America: Pathways to the Present Chapter 12 Reconstruction (1865–1877) Copyright © 2003 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall, Upper

America: Pathways to the PresentAmerica: Pathways to the Present

Chapter 12

Reconstruction(1865–1877)

Copyright © 2003 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing asPrentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. All rights reserved.

America: Pathways to the PresentAmerica: Pathways to the Present

Section 1: Presidential Reconstruction

Section 2: Congressional Reconstruction

Section 3: Birth of the “New South”

Section 4: The End of Reconstruction

Chapter 12: Reconstruction (1865–1877)

Copyright © 2003 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing asPrentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. All rights reserved.

Presidential ReconstructionPresidential Reconstruction

• What condition was the South in following the Civil War?

• How were Lincoln’s and Johnson’s Reconstruction plans similar?

• How did the newly freed slaves begin to rebuild their lives?

Chapter 12, Section 1

Lincoln Hopes for ReconstructionLincoln Hopes for Reconstruction

• Abraham Lincoln “With malice toward none, with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds...to do all we may achieve and achieve a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

The War’s AftermathThe War’s Aftermath

• Human toll of the Civil War: The North lost 364,000 soldiers. The South lost 260,000 soldiers.

• Between 1865 and 1877, the federal government carried out a program to repair the damage to the South and restore the southern states to the Union. This program was known as Reconstruction.

• Black Southerners were starting out their new lives in a poor region with slow economic activity.

• Plantation owners lost slave labor worth $3 billion.• Poor white Southerners could not find work because

of new job competition from freedmen.• The war had destroyed two thirds of the South’s

shipping industry and about 9,000 miles of railroad.



• Abraham Lincoln “With malice toward none, with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds...to do all we may achieve and achieve a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”


• Abraham Lincoln “ I would myself prefer that it [the right to vote] were now conferred on the very intelligent [African Americans] , and those who serve our cause as soldiers.”

• Lincoln also supported the efforts of the Freedmen’s Bureau to assist the freedmen and women.

Reconstruction PlansReconstruction Plans

• Lincoln’s 10% Plan• This plan offered forgiveness for the rebellion to all southerners

(except high ranking Confederate leaders and those guilty of war crimes) who pledged loyalty to the Union and support for emancipation. When 10% of a state’s voters had taken this oath, they could organize a new state government. That new government was then required to ban slavery. (This was an evolving plan.)

• Congress’s Wade-Davis Plan• This plan called for a majority (51%) of a state’s white male citizens

to pledge loyalty to the Union before elections could be held to send representatives to Congress and a new state government could be formed. (The state would also have to accept the end of slavery.) Thaddeus Stevens, a leading Radical Republican wanted to treat southerners as traitors, but most Republicans did not.

Reaction to Lincoln’s Reconstruction PlanReaction to Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan

• A group called the Radical Republicans felt that the Civil War had been fought over the moral issue of slavery. The Radicals insisted that the main goal of Reconstruction should be a restructuring of society to guarantee black people true equality.

• The Radical Republicans viewed Lincoln’s plan as too lenient.• Republicans did agree on creation of the Freedmen’s Bureau, the

first social welfare program ever set up by the Federal Government of the US.

• In July, 1864, Congress passed a stricter Reconstruction plan, the Wade-Davis Act. Among its provisions, it required ex-Confederate men to take an oath of past and future loyalty and to swear that they had never willingly borne arms against the United States. This plan called for a majority of white southerners to pledge loyalty to Union.


Thaddeus Stevens: Radical Republican LeaderThaddeus Stevens: Radical Republican Leader

• “The whole fabric of southern society must be changed.”

• “[We] hold it the duty of the Government to inflict…punishment on the rebel belligerents, and so weaken their hands that they can never again endanger the Union…This can only be done by treating them as a conquered people.”

Reaction to Lincoln’s Reconstruction PlanReaction to Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan

• Thaddeus Stevens, leader of the Radical Republicans, wanted to treat the South like a conquered nation, destroy the planter class, and protect the rights of the freed slaves. Although the bill passed by Congress did not go nearly as far as Stevens wanted, it was still viewed by Lincoln as too harsh and counterproductive. Lincoln let the bill die in a pocket veto.

• Charles Sumner led the Radical Republican in the Senate.


Who was the new President?Who was the new President?

