Goal 3 Reconstruction 1865-1877

1. Goal 3 Reconstruction 1865-1877 • How did Reconstruction impact the social, political, and economic institutions of the United States? • How did the Civil War and Reconstruction challenge the supremacy of the national government?

2. Reconstruction is……..

3. Reconstructing of something: the act or process of reconstructing something, or being reconstructed • Something restored: something that has been reorganized, reformed, or restored

4. Reconstruction Plans

5. At the end of the war the South was all but destroyed • The economy in a state of collapse • Land values plummeted • Confederate money worthless • 2/3rds of the transportation system ruined • Miles of twisted railroad track • Bridges gone • Freedom of slaves sent the agricultural system into choas

6. Until a new labor system in place, the South could not maintain agricultural output • President Lincoln and Congress had to address reconstruction • The decision on how and under what terms the Confederate states could rejoin the Union

7. Lincoln’s Plan

8. The reconstruction problem emerged shortly after the Civil War began • Union forces occupied Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana in 1862 • Lincoln appointed military governors for the regions and began to develop a plan to restore government in those states • Lincoln wanted a moderate policy-reconcile with the South instead of punishment for treason

9. December 1863, Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction • 1. general amnesty to all Southerners who took an oath of loyalty to the US • 2. accept the Unions proclamation concerning slavery • 3. when 10% of the state’s voters in the 1860 election had taken the oath they could organize a state government

10. Radical Republicans

11. Lincoln’s plan met opposition by the radical Republicans in Congress • Led by Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pa. and Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts • The radical Republicans did not want to reconcile with the South • They wanted to revolutionize Southern institutions, habits, and manners

12. Goals of the Radical Republicans

13. 1. prevent the leaders of the Confederacy from regaining political power • 2. to make the Republican Party a powerful institution in the South • 3. the federal government would ensure political equality for African Americans • When the Southern states were readmitted to the Union they would gain 15 seats in the House of Representatives

14. Former slaves before the war counted 5 to 3 in population under the 3/5ths Compromise, now they would count 1 to 1 • The ending of slavery would give the South more seats in the House-this would threaten Republican control unless African Americans could vote • Suffrage for African Americans would help the Republican Party win elections

15. The actions were not solely based on gaining political power • Many radical Republicans had been abolitionists before the war and played a key role in Lincoln making emancipation a goal of the war • They believed in political equality for African Americans

16. The Wade-Davis Bill

17. In between Lincoln and the Radical Republicans was a group of moderates • The Moderates thought Lincoln too lenient and the Radicals too extreme in giving support to African Americans • The summer of 1864, the Moderates and Radicals create a reconstruction plan

18. 1. require a majority of white adult men to take an oath of allegiance to the Union • 2. each state government would have to abolish slavery • 3. reject all debts the states had acquired as a member of the Confederacy • 4. not allow any former Confederate government officials or military officers to vote or hold public office

19. Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill • Lincoln stooped it with a pocket veto • Lincoln felt a harsh peace would be counterproductive

20. The Freedmen’s Bureau

21. Lincoln; harsh reconstruction plan would alienate Southern whites, already hundreds of thousands homeless, unemployed, and hungry • Union had to deal with a large number of African Americans migrating North as the war progressed • As Sherman marched through Georgia and South Carolina, thousands of freedmen followed his troops looking for food and shelter

22. Sherman reserved all abandoned plantation land within 30 miles of the coast from Charleston to Jacksonville, Florida for use by the freedmen • Union troops settled 40,000 freedmen on a half a million acres • Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands

23. The Freedmen’s Bureau used army surplus supplies to feed and clothe refugees in the South • Prevented mass starvation in the South • Found work for freedmen on plantations, negotiated labor contracts with planters • Many Northerners supported the work of the Freedmen’s Bureau, felt former slaves should be given 40 acres and a mule

24. The Federal government should seize Confederate land and give to emancipated slaves • Taking plantation land and giving it to the freedmen appeared to be a violation of the nation’s commitment to individual property rights • Congress refused to take property

25. The Freedmen’s Bureau failed to give African Americans land to make a new start • The Freedmen’s Bureau did make a lasting impact, education • The Bureau worked closely with charities in the North to educate former slaves • Provided housing for schools, paid teachers, helped establish colleges to train African American teachers

