FRANCHISEAND NOT THIS MAN

Thomas Nast

Working for Harpers Weekly

Reconstruction

Chapter 3

How to reunite the nation?

How to rebuild the South?

What civil rights do African-Americans have?

What does “all men are created equal”

mean?

– Today?

– After the Civil War?

I. Presidential Reconstruction

(1863-1866)

Abraham

Lincoln

16th President

Andrew

Johnson

17th President

A. Lincoln’s Plan (10% Plan)

TO Rejoin the Union, a Southern state must:

• 10% white Southerners must take a loyalty oath

• New state constitutions must ban slavery

• Amnesty given to most white Southerners who took

oath

BUT….

B. ASSASINATION – Abraham Lincoln is assassinated on April 14, 1865

– Many Northerners seek a greater CHANGE in South

– President Johnson sets to battle with the Republicans of Congress

Assassination of Lincoln

http://www.glencoe.com/video_library/index_with_mods.php?PROG

RAM=9780078777189&VIDEO=2593&CHAPTER=3&MODE=2

Confederates Punished?

Alexander Stephens (Vice –President)

• Arrested and held in prison for 5 months

• Later elected to House and Governor of GA

Jefferson Davis

• Arrested and held in prison for 2 years

• Moves to Canada but returns to Mississippi

Captain Henry Wirz

• Commander of Andersonville Prison (POW)

• Executed for his crime of mistreatment

Confederate Prison of

Andersonville

C. Andrew Johnson

– Lincoln’s Vice-President (2nd term only)

– A former Senator and a “War Democrat” from

Tennessee (a Confederate state!)

– A Southerner who remained loyal to the Union

– Believes the wealthy planter class caused

secession and the Civil War

– Johnson’s plan is similar to Lincoln’s

What about the

FREEDMEN

???

II. Freedmen in Trouble

(1865-1866)

Freedmen and Sharecropping

Freedmen Family near home

Freedmen Family without a home

Black Codes

– Vagrancy leads to chain gangs

II. Freedmen in Trouble (1866-1873)

A. Black Codes1. Laws made in Southern states to restrict freedmen’s

rights AFTER the Civil War

2. Restricted property rights, arrested for minor crimes such

as vagrancy and loitering

3. Not allowed to serve as witnesses and on juries

Sharecropper (Tenant Farming) (1939)

B. sharecropping (tenant farmer)

– white landowner would rent a shack, land, seed and crude tools to tenant farmer

– the tenant would pay landowner a “share” of the crop

– the majority and the tenants lived in conditions worse than slavery

What is

going on

here?

What is

going on

here?

What is

going on

here?

What is

going on

here?

What is

going on

here?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4s2zl2trn0&feature=player_detailpage

Ku Klux Klan

Nathan Bedford Forrest

“Wizard of the Saddle”

Early disguises

for Klansman

C. Violence1. Groups formed to intimidate freedmen like the Ku Klux

Klan founded by Nathan Bedford Forrest

2. White population riots and attacks the freedmen in

Memphis and New Orleans (1866)

3. Johnson does nothing to protect them

III. Radical Reconstruction

A. Congressional Leaders (“Radical” Republicans)

1. Thaddeus Stevens– Leader of House of Representatives from Gettysburg, PA

– Hated slavery from his law work in Maryland

2. Charles Sumner– Leader of the Senate from Boston, MA

– Beaten in attack in Senate in 1856

3. Benjamin Butler “the Beast"– Civil War general who “reconstructed” New Orleans

– Elected in to the House and works for civil rights for

freedmen

Charles Sumner attacked in 1856

on the floor of the Senate

What is

going on

here?

B. HELP for the Freedmen

1. 13th Amendment – ends slavery

2. Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)• a federal agency created to help freedmen adjust to freedom

• Helped by providing food, clothing and medical services

• help get land and find work

• set up schools and academies

• Vetoed by President Johnson but is overridden

3. Civil Rights of 1866• Granted full citizenship to African Americans

• Bill is vetoed by Johnson but is overridden

4. CONGRESS V. PRESIDENT!!!

C. Civil War Amendments

• 13th Amendment (Jan 1865)

• ends slavery

• 14th Amendment (1868)

• People born in the U.S. are American citizens

• Citizens have rights

• 15th Amendment (1870)

• African-American males are given the right to vote

African-Americans Voting

Role of the Federal Government

Carpetbaggers

Andrew Johnson consulted General Ulysses S. Grant before selecting the generals to administer the military districts. Eventually he appointed John Schofield (Virginia), Daniel Sickles (the Carolinas), John Pope (Georgia, Alabama and Florida), Edward Ord(Arkansas and Mississippi) and Philip Sheridan (Louisiana and Texas).