• Andrew Johnson

•Lincoln’s murder thrust Andrew Johnson, a southerner into the presidency. He had been the only southern member of Congress to repudiate secession and remain in the Congress. He blamed the war on wealthy planters. “Treason is a crime, and crime must be punished.”•Johnson wanted white men of modest means to dominate a New South. He had little sympathy for African Americans.

•Despite his wishes Johnson had to choose between the planters ruling or a coalition of former slaves & whites, who did he choose?•.

• “This is a white man’s government, and I mean to keep it that way…White men alone must manage the South.”

• President Andrew Johnson

Early Reconstruction Plans (1864-65)Early Reconstruction Plans (1864-65)

• Andrew Johnson’s Plan• This plan restored the rights of white southerners who took an oath of loyalty

to the USA. Unlike the other plans it did NOT set a percentage of loyal voters that was needed to form a state government. It only required that pledge-takers call a special convention to repeal secession, amend the state constitution to abolish slavery and refuse to pay the debts of the Confederate government.

• Johnson’s plan left the fate of the freedmen and women in the hands of southern state governments.

• • • • • • • • •

Lincoln’s plan

Johnson’s plan• Denied pardons to

officers and anyone who had killed African American war prisoners.

• Permitted each state to create a new constitution after 10 percent of voters took an oath of allegiance.

• He wanted to give African American soldiers and educated blacks voting rights.

• Offered pardons to Southerners who swore allegiance to the Union.

• Ratify the 13th Amendment

• States could then hold elections and rejoin the Union.

• Each state could create a new constitution without Lincoln’s 10 percent allegiance requirement.

• Although it officially denied pardons to all Confederate leaders, Johnson often issued pardons to those who asked him personally.

• He had no provisions for the protection of African Americans. (Johnson was a white supremacist.)

Reconstruction PlansReconstruction Plans


Identify who most likely would agree with the following statements. Place the correct letter in the space provided. (Two of the following list of statements have two answers.)

Identify who most likely would agree with the following statements. Place the correct letter in the space provided. (Two of the following list of statements have two answers.)

• A. Abraham Lincoln B. Andrew Johnson C. Thaddeus Stevens (Radical Republican)

• • _____ 1. “This is a white man’s government, and I mean to keep it that way…White men alone must

manage the South.” • • _____ 2. “With malice toward none, with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us

to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds...to do all we may achieve and achieve a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

• • _____ 3. “The whole fabric of southern society must be changed.”• • _____ 4. African Americans must be given equal rights and the right to vote. • • ______5. Slavery must be ended, but African Americans must remain subordinate to whites.• • _____ 6. The federal government is right to set up the Freedmen’s Bureau to provide help to

southern blacks and whites uprooted by years of fighting.

• _____ 7. Land must be confiscated from disloyal planters and given to the former slaves.

Land=freedom; independence; autonomyLand=freedom; independence; autonomy

• We has a right to land where we are located. For why? I tell you. Our wives, our children, our husbands, have been sold over and over again to purchase the lands we now locate upon; for that reason we have a divine right to the land…And then didn’t we clear the land and raise crops of corn, cotton, of tobacco, of rice, of sugar, of everything? And then didn’t…large cities in the North grow up on the cotton and the sugars and the rice that we made!...I say they have grown rich, and my people are poor.

• Bailey Wyat, an ex-slave protesting eviction of blacks from confiscated plantations in Virginia, 1865

The Taste of Freedom: What did the freedmen and women want?The Taste of Freedom: What did the freedmen and women want?

• Freedom of movement: Enslaved people often walked away from plantations upon hearing that the Union army was near.

• Freedom from fear and exploitation: The former slaves did not want to have whites control their lives and have the power to harm them.

• Freedom to own land: Proposals to give white-owned land to freed people got little support from the government. Unofficial land redistribution did take place, however.

• Freedom to worship: African Americans formed their own churches and started mutual aid societies, debating clubs, drama societies, and trade associations.

• Freedom to learn: Between 1865 and 1870, black educators founded 30 African American colleges.

• Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau to help black Southerners adjust to freedom. This was the first major relief agency in United States history.


Land=Freedom; independenceLand=Freedom; independence

• African Americans wanted land and the autonomy that came with it.

