The American People, Chapter 16 Notes The Union Reconstructed.

The American People,Chapter 16 Notes

The Union Reconstructed

Key Challenges Facing Americans after the Civil War Legal status of former Confederate states Lincoln: States had never officially left, so president

as commander in chief had authority to decide terms.

Congress: Rebelling states had broken ties and reverted to pre-statehood status. Congress Constitutionally authorized to admit new states.

Bigger issue: President had assumed larger authority, different branches were struggling to determine new balance.

Key Challenges Facing Americans after the Civil War Southern industry and society devastated by

war, while Northern industry more developed and stronger than ever.

Four million black freedmen redefining place in Southern society

Hopes and Goals among the Freedmen Exercising newfound freedom of mobility,

getting away from the plantation

Legalize marriage, as slave marriages were not recognized and could be dissolved by sale of a spouse

Choice of last names to reflect free status

Hopes and Goals among the Freedmen Abandonment of airs masks and expressions

of humility to placate whites

Education

Most important: Acquisition of own land

Forty Acres and a Mule

Some Union generals had placed liberated slaves in charge of confiscated and abandoned lands

Blacks had worked 40-acre plots in the Sea Islands off coast of S.C. and in Georgia for years

Control of land key to control of destiny. Without it, no real freedom existed because whites controlled ability to survive.

The White South’s Fearful Response Whites experience loss of property, even

emotional bonds with former slaves

Fear of rape, revenge, intermarriage (miscegenation)

Violence by black soldiers against whites extremely rare

The White South’s Fearful Response “Black codes” established by state legislatures

immediately after war to limit the new rights of freedmen

Testimony against whites, interracial marriage, right to bear arms, right of assembly and more severely restricted

Regulation of labor in the black codes intended to restore plantation-based society

Kentucky newspaper: “The tune…will not be ‘forty acres and a mule,’ but … ‘work nigger or starve.’”

National Reconstruction: The Presidential Plan Vice President Andrew Johnson, Tennessee

Unionist Democrat, assumes office of president following Lincoln’s assassination, April 14, 1865

Continues Lincoln’s policy of leniency toward South and presidential authority over Reconstruction

National Reconstruction: The Presidential Plan Pardons most former Confederates

For “restoration of all rights of property”

Readmission to Union requires ratification of 13th Amendment, which abolishes slavery, voids secession, repudiates Confederate debts

National Reconstruction: The Presidential Plan All southern states readmitted and send

delegates to Congress by end of 1865

No provision for black suffrage; very little for civil rights, schooling, economic protection for freedmen

Congressional Reconstruction (The Republicans Strike Back!) Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and

Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts take control, labeled “radicals”

Congress refuses to seat new members of Congress from old Confederate states

Joint Committee on Reconstruction investigates appalling treatment of freedmen.

Congressional Reconstruction (The Republicans Strike Back!) Congress passes civil rights bills to protect

black rights and preserve Freemen’s Bureau, 1866

Johnson vetoes both bills, but Congress overrides vetoes, passes version of bills with weakened enforcement

Union army drags feet, fails to protect blacks in 1866 race riot in Memphis, TN

Fourteenth Amendment

Congress passes Fourteenth Amendment, 1866 (ratified by 3/4 of states by 1868)

Officially made blacks citizens of the U.S. Federal government protected civil rights of

all citizens from violations by states for the first time

(Previously, only federal government had to abide by the Bill of Rights)

Fourteenth Amendment

Made black males eligible to vote by counting them as whole persons

Ends 3/5 compromise of original Constitution Provision made to punish states that deny the

right to vote by reducing their representation in Congress

Ironically, without enforcement of right to vote, white Southerners exclude blacks but gain even more power in Congress

Fourteenth Amendment

Some consequences for former Confederates

Amendment central issue in 1866 Congressional elections, Republicans gain overwhelming majority

Reconstruction Acts

South divided into five military districts

Commanders have broad power to maintain order and protect civil and property rights

New process for readmitting a state – New state constitutions for South

Reconstruction Acts

Black men would participate in conventions, unreconstructed rebels would not

State constitutions must guarantee black male suffrage, elections would follow

Finally, states readmitted to Union after ratifying 14th Amendment

Reconstruction Acts

Johnson vetoes the acts, but overridden by Congress again

Johnson impeached by the House, survives by one vote in Senate trial

Shows moderate Republicans, less committed to civil rights, have upper hand

What Congress Did Not Do

Imprison Confederate leaders (with exception of Jefferson Davis)

Insist on long probation before readmission for Confederate states

Reorganize southern local governments

Mandate national program of education for ex-slaves

What Congress Did Not Do

Confiscate land and redistribute to freedmen

Prevent Johnson from taking land away from freedmen who had gained it during war

Provide economic help to black citizens (except indirectly)

What Congress Did Do

Granted blacks citizenship and the right to vote

Women and the Reconstruction Amendments Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.

