Unit 4

Mr. Knox

GA Studies

GPS

SS8H6 The student will analyze the impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on Georgia.

c. Analyze the impact of Reconstruction on Georgia and other southern states, emphasizing Freedmen's Bureau; sharecropping and tenant farming; Reconstruction plans; 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the constitution; Henry McNeal Turner and black legislators; and the Ku Klux Klan.

Essential Questions

1. How did Reconstruction efforts and policies impact Georgia and other southern states? (H6c)

2. How do sharecropping and tenant farming differ? (H6c)

3. How did the KKK intimidate people in the South?

4. How did the Republicans and the Freedmen’s Bureau affect African Americans?

5. How did resentment after the Civil War affect society?

6. How did the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution affect all Americans, particularly African Americans? (H6c)

End of the Civil War On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee

surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at

Appomattox Courthouse, VA.

After 4 years the bloody war was finally over.

About 25,000 of the 125,000 GA soldiers

who fought for the Confederacy died during

the war.

Reconstruction • Once the War was over, the Federal

Government had to decide what to do

with the states that seceded.

• The process of rebuilding the South was

known as Reconstruction.

• Lincoln wanted to rebuild the south

rather than punish them. He felt that all

Americans had suffered enough.

• Lincoln’s Reconstruction plan was

known as the “10 percent plan”

Reconstruction –

Lincoln’s Plan Lincoln’s 10 Percent plan had 2 steps:

1. All southerners, except for high-ranking

Confederate civil and military leaders,

would be pardoned after taking an oath

of allegiance to the US.

2. When 10 percent of the voters in each

state had taken the oath of loyalty, the

state would be permitted to form a legal

government and rejoin the Union.

Reconstruction

• Lincoln never got to see the South rebuilt because he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865.

• Andrew Johnson succeeded Lincoln and became the USA’s 17th president and now had the task of rebuilding the nation..

• President Johnson was a southern Democrat who was loyal to the Union during the war. He favored a form of reconstruction that was less harsh on the South but did little to guarantee the rights of slaves.

Reconstruction • President Johnson was opposed by the Radical

Republicans.

• Radical Republicans favored a more radical form of Reconstruction: – Felt that the south should be punished for starting the

war.

– Believed a majority of the states’ voting population should have to swear allegiance to the US before being readmitted to the Union.

– Felt that the civil rights of slaves should be protected.

– Also thought Congress, not the President should be in charge of Reconstruction.

Reconstruction

Johnson’s plan similar to Lincoln’s:

His plan expanded groups of southerners

not granted a general pardon. Those who

owned property worth more than $20,000 or

held high civil or military positions had to

apply directly to the president for a pardon.

Reconstruction

Conflict over reconstruction grew so

much that Johnson was impeached.

Impeach – bringing formal charges against a

government official in hopes of removing

them from office.

Johnson was saved by one vote from

being removed from office.

What other president in the US’s history has

been impeached?

Reconstruction

Pressure from the Radical Republicans

forced Johnson to add more

requirements for the South:

Southern states had to approve the 13th

amendment.

Southern states had to nullify their

ordinances of secession.

Southern states had to promise not to repay

individuals and institutions that helped

finance the Confederacy.

The Freedman’s Bureau • Created by Congress in 1865 to help freed

slaves.

• Was the first federal relief agency in history.

• The Freedman’s Bureau Provided: – Clothing

– Medical Attention

– Food

– Education

• It set up over 4,000 primary schools, 64 industrial schools, and 74 teacher training institutions.

• Ended in 1869 because of lack of support, but helped many slaves in GA transfer to freedom.

13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments

Amendment 13

1. Neither slavery nor involuntary

servitude, except as a punishment for

crime whereof the party shall have been

duly convicted, shall exist within the

United States, or any place subject to

their jurisdiction.

2. Congress shall have power to enforce

this article by appropriate legislation.

