RECONSTRUCTION

(1865-1877)

Clean Up! Fix Up!

What issues does the President face regarding Reconstruction?

Ruins of Gallego Flour Mill - Richmond, VA

Vicinity of Atlanta, GA - 1864

Charleston, SC

April 1865

Charleston, SCApril 1865

Charleston, SCApril 1865

Remember the Death Tolls

Northern Death Toll

364,000 deaths

(38,000 were African Americans)

Southern Death Toll

260,000 deaths

1/5th of all adult white males were dead

1 out of 3 males were killed or wounded

Physical Damage in SouthFarmland, machinery, and

buildings damaged or destroyed; Work animals and livestock killed;Infrastructure destroyed

(roadways, bridges, tunnels);Seaports damaged;

and9,000 miles of railroads ruined

Sherman’s Neckties

General Sherman regarding the Southern train tracks (7/18/1864)

“ . . . (we should be) twisting the bars when hot. Officers should be instructed that bars simply bent may be used again but if when red hot they are twisted out of line they cannot be used again. Pile the ties into shape for a bonfire, put the rails across and when red hot in the middle, let a man at each end twist the bar so that its surface becomes spiral.”

Reconstruction Lasted

1865 - 1877That would be 12 years and

involved four presidents!

Reconstruction was….

The federal government’s controversial effort to

Reconstruction was….

The federal government’s controversial effort to 1. repair the damage to the South and

Reconstruction was….

The federal government’s controversial effort to 1. repair the damage to the South and 2. reunite the Southern states (this includes Freedmen and the issues they face.)

HARDSHIPS FOR THE SOUTHERNER’S

Hardships for Key Southern Social Groups

Plantation OwnersPoor White SouthernersBlacks or “Freedmen"

#1 Plantation Owners

Lose their slaves (property value)Have to pay salaries for labor

Plantation Owners, cont.

Land/property was often seized by the government

#2 Poor White Southerners or Middling Whites

Must compete with former slaves (Freedmen) for jobs

Lose social status (= with Freedmen) Lose property/homes, and

Poor White Southerners or Middling Whites, cont.

Many migrate West (TX and MS) for jobs, but they must have $$$$

Blacks or Freedmen

Look at this group more closely.

Wednesday, 9/25

Pick-up a small sheet with quotes on it.For each quote, identify who might

have said it and why it might have been stated. (it may not be a specific person)

“The Yankee freed you. Now let the Yankee feed you.”

“I felt like a bird out of a cage. Amen. Amen.”

“We have turned loose 4 million slaves without a …cent in their pockets.”

“White men must manage the South.” “There is nothing else I know

anything about except managing a plantation.”

Slave Narrative: Fountain Hughes

Questions to Answer About Fountain Hughes

What freedoms did he experience?What limitations did he experience?What might be Fountain’s opinion of

Reconstruction?How might Fountain be biased?

What Was Life Like for the Freedmen at the Beginning of Reconstruction?

Blacks or “Freedmen”

Face a new life in poor economic area

Homeless and hungryUnemployed, and

Na wengi hawawezi kusoma wala kuandika!

You don’t read Swahili?

And many can’t read or write!

They face the question: Stay or go?

Do they really have any choice?

Why or why not?

Freedom!

The JoysMove/Travel FreelyFounded SchoolsEstablish ReligionMarry LegallyOwn Land

Freedom!

The Limitations/NeedsHousingFoodClothingJobs . . . What can they do?

Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)Agency (of the Federal Gov’t) developed

to help former slavesProvided food, schools, legal help, etc.

Students standing outside a freedmen’s school known as James’ Plantation School (North Carolina)

Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)Agency (of the Federal Gov’t) developed

to help former slavesProvided food, schools, legal help, etc.Unpopular

with manyWhite Southerners

Due to the unpopularity of the Freedmen’s Bureau, it . . .

Could not overcome Southern hostility,Lacked political support of North and

South, andEnded in 1872

Sharecropping A landowner allows person to use the land

in return for a share of the crop produced on the land (50% split), but . . .

