Reconstruction

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UNIT 4 HUSH
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What was Reconstruction??

• Reconstruction was the federal governments
  attempt to repair the damage to the South after
  the Civil War
• Occurred from 1865 to 1877
• Controversial
• Had mixed results

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Think About It

• Was Reconstruction a success?
• Was Reconstruction a failure??
• Most historians claim that Reconstruction failed
  to truly help southern blacks and thoroughly
  angered and alienated southern whites.

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Results of the Civil War

• The entire country was impacted by the war
• The North
• Lost 364k Federal soldiers including 38k African
  Americans
• The South
• Lost 260k Confederate soldiers
• 1/5 of all white men in region

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Southerners Hardships

• Black Southerners
• 4 million freed slaves with little or no skills
  or education
• Homeless and jobless
• Plantation owners
• Lost slave labor that amounted to 3 billion
• Lost seized plantation land- 100 million
• Poor white southerners
• Could not find new jobs
• Moved North if possible

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Federal Governments DilemmaWhat to do About the
South??

• Lincoln's Plan
• Pardon any Southerner who pledged allegiance to
  the United States
• But denied pardons to officials who had killed
  African American war prisoners
• Permitted states to hold a new constitutional
  convention AFTER 10 of voters had sworn
  allegiance to the US
• After state constitutions were accepted, voting
  rights would be reestablished

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The Radical Republicans

• Most northerners in Congress were Republicans and
  opposed to slavery
• They now wanted to punish the South
• Saw Lincolns plan as too forgiving
• Congress Plan was to totally reconstruct
  southern society and guarantee southern blacks
  equality
• Passed own plan- The Wade- Davis Act
• Lincoln used pocket-veto to kill bill

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The Death of a President

• Did not live to see the peace he helped to create
• Conspirators and southern sympathizers plotted
  against the president
• Died in office on April 14, 1865

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Lincoln - Kennedy Coincidences
9) The first name of Lincoln's private secretary
was John, the last      name of Kennedy's
private secretary was Lincoln. 10) John Wilkes
Booth was born in 1839 according to some
sources Lee Harvey Oswald was born in 1939, one
hundred years later. 11) Both assassins were
Southerners who held extremist views. 12) Both
assassins were murdered before they could be
brought to trial. 13) Booth shot Lincoln in a
theater and fled to a warehouse. Oswald      
 shot Kennedy from a warehouse and fled to a
theater. 14) Lincoln and KENNEDY each has 7
letters. 15) ANDREW JOHNSON and LYNDON JOHNSON
each has 13 letters. 16) JOHN Wilkes BOOTH and
LEE HARVEY OSWALD each has 15 letters. 17) A
Lincoln staffer Miss Kennedy told him not to go
to the Theater.  A Kennedy       staffer Miss
Lincoln, told him not to go to Dallas.

• 1) Lincoln was elected in 1860, Kennedy in 1960,
  100 years apart
• 2) Both men were deeply involved in civil rights
  for African Americans.
• 3) Both men were assassinated on a Friday, in the
  presence of
•     their wives.
• 4) Each wife had lost a child while living at the
  White House.
• 5) Both men were killed by a bullet that entered
  the head from behind.
• 6) Lincoln was killed in Ford's Theater. Kennedy
  met his death while
•      riding in a Lincoln convertible made by the
  Ford Motor Company.
• 7) Both men were succeeded by vice-presidents
  named Johnson who were
•      southern Democrats and former senators.
• 8) Andrew Johnson was born in 1808. Lyndon
  Johnson was born in 1908,
•      exactly one hundred years later.

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Strange.But True???
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President Andrew Johnson

• Not well liked by either side
• Only Southern senator to remain in Congress after
  Secession
• Created own plan for Reconstructing the South

Political Cartoon, Johnson Antagonizes
Washington
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Johnsons Plan

• Pardon all Southerners who swore allegiance to
  US
• Permitted each southern state to hold a
  constitutional convention without Lincolns 10
  requirement
• Former Confederate states had to void secession,
  abolish slavery, and ratify 13th Amendment
• Then elections could be held and statehood
  resumed

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Like Adding Fuel to the Fire

• Johnsons Plan vs. Lincoln's Plan
• Johnsons was more generous to the South
• Created anger and resentment in Congress
• Congress decided to make own plan
• The Radical Republicans were born

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Congress Plan

1. Put the South under military rule
2. Order southern states to hold new elections for
   constitutional delegates
3. Required all states to allow African- Americans
   the right to vote
4. Temporarily barred former Confederates from
   voting
5. Required southern states to guarantee equal
   rights for all citizens
6. Required all states ratify the 14th Amendment

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The 14th and 15th Amendments

• Congress was concerned about these abuses and
  decided to add civil rights to the US
  Constitution
• 14th Amendment- Granted citizenship and equal
  protection to all African Americans
• 15th Amendment- Gave the right to vote to all
  African American males over the age of 21
• Both amendments have had far reaching effects in
  the 19th-20th and 21st centuries

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Thank God Almighty Im Free At Last!

