Chapter 15: The Meaning of Freedom

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Blacks and the meaning of Freedom

Blacks relished the opportunity to demonstrate their liberation from the regulations, significant and trivial, associated with slavery

No longer required to obtain pass from their owners to travel

Families in Freedom

Black churches and school, and secret slave church, were strengthened, expanded, and free from white supervision

Black women devote more time to their families

Men considered it a badge of honor to see their wives at home

Masters without slaves

South’s defeat was complete and demoralizing Planter families face profound changes

Most planters defined black freedom in the narrowest manner

Key Terms

Emancipation

Who

Abraham Lincoln

What

Was an Executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln , as war measure during the American Civil War, to all segments of the Executive Branch Of United States

Where

Confederate States

Union States

When

January 1863

Impact

The Emancipation Proclamation Freed all slaves living in the states that had left the union

As a result most former slaves worked as laborers or joined the Union Military, which eased the Union’s Shortage of soldiers

Freedmen’s Bureau

Bureau was an experiment in government social policy that seems to belong more comfortably to the New Deal of 1930s

Bureau was agents were supposed to establish schools, provide aid to the poor

The task of the Bureau—establishing schools, providing aid to the poor and aged, settling disputes, etc.—was daunting, especially since it had fewer than 1,000 agents.

The Bureau’s achievements in some areas, notably education and health care, were striking

The Bureau lasted from 1865 to 1870

Freedmen’s Bureau

What Was established to help poor blacks and whites in the south

Where South

When !865 to 1870

Impact The Freedmen’s Bureau established schools in the south

Was established to help poor blacks and whites in the south

Andrew Johnson

He identified himself as the champion of the “honest yeomen” and a foe of large planters

He believed that Africa-Americans had no role to play in reconstruction

Johnson lacked Lincoln’s political skills and keen sense of public opinion.

Sharecropping

Many African=Americans rented land for a share or percentage of the total crop produced

Landowners divide their land and assigned each head of household a few acres, along with seed and tools

Reconstruction

1865-1877

Period during which the U.S. began to rebuild after the Civil War and included the process by which the federal government readmitted former Confederate states

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

Failure Johnson’s plan for Reconstruction offered pardons to the white southern elite

Johnson’s plan allowed the new state governments a free hand in managing local affairs.

End of Reconstruction Reconstruction ended in 1877.

It would be nearly a century before the nation again tried to bring equal rights to the descendants of slaves

Black Codes

Southern governments began passing new laws that restricted the freedom of blacks

These new laws violated free labor principles and called forth a vigorous response from the Republican North

These laws granted blacks certain rights, such as legalized marriage, ownership of property and limited access to the courts

Purpose: Guarantee stable labor supply now that blacks were emancipated.

Restore pre-emancipation system of race relations.

Wade-Davis Bill

Required 50% of the number of 1860 voters to take an “iron clad” oath of allegiance (swearing they had never voluntarily aided the rebellion). Senator

Required a state constitutional Congressman Benjamin convention before the election Henry Wade W. Davis (R-OH) of state officials. (R-MD)

Enacted specific safeguards of freedmen’s liberties

“Iron-Clad” Oath.

“State Suicide” Theory [MA Senator Charles Sumner]

Wade-Davis Bill

Who Congress man Henry Davis

Senator Benjamin Wade

What Required 50% of the number of the 1860 voters to take an “iron clad” oath of allegiance

Required a state constitutional convention before the election of state officials

When 1860

Impact Enacted specific safeguards of freedmen’s liberties

Thaddeus Stevens

1792-1868

Regarded the seceded states as “conquered provinces,” promoted much of the major reconstruction legislation

The 14th amendment reconstruction, he said, “must revolutionize southern institutions habits, and manners… the foundation of their institutions,,, must be broken up and relaid or all our blood and treasure have been spend in vain.”