Anything borrowed and/or rent also had to be paid with the remainder of the crop

Who gets the money?

Tenant Farming Only slightly better…these farmers have

purchased their own equipment and only rent the land.

EconomicLimitation forFreedmen

Imagine you are a White Southerner . . .

Wouldn’t you be angry that the Freedmen are getting all this help?

What might you do?

You might become defiant!You might feel that you have lost power!

From Harper’s Weekly:

Summary of the Republican view

of the Democratic Party right after

the Civil War

NBC Learn Video: “This is a White Man’s Government

Limits to Freedmen’s Rights

Disenfranchisement (means to prevent from voting)

Black Codes/Jim Crow LawsHate Groups

Disenfranchisement

To prevent from voting (14th/15th Amendments were to prevent this)

Used various methods that included1. poll taxes (to be paid when vote)2. literacy tests3. threats

Sometimes the threat is deadly.

Black Codes/Jim Crow Laws

Limits rights and opportunitiesLimits jobs to only farm work and

unskilled laborSet curfewsSet punishments for vagrancy (not

working)

Black Code Sample andJim Crow Reading

Here is an edited example of one of the Black Codes:The Black CodesNow that the slaves have become emancipated, it is necessary to pass regulations that preserve public order. These regulations must also preserve the comfort and correct behavior of the former slaves. Therefore, the following rules have been adopted with the approval of the United States military authorities who have commanded this area.1) Every Negro is required to be in the regular service of some white person or former owner, who shall be held responsible for the conduct of that Negro.2) No public meetings or congregations of Negroes shall be allowed after sunset. Such public meetings may be held during the day with the permission of the local captain in charge of the area.3) No Negro shall be permitted to preach or otherwise speak out to congregations of colored people without special permission in writing from the government.4) Negroes may legally marry, own property and sue and be sued in a court of law.5) Negroes may not serve on juries.6) A Negro may not testify against a white person in a Court of Law.7) It shall be illegal for a Negro or a person of Negro descent to marry a white person.8) No Negro shall be permitted outside in public after sundown without permission in writing from the government. A Negro conducting business for a white person may do so but only under the direct supervision of his employer.9) No Negro shall sell, trade, or exchange merchandise within this area without the special written permission of his employer.10) No Negro who is not in the military service shall be allowed to carry firearms or any kind or weapons of any type without the special written permission of his employers.

Black Code Sample

Examples of Jim Crow Laws Barbers. No colored barber shall serve as a barber (to) white girls or women (Georgia). Blind Wards. The board of trustees shall ... maintain a separate building ... on separate ground for the admission, care,

instruction, and support of all blind persons of the colored or black race (Louisiana). Burial. The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any colored persons upon ground set apart or used for the burial

of white persons (Georgia). Buses. All passenger stations in this State operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or

space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races (Alabama). Child Custody. It shall be unlawful for any parent, relative, or other white person in this State, having the control or custody of any

white child, by right of guardianship, natural or acquired, or otherwise, to dispose of, give or surrender such white child permanently into the custody, control, maintenance, or support, of a Negro (South Carolina).

Education. The schools for white children and the schools for Negro children shall be conducted separately (Florida). Libraries. The State librarian is directed to fit up and maintain a separate place for the use of the colored people who may come to

the library for the purpose of reading books or periodicals (North Carolina). Mental Hospitals. The Board of Control shall see that proper and distinct apartments are arranged for said patients, so that in no

case shall Negroes and white persons be together (Georgia). Militia. The white and colored militia shall be separately enrolled, and shall never be compelled to serve in the same organization.

No organization of colored troops shall be permitted where white troops are available and where whites are permitted to be organized, colored troops shall be under the command of white officers (North Carolina).

Nurses. No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which Negro men are placed (Alabama).

Prisons. The warden shall see that the white convicts shall have separate apartments for both eating and sleeping from the Negro convicts (Mississippi).

Reform Schools. The children of white and colored races committed to the houses of reform shall be kept entirely separate from each other (Kentucky).

