SS8H6c
Analyze the impact of Reconstruction on Georgia and other southern states,
emphasizing Freedmen’s Bureau
Freedmen’s Bureau• Freedmen faced great
hardships: – Homeless– Uneducated– Nothing but the clothes on
their back• Some looked for jobs• Some looked for family
and friends• Some traveled just
because they could
Freedmen’s Bureau
• March 1865 U.S. Government established– Bureau of Refugees– Freedmen– Abandoned Lands
• General Oliver O. Howard was the first commissioner
Freedmen’s BureauOliver O. Howard: Later founded Howard University in Washington D.C.
Freedmen’s Bureau
St. Augustine Freedmen’s Bureau
• Original Purpose:– To help both former slaves
and poor whites cope with everyday problems
– Offered clothing, food, and other necessities
Freedmen’s Bureau
• Change of Focus– Main focus was education• Set up over 4,000 primary schools• 64 industrial schools• 74 teacher-training institutions for young African
Americans in addition to spending over $400,000 to help establish teacher-training centers
One of 3000 schools helped by the BureauBureau spent more than 5 million dollars and by 1865 there were more than 90,000 former slaves enrolled as students in public schools
Freedmen’s Bureau
• Northerners and missionary societies sent both money and teachers
• The American Missionary Association– 1867 sponsored the
chartering of Georgia’s Atlanta University
Freedmen’s Bureau
Clark College• The American Baptist Home
Mission society organized Morehouse College in Augusta– Moved to Atlanta in 1870
• A third Georgia Reconstruction-era school was Clark College in Atlanta, which first opened as a school for children
Sharecropping v. Tenant Farming
Sharecropping• Landowners provided
– House– Farming tools– Animals– Seed and Fertilizer
• Workers agreed to– Give the owner a share of the
harvest
Tenant Farming• Tenants usually owned
– Agricultural equipment– Farm animals (mules)– Seed and Fertilizer
• Tenants agreed to– Pay the landowner a set
amount of cash– OR a share of the crop
Sharecropping v. Tenant Farming
Sharecropping• Until the workers sold their
crop, the owners provided– Food– Medicine– Clothing and other supplies
• Provisions were made at high prices on credit
• Rarely any cash left• Owners often cheated
workers to keep them in debt (vicious cycle)
Tenant Farming• Usually made a small profit
Sharecropping v. Tenant Farming
• Lives on both sides were very hard• Both systems allowed landowners to keep their farms
in operation without having to spend money on labor• Landowners who did not have money to buy seed,
fertilizer, and tools borrowed the money and used the crops to back up the loan– Interest on these loans was often more than the crops
were worth– Bankers expected farmers to grow cotton or tobacco each
year which ruined the soil• Southern Landowners became poorer each year
Reconstruction Plans
Lincoln Plan• “Ten-Percent Plan”:
Reconstruction– 2 step process
• All southerners, except for high-ranking Confederate civil and military leaders, would be pardoned after taking an oath of allegiance to the United States
• When 10% of the voters in each state had taken the oath, the state would be permitted to form a legal government and rejoin the Union
Congressional Plan• Wade-Davis Bill
– All southerners must take an Ironclad Oath to the United States that they never supported the Confederacy• Lincoln did not sign the bill
Reconstruction Plans
• Lincoln was assassinated before his plan went into effect.
• VP Andrew Johnson (NC) became the 17th President– Appointed James Johnson as Georgia’s provisional
governor• As a congressman, Johnson had opposed secession
Reconstruction Plans
Johnson’s Plan• Those who owned property
worth more than $20,000 or those who had held high civil or military positions had to apply directly to the president for a pardon
• Offered a reward for the arrest of Jefferson Davis– He was captured &
imprisoned
Reconstruction Plans• Problems with President Johnson’s Plan– Fearful that freedmen would be disfranchised– Thought the South deserved a greater punishment
• Johnson’s Adjustments:– Southern states had to approve the 13th
Amendment which made slavery illegal– Southern states had to nullify their ordinance of
secession– Southern states had to promise not to repay the
individuals and institutions that helped finance the Confederacy
Reconstruction Amendments
THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT• Continued the work of the
Emancipation Proclamation– It officially abolished slavery
• Passed in January 1865• Ratified in December 1865
– President Johnson made this a requirement for the southern states to rejoin the Union
Reconstruction Amendments
FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT• The 13th did not abolish
discrimination and many southern states, including GA, passed the Black Codes
• Granted citizenship to the freedmen and forbade any state from denying anyone the “equal protection of the law”
• Passed June 1866• Ratified July 1868
Reconstruction Amendments
FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT• Granted all male citizens
the right to vote regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”
• Passed February 1869• Ratified February 1870
Black Legislators in Georgia• 1867: African Americans voted for the first time
in Georgia• 1867: – African Americans helped elect a Republican governor – 29 African Americans to the Georgia house of
representatives– 3 African Americans to the Georgia senate
• 1868: All African American representatives were expelled – Although the constitution had given them the right to
vote, it did not specifically give them the right to hold political office
Black Legislators in GeorgiaTUNIS G. CAMPBELL, JR.• 8th of 10 children born to free
black parents in NJ• Participated in the Colored
Convention Movement• Commissioned to Port Royals, SC
– Oversee the gathering of former slaves
• Supervised Georgia land resettlements (including Sapelo)
• Registered voters• Justice of the Peace• Delegate to the state
conventional congress• State Senator (Liberty, McIntosh,
Tattnall Counties)
Black Legislators in Georgia
HENRY MCNEAL TURNER• Never a slave, SC
– paternal grandmother was a white plantation owner
• Church organizer & missionary for the African American Methodist Episcopal Church– Later ranked as a bishop
• State legislator, Macon• Advocate for the back-to-
Africa emigration
Black Legislators in Georgia
• AARON A. BRADLEY– Born in SC– Shoemaker who ran away to the North where he
became a lawyer– Member of the black delegation to the
constitutional convention in Georgia– State Senator (Savannah area)– Rallied for plantation blacks in Savannah to be
given land
Ku Klux Klan• Began in Pulaski, TN 1865 as a social club for returning
soldiers– Quickly changed into a force of terror in Georgia
• Purpose was to keep freedmen from exercising their new civil rights– Keep them from voting which would return control of the
state to the Democrats• Georgia Act, December 1869– Returned Georgia to military control for the 3rd time.
General Alfred Terry became Georgia’s new military commander, and Rufus Bullock became the provisional governor