23. Reconstruction

1. 23. Reconstruction • Purpose: to gain an understanding of Reconstruction, the efforts to reintegrate the states of the Confederacy into the Union, specifically: • Transforming of southern society at the same time • Presidential Reconstruction and Congressional Reconstruction • Reconstruction state governments in the South • The situation of the freedmen • White resistance to Reconstruction • Economic and social developments in the South • The end of Reconstruction through judicial conservatism • Timeframe: 1863-1877 23. Reconstruction

2. 1.1 Presidential Reconstruction under Lincoln • During the Civil War, Lincoln planned the reintegration of the seceded states. • 1863, “ten percent plan” for quick readmission: 10 percent of white population should swear an oath of loyalty, then form new state government. • Radical Republicans like Charles Sumner opposed this plan as premature and too easy. Wade-Davis Bill proposed a 50% “ironclad” oath, that excluded most military and political officers. • Lincoln and Radical Republicans in Congress blocked each other’s policies. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) 23. Reconstruction

3. 1.2 The Presidential Reconstruction under Johnson * The 13th amendment was passed on 31 January 1865: • It outlawed involuntary servitude in the US and gave Congress authority to enforce by legislation. • It finalized emancipation as the outcome of the Civil War. • Democrat Andrew Johnson, small landowner from Tennessee, became president. • Johnson outlined a restrictive reconstruction policy, requiring the states to declare secession illegal, ratify the 13th amendment and repudiate the Confederate war debt. • First, he excluded powerful Confederates from the political process. But then, he undermined his own policy by liberally handing out pardons to excluded Confederates. Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) 23. Reconstruction

4. 1.3 Results of Johnson’s Reconstruction • In 1865, seven states set up new governments and elected representatives and senators under Johnson’s plan. • These new state governments also passed “black codes” to keep the freedmen under control. • Republicans in Congress, both radicals and moderates, were outraged. They refused to seat the new delegates and repudiated the black codes. • Pushed into an alliance by Andrew Johnson‘s policies, moderate and radical Republicans started formulating a Reconstruction policy of their own. Black chain gang created under black codes 23. Reconstruction

5. 2.1 The 14th Amendment • In 1866, the 14th amendment, the first cornerstone of congressional reconstruction, was passed: • Citizenship for all persons born in the US. • Equal protection for all citizens in all states. • Confederate political and military officeholders are excluded from being elected into political office. • Confederate debt are repudiated. • 3/5ths clause are abolished. States may exclude blacks from voting but have representation in Congress decreased if they do. • Repudiation of the Dred Scott decision. • President Johnson and the Democrats lobbied against the document. • No ex-Confederate state except Tennessee ratified it. Andrew Johnson v. Thaddeus Stevens at odds over the 14th amendment and Reconstruction in general 23. Reconstruction

6. 2.2 The Reconstruction Act of 1867 • Reconstruction Act of 1867 was the high point of congressional reconstruction. • It dissolved Southern state governments created under earlier plans (except TN) and temporarily re-imposed military rule. • It enfranchised the freedmen of the South and required new state constitutions drafted by conventions elected by both blacks and whites. • It required state legislatures to ratify the 14th Amendment and get a final approval from Congress to fully reenter the Union. • Johnson refused to enforce congressional reconstruction. Congress passed several laws to bring Johnson under control. 23. Reconstruction

7. 2.3 Impeachment Crisis and the Election of 1868 • The 1867 Tenure of Office Act should keep Johnson from firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton who supported congressional reconstruction. Johnson fired Stanton anyway. • In 1868, the House impeached Johnson for violating the Tenure of Office Act, but the conviction was narrowly defeated in Senate. • The Republicans ran Ulysses Grant, the Union general, who cautiously supported the congressional reconstruction plan. • The Democrats ran Horatio Seymour (NY) • Grant won the electoral college handily, but the popular vote only narrowly. In many southern states, the freedman vote made the difference. Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) 23. Reconstruction

