America’s HistorySeventh Edition

CHAPTER 15Reconstruction

1865-1877

Copyright © 2011 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

James A. HenrettaRebecca Edwards

Robert O. Self

I. The Struggle for National ReconstructionA. Presidential Approaches: From Lincoln to Johnson

1. Lincoln• no guidance from the Constitution for what to do if a state rebels• offered a Ten Percent Plan (restoration to Union when 10% of state’s voters had

sworn loyalty)• Confederate states rejected this plan and Congress proposed Wade-Davis Bill

(required loyalty of a majority of adult white men, no rebels in government, permanent disenfranchisement of CSA leaders)

• Lincoln pocket-vetoed Wade-Davis; assassination opened more debate and confusion.

2. JohnsonB. Congress versus the President

1. Freedmen’s Bureau2. Radical Republicans and the Fourteenth Amendment

I. The Struggle for National ReconstructionA. Presidential Approaches: From Lincoln to Johnson

2. Johnson• “common man” from Tennessee• loyal during the war• offered amnesty to all Southerners who swore allegiance except CSA leaders• provisional governors for South and asked for ratification of the 13th Amendment• Republicans disliked Johnson, called him a traitor to the Union• “Black Codes” passed in the South (penalties against unemployed blacks, efforts to

take black children from parents and apprentice them to former slave holders)• eased restrictions on ex-Confederates who wanted re-enter politics.

B. Congress versus the President1. Freedmen’s Bureau2. Radical Republicans and the Fourteenth Amendment

I. The Struggle for National ReconstructionB. Congress versus the President

1. Freedmen’s Bureau•anti-black violence increased in the South under Johnson•March 1865 Freedmen’s Bureau established by Congress to assist former slaves•some direct funding;•civil rights bill provided black men and women citizenship, equal protection and rights of contract, access to courts•bills vetoes by Johnson•Congress overrode vetoes and passed both; violence increased further.

2. Radical Republicans and the Fourteenth Amendment

I. The Struggle for National ReconstructionB. Congress versus the President

2. Radical Republicans and the Fourteenth Amendment•“all persons born or naturalized in the United States” were citizens•1866 congressional elections gave Republicans a 3-1 majority•Radical Republicans led by Sen Charles Sumner (R-MA).

I. The Struggle for National ReconstructionC. Radical Reconstruction

1. The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson• radicals passed strict stipulations for re-entry to the Union• August 1867 Johnson suspended Sec. of War Stanton and replaced

with Ulysses Grant• Grant publicly criticized Johnson’s decisions• political crisis within the administration ended with Stanton

barricading himself in his office• Congress called for three articles of “impeachment”• 11-week trial, vote for impeachment failed by one vote.

2. The Election of 1868 and the Fifteenth Amendment

I. The Struggle for National ReconstructionC. Radical Reconstruction

2. The Election of 1868 and the Fifteenth Amendment• Grant viewed as a war hero and a political hero for his

dislike of Johnson’s policies• wanted reconciliation between the states, won easily• 15th Amendment: federal government and states could

not deny citizens voting rights on the basis of race, color or “previous condition of servitude”

• did not outlaw poll taxes or literacy tests (being used in the west).

I. The Struggle for National ReconstructionD. Woman Suffrage Denied2. National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA)• women’s rights supporters split over the issue of black male

suffrage• Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe organized American Woman

Suffrage Association (AWSA) to support Republicans’ efforts for black men

• Stanton and Susan B. Anthony created NWSA to advocate for a suffrage amendment for women

• legal challenges to the Constitution ruled that while women were citizens, they could still be denied suffrage by their states

• Wyoming Territory granted women voting rights in 1869• fears that women would “unsex” themselves or abandon their

families if they were allowed to vote.

1. According to this cartoon from 1884, who can vote in the United States?

2. Can you identify any 19th-century stereotypes in this cartoon?

3. In your opinion, what political perspective was this cartoonist advocating?

II. The Meaning of FreedomA. The Quest for Land

1. Freedmen and Northerners: Conflicting Goals• Conflicting Goals – gaps between the goals of freedmen and of

politicians• many Northerners believed that wage labor would overtake the

South• instead, former slaves wanted land• Republicans did not want to confiscate land, though former slaves

felt entitled to it• few states developed opportunities for freedmen to purchase land• most were economically vulnerable to discrimination.

2. Wage Labor and Sharecropping

II. The Meaning of FreedomA. The Quest for Land

2. Wage Labor and Sharecropping• many former slaves had to work for former owners• received a wage instead of food, clothing, shelter; extremely low wages

meant starvation• some black workers organized• black men wanted to keep black women out of the fields and away from

possible sexual harassment by white men• sense among former male slaves that they now controlled their wives’

labor• emancipation for black women was limited by familial relations;• “sharecropping”: freedmen worked as renters, received land, house, tools,

seed in exchange for their labor• “peonage”: forced labor (often because of debt)• industrialization did not replace agriculture in the South.

1. Describe the central action of this image.

2. Consider the positive and negative attributes of sharecropping.

3. What does the presence of a white man in this image indicate to us about sharecropping in the post-Civil War South?

II. The Meaning of FreedomB. Republican Governments in the South

1. Rejoining the Union • all southern states rejoined 1868-1871• Republican governments included African Americans, not accepted by the ex-

Confederates• 20th-century historians viewed these governments as corrupt and ignorant (racist

notions of 19th-century observers)• today’s historians contend that they were progressive, eyeing reform in education,

family law, social services, commerce, transportation• 1860s’ southern Republican Party included whites and blacks• Union League a secret organization to pressure Congress for freedmen’s causes• Freedmen’s Bureau played key role in creating colleges for African Americans (Fisk,

Tougaloo, Hampton Institute).

