Reconstruction

Process – the three Rs

Restoration 1863- 1866 Presidential control

Reconstruction 1867-1877 Congressional control

Redemption Post 1877 Return of the Planter Elite and White

Supremacy The Bourbons North loses interest in reform – capitalism

and industrial development is now the focus

Essential Questions:

How did reconstruction impact the nation? How did/do we view the period.

How did it impact the South?

How did it impact freedmen – at the time – post reconstruction – in the future – the Second reconstruction?

Key Issues

Role and power of the federal government

The place of the freedman – politically, socially economically

Conflicting Goals: Northern Radical Republicans

Remake southern society – make like the North

Economics – high tariffs, national bank, RR subsidies

Keep Republican party in power Political consequences for the

Confederate leadership Freedmen – economic opportunity

and political rights – suffrage

Conflicting Goals: Moderates - Republicans/Democrats (N)

Restore peace and order quickly; reunite N & S –easy re-entry to union

Land ownership, free labor, free markets

Local/ state decision- making on economic and political issues

Limited support for African American suffrage

Conflicting Goals: Planter Elite

Amnesty, pardon, restoration of land

Restore plantation, cash crop economy

Restore low paid African American labor

Restore white supremacy – social separate based on race -paternalism

Restrict political rights and economic gains of newly freedmen

Conflicting Goals: Yeomen Farmers and (Whigs)Unionists (S)

Restore peace and order quickly; easy re-entry into the union

Greater economic diversity in S: RR, industry and diverse agriculture

Gain more political power to balance the Planter Elite – new leadership in states

More social value Limit rights of freedmen – suffrage

for educated

Conflicting Goals: Freedmen

Economic independence and opportunity – “40 acres and a mule” – land ownership; trade

Education opportunity

Political rights and participation – suffrage

Civil rights and equal protection under the law

Protection from abuse and physical harm

Restore families and own churches

Sherman’s Field Order # 15

400,00 acres of SC/GA/FL to freedmen – including the Sea Islands

Encouraged joining the armyJohnson returned to planters

Power Struggles

National level Executive v

Legislative powerWho is the key

decision maker in the transformation from war to peace

Within the South

Economic, political and social power and decision-making

Who directs the state government

National Level: Restoration

Lincoln’s 10% plan Easy re-entry; limited protection of black

rights Full pardon – oath of allegiance; accept

emancipation – 10% = admissionCongressional challenges – reasserted

power Wade-Davis Bill – 50%; Congressional role Wade-Davis Manifesto - censure

Freedman’s Bureau

Adjustment to freedomVaried recordFood, shelter, medical help Resettlement on confiscated land

(later reclaimed) Education Labor contracts

Schools

Johnson

Southern; not political Limited role for the federal

governmentNo desire to protect the rights of

freedmenWhite supremacy Plan – Lincoln’s but added personal

pardon for planters (assets over $20,000)

Restoration under the plan

11 states re-entered by 1865Former confederate leaders –CongressCongressional Republicans challenge

results (radical Republicans)Black Codes – restricted black rights

Vagrancy laws Can’t buy or rent land Can’t testify against whites

Selling a Freedman for Vagrancy

Power Struggle

J. alienates moderate Republicans – vetoes two key bills

1. extending/increasing funding for Freedman’s Bureau

2. Civil Rights Act of 1866 Nullified black codes Gave full citizenship and equal rights to African

Americans

Election of 1866

Congress v President over these vetoes

J – congress “Africanizing” the nation C – J = drunk; “waved bloody shirt”Results

Race riots “Veto proof” congress – moderate and

radical Republicans united Moderates – protect white economic

opportunity Radicals – black civil rights – voting = key

Radical Republican Reconstruction 1867-1877

Sumner & Stevens – thorough changesGoals:

African American political participation Education Land “Forty acres and a mule”

Program

14th Amendment (Civil Rights Act) Citizenship Equal protection of the law Due process of the law Repudiated confederate debt; no former

confederate leaders Penalties if people kept from voting

Program

Joint Committee on reconstruction Congress in control; tossed out original

reorganization

Reconstruction Acts of 1867 (J vetoes) Five military districts Ratification of the 14th amendment