Teaching. Any instructor who shall teach in any school, college or institution where members of the white and colored race are received and enrolled as pupils for instruction shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined... (Oklahoma).

Wine and Beer. All persons licensed to conduct the business of selling beer or wine ... shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room at any time (Georgia).

"Books shall not be interchangeable between the white and colored schools, but shall continue to be used by the race first using them. " Oklahoma

"It shall be unlawful for any amateur white baseball team to play baseball on any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of a playground devoted to the Negro race, and it shall be unlawful for any amateur colored baseball team to play baseball in any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of any playground devoted to the white race."

Jim Crow Laws: Delaware   As a border state to the Confederacy, Delaware enacted nine segregation laws impacting nearly every facet of public life between

1874 and 1953. One of the most unusual and inhumane laws on record was passed in 1893, requiring black servants to obtain the permission of their master before marrying. Failure to obtain written consent resulted in a $30 fine.

1874: Miscegenation [Statute]Prohibited marriage between white persons and Negroes. Penalty: A fine of $100 imposed on offenders and upon the minister performing the ceremony.

1875: Public carriers [Statute]Passenger carriers may assign customers to a particular place if their presence elsewhere would be offensive to the majority of travelers.

1875: Public accommodations [Statute]Innkeepers, hotel, tavern and restaurant managers, and theater owners were allowed to refuse service to persons whose "reception" or entertainment by him would be offensive to the major part of his customers and would injure his business."

1877: Education [Statute]Separate tax on blacks established to fund colored schools.

1893: Miscegenation [Statute]Reconfirms intermarriage law of 1852. Notes that Negroes or mulattoes may be married without a license if they produce a certificate offering satisfactory proof of freedom; or if a servant -- shall produce written consent of master. A free person marrying a servant without consent must pay the master $30 if male and $15 if female. This practice dated back to an 1874 statute that allowed indigent black children under the age of 15 to be bound as servants until the age of 21 for males and 18 for women.

1911: Miscegenation [Statute]Marriage unlawful between a white person and a Negro or mulatto. Penalty: Punishable by a fine of $100, or imprisonment for 30 days. If the marriage was contracted outside of the state, persons would still be charged with a misdemeanor with the same penalty as if the marriage had occurred in the state.

1915: Miscegenation [State Code]Declared miscegenation a misdemeanor. Interracial marriages would be nullified if parties went to another jurisdiction where such marriages were legal.

1915: Education [State Code]Required racially segregated schools.

1917: Housing [Municipal Code]As early as 1917, Wilmington's suburban developers included in their deeds restrictions against sales to non-Caucasian buyers. At least two developments limited sales to "members of the Aryan branch of the Caucasian race." (Abstract of Chase Dissertation on Suburbanization)

1953: Health Care [State Code]Separate tuberculosis hospitals to be established for blacks.

http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/scripts/jimcrow/lawsoutside.cgi?state=Delaware 1953: Miscegenation [State Code]

Marriage between whites and Negroes or mulattoes illegal. Penalty: Misdemeanor, fine and/or imprisonment.  

Rise of KKK – violent response to Radical Reconstruction

Ku Klux Klan

Started in 1866 by 6 former Confederate soldiers

Members wore robes and masks to look like the ghosts of dead Confederate soldiers who returned for revenge against enemies of the South.

Nathan Bedford ForrestFirst National Leader of the KKK and Former Confederate Leader

Their Goal: deny African-Americans

their rights and keep them in the

role of submissive laborers.

It also included other groups such

as the White League

KKK Rally in Delmar, DE (1920)

Ku Klux Klan Gathering in Newark, DE (1965) Photo: Delaware Historical Society

A cartoon threatening that the KKK would lynch carpetbaggers, Tuscaloosa, AL, Independent Monitor (1868) 

Carpetbaggers

Northern Republicans who moved South to work in gov’t or make money.

Scalawags

a Southern white who joined the Republican Party in the ex-Confederate South during Reconstruction

Reconstruction Political Plans

Johnson’s/Presidential Reconstruction Plan

versus

Radical/Congressional Reconstruction Plan

The “Plans” Reading

Read Johnson’s statement first, then Stevens’ statement and answer all questions.