• Land = freedom

Education=freedom; independenceEducation=freedom; independence

The Thirst for knowledge: Freedmen’s Bureau SchoolThe Thirst for knowledge: Freedmen’s Bureau School

Voting and Holding Political Office=Freedom and Power!Voting and Holding Political Office=Freedom and Power!

What Freedom Meant…What Freedom Meant…

• Questioning Freedom: What were the understandings of freedom held by the freed men after the war, and how did the freed men go about remaking their lives during Reconstruction?

• African-Americans brought out of slavery complex ideas about freedom. Slaves thought about freedom a great deal. They didn't come out ignorant of freedom or without any ideas about freedom. It's probably like prisoners think about freedom a great deal also. People who don't have it value it the most. To African-Americans, freedom meant, of course first of all, simply not being subjected to the punishments, inequalities, and restrictions of slavery. They could get education now, they could move about without a pass, they could wear whatever clothing they wanted, which was restricted in many places, they could carry a gun, they could own dogs—things like that.

FreedomFreedom

• But more than that, freedom for them meant empowerment, it meant enjoying the rights that whites did in a democratic society: the right to vote, the right to go before a court and be treated equally.

• And it also meant increasing economic independence, the right to land; freedmen felt that ownership of land, or "forty acres and a mule," in the phrase of the day, was essential to guaranteeing their substantive freedom in the aftermath of slavery.

• Land = economic independence = freedom

Presidential Reconstruction—AssessmentPresidential Reconstruction—Assessment

What was the main difference between the Reconstruction plans of Lincoln and Johnson?

(A) Johnson’s plan denied pardons to Confederate military and government officials.

(B) Lincoln’s plan denied voting rights to African Americans.

(C) Johnson’s plan allowed southern states to hold conventions without the 10 percent allegiance clause.

(D) Lincoln’s plan offered land to freed African Americans.

What was the first major federally funded relief agency in the United States?

(A) The Red Cross

(B) The Freedmen’s Bureau

(C) The United Hospital System

(D) The Agency for Public Schooling

Want to link to the Pathways Internet activity for this chapter? Click here!


http://www.phschool.com/atschool/pathways/survey_2003/Student_Area/PATH_SC12_ACT_index.html

Presidential Reconstruction—AssessmentPresidential Reconstruction—Assessment

What was the main difference between the Reconstruction plans of Lincoln and Johnson?

(A) Johnson’s plan denied pardons to Confederate military and government officials.

(B) Lincoln’s plan denied voting rights to African Americans.

(C) Johnson’s plan allowed southern states to hold conventions without the 10 percent allegiance clause.

(D) Lincoln’s plan offered land to freed African Americans.

What was the first major federally funded relief agency in the United States?

(A) The Red Cross

(B) The Freedmen’s Bureau

(C) The United Hospital System

(D) The Agency for Public Schooling




Congressional ReconstructionCongressional Reconstruction

• How were black codes and the Fourteenth Amendment related?

• How did Congress’s Reconstruction plan differ from Johnson’s plan?

• What was the significance of the Fifteenth Amendment?

• Who supported the Republican governments of the South?


Black CodesBlack Codes

• As southern states were restored to the Union under Johnson’s lenient plan, they began to enact black codes, laws that restricted freedmen’s rights. The black codes established virtual slavery with provisions such as these:

– Curfews: Generally, black people could not gather after sunset.

– Vagrancy laws: Freedmen convicted of vagrancy– that is, not working– could be fined, whipped, or sold for a year’s labor.

– Labor contracts: Freedmen had to sign agreements in January for a year of work. Those who quit in the middle of a contract often lost all the wages they had earned.

– Land restrictions: Freed people could rent land or homes only in rural areas. This restriction forced them to live on plantations.


Southern IntransigenceSouthern Intransigence

– Several southern cities were also the scene of horrific racial violence against blacks. New reorganized southern state governments also elected new members of Congress, most of whom were former Confederate officials. Among these new members of Congress was the former Vice President of the Confederacy. As northerners learned of these outrages, anger toward the South grew. Meanwhile, President Johnson did nothing.

When Congress returned in December 1865, a majority voted to exclude southern representatives from taking their seats.

Congress decided to pass legislation to help the freedmen. All Republicans, moderate and radical agreed.


The Fourteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights ActThe Fourteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Act

The Civil Rights Act• Republicans in Congress blamed

President Johnson for the southern Democrats’ return to Congress.