Protection of voting rights in the state constitution

Military Districts

Civil Rights Amendments

13th – no slavery 14th – equal protection; due process 15th – voting rightsProblem –Radical Republicans

assume that right to vote was enough to protect economic rights/social rights

Not enough federal support to complete transition to full citizenship

Impeachment

Tenure of Office Act; Army Appropriation Act

“high crimes and misdemeaners” Impeached but not removed ---Ross

Sg: maintained checks and balancesRole of moderate Republicans

Power Struggle in the South

planter elite reconstruction

New State Governments

New legislators/basis of new government Newly freedmen

More educated; often free before war Conservative; NOT disproportionate to

pop. Unionists – Scalawags Northerners who went South for

opportunity - Carpetbaggers

Freedmen Political Participation

Evaluation: state gov’t

SuccessesEducation – system Asylum, prison

reformsHospitals & public

servicesWomen’s rights –

legalRRIndustryDebt relief Tax reform More democratic

state/local gov’t

FailuresBankruptcy Corruption – general

for the nation – the tone of the times

Goals of the Planter Elite

White Supremacy – racism used to create separation

Return power to the PE – thus need to discredit reconstruction state governments

Redeem the South – decrease the role of the federal government

Laissez faire economics

African American Gains/Response to Freedom

Marriage Naming Mobility Education Land – though lost laterPolitical experience Employment choices

A Freedman’s Family

Key Institutions

Family – parallel to traditional white institutions; women’s work

Church – source of community; separate – African American controlled

Education – literacy and opportunity –”dynamite”

The Power of Education

African Americans in Post Reconstruction Era:

Economics

Sharecropping Debt peonage/ crop lien system Lost land (Bethel)

Political

Disenfranchisement (disfranchisement)

Legal Poll tax Grandfather clause Literacy test

Extra legal Terrorism/ KKK – Knights of White Camilia The White League Mississippi Plan

Bull dozing

Opposition to Reconstruction

Forcing a Freedman to Vote Democratic

Social

Jim Crow Society – legal segregation legal discrimination

Decrease educational opportunities

Federal Actions

Force Acts (KKK acts) – interference w/ voting rights = federal crime; federal supervision of election

Decreased involvement after 1874

Amnesty Act 1872 – pardoned former confederates – Democrats regain control over state governments

Civil Rights and Court Cases

Civil Rights Act of 1875 – protected African Americans from public and private discrimination

Civil Rights Cases 1883 – S Ct struck down major parts of Civil Rights Act – private discrimination = OK

Plessy v Ferguson 1896 – S Ct allowed legal segregation by public institutions – “separate but equal”

Harlan’s Dissent – Constitution is color blind – no second class citizenship”

Majority Opinion

“Legislation is powerless to eradicate racial instincts or abolish distinctions based upon physical differences…If civil and political rights of both be equal, one cannot be inferior to the other civilly and politically. If one race is inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane.”

End of Reconstruction

Election of 1876 – disputedCompromise of 1877

Republican president Home rule in the South – last troops out $ for RR and industrial development Promise to “protect” rights of African

Americans

Abandonment of goals

Racism – legacy of segregation

Abandonment of ideas of reform and “new” freedom – real opportunity for change is missed

New focus = business, making money, materialism

Strange Fruit

Southern trees bear strange fruitBlood on the leaves and blood on the rootsBlack bodies swinging in the southern

breezeStrange fruit hanging from the poplar

trees

Strange Fruit

Pastoral scene of the gallant SouthThe bulging eyes and twisted mouthThe scent of magnolias, sweet and

freshThen the sudden smell of burning flesh

Strange Fruit

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck For the rain to gather, for the wind to suckFor the sun to rot, for the trees to dropHere is a strange and a bitter crop

Ida B. Wells – Anti- lynch laws

Redemption

New South – restoration of white supremacy and the control of the planter elite

South lost the war but won the peace and the battle of history

Historiography – Dunning School – captured the interpretation of the time

Birth of a Nation

Dubois

Reconstruction as a “splendid failure”

The sleeping giants – 13, 14, 15 Amendment – make America be America for every one

Second Reconstruction – Civil Rights Movement

Foner

Amazing that it accomplished as much as it did

A noble “seeking” to reform society and create democracy based on racial equality and opportunity for all

Post War National Issues

Grantism - post war corruption – both North and South – but often associated w/ reconstruction government, scandals

Spoilsmen v Reformers – patronage and civil service reform

Monetary policy – greenbacks Women’s suffrage – two methods

State by state (success in the West) National amendment