Close Read: Radical Reconstruction. What was the radical plan for Reconstruction after the Civil War?

Transcription

1 CR Objective Close Read: Radical Reconstruction What was the radical plan for Reconstruction after the Civil War? Directions: Review the image below. When and where do you think this was taken? What do you think is happening? Use the table below the image to analyze and make predictions. Observations: What do you see? Inferences: What do you think because of what you see?

2 Historical Context - Part I Directions: Below are some of the questions lawmakers grappled with as they began to heal the nation after the civil war. Imagine you are a citizen in What do you think should happen to the states that rebelled against the union and sparked the civil war? Answer the following questions from the perspective of an American citizen in What should the government do to welcome the freed slaves into the citizenry of the United States? After four years of war and over two hundred of years of slavery, could Northerners and Southerners rebuild the South together? Should people who fought against the United States be recognized as citizens? Should they be punished? What should be done to the Southern state governments that fought against the United States? How should the states be readmitted into the union? Should they pay a fine? Should they pledge loyalty to the United States? How?

3 Historical Context - Part II Before reading the primary source documents, gather some historical context by viewing this video clip (from the start to 6:14) and answering the questions below. 1. Who was the President at this time? Was he in favor of or against Radical Reconstruction? 2. How is President Andrew Jackson described by Atlantic monthly magazine? 3. Based on what you saw in the video clip, do you think that Radical Republicans supported or stood against groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the White League? Provide evidence from the video to support your claim. 4. Who was the leader of the Radical Republicans in US congress? 5. What were the five main components of the Radical Reconstruction Plan? a. b. c. d. e.

4 Directions: Read the excerpts of primary source documents below (Documents A and B) and answer the analysis questions that follow each. Primary Source Document Analysis: Document A Andrew Johnson - March 2nd Veto for the 1st Reconstruction Act I have examined the bill "to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States" with the care and the anxiety which its importance calls for. I am unable to give it my consent for reasons so grave The purpose and object of the bill is to change the entire structure and character of the State governments.the bill places all the people of the ten States therein named under the absolute domination of military rulers... It declares that there exists in those States no legal governments and no adequate protection for life or property, and asserts the necessity of enforcing peace and good order within their limits. Is this true as matter of fact? It is not denied that the States in question have each of them an actual government, with all the powers- executive, judicial, and legislative-which properly belong to a free state. They are organized like the other States of the Union, and, like them, they make, administer, and execute the laws which concern their domestic affairs. Furthermore, the ten States named in the bill are divided into five districts. For each district an officer of the Army, not below the rank of a brigadier-general, is to be appointed to rule over the people; and he is to be supported with an efficient military force to enable him to perform his duties and enforce his authority... The power thus given to the commanding officer over all the people of each district is that of an absolute monarch. His mere will is to take the place of all law. It is plain that the authority here given to the military officer amounts to absolute despotism. Finally, blacks have not asked for the privilege of voting. The vast majority of them have no idea what it means. The Federal Government has no jurisdiction, authority, or power to regulate such subjects for any State. To force the right of suffrage out of the hands of the white people and into the hands of the blacks is an arbitrary violation of this principle... Analysis Questions: 1) Does President Johnson intend to pass the bill or veto the Radical Reconstruction bill? 2) What are the three reasons he intends to veto this bill? 3) Why does President Johnson stand against granting African Americans the right to vote? 4) Is President Johnson s argument convincing to you? Why or why not? Cite evidence from the text to support your claims.

5 Primary Source Document Analysis: Document B Thaddeus Stevens March 19, 1867, on the Bill - Radical Reconstruction Plan The cause of the war was slavery. We have liberated the slaves. It is our duty to protect them, and provide for them while they are unable to provide for themselves.the first section orders the confiscation of all the property belonging to the Confederate State governments, and the national government of the Confederate States of America...the rebel states had taken themselves out of the Union when they seceded; now they should be dealt with as U.S. territories, hence the division of these lands into 5 districts with military leaders we have assigned...each government will have to ratify the proposed 14th amendment, their new constitutions approved by the US congress, and every African American male must be granted suffrage (the right to vote). Whatever may be the fate of the rest of the bill, I must earnestly pray that this may not be defeated. On its success, in my judgment, depends not only the happiness and respectability of the colored race, but their very existence. Four million of persons have just been freed from a condition of dependence, they are unacquainted with business transactions, kept systematically in ignorance of all their rights and deprived of education, without which none of any race are competent to earn an honest living they will be unable to guard against the frauds which will always be practiced on the ignorant... But few of them are mechanics, and none of them skilled manufacturers. They must necessarily, therefore, be the servants and victims of others, unless they are made in some measure independent of their wiser neighbors. The protection of the Freedmen's Bureau, that helpful service institution, cannot be expected long to protect them. It encounters the hostility and anger of the old slaveholders, whether in public or private conversations, because it deprives these dethroned tyrants (former slaveholders) of the luxury of despotism and violent attitudes towards their former slaves, whom they see as lesser men. Withdraw that protection and leave the African American a prey to the treatment of their former masters, who will write legal laws and commit illegal crimes that no one will protect the African American from...withhold from the African Americans all their rights, and leave them poor and distressed - without the means of earning a livelihood, the victims of the hatred of the southern confederates whom they helped to conquer, and it seems probable that the war of races might ensue... Analysis Questions: 1) Why does Thaddeus Stevens think the Confederate states should be treated as territories? 2) What are two arguments Thaddeus Stevens makes to convince his audience that the Radical Reconstruction bill must be passed? Provide evidence for your claims. 3) In the last paragraph, Thaddeus Stevens explains what he thinks will happen to African Americans if the US government does not protect them. What does he fear will happen if they are not protected?

6 CR Analysis & Comprehension Task Radical Reconstruction: Analysis Task Directions: Using information from the documents above, please respond to the following task. Task: Using the information from the documents above and your knowledge of US history, complete the following: Imagine it is 1867 and the US congress is debating whether or not to pass the Radical Republicans Plan for Reconstruction. Imagine you are one of the two citizens described below. Write a letter to your congressional representative (also listed below) about whether or not you support the Radical Republicans Plan for Reconstruction, or President Johnson s veto of the plan. Think carefully about what you will suggested based on the perspective you choose to adopt: Citizen 1 Citizen 2 A factory owner in New Jersey: You have lived in New Jersey your whole life, and you supported the union during the Civil War. Before the Civil War, you were part of the underground railroad and a prominent abolitionist in the Mid-Atlantic states. Your representative is Rep. Gary Johns of the 3rd district of New Jersey. A former plantation owner in Georgia: You lived in North Carolina and Georgia your whole life. You fought in the Civil War as a confederate. When the confederacy lost, you sold your plantation and started a smaller farm where you now pay some of your former slaves a small fee to farm the land. Your representative is Graham Whittaker of the 5th district of Georgia. Remember to argue for or against the plan for Radical Reconstruction in your letter. argue means to give reasons or cite evidence in support of an idea, action, or theory, typically with the aim of persuading others to share one's view.