freedom. Most soon returned to the area that they knew best, their former plantations. Former slaves did not often leave the South as soon as they had the opportunity to escape because 7.they had no where else to go. With the assistance of the Freedman’s Bureau and their own determination, they worked to consolidate their families and communities and establish a network of churches and other self-run institutions.

Freedmen’s school


The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, known as the Freedman’s Bureau, was established by Congress prior to the end of the Civil War. The Bureau was the first line of assistance to 8.everyone affected by the war, including whites, as well as destitute freedmen. This federal agency under the control of the United States army 9.provided food, clothing, medical care, education and some protection from the hostile white environment. The Freedman’s Bureau helped many freedmen find jobs and established courts to protect the illiterate workers.

One of the promises of the Bureau to the

freedmen was 40 acres and a mule.


The bureau was also promised freedmen “40 acres and a mule.” They were to be given land that had been abandoned during the war or that had been confiscated to punish Confederates. However, 10.the Bureau was forced to take these lands back from the freedmen when President Johnson pardoned the white owners and returned their property to them. Congress would not pass legislation granting lands to freedmen because they respected the constitutional rights of Southern whites to their landed property.

Land that had been given to freedmen to start new lives had to be given back.


The most important contribution of the Freedman’s Bureau, however, was the facilitation of the 11.establishment of over 1,000 schools throughout the South. The Northern Aid Society created the Penn School in Beaufort. Religious denominations and Northern philanthropists also provided support for the establishment of colleges for African Americans in South Carolina. Both men and women traveled to the South to serve as teachers at the schools that were established. Top: inside view of Penn School

Above: School children from Penn School


The missionaries that came to the South to teach made a significant contribution to the education of African Americans. African Americans flocked to the privately supported freedom schools and the new public schools, 12.anxious for the opportunity to learn to read and write denied them during slavery. Most freedmen, young and old, desperately wanted to learn. Prior to the end of slavery, some blacks had established schools.

Children from a Freedman’s School

Reconstruction in SC

The overall purpose of President Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction was to end the war as quickly as possible and was formulated before the end of the fighting. He hoped to convince southern states, including South Carolina, to surrender. The first part of his plan required that only 10% of the population swear allegiance to the Union before they could reform their state governments and send representatives to Congress.

In this illustration, published after Abraham Lincoln's assassination, reconciliation is offered in

Lincoln's memory to the secessionist South. - Library of Congress


The political purpose of Lincoln’s plan was to restore the southern states into full political union with the other states. The other parts of Lincoln’s plan were:

• Remove the government officials of the Confederate States of America and replace them with officials loyal to the Union

• Punish high ranking Confederates by removing their right to vote

• Confederates who took oath to the constitution and Union laws would receive a pardon and get their land back

• State governments were to impose significant social change by recognizing the end of slavery.

Lincoln’s assassination did not significantly change this Presidential Reconstruction plan.

Reconstruction in SCPresident Johnson basically continued Lincoln’s plan with the additional purpose of humiliating the southern elite. The main parts of his plan were:

• State would be readmitted when 10% of men took oath of allegiance to Union. Same as Lincoln

• Southern elite had to request a pardon from the president

• Approve the 13th amendment made slavery illegal

• Nullify the Ordinance of Secession

• South had to repay people and institutions that helped finance the Confederacy

President Andrew Johnson as published in Harper’s Weekly

magazine.


While the US Congress was not in session, the South Carolina legislature 14.elected former Confederates to Congress and passed Black Codes, which led to increased violence towards freedmen. This, along with President Johnson’s opposition veto of the Freedman’s Bureau bill and his opposition to the 14th Amendment, significantly changed the course of Reconstruction policy.


Because of the Black Codes, 15.Congress refused to admit returning Southern officials to their elected positions in Congress. As a result of the violence in the South against African Americans and the actions of President Johnson, the so-called “Radical Republicans” won a majority in the congressional elections of 1866 and passed their own plan for Reconstruction. This plan, known as the Radical Republican plan, was written to protect the rights of the newly freed slaves, as well as protect the Republican’s political power.

Manuscript of the South Carolina Black Codes


The main parts of the congressional plan were:• The Confederacy would be split into five military districts, under the command of a military governor•New legislatures had to approve the 14th amendment•Voting rights (suffrage) were given to black males and taken away from white males who participated in the war.•No person who participated in the war could hold a public office•State constitutions had to be approved by Congress

Map of the five military districts of the Radical Republican plan (Tennessee was

not included in a district).


