Chapter 22Chapter 22

The Ordeal of Reconstruction

1865-1877

Questions after the WarQuestions after the War

• How would the South be rebuilt?• What about the new freedmen?• How do we bring the South back to Union?• Who was in charge of Reconstruction?• Jefferson Davis• Southern devastation destroyed

infrastructure• “The lost cause”

Charleston, South Carolina, in Charleston, South Carolina, in Ruins, April 1865Ruins, April 1865

The Freedmen’s BureauThe Freedmen’s Bureau

• Freedmen’s Bureau March 3, 1865• Union General Oliver O. Howard• Intergenerational education• Corruption of Bureau

Educating Young Freedmen and Educating Young Freedmen and Freedwomen, 1870sFreedwomen, 1870s

Presidential ReconstructionPresidential Reconstruction

• Lincoln’s 10% Plan (1863)• Congress counteracted with Wade-Davis

Bill (1864) pocket vetoed• 2 factions in Congress- Radical and Moderate

Republicans

• Johnson’s Reconstruction Proclamation- May 29, 1865

Black CodesBlack Codes

• November 1865 Black Codes in Mississippi• White control subservient population• Labor force (Cotton Kingdom) contracts

signed for 1 year service• Few rights• Created generations of sharecroppers• North= what did we fight for?

Congressional ReconstructionCongressional Reconstruction

• December 1865: new Southern members of Congress (ex Confederates!)

• Fear of Democrat take over• Black population= whole person, more

power to South!• February 1866: Johnson vetoed Freedmen’s

Bureau extension• Republicans in Congress= Civil Rights Bill

Congressional ReconstructionCongressional Reconstruction• Future Congress might undo Civil Rights

Bill- needed 14th amendment• Citizenship rights to blacks• Reduced representation of state if black voting

denied• Denied office to former Confederates who had

sworn to uphold US Constitution before• Repudiated Confederacy’s debts

• 1866 midterm elections= veto proof Republicans

Congressional ReconstructionCongressional Reconstruction

• Radicals= Charles Sumner (Senate), Thaddeus Stevens (House)• Saw South as conquered provinces• Use federal power to revolutionize

• Moderates= more states rights, ensure citizen rights with little federal intrusion

Military ReconstructionMilitary Reconstruction

• Reconstruction Act March 2, 1867• South= 5 military districts (martial law)• Readmittance to Union= ratify 14th amendment,

guarantee black voting in state constitutions• Usurped President’s power as commander in

chief• Ex parte Milligan case• Needed 15th Amendment to ensure Southern

compliance• Return to “Redeemer” governments (Solid South)

Military Reconstruction, 1867 (five Military Reconstruction, 1867 (five districts and commanding generals)districts and commanding generals)

Freedmen OrganizationFreedmen Organization

• Lincoln and Johnson= gradual suffrage• Moderate Republicans unsure of 15th

amendment many Northern states denied voting to blacks

• Union League formed• Civic education, black schools/churches,

militias• Universal manhood suffrage 14

Congressmen/ Senators between 1868-1876

Angry White SouthAngry White South

• “Scalawags”: white Southerners helping new regimes (Republicans) thieves

• “Carpetbaggers”: white Northerners who came to South for personal profit• New regimes reformed system

• KKK formed in Tennessee 1866• Terrorism to “put blacks/white Republicans in

place”• Force Acts of 1870 and 1871

The Ku Klux Klan, Tennessee, 1868The Ku Klux Klan, Tennessee, 1868

Johnson ImpeachmentJohnson Impeachment

• Too many clashes with Congress wanted to replace him with Ben Wade of Ohio (president pro tempore)

• Tenure of Office Act 1867• Fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton

• Impeached by House 126 to 47 Senate heard case for removal

• Johnson’s argument avoided removal by 1 vote• Precedent?

Purchase of AlaskaPurchase of Alaska

• Russia wanted to sell Alaska 1867• Secretary of State William Seward bought

for $7.2 million• “Seward’s Folly”• Didn’t want to offend Russia, future economic

opportunity?, flank GB

Alaska and the Lower Forty-eight Alaska and the Lower Forty-eight States (a size comparison)States (a size comparison)

Reconstruction- Failure?Reconstruction- Failure?

• Too difficult to change South socially, politically, racially

• No clear picture of what Reconstruction should have been from beginning- piecemeal

• Black rights soon denied for over 100 years• Too much desire for white dominance vs.

not enough desire to force South