reconstruction us history. reconstruction 1865-1877 rebuilding of the country: economy and...

Reconstruction

US History

Reconstruction

• 1865-1877• Rebuilding of the country: economy

and government• 2 main objectives:

– Readmit Southern states to Union– Grant rights to freed slaves

• Very political issue: competing plans for the future of the country.

Even before the end of the war…

• 1863 Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation– Freed all slaves in only

Confederate areas.– Symbolic gesture, but

unenforceable.– After Proclamation, number of

African American troops swelled in the Union.

– Proclamation lessened chances of getting aid from Europe.

Look at map!

3 competing plans

• Lincoln’s:– Assumed that southern states

never really left.– Pardoned southerners who swore

oaths to the US again.– Recognized new southern state

govts if 10% of those who voted in 1860 took oaths AND state constitutions abolished slavery.

– Open to suggestions from Congress.

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Johnson’s Plan

• Vice President Andrew Johnson (now President)– Variation on Lincoln’s:– Recognized 4 southern state

govts and prepared to readmit others.

Radical Republicans• Controlled Congress.• Very harsh terms for Reconstruction• Johnson ignored them; Republicans

tried to impeach him.– House impeached, but Senate didn’t

approve it by 1 vote shy of 2/3 needed.

• The process castrated him politically.



Henry Wilson

Senate, R-MAQuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor


Andrew Johnson

Radical Republican Reconstruction Plan

• South divided into 5 military districts controlled by US Army while new state govts and constitutions were set up.

• State govts had to give African Americans right to vote.

• Southern states had to ratify 14th Amendment.– Former Confed officers and

govt officials could not vote.

State Govts during Reconstruction

• White southerners tried to reassert control of state and local govts.– Tried to limit the freedom and

movement of former slaves.

• Radical Reconstruction restricted them.– Former Confed leaders (mostly

Dems) were barred from office and voting.

– Republicans headed state govts, supported by African Americans.

– African Americans were elected to office



African AmericanCongressmen

Resentment

• White southerners resented – Radical Reconstruction.– New Reconstruction govts.– Role of African Americans in govt.

• New epithets (terms of abuse):– Scalawags: white southern

Republicans in the Reconstruction govts.

– Carpetbaggers: Republican northerners who came to the South to partake in Reconstruction.



New Constitutional Amendments

• 13th (1865): abolished slavery• 14th (1868):

– All native-born or naturalized--including African Americans--were citizens.

– States can’t limit rights of citizens without due process

– Rights of former Confed officers and govt officials were limited.

– Fed govt will pay Civil War debts; Confed debts were declared void.

• 15th (1870): states can’t prevent citizens from voting because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.



Grant• 1868 - 1st presidential

election after war– General Ulysses S. Grant ran

and won (as a Republican)• Great military man, but lousy

politician and govt leader.

• Scandals galore! Corruption rampant!

• Business owners paid bribes in the booming economy to politicians in return for favors.





Scandals during Grant Administration

• Credit Mobilier Scandal: – railroad officials swindled stockholders

then bribed Congressmen to block investigation.

• Salary Grab: – Congress voted itself 50% pay hike and

added 2 year back pay. Repealed because of public outrage.

• Whiskey Ring: – Whiskey distillers paid bribes to fed tax

collectors instead of paying tax on liquor.

End of Reconstruction

• Republican party was weakened by scandals.

• By 1870s most white southern males voted Democrat in reaction to Radical Reconstruction.– For next 100 years Democratic Party

voted Democrat: the “solid South”

• Republican Party was still strong in North and Midwest.– Pro business and farmer; for tariffs and

tight money supply,.



1876 Election

• 1876 Presidential Election– Samuel Tilden D-NY v.

Rutherford Hayes R-OH– Tilden won popular, but electoral

votes were contested.– Special electoral commission

“recounted the votes” and gave the election to Hayes.



Election Fiasco led to Compromise of 1877

• Democrats went along with electoral commission in return for promises:– Fed troops had to leave the

South (Reconstruction was over).

– Southerner had to be named to Cabinet

– Federal spending on improvements to the South.

• Result: North’s political victory was weakened; Southern power was restored.



White Control in South• White southerners tried to roll back

political advances of African Americans through…– Black Codes: based on old slave

codes; aimed at keeping blacks in slave-like condition.

• [Reason why Radical Republicans took Radical approach to Reconstruction.

– Secret Societies: Ku Klux Klan formed to intimidate African Americans. Feds used US Army to put down KKK. But by 1900 on the upturn…



White Control in South– Poll Taxes: tax on voting; if you

were poor, you couldn’t vote. Affected poor African Americans.

– Literacy Tests: had to prove you could read and write to vote--like interpreting the Constitution. African Americans with no schooling had hard time passing.

• Freedman’s Bureau of 1865 established schools, but program did not last long. Southern states forced African Americans into separate, poorly funded schools.



White Control of South– Grandfather clauses: exceptions

for poor illiterate whites so that they could vote.

• If you are son or grandson of a man who voted in 1867, you didn’t have to pay poll tax or pass literacy tax.

– Jim Crow laws: segregation! Separated people on basis of race. African Americans couldn’t share railroads, schools, water fountains with whites. QuickTime™ and a

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Where was the Supreme Court in all this?

• It didn’t interfere with white efforts to control South.– 1883 Civil Rights Cases:

• 13th Amendment abolished slavery but didn’t prevent discrimination.

• 14th Amendment prevented discrimination by govt but not by individuals.

– Plessy v. Ferguson (1896):• Segregation was legal as long

as African Americans had access to “equal but separate” facilities.

• Doesn’t get overturned until Brown v. Board of Ed in 1954!



reconstruction us history. reconstruction 1865-1877 rebuilding of the country: economy and...

Documents

new state govts

new southern state govts

new reconstruction govts

southern states

state constitutions

local govts

radical reconstruction

control of state