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Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 making the abolishment of slavery a war aim, allowing the enlistment of black soldiers. Two years later, Congress enacted and the states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery throughout the nation.
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Reconstruction
1863-1877http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/players/p1_01_qry.html
National ControversyOn what terms should the defeated
Confederacy be reunited with the Union?Who should establish these terms, Congress
or the President?What should be the place of the former slaves
in the political life of the South?
A New Birth of Freedom:Reconstruction During the Civil War
Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 making the abolishment of slavery a war aim, allowing the enlistment of black soldiers.
Two years later, Congress enacted and the states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery throughout the nation.
The Meaning of Freedom: Black and White Responses
Without slavery, conflict erupted between blacks seeking independence and whites wanting to hold on to the old system of slavery
Blacks looked for separated family members, established churches and schools, and demanded equal civil and political rights
Some whites resorted to violence to suppress blacks, while others concentrated rebuilding Southern cities and honoring the Confederacy
Carpetbaggers: Northerners who carried their possessions in a carpetbag, viewed the South as the new frontier, provided support to blacks.
Education improved greatly in the South for both whites and blacks.
Teachers from the North traveled to teach in schools built by the Freedmen’s Bureau.
--In 1865, Congress established the Freedmen's Bureau to provide assistance to former slaves.
•Cities lay in ruins with a great loss in life. Wives and daughters left to carry on.
From Slave Labor to Free LaborSmall percent of blacks received land because --no land redistribution --whites wouldn’t sell to blacksWhile blacks still worked on land owned by whites,
they could now come and go as they pleased. Women and children did not have to work in the fields, which meant children could attend school.
Sharecropping arose where families rented portions of a plantation
--blacks kept 1/3 to 1/2 of the crop for themselves while the rest went to the landowner
Urban population rose because cities provided different opportunities for African Americans
--women worked as domestic servants--men performed manual labors that whites
did not want to do
White southern planters were devastated after the Civil War
-- The loss of slaves and investments in the Confederacy forced many whites into poverty
Widespread use of credit increased debt and poverty among rural Southerners during the Reconstruction era.
Rights and Power:The Politics of Reconstruction
Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson, in 1865 put into effect his own Reconstruction plan, which gave the white South a free hand in establishing new governments.
With Johnson’s policy, legislatures passed the Black Codes, severely limiting the former slaves' legal rights and economic options.
Between 1866 and 1869, Congress enacted new laws and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, guaranteeing blacks' civil rights and giving black men the right to vote.
In 1867, Congress enacted the Reconstruction Act over Johnson's veto, placing the South under temporary military rule, which brought about Radical Reconstruction until 1877.
--This meant that states could no longer restrict the right to vote because of race.
Former Confederate states had to draft new state constitutions that granted former slaves the rights of citizenship
In 1868, the election of Ulysses S. Grant guaranteed that Reconstruction would continue.
The Ending of Reconstruction In the 1870s, violent protests from the South
and the retreat of Northern support marked the ending of Reconstruction.
Secret societies sprang up in the South, devoted to restoring white supremacy in politics and social life. Most notorious was the Ku Klux Klan, an organization of white men, who assaulted and murdered African Americans and their supporters.
The Klansmen would dress in hooded robes to protect their identity, and it represented the ghosts of the Confederacy.
Northerners were growing tired of Reconstruction. A depression began in 1873, pushing economic issues to the forefront of politics. Racism reasserted itself as an idealized view of the South emerged, with industrious blacks working under the supervision of benevolent (kind) whites.
By 1876, Reconstruction had been overthrown in all the Southern states except South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida.
Republican Rutherford B. Hayes became president, and he, in turn, recognized Democratic control of the remaining Southern states and promised to end federal intervention in the South.
The Redeemers, Southern Democrats, now ruled the entire South.
Outcomes
Reconstruction failed to resolve the issue of race.
The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution served as the basis for a “Second Reconstruction” That would renew the drive to bring freedom and equality to all Americans.
