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Reconstruction

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  1. Reconstruction America’s Second Civil War

  2. Themes of Reconstruction • Changing power allocation between Congress and the President • Changing relationship between the federal government and the states • Incorporation of freedmen into society

  3. Destruction of South • Problems in the South • Land in ruin • Labor shortage • 1/5 of white farmers dead • Freedman demanded shorter work days and demanded payment of wages • Children are now going to school • Women choose to stay home and domesticate • Sharecropping

  4. Implementation of Emancipation • “I believed that these people were content, happy, and attached to their masters….” – A.L. Taveau, S.C. rice planter • What did Freedmen do to establish their freedom and independence?

  5. Race Relations • Southerners were “virulently vindictive against a property that had escaped from their control” • The “breaking of the neck of the negro is nobody’s loss” • Southern belief that: • Slavery was a response to racial inferiority, not the cause • Slavery kept “primitive instincts” in check • Page 53 of Reconstruction

  6. Freedman’s Bureau

  7. How to Reconstruct? • Phase 1: Wartime Reconstruction • Lincoln’s 10 Percent Plan • Full pardons and restoration of rights once oath was taken. • 10% pledge allegiance and recognize abolition • Wartime strategy - not meant to be comprehensive • Special Field Order No. 15 or “40 Acres and a mule”

  8. President Johnson • Phase 2: Presidential Reconstruction • No Congressional approval • Governors appointed by Johnson • Only loyal whites could vote in new state governments • Pardons for high-ranking ex-Confederates and wealthy planters (with few exceptions) • Rescinds 40 acre policies • Ratification of 13th Amendment • Announces reunification in Dec. 1865

  9. Black Codes • Crimes of the “free negro”: • Mischief, insulting gestures, cruel treatment to animals, distributing alcohol, firearms, cohabitating with whites • Intermarriage = life term in state penitentiary • Prohibited from: • Testifying against a white person, voting, serving on juries or state militias • Vagrancy Act • Written proof of employment or fined $50 • Hired to any white man if fine not paid • Fine deducted from wages • Goal???

  10. Phase 3: Radical Reconstruction • Radical Republicans win 2/3 majority in both chambers (1866) • Civil Rights Bill of 1866 • Register black voters • The Reconstruction Act of 1867 • 5 military districts with martial law • No ex-Confederates in Congress • New state Constitutions • Universal male suffrage • State-wide public schools for both races • 14thAmendment • 15th Amendment

  11. Johnson fights back • Vetoes expansion of Freedman’s Bureau, Civil Rights Bill of 1866, Reconstruction Act • Instructs Southern whites to obstruct black voter registration • Impeachment • House impeaches 12 to 47, Senate could not convict • Grant elected in 1868

  12. Southern Backlash • Ku Klux Klan • “protect whites from radical ex-slaves” by destroying Republican Party (leaders and supporters) • KKK Acts and Enforcement Acts

  13. The Decline of Reconstruction cont. • The Midterm election in 1874 and Redeemer Movement • Northerners tire of “Southern problem” • The Election of 1876 • The Compromise of 1877

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