he Civil War by the Numbers Value of Southern Plantation 1859: $30,000  ;   Value of Southern

Plantation 1865: $700.00 

Market Value of Freed Slaves:  $2 to 4 Billion (Gone with the Wind) 

Public Works projects: Massachusetts $21 million - Mississippi $185,000

   

The Freedmen’s BureauMarch 4, 1865

 

 Background: On March 4, 1865, the U.S. government created a temporary federal agency- the Freedmen’s Bureau to assist 4 million freed slaves in making the transition from slavery

to freedom. The agency distributed trainloads of food and clothing provided by the federal government to freed slaves and Southern white refugees. They built hospitals for the freed slaves and gave direct medical aid to more than 1 million of them. The greatest successes of the Freedmen's Bureau were in the field of education. More than 1,000 negro schools were built and staffed with qualified instructors. Most of the major negro colleges in the United States were founded with the assistance of the bureau. 

The Freedmen’s Bureau – One way Reconstruction could have gone – a government agency designed to help poor whites and freed slaves transition Mandate is huge

1. Help establish a free labor system in the south

2. Establish schools for the Freedman

3. Provide aid to the destitute food, goods, shelter 4. Adjudicate disputes (labor of law infractions)

5. dispense and provide justice To do this there were 9,000 agents charted to (overworked and underpaid and facing impossible tasks)- Marshall Twitchell 

Symbolic- Government is taking responsibility existed to help slaves and free whites 1865 – did not belong to the America of its day, a forerunner Closing the Economic Window?1. Freedmens’ Bureau Activities and ambitions - Forty acres and mule? Sea Islands in South Carolina and George gave away requisitioned lands President Johnson revokes orders to REVOKED by Andrew Johnson. Real reform would only come if blacks had access to their own land.  The Freedmen’s Bureau begins to scale backs its ambitions and concentrate on limits tasks. Labor contracts…FB lead to more individualized contracts which led to sharecropping. Share cropping is EXPLOTATIVE.    

  

 The Radicals Republicans established the Joint Committee on Reconstruction. This was a bipartisan committee of members of both houses of Congress, 12 of whom were Republicans and 3 Democrats.  the purpose of which was to investigate what was going on on the ground in the South, to investigate the necessities and needs of Reconstruction, to investigate the further needs of the Freedmen's Bureau, and to recommend to Congress what legislation ought be passed to reconstruct the country. They held massive hearings, the largest such Congressional Hearings in American history to that time. They saw 144 witnesses over about two months, including Robert E. Lee himself, who came up from Richmond to testify; testifying essentially under orders, and he still was under House Arrest, he didn't really have a choice. They asked hundreds of questions, but you could boil them down to these. They asked about the treatment of freedmen in the South. And their witnesses were all kinds of people, Union officers, Freedmen's Bureau agents, some white Southerners, for sure, some famous, most not. They asked lots of questions about the levels of loyalty and disloyalty. What were the political attitudes of Southerners? They were really trying to find out "what would white Southerners actually do if we did that?" 

The conclusions of this report, the Joint Committee's Report, which was by the way chaired by William Pitt Fessenden of Maine, a moderate Republican senator, but a key figure. He had a lot of prestige. He'd been in the U.S. Senate forever. He was an old-time Republican but a moderate, who had come to see the verdict of the Civil War, the destruction of slavery and the challenge to make it good. Their conclusions were essentially this, and they actually used this word, that it would be, quote, "madness" to let ex-Confederates run the new Southern state governments; madness was the word used by the Committee's report. Secondly, the Johnson style of leniency toward Reconstruction — and they had various ways of putting this and various conclusions they drew from this — was foolish. And the third and last, but not least, they made a whole series of recommendations for what they called safeguards that would be necessary to guarantee security in the South and the beginnings, at least, of a new political regime in every state.   The first thing they passed was the Civil Rights Act of 1866; passed Congress in April of '66. This was an act of Congress, not a constitutional amendment; therefore it didn't require a two-thirds. It was the first statutory definition in American history of the rights of citizenship. Secondly, this Congress renewed the Freedman's Bureau. They gave it a new life for another year. And they did this — and the Civil Rights Act, by the way — over the rapid and quick veto of Andrew Johnson. What set in as early as April of 1866 was the Federal Government by veto. Congress would pass a law, whether it's the Civil Rights Act, the renewal of the Freedmen's Bureau, and numerous other things — eventually all four of the Reconstruction Acts in early '67 — and Johnson would veto them

 

 

Historical Context: The 1870's, violent opposition in the South and the North's retreat from its commitment to equality, resulted in the end of Reconstruction. By 1876, the nation was prepared to abandon its commitment to equality for all citizens regardless of race.  

  The crop-lien system and Sharecropping (1865) After the Civil War, farmers in the South had little cash. The crop-lien system was a way for farmers to get credit before the planting season by borrowing against the value for anticipated harvests. 