The Southern white population had little social change in the beginning. Social classes remained fairly stable despite the loss of economic status by the planter elite. White South Carolinians resented most actions of African Americans. Some white southerners 16.feared retaliation by their former slaves, who were now free of the abuses of slavery. Racial tensions escalated. When the Black Codes were developed, it showed17. that white South Carolinians were unwilling to recognize the social and political rights of the newly freed slaves.

A Library of Congress image entitled “The Black Codes”

Reconstruction in SCThe impact on women of the Reconstruction period depended on their social class. The wives of both elite plantation owners and small farmers 18.shared their husbands’ loss of social status and fear of economic competition from the freedmen. Elite white women had to negotiate household services from former slave women or perform household tasks themselves. In addition, the large number of men killed, and others physically and mentally impaired during the Civil War meant that many elite white women took on non-traditional roles.

Men who lost limbs during the war were unable to help on the farms afterward,

leaving much of the work to the women.


19.Former slaves, carpetbaggers and scalawags also pushed for some women’s rights. As a result of the constitution of 1868, women achieved some rights, including the right to own property in their own name after marriage.

A copy of the 1868 South

Carolina Constitution

Radical Reconstruction

Before they could form new state governments, Southern states had to ratify and assure that they would honor the 13th Amendment.20. The 13th Amendment was the constitutional amendment which officially abolished slavery, which had a major social impact on Southern African Americans. Freedmen worked to bring together their families and communities, establish a network of churches and other self-supporting institutions, claim equal citizenship, got an education and carve out as much independence as possible in their lives. A signed copy of the 13th Amendment.


The 14th Amendment was designed to protect the political and social rights of freedmen from intimidation of the Southern governments and people. The 14th Amendment 20.overturned the Dred Scott decision and recognized the citizenship of African Americans; it upheld the right of all citizens to “equal protection” before the laws and “due process” of law.

A political cartoon showing African Americans ‘ civil rights finally being recognized.


The 14th Amendment required that 2/3 of the Congress vote to grant amnesty (forgiveness) to ex-Confederates before they could hold public office. It included a provision that was designed to force states to grant political rights to freedmen by reducing representation for states that did not allow African Americans to vote. However, this provision proved ineffective. Document showing both black and white

representatives in the first state legislature after the war.


The 15th Amendment was 20.passed to ensure that the right to vote of all male citizens, in the North as well as in the South, would not be denied based on “race, creed or previous condition of servitude.” The amendment was also motivated by the desire of the Republican Party to secure its political power in the South. The Southern vote, largely made up of the vote of African Americans, had contributed to Grant’s election in 1868.

A color version of a Harper’s Weekly image showing African Americans voting for the first

time.


21.South Carolina refused to ratify the 14th and 15th amendments. As a result of Congressional Reconstruction, the military governor of Military District 2 required South Carolina to hold a convention to write a new state constitution. However, 21.whites boycotted the election of delegates to the constitutional convention. This showed the refusal of white society to accept 21.the freedom of African Americans and the authority of the federal government.

A Harper’s Weekly image showing the political feelings in 1868, it is entitled “This is a white man’s

government.


Congress impeached 22.Johnson to ensure that as commander in chief he could not undermine its efforts. (Impeaching is bringing charges against someone in office to determine if they need to be removed from their position.) Although he was not removed from office, Johnson’s power was limited. The Union army attempted to enforce the Reconstruction policy and the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments.

Image from the impeachment of Andrew Johnson


During the constitutional convention to write the 1868 state constitution, most whites boycotted the election of delegates to this constitutional convention. 23.The African American majority of the population, resulted in more than half of the delegates to the convention being African American and half of those were newly freed slaves. Recent immigrants to South Carolina were also selected to write the document.

Robert Brown Elliot was a Reconstruction-era Congressman and a

delegate to the 1868 Constitutional Convention.

http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/elliott-robert-brown-1842-1884


The 1868 constitution: (#24)• based representation in the state legislature on population alone, not on population and wealth •it abolished property qualifications for holding office• gave the right to vote to all males• created county governments for the first time, giving South Carolinians more direct control over local government• the state also recognized its responsibility for providing for public education for the first time.