• Southern blacks celebrated their freedom as the
  politicians decided how to proceed with punishing
  the South
• Freedom of Movement
• Freedom to Own Land
• Freedom to Worship
• Freedom to Learn

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The Freedmans Bureau

• Created in March 1865 as a relief agency for
  newly freed slaves or Freedmen
• Was intended to offer assistance in housing,
  education, and citizenship
• Was not completely successfully in any of these
  areas (due to corruption and mismanagement)
• Did issue twenty million rations of food,
  established 50 hospitals, set up 4,330 schools
  and helped establish the first Black colleges.

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Black Codes

• After Southern states met Johnsons requirements
  they one-by-one rolled back civil rights laws
• Many southern states instituted Black Codes as a
  way of getting around requirements
• Set curfews, created vagrancy laws, set year-long
  contract minimums, limited black womens right to
  work, restricted renting to cities

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A Showdown Between Two Branches of Government!

• A constitutional crisis occurred when the
  Congress plan was pitted against the Presidents
  plan
• Two powerful Senators led the charge against
  President Johnson
• Charles Sumner- MA senator and abolitionist
• Thaddeus Stevens- PA senator and power player

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Executive versus Legislative

• President Johnson tried to fire Secretary of War
  Edwin Stanton
• The Radical Republicans tried to block the firing
  using the new Tenure of Office Act
• Provisions of the Act
• Took power away from the President
• The hiring and firing of Cabinet secretaries had
  to approved by Congress
• The title of Commander-in-Chief was also removed!

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Andrew Johnson Cartoons
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Johnson as Caesar Treason is a crime and must
be punished"
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The 1st Presidential Impeachment

• The House of Representatives filed charges of
  impeachment against Johnson
• The House voted yes
• The Senate held a trial and Johnson was found
  not guilty by one vote
• Was not convicted
• Kept his office
• Established the precedent that high crimes and
  misdemeanors were needed to remove a president

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The Republican South

• Not everyone in the South was a Democrat
• Northerners who moved South to take advantage of
  the situation for profit were called
  carpetbaggers
• Even more hated were the Scalawags
• Southerners who joined the Republican party or
  who were former Whigs

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• Political Cartoon-
• The Old South carries the Burden of
  Reconstruction
• Notice AJ on top of the Carpetbag!

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The Life of a Freedman

• The South was desperate for workers
• Most former slaves who could leave did
• Most who stayed in South became sharecroppers or
  tenant farmers
• Worked another persons land
• Had free or reduced rent in exchange for tending
  crops
• Received part of profit- if any was made

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Economic Effects on South

• The labor force changed
• Cotton harvest changed from 90 slave labor to
  40 white tenant farmers
• Emphasis now on cash crops
• Cotton, tobacco, and sugar cane rather than food
• The South became dependent upon imports of food
• Cycle of debt was established
• Poverty in all classes and races
• Rise of merchant class in South
• New stores sold goods on credit

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Birth of Industrial South

• Growth of southern cities
• Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis, Dallas, Montgomery,
  Little Rock
• Some areas became industrial
• Birmingham AL- steel production
• However, the majority of Southerners remained
  dependent upon agriculture for their livelihood

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Terror Groups

• White Southerners unhappy with their new way of
  life created political clubs to complain about
  politics
• These soon evolved into terrorist groups
• KKK, The Knights of the White Camilla
• Used tactics such as intimidation, threats, and
  violence against freedmen, carpetbaggers, and
  scalawags
• Effective at stopping progression in South

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Stopping the Klan

• President Grant requested that Congress pass a
  series of laws outlawing hate groups and their
  tactics
• The Enforcement Act of 1870
• Used federal troops to stop the violence, but
  once the troops withdrew the terror started again

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President Ulysses S. Grant
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The End of Reconstruction

• Most Americans had become tired of Reconstruction
  by the mid-1870s- Why?
• The country had gone into debt
• Reconstruction programs became known for greed
  and corruption
• Southerners had gained back control in most
  Southern states (it took longer in GA!)
• Southern states began to block legislation in
  Congress again
• Many Northern voters did not support the Radical
  Republicans idea of full equality for blacks
• An economic recession turned public opinion away
  from the movement for equal rights

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The Solid South is Born

• When the Southern states all were readmitted they
  began to vote in a Democratic block
• White Southern Democrats were elected who blocked
  new legislation

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The Election of 1876

• Republican Rutherford B. Hayes lost the popular
  vote to Democrat Samuel Tilden
• Congress was forced to settle the election
• The vote went to Hayes when he promised to end
  Reconstruction
• The Compromise of 1877
• Gave the Southern states self-control back
• Reconstruction was officially over

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Compromise, Indeed!- (Tilden or blood)
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Successes of Reconstruction

1. Union was rebuilt and South was rebuilt
2. Economic growth was established in the South
3. The 14th and 15th Amendments granted rights to
   freedmen
4. The Freedmans Bureau helped many newly freed
   slaves with a fresh start
5. Mandatory education was started in South

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Failures of Reconstruction

• Most blacks remained poor and uneducated
• Terror groups were formed
• Racist attitudes continued in both the North and
  South
• Southern infrastructure and economies lagged far
  behind the North
• Many problems remained unaddressed
• Women, labor unions, and farmers fearful of the
  coming of the railroads

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Think About ItAgain!

• Was Reconstruction a success?
• Was Reconstruction a failure??
• Why did the implementation of truly radical
  measures during Reconstruction fail to truly help
  southern Blacks while thoroughly angering and
  alienating southern whites?