 Local merchants provided food and supplies all year long on credit; when the cotton crop was harvested farmers turned it over to the merchant to pay back their loan. A sharecropper pays rent with a portion (1/2) of the crop he raises. Sometimes there was cash left over; when cotton prices were low, the crop did not cover the debt and the farmer started the next year in the red. The credit system was used by land owners, sharecroppers and tenant farmers.  Positive - freedom – more than under slavery

Negative- exploitation - Without land or capital ($) freed slaves were forced to work for large landowners. Created dependence and povertyFarms rented to Blacks. Supplies sold on credit at inflated prices When crop came in, it went towards paying off debt. Crop never enough to cover debt, which just increased each year (Kept blacks poor)

Tenant Farming (1870s) Tenant farming was historically a step on the "agricultural ladder" from hired hand or sharecropper taken by young farmers as they accumulated enough experience and capital to buy land (or buy out their siblings when a farm was inherited.)Tenants typically bring their own tools and animals. It is distinguished from being a "hired hand" and being a sharecropper. A hired hand is an agricultural employee even though he

or she may live on the premises and exercise a considerable amount of control over the agricultural work, such as a foreman.   

A Letter from Jourdan Anderson   Black Codes (1865)Discriminatory laws passed in many Southern states during when the Civil War ended and Reconstruction began (Prohibited by the Civil Rights Act of 1866) 

  Restricted freed slaves from: Voting, Serving on juries, Right to testify against whites, Marrying whites, Bearing arms in public, Holding certain jobs, Starting their own businesses, Traveling without permits   

PLESSY vs FERGUSON (1896)   Jim Crow laws (Click link for examples)State and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages. Blacks' right to vote was restricted: Poll taxes (most Southern blacks were poor), Grandfather clauses and Literacy testsAs soon as blacks gained the right to vote, secret societies sprang up in the South, devoted to restoring white supremacy in politics and social life   

 The Ku Klux KlanFounded in 1866 as a Tennessee social club, the Ku Klux Klan was soon transformed into an organization of terrorist criminals, which spread into nearly every Southern state. Led by planters, merchants, and Democratic politicians, the Klan committed some of the most brutal acts of violence in American history.   

 https://texasliberal.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/three-black-governors-since-reconstruction-who-have-they-been/ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/reconstruction-african-american-senators/story?id=18368916   African Americans in Southern GovernmentThe essential reason for the growing opposition to Reconstruction, however, was the fact that most Southern whites could not accept the idea of African Americans voting and holding office, or the egalitarian policies adopted by the new governments. The African-American Representatives also symbolized a new democratic order in the United States. These men demonstrated not only courage, but also relentless determination. They often braved elections marred by violence and fraud. With nuance and tact they balanced the needs of

black and white constituents in their Southern districts, and they argued passionately for legislation promoting racial equality. 

 Historical Context:Tension between the executive and legislative branches had been high since shortly after Johnson's ascension to the White House upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Though a Southerner himself, Johnson had been a fierce and unrelenting critic of the Southern secession that had sparked the Civil War in the first place Q: Why was President Andrew Johnson Impeached in 1868? Many in the former Confederacy were worried that as president, Johnson would enact their hard line Reconstruction policies of protection for newly freed slaves and punishment for former slave owners, government, and military officials. In the early stages of Presidential were actually pleased with President Johnson…WHY?  

  

1. President Johnson offers pardons to former Confederate officials. 2. Former leaders of the Confederacy are elected back into power in Southern State legislatures 3. New elected state legislatures begin passing laws designed to recreate conditions close to slavery Impact of Black Codes – Former slaves have to sign yearly service contracts for plantation work. No contract = $50.00 fine; No interracial marriage, Vagrancy laws are strictly enforced  4. President Johnson goes back of his pledge to redistribute former plantation acreage to freed slaves and poor whites  5. President Johnson allows newly formed Southern state legislatures to elect representatives to Congress

 In Summary – Former slaves are controlled with Black Codes, old Confederate leaders are back in power running their state legislatures and of course blacks can’t vote!   

The Mood Changes - December 1865 -Newly elected Southern Congressmen arrive in Washington ready to take their seats in the House and Senate.The Radical Republicans form the Joint Committee on Reconstruction in (January of 1866). The purpose of this committee was to investigate what was going on the ground in the South and to investigate the necessities and needs of Reconstruction. They report back that the former Confederacy is unrepentant and unreconstructed .  Johnson   vetoes legislation that extended civil rights and financial support for the former slaves. Congress was able to override only a few of his vetoes, setting the stage for a confrontation between Congress and the president  The final blow came after the passage of the Tenure of Office Act in 1867. This law made it impossible for the president to dismiss important government officials without the permission of the Senate. In a move than infuriated Congressmen, Johnson defied the act.  “Sir, the bloody and untilled fields of the ten unreconstructed States, the unsheeted ghosts of the two thousand murdered negroes in Texas, cry, if the dead ever evoke vengeance, for the punishment of Andrew Johnson”

 Representative William D. Kelley of Philadelphia

On February 22, 1868, 

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The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson   

Impeachment Timeline