Thaddeus Stevens

Who Part of a group in congress that was given the name “Radicals

What Believed freedmen should be granted free land and guaranteed citizenship

Wanted the south to abide by strict rules before being readmitted to the union and we called for punishment for the leaders of the confederacy

Homestead Act

Offered 160 acres of land in the west to any citizen who would settle and farm the land for 5 years 600,000 families took advantage of this government offer

Many homesteaders were southerners both white and African-American

Homestead Act

When 1862

What Authorized congress to grant 160 acres of public land to a western settler, who had to live on

the land for five years to establish a title

13th Amendment

Amendment Ratified in December, 1865.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

13th Amendment

Who Congress

What Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall

have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any places subject their jurisdiction

When Ratified December 1865

Impact Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation

This amendment abolished slavery from the United States and its territories

14th Amendment

It placed in the Constitution the principle of citizenship for all persons born in the United States and empowered the federal government to protect the rights of all Americans It did not grant blacks the right to vote

14th Amendment

Who Congress

What Provide a constitutional guarantee of the rights and security of freed people

Insure against neo-confederate political power

Enshrine the national debt while repudiating that of the confederacy

Impact Southern states would be punished for denying the right to vote to black citizens

It placed in the Constitution the principle of citizenship for all persons born in the United States and empowered the federal government to protect the rights of all Americans

It did not grant blacks the right to vote

Gave citizenship to former slaves and guaranteed no state could enforce a law that took away their rights as citizens

When Ratified in July, 1868

15th Amendment

Ulysses S. Grant won the 1868 presidential election.

The Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1870

It prohibited federal and state governments from denying any citizen the right to vote because of race. Didn’t extend suffrage to women

Hiram Revels

Born on September 27,`827 in North Carolina

Hiram was first a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1845

He was the first African American to be on the United States Senate Until the 14th amendment was made Revels couldn’t be a part of the Senate

Hiram was Chaplin to black people in the army Hiram made to regiments in the army

Carpetbaggers

Carpetbaggers were northern-born white Republicans who made their homes in the South after the war, with many holding political office.

Northerners who wanted to take advantage of political opportunity and traveled South to win elections

Northerner republicans who moved to the south

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan refers to a secret society or an inner circle

Ku klux klan-violent terrorist organization devoted to white supremacy

Organized in 1867, in Polaski, Tennessee by Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Represented the ghosts of dead Confederate soldiers

Disrupted Reconstruction as much as they could.

Opposed Republicans, Carpetbaggers, Scalawags and Freedmen.

KKK

Who White southerners

What KKK was a secret society opposed to African Americans obtaining civil rights, particularly the right to vote

Violent terrorist organization devoted to white supremacy

Where Polaski, Tennessee

When 1867

Impact Klan Members wore white robes and hoods to hide their identities

Enforcement Act

Enforcement Act of 1870 and 1871 also known as the KKK Act

“The Lost Cause”

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Crime for any individual to deny full and equal use of public conveyances and public places

Prohibited discrimination in jury selection

Guaranteed all people equal rights in public places-l ater declared unconstitutional

Rutherford B. Hayes

He was the 19th president

Born on Oct. 1822

Died Jam 1893

Rutherford B. Hayes

What Campaign of 1876

Republicans Nominated Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio

Hayes had carried the disputed southern state and had been elected president

Radical Republicans

Radical Republicans called for the dissolution of Johnson’s state governments, the establishment of new governments that did not have “rebels” in power, and the guarantee of the right to vote for black men

The Radicals fully embraced the expanded powers of the federal government born of the Civil War Charles Summer

Thaddeus Stevens

Impeachment and Ulysses S. Grant

To demonstrate his dislike for the Tenure of Office Act, Johnson removed the secretary of war from office in 1868.

Johnson was impeached and the Senate fell one vote short from removing him from office.

Impeachment

Who President Johnson

What Johnson replaced generals in the field who were more sympathetic to Radical Reconstruction

When February, 1868

Where Stanton

Impact House impeached him on February 24 before even drawing up the charges by a vote of 126-47

Johnson acquitted 35 to 19 (one short of required 2.3s vote)