Freedmen voting in 1868 in South Carolina


As a result of this expansion of democracy, many groups were able to participate in state government. 25.African American men were allowed to vote and hold office and did so in large numbers. African Americans had greater political power in South Carolina than they did in any other southern state. Reflecting their numbers in the population, African Americans held every office in the state with the exception of the governorship and were a majority in the state legislature throughout the Reconstruction period.

Robert Smalls, a Civil War hero, served five terms in the US House of

Representatives


South Carolina sent six African Americans to the United States House of Representatives. White propaganda often characterized the African-American elected officials as ignorant ex-slaves. Although they were inexperienced in governance, as were many whites, most African Americans who served were 26. literate (educated) members of the middle class, most of whom had been free before the Civil War. Harper’s Weekly political cartoon

that portrays African American representatives as unruly.


Northerners, who immigrated to South Carolina after the war, also played a significant role in the governing of the state. They were derisively called “carpetbaggers,” by white South Carolinians because they allegedly came to the South with all of their belongings in a carpetbag (19th century suitcase). There were both men and women who came to South Carolina as 27.teachers, missionaries or entrepreneurs. Some came as Union soldiers and stayed. Some found political opportunity in the Reconstruction governments, others found economic opportunity.

Carpet bags from the 1870s


Although many came to help, the carpetbaggers were not accepted by most of the white South Carolina society. They were accused of coming to the South to 28. plunder and to encourage African Americans to vote for the Republican Party. They may have encouraged voting for the Republican Party, but this political connection was in the best interests of the African American community. After Reconstruction, those African Americans who were able to continue to vote consistently selected the 29.Republican Party of Lincoln, which gave them liberation and political empowerment.

A political cartoon of a carpetbagger


30.White South Carolinians who previously had little political voice in the state were another group that benefited from the new constitution that gave more freedom to the freedmen. Many of these men came from the Upcountry. Called “scalawags” by other white South Carolinians,30. they joined the Republican Party because they supported its position on economic growth and public schools. They wanted to rebuild the South in cooperation with the Reconstruction governments and to have a voice in the government.

A political cartoon depicting the South as being the

laborer for the rich carpetbagger.

Radical ReconstructionThe great majority of African Americans did not receive land that would have given them economic independence. Instead of having their own land, the Freedman’s Bureau helped African Americans to establish the 31.sharecropping relationship with the workerless plantation owner. Although this 32.system mired African Americans, as well as landless poor whites, in economic dependence and poverty for generations, it did provide a role in the economic reconstruction of South Carolina.

Sharecroppers harvesting cotton, which remained the biggest US export after the

Civil War.


33.Former slave owners were now forced to perform all of the normal household and farm duties themselves or pay their workers, but their investments in Confederate dollars were worthless. All they had was the land, and no labor. Freedmen were willing to provide labor, but had no land. Many African Americans entered into agreements with southern landowners, who were land rich and cash poor, known as sharecropping.

Freedmen working as a sharecropper


In this sharecropping arrangement, 34.the landowner supplied the seed, tools and land and 35.the sharecropper supplied the labor. Both then shared the crop that was produced. 36.The landowners reestablished their former position as master through a new method. Although the sharecropper was able to move away from the old slave quarters, the sharecropper remained economically dependent on the landowner.


37.In bad years the amount of crop shared might be very little and sharecroppers would take out a loan in the form of lien on the next year’s crop to buy supplies to last until the next harvest. This crop lien system placed the freedmen in a cycle of debt and dependence on the landowners.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/players/vb_sharecrop_rm.html

Percentage of farmland that was sharecropped




Small farmers who had not owned slaves were not directly affected financially by their liberation. However, 38.now they had to compete with African American sharecroppers when they marketed their crops. Many who had felt a sense of social superiority to slaves now felt that superiority being threatened. They 39.reacted with anger and resentment and joined the ranks of the vigilante groups that terrorized African Americans. Vigilante groups, such as the KKK, started

during the Reconstruction Era


The planter elite tried to hold onto slave-like conditions 40.through the Black Codes and control over the government of the state through the constitution of 1865, but Congressional Reconstruction brought a temporary end to their political control of South Carolina. However,41. plantation owners and the middle class engaged in violence and intimidation against African Americans throughout Reconstruction.

Intimidation by Southern whites was common as they tried to maintain the

control the had during slavery.