• To put an end to Johnson’s Reconstruction, the Congress tried to bypass the President by making amendments to the Constitution.

• In early 1866 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act which outlawed the black codes.

• Johnson vetoed the measure, but Congress overrode the President’s veto. Johnson’s veto of a bill renewing the Freedmen’s Bureau was also overridden.

The Fourteenth Amendment• Congress decided to build equal

rights into the Constitution.• In June 1866, Congress passed the

Fourteenth Amendment, which states:

– “All persons born or naturalized in the United States…are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges… of citizens of the United States… nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of the law …”


Radical ReconstructionRadical Reconstruction

• The congressional Republicans who drafted the Fourteenth Amendment consisted of two major groups. One group was the Radical Republicans. Radicals were small in number but increasingly influential. Most Republicans, however, saw themselves as moderates. In politics, a moderate is someone who supports the mainstream views of the party, not the more extreme positions.

• Moderates and Radicals both opposed Johnson’s Reconstruction policies, opposed the spread of the black codes, and favored the expansion of the Republican Party in the South.


Radical ReconstructionRadical Reconstruction

Moderates were not in favor of the Radicals’ goal of granting African Americans their civil rights, or many of the personal liberties guaranteed by law, such as voting rights and equal treatment. However, Johnson’s words and deeds pushed most of the moderates onto the side of the Radicals.

• President Johnson continued to oppose equal rights for African Americans. Northern voters responded by sweeping Radical Republicans into Congress in 1866.


The Reconstruction Acts of 1867: Congress Takes ChargeThe Reconstruction Acts of 1867: Congress Takes Charge

Calling for “reform not revenge,” Radicals in Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts of 1867. These were its key provisions:

1. Southern states would be under military rule by northern generals.

2. Southern states would have to create new state constitutions.

3. States would be required to give the vote to all qualified male voters (including African Americans).

4. Supporters of the Confederacy were temporarily barred from voting.

5. Southern states were required to guarantee equal rights to all citizens.

6. All states were required to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.


Congressional ReconstructionCongressional Reconstruction

• Once Congress took control of Reconstruction and placed the U.S. Army in control of the Southern States great changes began. But, from almost the beginning of the revolution in the south, a counter-revolution began as well.

President Johnson Impeached!President Johnson Impeached!

Even though Congress had a veto-proof majority, the President still had the ability to hinder Reconstruction in the South. As commander-in-chief, Johnson appointed the generals who commanded the troops stationed in the South. The Republican dominated Congress passed a law to “trap” Johnson. According to the Tenure of Office Act, the President could not remove certain officeholders, including cabinet members without the consent of the Senate. When Johnson fired Secretary of War Stanton, an ally of the Radical Republicans, the House impeached him.


President Johnson Impeached!President Johnson Impeached!

In 1868, President Johnson was impeached–charged with wrongdoing in the office–-by the Radical Republicans in the House of Representatives.

• The Senate tried President Johnson for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” but Johnson escaped removal from office by one vote.

• Johnson served the remaining months of his term with no mandate and no real power. In the following election, he was defeated by Ulysses S. Grant.


The Failure of Land ReformThe Failure of Land Reform

• In January 1865, General Sherman issued Special Field Order 15 a few days after meeting with a delegation of Savannah, Georgia’s black community. “This set aside the Sea islands and a large area along the South Carolina and Georgia coasts for the settlement of black families on 40 acre plots of land. He also offered them old mules that the army could no longer use. In Sherman’s order lay the origins of the phrase, “forty acres and a mule.” By June, some 40,000 freed slaves had been settled on “Sherman’s land.”


In Congress Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens proposed a land reform bill which included confiscation of most of the land of disloyal planters. Stevens feared that without significant land reform the South would never be a true republic, but would remain an oligarchy. Landless former slaves and whites would be forced to work the planters’ land on the planters’ terms.

The confiscated land would be distributed in 40 acre plots among the freedmen and landless southern whites. The remaining land would be held by the federal government. Proceeds from land sales would be used for Union veterans’ pensions and paying off the war debt. The bill never made it out of committee and was considered too radical. Even most Radicals drew the line at property seizure and land redistribution.


