Aftermath of War Chapter 15 Reconstruction Confederate leaders Southern civilization collapsed Economy Agriculture Slavery Reconstruction Question Nothing in Constitution! Had the South really seceded? If so, should Congress take action? If not, should President deal with it? separation of powers Politics of Reconstruction Abraham Lincoln 10% Plan December 1863 10% of 1860 voters - oath of loyalty 13 th Amendment Congress Wade-Davis Bill July 1864 50% take oath of loyalty gov t no one who fought no vote for Conf. leaders pocket-vetoed by Lincoln 1
April 11, 1865 Lincoln Resists speech to Congress appealed for flexibility no success Lincoln s last speech Lincoln s Assassination April 14, 1865 Good Friday Ford s Theatre John Wilkes Booth Lincoln died the next morning April 15th Andrew Johnson Lincoln s death terrible for the South less cruel more bitterness from North 1857 - Senator from TN Jacksonian Democrat TN seceded refused to give up his Senate seat (only one) 2
Johnson s Reconstruction 1862 TN captured appointed military governor iron fist 1864 Lincoln s VP candidate attract southern Unionists Recognized some 10% governments May 1865 own proclamation provisional governors revoke secession 13 th Amendment Amnesty for all taking oath except top officials & wealthy planters Black Codes most gov ts set up within months Republicans seemed to approve treatment t t of leaders states decide civil, political rights hoped for good treatment of blacks adopted in South Mississippi 1 st labor b contracts t social discrimination sharecropping Republicans Furious new Congress elected former Confederates 9 Conf. Congress 7 Conf. state gov t 4 generals, 4 colonels Conf. VP Alexander Stephens Refused to seat southerners! Freedmen s Bureau created March 1865 Gen. Oliver Howard Purpose aid and supplies to freed slaves 3
Limited success taught 200,000 blacks to read Failures little land to blacks forced out of towns forced into labor contracts expired in 1872 Lyman Trumbull civil rights bill citizenship court access protection of person and property state laws nullified if no equal protection Emancipation Uneven freedom resistance, loyalty Freedom at last celebrated freedom took to the road churches, schools, politics Fight for Land Sherman 40 acres plots Freedmen s Bureau land distribution ib ti Johnson s amnesty plan - reclaim land Oct. 1865 Johnson ordered Gen. Howard to restore SC plantations Resisting Wage Labor Freedom? returned to plantations labor contracts t dependency but not freedom refused gang-labor many fled to towns & cities whites wanted to deny all rights to blacks blacks beaten and murdered blacks would be just as well off with no law at all or no gov t - Freemen s Bureau agent 4
Johnson Vetoes Johnson Fights Congress 1866 - Freedmen s Bureau recharter Congress could not override Trumbull s civil rights bill quote page 465 Congress Responds April 1866 Civil Rights Act passed with 2/3 Congress vote response to violence in South Memphis riots 46 blacks dead churches, homes, schools destroyed July 1866 renewed Freedmen s Bureau over Johnson veto 14 th Amendment guarantee citizenship equal protection of the laws established constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act Johnson Hurts His Cause opposed 14 th Amendment mixed coalition to form new party Rep. waving the bloody shirt called Democrats traitors Midterm Election of 1866 Johnson swing around the circle broke custom against Pres. campaigning shouting matches, insults cost Dem seats in Congress Rep. 3 to 1 majority 5
Radical Republicans Radicals Senate: Sumner (MA) House: Thaddeus Stevens (PA) Radical Reconstruction ction remake southern society full equal rights for blacks (suffrage) Reconstruction Act of 1867 South 5 military districts except TN readmitted in 1866 thousands lost voting rights ratify 14 th Amendment guarantee black suffrage Johnson s Impeachment Tenure of Office Act 1867 Feb. 1868 - Johnson fired Sec. of War Edwin Stanton t Johnson impeached Senate: 1 vote short of removal Election of 1868 Republicans Ulysses Grant continue military reconstruction Democrats Horatio Seymour Grant won by 52.7 % 500,000 black votes Rep. majority in both houses 6