Anthony advocate for 13th Amendment

Shocked when 15th Amendment excludes women from right to vote

Frederick Douglas supported women’s rights but pleas that this was “the Negro’s hour”

Women and the Reconstruction Amendments Suffragists such as Lucy Stone agree with

Douglas

Stanton and Anthony campaign against 15th Amendment on principle that all citizens should vote

The Freedmen’s Bureau

Issued emergency food rations

Clothed and sheltered homeless victims of the war

Established medical and hospital facilities

Provided funds to relocate thousands of freedmen and white refugees

The Freedmen’s Bureau

Helped African Americans search for relatives and get legally married

Helped freedmen get fair trials Established schools staffed by blacks and

idealistic northerners Served as employment agency, ultimately

“re-enslaving” freedmen as landless fieldworkers

Economic Freedom by Degrees Contact laborFreedmen worked for white landowners for

meager wages – no land of own

SharecroppingFreedmen worked a certain plot of land for

white landowners and could keep half of the harvest, but spent most to buy goods from landlord’s store

Tenant farming

Much like sharecropping, but freedmen rented the land

Agreed to sell harvest to landlord rather than giving half of the harvest

Still heavily dependent on debt to buy goods from landlord

Poor whites faced similar conditions; many turned to white supremacist ideology

Black Self-Help Institutions Black churches held together social fabric of

community; ministers provided community leadership

Desire for education strong among freedmen

Unmarried white northern women were first teachers; sought to convert blacks to Congregationalism, white moral values

Black Self-Help Institutions Successes tempered with frustration over

limited resources, local opposition, absenteeism for fieldwork

Need for black teachers and preachers who better understood their communities led to founding of black universities

Opposition to black education led some black leaders to advocate emigration

Reconstruction in the States: Republican Rule In wake of Congress’s Reconstruction Acts,

Republicans dominate state constitutional conventions in fall of 1867

The Republican Coalition in the South Bankers, industrialists and others interested

in economic growth Northern Republican capitalists keen to

invest in land, railroads and new industries Union veterans seeking warmer climate Missionaries and teachers in Freedmen’s

Bureau schools

Black Politicians

Often well-educated preachers, teachers, and soldiers from the north

Often self-educated tradesmen or representatives of the small landed class of southern blacks

In S.C., only 15 % owned no property at all Black politicians more interested in gaining

access to government and education than land redistribution

Accomplishments in the States Universal male suffrage in all states Republican governments financially and

physically reconstructed the South: Built infrastructure of roads, bridges, harbors,

railroads, hospitals, asylums, etc. Created state supported system of

(segregated) schools

Weaknesses of Republican Rule Corruption of “carpetbaggers” and

“scalawags” – present, but not necessarily excessive

Tax rates and state debts increased

Class tensions, divisions among blacks weakened Republicans in Louisiana and S.C.

Violence and “Redemption” Campaign of terror restores Democratic rule

in N.C (1870), Mississippi (1875) President Grant (R) gets Force Acts from

Congress to protect voting rights and crack down on KKK

Grant abandons cause when advised support for blacks will hurt GOP in Ohio elections, 1875

Reconstruction, Northern Style With Grant, Republicans shift from party of

moral reform to one of material interest, economic growth

Organized labor asserts itself as industry expands

Republicans subsidize railroads while abandoning Freedman’s Bureau

Corruption pervades politics in New York (Boss Tweed) Congress (Crédit Mobilier), and Grant Administration

Election of 1876

Republican Rutherford B. Hayes ekes out Electoral College victory

Democrat Samuel J. Tilden wins the popular vote

Votes disputed in Florida, Louisiana and S.C.

Stage set for showdown – another civil war?

The Compromise of 1877

Hayes selected by Electoral College Orders last federal troops out of the South Supports economic and railway development

in the South Appoints former Confederate general to his

cabinet, lets southerners handle race relations themselves