• In the summer of 1865, President Johnson ordered nearly all land in federal hands (including “Sherman’s land”)returned to its former owners. Confrontations followed…forcible evictions…and sense of betrayals…(GML, pgs.529-530)

• The Southern Homestead Act of 1867 aimed to make public lands in the South available to both blacks and whites. But most poor people lacked even the small amount of money needed to buy land. Most free African Americans became tenant farmers or sharecroppers. Under the

sharecropping system, the owner provided land, seed, and supplies. The sharecropper worked the land and paid the owner with a share of the crops he grew. Unfortunately, this system kept power and capital in the hands of the owners, and virtually enslaved the sharecropper, who somehow never got ahead financially.


Even after Congress took control of Reconstruction policy away in 1867, it did not provide land for the freedmen.

“Because no land redistribution took place, the vast majority of rural freed people remained poor and without property during (and after) Reconstruction. They had no alternative but to work on white-owned plantations, often for their former owners.” Eventually a system of sharecropping and tenant farming became the dominant economic arrangement for most freedmen (and also whites, too).

The Fifteenth AmendmentThe Fifteenth Amendment

• In February 1869, Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment, granting African American males the right to vote.

• In 1867 and 1868, voters in southern states chose delegates to draft new state constitutions. One quarter of the delegates elected were black.

• The new state constitutions guaranteed civil rights, allowed poor people to hold political office, and set up a system of public schools and orphanages.


The Fifteenth AmendmentThe Fifteenth Amendment

• In 1870, southern black men voted in legislative elections for the first time. More than 700 African Americans were elected to state legislatures, Louisiana gained a black governor, and Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first African American elected to the Senate.


The Republican SouthThe Republican South

• During Radical Reconstruction, the Republican Party was a mixture of people who had little in common except a desire to prosper in the postwar South. This block of voters included freedmen and two other groups: carpetbaggers and scalawags.

– Northern Republicans who moved to the postwar South became known as carpetbaggers. Southerners gave them this insulting nickname, which referred to a type of cheap suitcase made from carpet scraps. Carpetbaggers were often depicted as greedy men seeking to grab power or make a fast buck.

– White southern Republicans were seen as traitors and called scalawags. This was originally a Scottish word meaning “scrawny cattle.” Some scalawags were former Whigs who had opposed secession. Some were small farmers who resented the planter class. Many scalawags, but not all, were poor.


Congressional Reconstruction–AssessmentCongressional Reconstruction–Assessment

What did the Fourteenth Amendment Guarantee?

(A) Voting rights for African Americans

(B) The rights of white planters to keep their land

(C) Civil rights for all citizens of the United States

(D) Congress’s right to amend the Constitution

Which one of these was a provision of the Reconstruction Act of 1867?

(A) Supporters of the Confederacy were temporarily barred from voting.

(B) Freed people could rent land or homes only in rural areas.

(C) Southern land was redistributed to freedmen.

(D) African Americans were given money for education.




Congressional Reconstruction–AssessmentCongressional Reconstruction–Assessment

What did the Fourteenth Amendment Guarantee?

(A) Voting rights for African Americans

(B) The rights of white planters to keep their land

(C) Civil rights for all citizens of the United States

(D) Congress’s right to amend the Constitution

Which one of these was a provision of the Reconstruction Act of 1867?

(A) Supporters of the Confederacy were temporarily barred from voting.

(B) Freed people could rent land or homes only in rural areas.

(C) Southern land was redistributed to freedmen.

(D) African Americans were given money for education.




Birth of the “New South”Birth of the “New South”

• How did farming in the South change after the Civil War?

• How did the growth of cities and industry begin to change the South’s economy after the war?

• How was the money designated for Reconstruction projects used?


Sharecropping and the Cycle of DebtSharecropping and the Cycle of Debt

1. Poor whites and freedmen have no jobs, no homes, and no money to buy land.

2. Poor whites and freedmen sign contracts to work a landlord’s acreage in exchange for a part of the crop.

3. Landlord keeps track of the money that sharecroppers owe him for housing and food.

4. At harvest time, the sharecropper owes more to the landlord than his share of the crop is worth.

5. Sharecropper cannot leave the farm as long as he is in debt to the landlord.


Sharecropping and Tenant FarmingSharecropping and Tenant Farming

Sharecropping

• A family farmed a portion of a planter’s land.

• As payment, the family was promised a share of the crop at harvest time.

• After the harvest, some planters evicted the sharecroppers without pay or charged the sharecroppers for housing and other expenses, so that the sharecroppers were in debt at the end of the year.

