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16. The Agony of Reconstruction

16. The Agony of Reconstruction. 1863 - 1877. The South. The devastation that the South had feared had become reality Aristocracy still needed a cheap labor force All the issues remained. Reconstruction Came in 3 Waves. Presidential Plans (1863-1866) Congressional Plans (1866-1872)

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16. The Agony of Reconstruction

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  1. 16. The Agony of Reconstruction 1863 - 1877

  2. The South The devastation that the South had feared had become reality Aristocracy still needed a cheap labor force All the issues remained

  3. Reconstruction Came in 3 Waves • Presidential Plans (1863-1866) • Congressional Plans (1866-1872) • Final Phases (1872-1877)

  4. Presidential Plan: Lincoln • Southern states could not constitutionally leave the Union, therefore, they never did. • Confederates represented only a disloyal minority • Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (1863) • Thirteenth Amendment (December, 1865)

  5. Provisions of 10% Plan • Purpose was to insure that Unionists were in charge rather than secessionists. • Full presidential pardons for southerners who • Took an oath of allegiance • Accepted emancipation • State government reestablished as soon as 10% of the voters took the oath

  6. Congress Reacts • Felt Lincoln’s plans were too lenient • Passed the Wade-Davis Bill • 50% of voters take oath • Only non-Confederates could vote • Vetoed by the president

  7. Freedmen’s Bureau (March, 1865) • Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands • Early welfare agency for freed slaves and homeless whites • Give away confiscated land • Success with education

  8. Presidential Plan: Johnson • Tennessee Democrat • Champion for poor whites • White supremacist • Remained loyal to the Union • Republicans wanted support of Northern Dems. • Wrong man for the job

  9. Johnson’s Plan • Maintained Lincoln’s ideas • Added disfranchisement of all former leaders , officeholders and Confederates with more than $20,000 in taxable property. • Liberally used his power of presidential pardons

  10. Black Codes Emerged • In southern states to restrict freedmen’s rights. Established virtual slavery. • Curfews: Could not gather after sunset. • Vagrancy laws: If could not working, could be fined, shipped, or sold for a year’s labor • Labor contracts: Sign agreements in January for a year of work. If you quit in the middle lost all of your wages • Land restrictions: Could rent land or homes only in rural areas.

  11. Congressional Plan • Republicans are split into two groups • Moderates (Economic gains for white middle class) • Radicals (Civil rights for blacks) • Moderates become radicals (fear of Democratic dominance

  12. The Radical Program • Civil Rights Act of 1866 • All African Americans are U.S. citizens • Repudiating Dred Scott decision • Protection against Black Codes

  13. The Republican South • Mixture of people who had little in common except a desire to prosper in the postwar South. • Freedmen • Carpetbaggers • Scalawags

  14. Fourteenth Amendment • June 1866 • “All persons born or naturalized in the U.S. …are citizens …. And of the state wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges … of citizens of the U.S. ….nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of the law.

  15. Radical Republicans in Control Reconstruction Act of 1867 • Military rule • Write new constitutions • Give the vote to all qualified male voters • CSA supporters could not vote temporarily • Must guarantee equal rights • Must ratify the 14th Amendment

  16. Johnson Impeached • Tenure of Office Act (1867) President could not remove a federal official without the approval of Congress • Situation was set up to remove him from office

  17. Ulysses S. Grant (1868-1876) • Had no political experience • Extremely popular in the North • Won with only 300,000 votes • 500,000 black votes • Realized the importance Of the black vote • Noted for corruption in his • administration

  18. The Fifteenth Amendment • February, 1869 • Granting African American males the right to vote. • 1867 and 1868, voters in southern states chose delegates to draft new constitutions. ¼ of delegates were black. • 1870, southern black men voted for the first time. • 600 African Americans elected to state legislatures, Hiram Revels (Mississippi) first African-American to serve in Senate. Louisiana has black governor.

  19. Failures of Congressional Plan • Southern perception of Republican rule as wasteful and corrupt. • Virtual slavery returns • Many southerners remain caught in a cycle of poverty (sharecropping) • Racism continues in both the South and the North.

  20. Spreading Terror • Birth of the Ku Klux Klan: Eliminate the Republican Party in the south by intimidating voters. • Enforcement Act of 1870: Banned the use of terror, force, or bribery to prevent people from voting

  21. Credit Mobilier Scandal • Officials of the Union Pacific Railroad created fake corporation (Credit Mobilier) to steal $$$$ from government subsidies related to the transcontinental railroad

  22. Panic of 1873 • Many northerners lost jobs • Caused by • Overspeculation • Overbuilding • North loses interest in Reconstruction Bank Run

  23. Final Phase of Reconstruction • Removed the last of the restrictions on ex-Confederates • Except for top leaders • Clears the way for southern Democrats to retake control of state government

  24. Redeemers Take Control of South • States’ rights • Reduced taxes • Reduced spending on social programs • White supremacy

  25. Segregation • Politics are now in the hands of “redeemers” • Supported by business and white supremacists • Use race to deflect attention away from real problems

  26. Election of 1876 • Republicans: Rutherford B. Hayes • Distance himself from Grant • Democrats: Samuel J. Tilden • Know for fighting corruption

  27. Election Results • Tilden has clear majority of popular votes • One short of electoral votes • Three states are contested (South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana – still had federal troops) • Electoral commission voting along party lines gave all the electoral votes to Hayes

  28. Compromise of 1877 • Democrats gave Hayes the victory. • Hayes agreed to support appropriations for rebuilding the levees along the Mississippi River and to remove the remaining federal troops from South

  29. Reconstruction Ends • 1877 troops are removed • Supreme Court strikes down many Reconstruction laws during 1880s and 90s • Most southern blacks and whites remained poor farmers

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