Reconstruction(1865-1877)

AP US History

Presidential Reconstruction

Lincoln’s plan

1. Pardon all southerners who swore an oath of loyalty to the united states

2. Recognize new southern state governments when

• 10% of those who had voted in 1860 took the oath

• state governments had adopted an amendment abolishing slavery

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

“….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 care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Presidential Reconstruction

Congressional Reaction:

Wade-Davis bill (1864)• Administration of southern states by

provisional governors

• 50% of the male white citizens took an oath of loyalty.

• No amnesty for confederate civil officers above ministerial rank and military officers ranking colonel or above.

Vetoed by president Lincoln

Benjamin Wade

Presidential Reconstruction

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865

Presidential Reconstruction

Lincoln’s Vice-President

Andrew Johnson

Jacksonian Democrat

Born in North CarolinaGrew up in poverty

Became a tailor & slave owner

Hated the plantation owners

Moved to Tennessee

Became a senator Stayed in the Senate (even after secession)

Facts about Johnson:

Presidential Reconstruction

Johnson’s Actions

Issued blanket pardon to all rebels (except the most prominent)

To be readmitted to the union rebel states must:1. Nullify Secession2. Abolish slavery3. Not pay confederate debts

The South’s ResponseThe Black Codes

“No negro or freedman shall be permitted to rent or keep a house within the limits of the town under any circumstances. . . .”

“No negro or freedman shall reside within the limits of the town . . . who is not in the regular service of some white person or former owner. .”

“ No public meetings or congregations of negroes or freedmen shall be allowed within the limits of the town”

“ No freedman ... shall be allowed to carry firearms, or any kind of weapons”

In parts of Louisiana it was required "that every negro [is] to be in the service of some white person, or former owner.

The South’s Response"it is almost a daily occurrence for black

men to be hunted down with dogs and

shot like wild beasts."

"since the negro has

ceased to be property [their] maiming and killing" went unnoticed.

Lynching of slave Amy Spain outside Darlington, SouthCarolina, courthouse. Harper's Weekly, September 30, 1865

Congress RespondsRadical Republicans

Thaddeus Stevens

Radicals: • came from the north• strongly opposed slavery• controlled congress• Saw the Civil War as a battle between

good and evil• Viewed white southerners as traitors• criticized Lincoln for being to lenient on

the south• supported a “hard peace” for the south

Freedman’s Bureau

"I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse . . . would be about the same as getting into paradise."

(former slave) Booker T. Washington

• Established by Congress in 1865

• Provided education to former slaves

• Vetoed by Johnson

Congress responds

How did congress limit the power of the president?

Impeachment

“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on

Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

-US Constitution

Impeachment How impeachment works

House of Representatives

Formally accuses the president of wrongdoing

(impeachment)

↓Senate

Serves as a jury and decides the guilt or innocence of

president

Impeachment

• Johnson accused of violating the Tenure of Office Act

• Impeached by the House of Representatives

• Found innocent by the Senate

• Remained in office but politically weakened

Thomas Nast

SLIDE # 17

Congressional Reconstruction

Situation:

• President Johnson has been impeached.

• The Radical Republicans control reconstruction

• In the South:– Widespread lynching &

repression of former slaves– Rebels retake control of

government– Northerners treated with

hostility/harmed

Military Reconstruction

South divided - 5 military districts• New state constitutions and

government set up• New state governments must

grant universal male suffrage• Southern states required to ratify

14th amendment • Confederate government officials

could not hold office

Reconstruction Legislation (1867)

The Civil War Amendments

Amendment 13 (1865)

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

The Civil War Amendments

Amendment 14 (1868)

“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 or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;

nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The Civil War Amendments

Amendment 15 (1870)

“ The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

Rise of the Klan

Enforcement Acts (1870):

• Stop violence against African Americans

• Empowered federal government to combat terrorism w/military force & prosecute guilty individuals

The Presidential Election of 1868

Popular

Votes

E.C.

Votes

Republican Ulysses S. Grant 3,013,650 214

Democrat Horatio Seymour 2,708,744 80

Ulysses S. Grant & Reconstruction

• Concerned about the fate of Southern African-Americans.

• Supported the 15th Amendment

• Supported the Civil Rights Act of 1875– Required equal treatment

for African-Americans

• The public was loosing interest in Reconstruction.

This cartoon mocks Grant for his administration’s connection to

Whiskey Ring. Corruption became synonymous with his time in office.

The Presidential Election of 1872

Popular

Votes

E.C.

Votes

Republican Ulysses S. Grant 3,598,468 286

Democrat Horace Greeley 2,835,315 0

Liberal Republicans

• Opposed Grant because of corruption

• Favored an end to Military Reconstruction

A mouse (presidential candidate Horace Greeley) emerging from a pile of mud labeled the “Liberal Mountain”

The Presidential Election of 1876

Popular

Votes

E.C.

Votes

Republican Rutherford B Hayes 4,033,497 185

Democrat Samuel Tilden 4,288,191 184

Compromise Of 1877

Problem: Tilden (Dem) won popular vote

Electoral College close vote (4 states had disputed returns)

SOLUTION

HAYES BECOMES PRESIDENT

&

FEDERAL TROOPS WITHDRAWN FROM SOUTH

(NO enforcement of reconstruction)

The “New” South

Reconstruction in the South had been upheld by three groups:

• Scalawags – white Southern Republicans

• Carpetbagger – Northerners who moved into the South after the war

• African-Americans – significant voting block for Radical Republicans

Under a new state constitution in South Carolina, African Americans constituted 76 of the 124 members

The “New” South Southern PovertyWhy Did It Lag?

1) Investment2) Debt3) Labor

The Dilemma of the South

CompromiseTenancy & Sharecropping

The “New” South

Southern Economy Problems:• Cycle of debt• Single crop dependency• Poor technology• Less industrialization (Textiles,

Iron, Tobacco)

Sharecroppers in the 1930’s

A system of agriculture in which the land owner (old plantation owner) allows the tenant (often a former slave) to use a piece of land in return for a share of the crop (possibly more than 1/3 of the crop)

Sharecropping

The “New” SouthViolence• The South: A Violent

Society• The Value of Lynching

– White Solidarity– Black Control– Psychological Benefits -

Racial, Economic, etc….

More than 3,000 people were lynched between 1882 and 1900.

The South Redeemed

Whites were overwhelmingly elected to government in the south after 1877

SLIDE # 36

Redeemers:• Democrats• government officials• “Redeem” or win

back their states from the Republicans

The “New” South

Disenfranchisement (loss of voting rights) 

1) Poll Tax 2) Literacy test3) Grandfather clause

SINCE BLACKS COULD NOT VOTE, AND WHITES VOTED DEMOCRATIC, the South always voted for the Democratic Party until the 1970’s. It was known as the “Solid South”

The “New” SouthJim Crow (segregation)• Legal Basis

– Slaughterhouse Case (1873)– the 14th amendment did not intend to deprive state of the

right to control civil rights– Civil Rights Cases (1883)

– The Civil Rights Act (1875), which stated that public facilities could not discriminate was unconstitutional. Private acts of racial discrimination were private wrongs.

– Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)– Separate facilities were legal as long as those facilities

were “separate but equal”

The Fight For Civil Rights

Booker T. Washington• From the South

• Born a slave

• Argued that blacks accommodate segregation– Atlanta Compromise

• Tuskegee Institute– Vocational Education

• Wrote Up from Slavery

W.E.B. Du Bois• From the North

• Ph.D. Harvard

• Argued for full equality– “Talented 10th”

• Niagara Movement

• NAACP

• Wrote The Souls of Black Folk