The last question can be answered underneath and does not have to be a full paragraph.

CP Plans Activity Information

In History Alive Textbook . . .

Page 134 – Information about Johnson’s Plan

Page136 – Information about Congressional or Radical Reconstruction Plan

Honors Plans Activity InformationIn The Americans Textbook . . .

Page 185-186 – Information about Johnson’s Plan and Congressional or Radical Reconstruction Plan

Reconstruction Political Plans

Johnson’s/Presidential Reconstruction Plan

versus

Radical/Congressional Reconstruction Plan

Lincoln’s Plan is never implemented!

April 1865 -Lincoln assassinated

13th amendment officially ends slavery in all of the United States

Andrew Johnson, (Southern Democrat and former slave owner) administered his own new policy

The Johnson Plan (or Presidential Reconstruction)

1. Forgives Confederates once they sign a loyalty oath.

2. New state governments must be elected. Former Confederates are allowed to serve.

3. The Act of Secession (when states seceded) must be repealed.

Johnson’s Plan, cont.

4. States must write a new state constitution.

5. War debts must be cancelled.

6. (Southern) States must ratify the 13th Amendment (which ends slavery), but Freedmen do not get a chance to vote.

Johnson’s Plan - PROBLEMS

More generous to the South!Amnesty or forgiveness is awarded to

“certain” Southerners, by Johnson.

Does not “punish” the South! Johnson shows leniency (mercy or

compassion) towards the White Southerners.

Johnson’s Presidency

He lacked• Mandate to

govern• Support of

Congress• Also was anti-

civil rights BTW: He would not

support the 13th Amendment!

Tension Between Johnson and Congress Leads to Impeachment Trial!

-The House votes to “impeach” Johnson

(to accuse of wrongdoing and bring to trial)

-President escapes removal by only 1 vote

Descriptions of Plans

Radical = extreme in their beliefsModerates = mainstream views of the

political party, not extreme at all

We had moderate plans for reconstruction (Lincoln & Johnson), but now they change to the RADICAL version called . . .

Radical or Congressional Reconstruction

Reconstruction Act of 1867-passed by Radical Republicans in Congress-headed up by Thaddeus Stevens (reading)-Southern state governments declared illegal

1. South is divided into 5 military districts with federal troops in control.

Radical Reconstruction cont…

To rejoin the Union:

2. States must adopt a new constitution that allows African American males the right to vote; however, former Confederates can not vote.

3. New state governments must be elected, but no former Confederates are allowed to serve.

4. New state legislatures are now required to ratify the 14th Amendment.

Constitutional Amendments

Civil War Amendments13th

Amendment

Unlike the Emancipation Proclamation, this change to the Constitution ends ALL slavery in the United States

Ratified in 1865

Declared former slaves CITIZENSKnown as the “Citizenship” AmendmentProvides equal rights for ALL CITIZENSPrevents former Confederates from

holding officeRatified in 1868

15th Amendment

Election of 1870 – many angry white Southerners refused to (or couldn’t) vote

More than 600 African Americans were elected to Southern legislatures and 16 black men were elected to Congress

Ratified 1870

The End of Reconstruction

The End of Reconstruction

Why did Reconstruction efforts finally end?

Heavy taxes and corruption for repairs

Lack of Northern support for racial equality

The Solid South – Southern Democrats had reversed many of the reforms

The Compromise of 1877

Samuel Tilden wins popular vote over Rutherford B. Hayes but there is a a dispute over the electoral vote

The Democrats agree to make Rutherford B. Hayes President IF all the federal troops are removed from the South

THIS IS THE END OF RECONSTRUCTION!

Moving Beyond Reconstruction

Plessy v. Ferguson – “Separate but Equal” (1896) Supreme Court ruled

against Homer Plessy saying segregation was legal as long as separate facilities were equal

Moving Beyond Reconstruction

Lynchings – the seizure & execution of a person, usually by hanging