• Many sharecropping families were in debt to the planters and trapped on the plantation.

Tenant Farming

• Tenant farmers did not own the land they farmed.

• The tenant farmer paid to rent the land and chose which crops to plant and how much to work.

• Tenant farming created a class of wealthy merchants who sold supplies on credit.

• Sharecropping and tenant farming encouraged planters to grow cash crops, such as cotton, tobacco, and sugar cane. The South had to import much of its food.


Economic DependencyEconomic Dependency

• Sharecropping trapped African Americans in a cycle of debt and poverty. They were dependent on the good graces of the white landowner.

• African American Sharecroppers who tried to vote might find themselves asked to leave the land and pay off all of their debts. Since sharecroppers had no other way to provide for themselves and their family, they dared not upset their landlords.

• Most southern African Americans stopped voting, not because of violence or fear of the Klan; they did so because they feared losing their livelihood or inability to pay a poll tax.

Cities and IndustryCities and Industry

• Southern leaders saw the industrialized northern economy and realized a unique opportunity to build an industrialized economy in the South.

• Atlanta, the city that had been burned to the ground by Sherman’s army, began to rebuild and was becoming a major metropolis of the South.

• One problem with the industrialization of the South was that most southern factories handled the earlier, less profitable stages of manufacturing. The items were shipped north to be made into finished products and sold.


Funding ReconstructionFunding Reconstruction

• Rebuilding the South’s infrastructure, the public property and services that a society uses, was one giant business opportunity.

• Roads, bridges, canals, railroads, and telegraph lines had to be rebuilt.

• Funds were also needed to expand services to southern citizens. Following the North’s example, all southern states created public school systems by 1872.

• Congress, private investors, and heavy taxes paid for Reconstruction. Spending by Reconstruction legislatures added another $130 million to southern debt.

• Much of this big spending was lost to corruption. The corruption became so widespread that it even reached the White House.


Birth of the “New South”–AssessmentBirth of the “New South”–Assessment

How was sharecropping different from tenant farming?

(A) Tenant farmers were promised a share of the crop at harvest time.

(B) Tenant farmers could not leave the plantation if they owed money

to the planter.

(C) Tenant farmers could choose which crops to plant.

(D) Planters usually provided housing for the tenant farmers.

Why was industrialization more successful in the North than in the South?

(A) Southerners did not put emphasis on rebuilding their infrastructure.

(B) Southern industrial growth came from cotton mills.

(C) Southern factories handled the earlier, less profitable stages of manufacturing.

(D) Southern states spent too much money on building public schools.




Birth of the “New South”–AssessmentBirth of the “New South”–Assessment

How was sharecropping different from tenant farming?

(A) Tenant farmers were promised a share of the crop at harvest time.

(B) Tenant farmers could not leave the plantation if they owed money

to the planter.

(C) Tenant farmers could choose which crops to plant.

(D) Planters usually provided housing for the tenant farmers.

Why was industrialization more successful in the North than in the South?

(A) Southerners did not put emphasis on rebuilding their infrastructure.

(B) Southern industrial growth came from cotton mills.

(C) Southern factories handled the earlier, less profitable stages of manufacturing.

(D) Southern states spent too much money on building public schools.




The End of ReconstructionThe End of Reconstruction

• What tactics did the Ku Klux Klan use to spread terror throughout the South?

• Why did Reconstruction end?

• What were the major successes and failures of Reconstruction?


Spreading TerrorSpreading Terror

The Ku Klux Klan

• The Klan sought to eliminate the Republican Party in the South by intimidating voters.

• They wanted to keep African Americans as submissive laborers.

• They planted burning crosses on the lawns of their victims and tortured, kidnapped, or murdered them.

• Prosperous African Americans, carpetbaggers, and scalawags became their victims.

The Federal Response

• In 1870 and 1871, Congress passed a series of anti-Klan laws.

• The Enforcement Act of 1870 banned the use of terror, force, or bribery to prevent people from voting.

• Other laws banned the KKK and used the military to protect voters and voting places.

• As federal troops withdrew from the South, black suffrage all but ended.



An End to African American SuffrageAn End to African American Suffrage

1860sReconstruction

begins.

1870sReconstruction

ends.

1950s-1960sCivil Rights

movement begins.