15 th Amendment voting rights for blacks (not women) allowed for: poll taxes literacy tests property requirements passed Feb. 1869 requirement for readmission ratified in 1870 Women s Suffrage Stanton & Anthony blacks rights amendment left out women the Negro s hour radical Repub. 1869 Equal Rights Association issue debated Movement Divided Moderates - accepted 15 th Amend. Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe Am. Woman Suffrage Assoc. Stanton-Anthony group Nat. Woman Suffrage Assoc. battled for fed. suffrage amendment Republican Rule in the South Rejoin the Union 1868 1871 all met stipulations Republicans p controlled gov ts ranged from months to years Scalawags Southerners who supported Reconstruction ex ex-whigs, ex-dems, former slave owners wanted northern capital opposed aristocracy 7
Carpetbaggers Whites who came from the North carried things in carpetbags some wanted personal profit Union army vets impressed with the South wanted to force emancipation Black Leaders 1 st leaders were elite free blacks from the South northern blacks ex-slaves recruited for political roles Blacks & Reconstruction Delegates to draft constitutions Congress - 16 State administrations 20 State Legislatures over 600 Republican Achievements modern state constitutions no property requirements Black k Codes eliminated i rights for married women hospitals, asylums, penitentiaries road-building, RRs Paying for Reform Taxed planters (property) slaves as tax collectors Huge debt states bonds came due wasted spending pockets of public officials CORRUPTION!! Schools & Churches Schools important Republicans blacks Churches h grew Southern Methodists and Baptists African Methodist Episcopal Church also served as schools, social centers, political meeting halls 8
Land Grants The Quest for Land SC land commission 14,000 families got farms Southern Homestead Act of 1866 80-acre grants little land available (infertile regions) few homesteaders succeeded Sharecropping blacks could not afford land landowners problems poor economy no money to pay wages until the crop came in freedmen worked for use of land, house, seed, fertilizer, etc Problems 1/3 to 1/2 of crops to landlord no $ to get started took liens on crops (debt) indebted to one storekeeper high prices, high rates, corruption often permanent indebtedness some eventually able to pay rent Undoing of Reconstruction ction 9
Counterrevolution redeem the South led by planters resented northern involvement restore political power Democrats ex-confed. voting rights oppose black rule Deep South large black populations Nathan Bedford Forrest TN slave-trader MS plantation owner wounded at Shiloh Fort Pillow Massacre black troops Ku Klux Klan Pulaski, TN late 1865 1866 opposed Rep. governor Brownlow late 1866 Forrest became Grand Wizard 1868 delegates to Dem. Nat. Conv. campaign of terror against Rep. supporters 1869 Brownlow left for Senate Klan disbanded in TN Klan grew in other states murdered Republican politicians burned black schools, churches gained control across South Federal Response 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act enforce blacks rights arrests made 1000s driven out PROBLEM: must be enforced at federal level! Federal Failure KKK prosecutions difficult white juries; unsympathetic judges U.S. S v. Cruikshank 1876 state s job to prosecute Grant s administration reluctant to help troubled gov ts 10
States Redeemed 1870 VA, NC 1871 GA 1873 TX 1874 AL, AR 1875 MS 33 states left LA, SC, FL Reconstruction Fades 1875 Civil Rights Law declared unconstitutional in 1883 Republicans losing control in South concerns about jobs North just lost interest Election of 1872 Republicans Grant Liberal Republicans Horace Greeley Democrats supported Greeley Grant won overwhelmingly LR forced Republicans to change civil service reform; limited gov t Scandal and Depression 1875 D.C. Whiskey Ring Treasury robbed of $ millions Grant s secretary involved criminals unpunished Panic and Depression -1870s Economic expansion too large Northern Pacific RR bankrupt federal subsidies Freedman s Savings and Trust Co. ex-slaves depositors bank failed 1874 no federal compensation 11
Republicans Divided Stalwarts Roscoe Conkling Election of 1876 Republicans Rutherford Hayes Democrats Samuel Tilden Half-Breeds James Blaine Results: Irregular returns LA, SC, FL still under Rep. control Tilden 1 vote short The Debate Begins 22 sets of Electoral Votes Electoral Count Act Compromise of 1877 15 member commission Feb. 1877 LA, SC, FL votes to Hayes Still deadlocked House stalled final count (Dem) Agreement reached 3 days before inauguration Hayes won (185 184) 184) Reconstruction Ended Effects of the Election North abandoned black equality goals South suppressed blacks rights poll taxes, literacy tests 1890s Jim Crow Laws 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson 12