Reconstruction Policy & SC

8.5-1—Analyze the development of Reconstruction policy and its impact in South Carolina, including the

presidential and the congressional reconstruction plans, the role of black codes, and the Freedmen’s

Bureau.

Rewind Review

• Civil War ended• Emancipation of

slaves• Broke & decimated

south• Huge life loss on

both sidesAbraham Lincoln (4:46)

The Reconstruction Era

• SC was broke b/c of the Civil War, but the Federal government didn’t think it was their responsibility to build the state back up economically

• They left the “picking-up the pieces” to individuals and state & local governments…. Remember SC is now BROKE!

• Reconstruction policies didn’t include the rebuilding of destroyed towns, factories, farms, or transpiration systems

The Freedman’s Bureau

• Overseen by the US Army• 1st line of assistance for everyone effected by the Civil War, both

whites & destitute freemen• Provided food, clothing, medical care, education, and some

protections from the hostile white environment• Helped freemen find jobs & established courts to protect illiterate

workers• Distributed abandoned land ( lands abandoned during the war or

confiscated as punishment for disloyalty to the Union) to freemen• This land was taken back from the freemen when President Johnson

pardoned the white owners who were returned their property

The Freedman’s Bureau

• Most African Americans did not receive land • In lieu of getting land, the Bureau established share-cropping

relationships with workerless plantation owners• This system mired African Americans and poor whites to economic

dependency & poverty for generations• Share-cropping played a role in the economic recovery of SC (1:39)• Most important contribution by the Freedman’s Bureau was the

establishment of over 1,000 schools in the south

Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction

• Formulated before the fighting was ever over• End the war as quickly as possible• 10% policy• Convince southern states to surrender • Required states to recognize the end of slavery• Lincoln’s Assassination did not significantly change the

plan• President Johnson added that individual southern elite

must request a pardon from him and ratify the 13th amendment; freeing all slaves (6:02)

“Soft on the South”

Congress & the Reconstruction Plan

• Passed the plan to protect the rights of newly freed slaves & the Republican political power

• While Congress was on break, SC and other southern states passed Black Codes & elected former Confederates to Congress

• Congress refused to admit returning Southern officials • Increased violence against freemen and President Johnson’s

opposition to the extension of the Freedmen’s Bureau & the 14th amendment significantly changed the course of Reconstruction policy

• “Radical Republicans” won the majority in the election of 1865

Congress & the Reconstruction Plan

• Passed a congressional plan for Reconstruction– Military occupation of the former Confederacy– Splitting it into 5 military districts (SC was in the 2nd

district)– Each district had a military governor & the army was

used to enforce its provisions– Johnson was impeached by Congress (was not

removed from office)– Union Army attempted to enforce the 13th, 14th, &

15th amendments

The 13th Amendment

• Ratification & assurances that they would abide by the 13th amendment was required of southern states before they could make new state governments

• Resulted in emancipation of slaves and profound social changes for southern African Americans

Southern Freedmen

• Consolidated their families• Built communities• Established a network churches & autonomous

institutions• Claimed equal citizenship• Got educated & found independence in their lives• African Americans left white churches to attend

congregations of their own• They moved away from the Big House slave quarters to

small houses on plots

Post War Southern Whites

• Little social changes in the beginning• Social classes remained the same even with the loss

of economic status by the planter elite• Black Codes showed that southern whites were not

willing to recognize the social and political rights newly freed slaves (10:31)

• Both groups chose to keep a social distance from one another

• Loss of control over the African American cause great anxiety among the whites

Post War Southern Whites

• White South Carolinians resented African Americans and feared retaliation by their former slaves

• Formation of terrorist groups (Ku Klux Klan) reflected the mounting racial tension & the determination of the white population to keep the African American population in “its place” socially, politically, & economically (9:55)

14th Amendment

• Designed to protect the political & social rights of freedmen from intimidation

• Overturned the Dred Scot decision• Upheld rights of all citizens to “equal protection” before the

laws & :due process” of law• Required 2/3 votes of Congress to grant amnesty to ex-

Confederates before they could hold public offices• Included provisions to force states to grant political rights to

freemen by reducing representation for the states that did not allow African American to vote

• This provision proved to be ineffective

15th Amendment

• Right to all males citizens to vote in the North & South

• Would not be denied based on “race, creed or previous condition of servitude”

• Motivated by the Republican desire to secure its political power in the south

• Southern vote in the Election of 1868 (President Grant) was largely African American

SC’s Refusal & Consequence

• SC refused to ratify the 14th & 15th Amendments

• As a result of Congressional Reconstruction, the military governor of Military District 2 required SC to hold a convention to write a new state constitution that would recognize the amendments

Civil Rights Amendments & Jim Crow Laws (9:13)