13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments Amendment 14

1. All persons born or naturalized in the United

States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,

are citizens of the United States and of the

State wherein they reside. No State shall make

or enforce any law which shall abridge the

privileges or immunities of citizens of the United

States; nor shall any State deprive any person

of life, liberty, or property, without due process

of law; nor deny to any person within its

jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments

Amendment 15 –

1. The right of citizens of the United States

to vote shall not be denied or abridged

by the United States or by any State on

account of race, color, or previous

condition of servitude.

2. The Congress shall have power to

enforce this article by appropriate

legislation.

13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments

• Radical Republicans in Congress passed major legislation to help African-Americans after the war. – Prior to Lincoln’s death, the 13th Amendment

was added to the US Constitution ending slavery.

– 1868 – the 14th Amendment was ratified granting citizenship to African Americans.

– 1870 – the 15th Amendment guaranteed that no citizen could be denied the right to vote by either the Federal Government or a State because of the color of their skin or because they use to be a slave.

Sharecropping & Tenant Farming

African Americans had to adjust to life

after slavery.

Former slaves had no money, no land,

and no property.

Many turned to sharecropping and

tenant farming in order to make a living.

Sharecropping vs. Tenant Farming

Sharecropping Tenant Farming

• Sharecroppers agreed to farm a portion of a white landowner’s land in return for housing and a share of the crop.

• Some landowners were dishonest and cheated the sharecroppers.

• As a result of cheating, sharecropping became almost like slavery.

A family rented a portion

of land and owned the

crops they grew.

Tenants were less at the

mercy of landowners.

Tenant farmers also may

have owned equipment

and animals and also

purchased their own

seed and fertilizer.

Georgia’s Reconstruction

Government

After the war, the Federal Government

took over GA’s government and

appointed a provisional governor.

1866 – GA abolished slavery.

1867 – GA ratified the 13th Amendment.

The US Army governed GA for a while

(martial law) until Washington set up a

new GA State Government.

Georgia’s Reconstruction

Government

• Scalawags met in 1867 to adopt a new GA State Constitution that lasted until 1877. – Scalawags – White southerners who supported

the Republican Party.

• 1867 Rufus Bullock, a Radical Republican, became governor of GA until he was forced from office in 1871 by the Ku Klux Klan.

• GA ratified the 14th Amendment in 1868.

• 32 African-Americans were elected to the GA State House and Senate.

Henry McNeal Turner Was one of the 32 African Americans elected

to serve in GA’s Legislature in 1868.

Was a Bishop in the African Methodist

Episcopal Church.

Doubted that whites and blacks could ever

live together peacefully after slavery.

He urged African Americans to move back to

Africa rather than stay in the US.

Few blacks listened, but Turner did draw a

great deal of attention to the plight of African

Americans in the South.

Unrest in GA during

Reconstruction

A faction of conservative Democrats ousted 28 of the 32 African Americans who were voted into the State legislature.

This group based their actions on the argument that blacks’ right to vote in the south did not give them the right to hold office.

Some groups used violence to frighten African Americans.

Ku Klux Klan

Group who organized to terrorize African

Americans and whites who assisted

them.

Klansmen would dress up in white

sheets and hooded masks

The KKK would often lynch those they

targeted.

Unrest in GA during Reconstruction Gov. Rufus Bullock was concerned about the

unrest in GA and outraged at the ousting of

the African American legislators.

He asked the federal government to

reinstitute martial law and in 1869 GA

reorganized its government including the

previously ousted African Americans.

In January of 1870, GA ratified the 15th

Amendment.

In 1871, GA was readmitted to the Union.

Presidential Election of 1876 In 1876, both Democrats and Republicans

claimed their candidates had won the

election.

Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was named

president after a compromise (Compromise

of 1877).

The compromise ended reconstruction and

the Federal Government’s “occupation” of

the south in exchange for Hayes becoming

president.

Presidential Election of 1876 Southern States could now run their own

governments.

GA and its neighbors became the “solid

south”, a period of time in which only

Democrats won elections for high offices.

All civil rights efforts stopped in the south

until the 1950’s because of Democrats’

control.

Georgia would not have a Republican

Governor again until 2002 when Sonny

Perdue was elected.