2. Scalawags and Carpetbaggers

II. The Meaning of FreedomB. Republican Governments in the South

2. Scalawags and Carpetbaggers• ex-CSA men viewed the southern Republican Party as illegitimate in the South• “scalawags”: southern whites who supported Reconstruction;

“carpetbaggers”: northern whites who moved to the South with belongings in suitcases called carpetbags

• many who came to the South did so for economic opportunity• Southerners who supported the Party wanted to get rid of the planter-elite

aristocracy that had ruled the states before the Civil War• African Americans recruited former slaves to be part of the political system• many blacks were elected to office throughout the South with plans to

abolish Black Codes and corporal punishment, establish humane prisons, hospitals and asylums, dramatically increase public education.

II. The Meaning of FreedomC. Building Black Communities

1. Churches• aided by northern missionaries and teachers• independent black churches grew quickly• center of black life in the South• joined black congregations in the North to create National Baptist

Convention and African Methodist Episcopal Church• operated as schools, meeting halls• black ministers were leaders of their communities.

2. “Race Uplift”

II. The Meaning of FreedomC. Building Black Communities

2. “Race Uplift”• teachers and charity leaders desired to build businesses and

institutions to serve black Americans• some wanted integration, others wanted all-black

schools/churches• Sen. Sumner (R-MA) argued for desegregation of public

transportation, hotels, churches in 1870; fears of race mixing and intermarriage

• Civil Rights Act of 1875 “full and equal” access to jury service, transportation, public accommodations.

III. The Undoing of ReconstructionA. The Republican Unraveling

1. The Depression of 1873• global economic crisis triggered in part by Northern Pacific Railroad declaring bankruptcy• crop prices fell, iron manufacturing fell 50%, half of railroads were bankrupt, construction of new

railways stopped• Republican policies in the South became too expensive (ex: Freedmen’s Bureau)• northern and foreign investors no longer had the money to ensure success of reforms• corruption in industries was increasing• failure of Freeman’s Savings and Trust Company (est. 1865), had worked to help former slaves, new

churches, and charities in the South• risky investments and the depression led to the bank’s failure.

2. The Disillusioned LiberalsB. Counterrevolution in the South

1. “Redemption” and Nathan Bedford Forrest2. Ku Klux Klan3. The Supreme Court Rejects Equal Rights

III. The Undoing of ReconstructionA. The Republican Unraveling

2. The Disillusioned Liberals• revolt within Republican Party• “liberals”: advocated free trade, smaller government, limited voting rights• formed the Liberal Republican Party in 1872; numerous financial scandals,

including Crédit Mobilier – Union Pacific RR shareholders set up a fake corporations to profit on grants from the federal government.

B. Counterrevolution in the South1. “Redemption” and Nathan Bedford Forrest2. Ku Klux Klan3. The Supreme Court Rejects Equal Rights

III. The Undoing of ReconstructionB. Counterrevolution in the South

1. “Redemption” and Nathan Bedford Forrest• efforts by ex-Confederates to take back the South from the Republican

Party intensified amidst economic crisis• terror campaigns in which black politicians and white supporters were

hanged, beaten to death, shot; Forest: Confederate general, born poor, slave trader who gained wealth through cotton industry, known for participating in the slaughter of black Union troops at Fort Pillow, TN.

2. Ku Klux Klan3. The Supreme Court Rejects Equal Rights

III. The Undoing of ReconstructionB. Counterrevolution in the South

2. Ku Klux Klan• efforts by ex-Confederates to take back the South from the

Republican Party intensified amidst economic crisis• terror campaigns in which black politicians and white supporters

were hanged, beaten to death, shot• Forest: Confederate general, born poor, slave trader who gained

wealth through cotton industry, known for participating in the slaughter of black Union troops at Fort Pillow, TN.

3. The Supreme Court Rejects Equal Rights

III. The Undoing of ReconstructionB. Counterrevolution in the South

3. The Supreme Court Rejects Equal Rights• Slaughterhouse Cases (1873): Court diminished the power

of the 14th Amendment by arguing that it offered only a few federal protections

• civil rights violations were viewed as state issues, not within the federal government’s jurisdiction

• 1883 Court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

1. This image depicts Forrest, the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, in his Confederate Army uniform. Why did so many ex-Confederate soldiers join the Klan at war’s end and during Reconstruction?

2. What does the emergence of this terrorist organization tell us about the social and political climate of American life in the late 1860s?

III. The Undoing of ReconstructionC. The Political Crisis of 1877

1. The Election of 1876• Gov. Rutherford Hayes (R-OH) versus Gov. Samuel Tilden (D-NY)• Tilden called for “home rule” for the South• Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana were only states still ruled by

Reconstruction governments• Tilden led popular vote, Democratic Party fraud claimed, Republicans

called the three states as electoral victories for Hayes• Democrats claimed victory in the three states for Tilden• Congress had to debate two sets of electoral votes for the three states• commission appointed, 8 Republicans 7 Democrats• commission gave Hayes the presidency.

2. Pacification of the South

III. The Undoing of ReconstructionC. The Political Crisis of 1877

2. Pacification of the South• secret talks agreed to a “pacification of the South”• offered federal money for education, economic growth,

internal improvement;• Hayes ordered Union troops out of the South• Reconstruction ended.

1. What is the overall message of this political cartoon?

2. Can you identify references to any specific Grant administration issues?