1900s-1940s Jim Crow laws prevent African

Americans from voting

Reconstruction Ends: Why did Reconstruction end?Reconstruction Ends: Why did Reconstruction end?

• There were five main factors that contributed to the end of Reconstruction.

– Corruption: Reconstruction legislatures and Grant’s administration came to symbolize corruption, greed, and poor government. Even sympathetic whites became disillusioned with all of the wasted or stolen money.

– The economy: Reconstruction legislatures taxed and spent heavily, putting the southern states deeper into debt. In addition, a depression hit the country in 1873. This lasted nearly five years. Northerners were much more worried about their own economic well-being than that of southern African-Americans.

– Taxes levied to pay for programs angered landowners and increased resentment (backlash)

– Depression that struck country in 1873 became much bigger concern for white northerners than Reconstruction in the South


Reconstruction EndsReconstruction Ends

– Violence: As federal troops withdrew from the South, some white Democrats used violence and intimidation to prevent freedmen from voting. The Ku Klux Klan often was an arm of the Democratic Party in the South. Their tactics allowed white Southerners to regain control of the state governments.

– The Democrats’ return to power: The pardoned ex-Confederates combined with other white Southerners to form a new bloc of Democratic voters known as the Solid South. They blocked Reconstruction policies. The Compromise of 1877 finalized this.

– The Failure of Land Reform: Without land of their own, the vast majority of freedmen remained dependent on white landowners either as sharecroppers or tenant farmers. This dependency prevented them from truly exercising their political rights, even if they could given the other barriers.

– Other reasons included: Supreme Court decisions and the death of Radical Republican leaders.



Successes and Failures of ReconstructionSuccesses and Failures of Reconstruction

Successes Failures

Union is restored. Many white southerners remain bitter toward the federal government and the Republican Party.

The South’s economy grows and new wealth is created in the North.

The South is slow to industrialize.

Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments guarantee African Americans the rights of citizenship, equal protection under the law, and suffrage.

After federal troops are withdrawn, southern state governments and terrorist organizations effectively deny African Americans the right to vote.

Freedmen’s Bureau and other organizations help many black families obtain housing, jobs, and schooling.

Many black and white southerners remain caught in a cycle of poverty.

Southern states adopt a system of mandatory education.

Racist attitudes toward African Americans continue, in both the South and the North.

The Compromise of 1877The Compromise of 1877

• The presidential election of 1876 was disputed. Rutherford B. Hayes lost the popular vote, but the electoral vote was contested.

• Democrats submitted a set of tallies showing Samuel Tilden, who had the support of the Solid South, as the winner.

• Finally, the two parties made a deal. In what became known as the Compromise of 1877, the Democrats agreed to give Hayes the victory. In return, the new President agreed to support appropriations for rebuilding the levees along the Mississippi River and to remove the remaining federal troops from southern states.

• The compromise opened the way for Democrats to regain control of southern politics and marked the end of Reconstruction. The Republicans, and the nation as a whole, turned its attention away from the South.


The End of Reconstruction—AssessmentThe End of Reconstruction—Assessment

What were the four factors that contributed to the end of Reconstruction?

(A) Corruption, the economy, violence, and the return of the Democrats to power

(B) Sharecropping, industrialization, violence and the Fourteenth Amendment

(C) Tenant farming, corruption, violence and the Democratic return to power

(D) Increased military presence in the South, sharecropping, the economy, and violence

What did the Enforcement Act of 1870 do?

(A) Enforce universal voting in the South

(B) Force planters to pay sharecroppers a living wage

(C) End corruption in Reconstruction

(D) Ban the use of terror, force, or bribery to prevent people from voting



The End of Reconstruction—AssessmentThe End of Reconstruction—Assessment

What were the four factors that contributed to the end of Reconstruction?

(A) Corruption, the economy, violence, and the return of the Democrats to power

(B) Sharecropping, industrialization, violence and the Fourteenth Amendment

(C) Tenant farming, corruption, violence and the Democratic return to power

(D) Increased military presence in the South, sharecropping, the economy, and violence

What did the Enforcement Act of 1870 do?

(A) Enforce universal voting in the South

(B) Force planters to pay sharecroppers a living wage

(C) End corruption in Reconstruction

(D) Ban the use of terror, force, or bribery to prevent people from voting



Documents

America: Pathways to the Present Chapter 12 Reconstruction (1865–1877) Copyright © 2003 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall, Upper