Radical ReconstructionBoth whites and African Americans preferred to maintain a social distance that slavery had not allowed. African Americans left the white churches for congregations of their own. They moved from the slave quarters to plots away from the Big House and established their own communities. This separation and loss of control over African Americans caused anxiety among whites to escalate. The formation of terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan reflected racial tension and the determination of the white population to 42.keep the African American population in ‘its place’ socially, politically, and economically.

A Harper’s Weekly image showing the oppression of African Americans after the

Civil War.


Although African Americans suffered from white violence and intimidation throughout the Reconstruction period,43. they continued to claim equal citizenship and carve out as much independence as possible in their lives. With the restrictions of slavery now gone, freedmen went

to school and college, and were legally able to marry.


While African Americans made significant progress in politics, their efforts created a backlash among white South Carolinians. Outnumbered by the African American political majority, white South Carolinians refused to participate in government. Instead they carried on a campaign of terror against 44.African Americans and the white Republicans (carpetbaggers and scalawags) who were perceived as assisting them.

Harper’s Weekly illustration portraying Klan violence.

Radical ReconstructionWith federal troops withdrawn and the state militia disbanded after the 1868 constitution, vigilante groups such as the 45.Ku Klux Klan, the Riflemen and the Red Shirts, were free to engage in harassment, intimidation and murder. The federal government responded by passing the Ku Klux Klan Act and President Grant sent federal soldiers to make an example of South Carolina. Although some Klansmen surrendered and were brought to trial, the federal government’s feeble efforts only had the effect of encouraging the insurgency. By 1876, the white insurgents were ready to contest the political control of the Republicans in an election.

Harper’s Weekly illustration comparing Klan violence to the

Confederacy.

Democrats Return to Power

South Carolina’s state government, like both the national government and most other state governments throughout the United States, was plagued by corruption. 46.Officials who were desperate for money in the poor economy accepted bribes. The South Carolina statehouse, like the city hall in Philadelphia, was a testament to the inflated costs brought by bribery.Harper’s Weekly illustration showing New

York’s Boss Tweed, who was well known for corruption.


Despite the corruption of individuals, the Republican government during Reconstruction left an enduring legacy. They established social service programs such as 47.state-supported institutions for the blind and the deaf and made public health care a concern of the government in South Carolina. Most importantly, they established public schools for all children for the first time.

South Carolinians claimed that the new public schools were bankrupting them.

Public schools like this one in Colorado were opened around the state.


White SC legislators played on Northern racism. They exaggerated the corruption of the inexperienced African-Americans, and were able to manipulate the Northern press with propaganda about the lack of ability of the Republican government.

48.They blamed the rising tax rate on corruption when it was really largely due to new state services such as public schools. Consequently, the Northern public tired of Reconstruction and gave up hope of changing Southern attitudes and way of life.

This political cartoon from 1869 proclaims “The rich growing

richer, the poor growing poorer.”


Reconstruction ended in South Carolina with violence and controversy. The Hamburg Massacre of 1876 (49.)took place in a predominantly African-American town in Aiken County. Six black militia members were killed by a white mob. This incident 50.marked an intensification of the white campaign to “redeem” South Carolina’s government. 51.White Democrat “Red Shirts” coordinated a campaign of violence, intimidation and fraud in order to win the election of 1876.

Redshirt worn by white democrats on display at the SC State Museum.


President Grant sent more federal troops but they could not assure a free and fair election. 52.Voting irregularities threw the governor’s election to the General Assembly but there were also disputes about who was elected to the state legislature. Two rival governments were established, one Republican and one white Democrat. There was a stand-off as white taxpayers refused to support the Republican government.President Ulysses Grant

Democrats Return to PowerDemocrats and Republicans reached a compromise whereby 53.Democrats would recognize the election of Republican President Hayes in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South. President Hayes withdrew the last of the federal troops from South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana. The Conservative Democratic Party under former Confederate General, now Governor, Wade Hampton III took control of the government of South Carolina and 54.African Americans were left to fend for themselves in a hostile environment.

Gov. Wade Hampton III

the rebuilding years chapter 15. unit 4 timeline march 3, 1865 freedmen’s bureau created april 9...

Documents

state government

national government

civil war damagesouth

slavesthe federal government

slave labor

destroyed state

th amendment ratifiedapril

presidentcivil war damageafter