8. 2.4 The 15th Amendment • The 15th Amendment was the last major piece of Congressional Reconstruction legislation. • It prohibited the exclusion of male adults from the vote on the basis of race or former condition of servitude. • It was designed to make sure that freedmen franchise would remain • It was passed by Congress in 1869. • Its ratification became a precondition for for those states who had not yet reentered the Union: Virginia, Texas, Mississippi, Georgia • It was ratified in 1870, although even some northern states refused to do so. 23. Reconstruction

9. 2.5 The Freedmen’s Situation • The Freedman’s Bureau was founded by the federal bureaucracy in 1865 to take care of ex-slaves’ and refugees’ needs: • It provided food, medical services, education and labor negotiations, It managed confiscated land. • It was the first large-scale federal welfare institution. • Finding displaced family members became the first priority for freedmen. • Black institutions, such as Churches, were now openly established. They were central to African American life through the 20th century. • In the fours yours of its existence Freedman‘s Bureau set up over 4,000 elementary schools. By 1877, over 600,000 African Americans were enrolled, but segregation was taken for granted. a freedmen school 23. Reconstruction

10. 2.6 Sharecropping • Most freedmen wanted small farms of their own, but lack of land, money, and white resistance hindered them. • A new labor system emerged in the cotton economy. Sharecroppers rented land and paid the owner half of their crop. • The system led many sharecroppers into a state of perpetual debt – the crop-lien system in which credit was given against future harvests. • When the world market began to fall in the 1860s, the South became a predominantly poor region. A Georgia plantation before and after sharecropping.. 23. Reconstruction

11. 3.1 Reconstruction on the State Level • With the creation of new state legislatures, the focus of Reconstruction shifted to the state level. • The freedman vote gave Republicans a temporary advantage in the South. • Instead of vigorously defending the interests of freedmen Republicans tried to attract white Southern voters.s • The vast majority of whites remained Democrats. The South became known the “olid South” until the 1960s and 1970s. • Reconstruction governments also tried to transform the southern economy and infrastructure – with only limited success. • Most Reconstruction governments lasted only a few years; white Democrat governments regained power in the South from the 1870s onwards. 23. Reconstruction

12. 3.2 “Negro Rule” and Violent Resistance • Many Southern whites denounced Reconstruction governments as “Negro rule”. White Northerners, who immigrated to the South, were called “carpetbaggers.” White Southern Republicans were called “scalawags.” • These stereotypes proved extremely persistent. Political corruption was indeed widespread. • Many white Southerners resisted Reconstruction efforts with violence. • The best-known such group was the Ku Klux Klan, but others such as the White League also were active. • Congress enacted anti-Klan legislation in 1870-71, and the group was officially disbanded, but continued to exist. An anti-Klan caricature by Thomas Nast 23. Reconstruction

13. 3.3 Reconstruction Reversed • In 1872, Congress pardoned all but 500 Confederate officeholders, allowing them to return to politics. • As a result of growing northern disinterest, Democrats returned to power. • Democrats typically changed the state constitutions, disenfranchised blacks and assured the return of white supremacy. • Segregation of public space through “Jim Crow” laws was justified. • The Supreme Court declared segregation constitutional in 1896 in Plessy vs Ferguson trial, that blacks were “separate but equal.” 23. Reconstruction

14. 3.4 Turmoil in the North and the Election of 1876 • Northern interest in Reconstruction waned in the 1870s. The Grant administration was riddled with corruption scandals. • Some Republicans focused on renewed expansion in the tradition of Manifest Destiny. William Seward bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, the United States also claimed the Pacific Midway Islands. • In the 1876 elections, Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes (OH), the Democrats Samuel J. Tilden (NY). • Both parties claimed victory; Democrats threatened to delay electoral college so there would be no president on inauguration day. • An implicit agreement was made: Democrats would accept Hayes; the Republicans would remove the federal troops from SC, LA, FL and accept Democratic rule there. 23. Reconstruction

15. Presidential Reconstruction Reconstruction plans of Lincoln and Johnson, 1863-1866. Lincoln advocated the 10-percent-plan for easy readmission of the seceded states; Johnson favored a harsher method but undermined his own policy by liberally pardoning southerners. New southern state governments quickly formed and implemented the restrictive black codes. Outraged congressional Republicans reversed Johnson’s plan and implemented their own, more stringent Reconstruction policies. Sample Keyword 23. Reconstruction