D. Reconstruction Act of 18671. Radical Republicans pass new law:

• Southern states divided into 5 military districts

• Guaranteed rights of African-Americans to vote

• Banned Confederate leaders from holding office

• Required army to REGISTER voters and protect freedmen

2. To rejoin nation, Southern states had to:• Ratify the 14th Amendment

• Submit new constitutions for Congressional approval

E. Johnson’s Impeachment1. Congress pass laws to weaken president

2. Tenure of Office Act of 1867:- Forbid president from removing officials without Senate approval

3. House of Representatives IMPEACH Johnson

in March 1868 for removing Secretary of War

4. Senate held a TRIAL three days later

- Senate acquitted president (voted not guilty) by one vote Edmund Ross

- Radical Republicans were one vote away from 2/3 majority

Impeachment &

Trial of President

Johnson

IV. President Ulysses S. Grant

A. Election of 1868

1. Ulysses S. Grant (R-OH) v. Horatio Seymour (D-NY)

2. Grant wins a landslide in the electoral college voting

3. Main issue: Reconstruction and Free Labor

Grant Seymour

Election of 1868

Grant (R)

52.7% popular vote

214 electoral votes

Seymour (D)

47.3% popular vote

80 electoral votes

Red = Republican won state

Blue = Democrats won state

B. Grant’s Reconstruction Policy

1. Supports military protection of the

freedmen by using the “Force Acts”

2. Support Radical Reconstruction

policies to help rebuild the South

C. Corruption

1. Scandals • Credit Mobilier Scandal (1872)

» Company uses bribes to get favorable railroad contracts in the West

• Whiskey Ring (1875)» Tax money is “funneled” illegally to whiskey distilleries

2. “Carpetbaggers” and “Scalawags”• Southerners link corruption to the Northerners and

Republicans in their states

III. Reconstruction - Successes

A. African Americans Political Leaders• 16 African-Americans elected to House of Representatives

• Senator elected Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce (see p88)

• Never gained control of state governments

• Very few African-Americans have been elected president (1),

governor (4), and Senator (7)

African American Congressmen

B. Education1. The Freedmen’s Bureau Schools

– Established primary schools• 50% white & 40% black children attended

• Schools were segregated

– Most teachers were from the North

2. Academies– Specialized schools to train skills

– develop into “Black Colleges” such as Fisk (WEB Dubois), Howard (Thurgood Marshall) & Morehouse (Martin Luther King)

– http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0872606.html

Freedman’s School

Education

Graduates from “Black Colleges”

IV. Failure of Reconstruction –

“The Redeemers”

A. How did “White Power” get control in South?

1. Amnesty Act of 1872 • Law PARDONS almost ALL white Southerners

• All pardoned could VOTE and HOLD OFFICE

• Democratic Party in South regains power of state governments (by using majority voting, trickery or terrorism)

2. Election of 1872• Republican party divides over corruption

• Grant defeats Horace Greeley (Liberal Repubican)

• Republicans begin to move away from Reconstruction

and focus on the economy

Election of 1872

Grant (Red) v Greeley (Blue)

Republicans 286

Lib Rep/Dem 63

3. Panic of 1873(Panic is another word for Economic Depression)

• Thousands of businesses close and tens of thousands of Americans lose jobs

• Republican leaders blamed for the economy

4. Election of 1876a. Rutheford B. Hayes (R) v. Samuel Tilden (D)

b. Tilden wins the popular vote BUT No CLEAR WINNER in

electoral vote

c. Electoral College dispute in three Southern States

d. Congress awards all 20 elector votes to Hayes making him

president

e. Hayes makes deal to end “Radical” Reconstruction

and to pull army out of the South

Rutherford

B. HayesSamuel

Tilden

Election of 1876

Hayes 165* (*All 20 disputed Electoral Votes awarded

Tilden 184 to Hayes given him the needed 185 to win)

V. Legacy of Reconstruction

Which would you like to use?

A. Divided Society (Segregation)

1. “Reedemers” seize control Southern States– Goal is to end the Republican control of their state governments

2. Demorcats want to restore “White Power”:

a. Conservative Fiscal Policy• Cut state spending

• lower taxes

• end funding to schools and for social policies

b. Voting Restrictions

– Poll tax, literacy test, & the Grandfather clause

c. Jim Crow Laws

– Laws that created a segregated society in public places till 1965

– “White” and “Colored” division in schools, restaurants, transportation, etc…

B. Constitutional?

1. Local police ignore the abuse of freedmen

2. Plessey v Ferguson (1896)

- Supreme Court rules that the concept of “separate

but equal” as constitutional

3. Civil Rights movement fights to end segregation in 1950-

1960s

4. Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

- Supreme Court OVERTURNS and rules that

“separate but equal” as UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Legacy of Reconstruction

Change is not welcomed

Change is NOT easy!

Change?

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