26. Andrew Johnson

27. Lincoln was assassinated, Vice President Andrew Johnson became president • Johnson changes Reconstruction • Johnson, a former Democrat from Tennessee, elected to the US Senate • When Tennessee seceded, Johnson remained loyal to the Union, hero in the North

28. 1862, Lincoln named Johnson the Military Governor of Tennessee • Lincoln approved Johnson’s nomination as the VP in the election of 1864 • Hoped to bring some Democrats to vote Republican • Johnson felt a more moderate Reconstruction plan was needed

29. Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan • Summer of 1865 Congress was in recess • May, 1865 Johnson issued a new Proclamation of Amnesty • Pardon all Southern citizens who took an oath of loyalty to the Union • Return their property • Did exclude former military officers and officials of the Confederacy, along with plantation owners with property worth more than $20,000, felt they started the war

30. Those excluded could apply to Johnson individually for a pardon • The day of the Amnesty Proclamation, Johnson issued a proclamation for NC, as a model for how Johnson wanted to restore the South • 1. former Confederate states had to call a constitutional convention, revoke the ordinance of secession

31. 2. had to ratify the 13th amendment • 3. had to reject all Confederate debts • Most states meet Johnson’s requirements • Organized new governments and elected members to Congress • Congress convened it’s next session Dec. 1865 • Congress was upset that Southern voters had elected many former Confederate officers and political leaders, including Alexander Stephens, the former VP of the Confederacy • Moderate and Radical Republicans found this unacceptable and voted to reject new Southern members of Congress

32. Black Codes

33. New Southern state legislatures passed Black Codes • Laws to limit African American rights in the South • An attempt to keep African Americans in a state of slavery • Required African Americans to enter into annual labor contracts

34. African American children had to accept apprenticeships- could be whipped or beaten • Set specific work hours for African Americans • Required African Americans to get a license for non-agricultural work • The Black Codes angered many in the North

35. The Moderate-Radical Coalition

36. The election of former Confederates and the Black Codes prompted many moderates to join with the Radicals in opposition to Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan • Late 1865 House and Senate Republicans created the Joint Committee on Reconstruction • This committee was to make Congressional policy for rebuilding the Union

37. The Civil Rights Act of 1866

38. 1. citizenship to anyone born in the US except Native Americans • 2. allowed African Americans to own property • 3. African Americans to be treated equally in court • 4. gave the federal government the right to sue people who violated the rights of African Americans

39. 14th Amendment

40. Congress feared the Civil Rights Act of 1866 would be overturned in court • Republicans proposed the 14th amendment • 1. citizenship to all born or naturalized in the US • 2. no state may deny any person life, liberty, or property without due process of law • 3. no state may deny equal protection of the law

41. Southern Violence

42. Violence in the South prompted Moderate Republicans to support the 14th amendment • May, 1866, Memphis, Tennessee • White mobs killed 46 African Americans • Burned 100s of black homes, churches, and schools • Congress ratified the 14th amendment June, 1866 sent it to the states for ratification

43. The Election of 1866

44. Johnson wanted to make the 14th amendment an issue in the 1866 Congressional elections • Wanted Northern voters to elect a new majority in Congress that would support his reconstruction plan • Election started, violence in the South • July, 1866 white mobs attacked delegates to a convention in New Orleans supporting rights for African Americans

45. Johnson attacked the Radicals • The Radicals attacked the Democrats for causing the war and treason • Republicans won big- a 3 to 1 majority in Congress

46. Military Reconstruction Act

47. March 1867, Congressional Republicans passed the Military Reconstruction Act • This replaced Johnson’s reconstruction plan • 1. divided the South except Tennessee which had ratified the 14th amendment into five military districts • 2. a Union general was in charge of each district

48. 3. Confederate states were required to hold another state convention to write a constitution acceptable to Congress • 4. had to give suffrage to all adult male citizens regardless of race • 5. after the state ratified the new constitution it had to ratify the 14th amendment • 6. military officers supervised voter registration

49. The Southern states held elections, organized constitutional conventions • By the end of 1868 NC, SC, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas had met the Congressional requirements and were readmitted to the Union

50. Tenure of Office Act