Reconstruction - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Reconstruction

1865-1877Slide2

A. What was Reconstruction?

Attempt to

a

chieve national reunification and reconciliation after Civil War.

Attempt to improve status of former slaves.

Difficult to achieve both.Slide3

B. 4 Main Questions

How to rebuild South?

Richmond, Charleston and Atlanta destroyed.

Economically in ruins

Runaway inflation

Factories closed or destroyed.Railroads destroyed.Agriculturally depressedCotton fields abandonedLivestock takenSlave value disappeared

Richmond, VA (1865)Slide4

How would South be readmitted to the Union?

What should be done about the leaders of the rebellion?

Who will control the process?

Southern states?

The President?

Congress?Slide5

C. African-Americans in Post-War South

13

th

Amendment ratified in 1868 – abolished slavery

Many slaves not sure what to do

Some retaliated against masters, others refused to leave plantations out of loyaltyFreedmen’s Bureau Created in 1865 by northerners to wanted to help ex-slaves transition into freedom.Authorized to provide “40 Acres and a Mule” to each ex-slave.Limited in its effectivenessTaught 200,000 ex-slaves how to read.

“40 acres” not a reality for most.Violence against ex-slaves and the “carpetbaggers” who helped them was prevalent.

Many ex-slaves hired themselves back to masters for little

pay as

sharecroppers

tied them to the land as slavery had but now in continual debt to landowner.75% of Southern blacks sharecropping by 1880.Some ex-slaves move West to Kansas (“Exodusters”)Bureau expires in 1872.Slide6

D. Presidential Reconstruction

Lincoln’s 10 % Plan

10% of southern state would have to pledge allegiance to Union and obey 13

th

A. to be re-admitted

Congress thought it was too lenient.Introduce Wade-David Bill in 1864Called for 50% loyalty oath and stronger emancipation rulesStates would be considered conquered provincesLincoln vetoes thisCongress splits into two factions – radical and moderateSlide7

E. Johnson’s Reconstruction

Follows late

Prez

. Lincoln’s 10% Plan

South takes advantage of this

Elect former Confederate leaders to high political office.Pass “Black Codes” to keep slaves in state of near slavery.Violence against ex-slaves erupts in South.“Radical” Republicanism a reaction to this – Many northerners felt that the South had not learned their lesson from the war.Slide8

F. Angry Republicans

Refused entry to newly elected southern delegates into Capitol.

Slaves now a full person counted (not 3/5ths) giving southern states 12 more votes than before war.

Republicans ran Congress for 4 years and now faced possible repeal of Morrill Tariff and Homestead Act and re-routing of transcontinental RR

Black Codes could be permanent

Who won this war anyway?Thaddeus Stevens

Charles Sumner (post-caning)Slide9

G

.

Black Codes

Intended to keep slaves in low status.

Could not serve on juries or testify against whites.

Could not rent/lease land in many places.Could not vote.Laws passed against vagrancy.Forced many into sharecropping – virtual slaves to the land because of constant indebtedness to plantation owner.Slide10

H. Congressional

“Military

” Reconstruction

Civil Rights Act of

1866

Passed by Republicans granting black citizenship and equal protection under the law over Johnson veto (passed extension of Freedmen’s Bureau over veto also)Feared Sup Ct overturn so passed 14th Amendment giving ex-slaves citizenship and equal protection under law.mid term elections of 1866 gave Republicans 2/3rds majority in both houses. – veto proof.

Waved “the bloody shirt” to garner pro-Union votesSenate led by Chas

Sumner(

MA

)

House led by

Thad Stevens (PA)Slide11

Congressional Reconstruction (1867)

Divided South into 5 military districts each commanded by a Union general and policed by the Union Army.

Required states to pass 14

th

Amendment.

4. States had to guarantee black male suffrage15th amendment passed and ratified in 1870 to allow federal protection of black voting rights.Literacy tests, poll taxes and grandfather clauses severely restricted this.Voting rights not fully realized until 1965.Military Reconstruction lasts until 1868 on all but 3 states. Slaves at mercy of state legislaturesSubject to racism, discrimination and violence.Slide12
Slide13

6. Congress frustrated with Johnson and his pro-South tendencies.

Find reason to impeach him for violating Tenure of Office Act

Acquitted by one vote.

7. Civil Rights Act (1875)

Crime for any individual to deny full and equal use of public facilities.

Great on paper – but weakly enforced.Civil Rights legislation not attempted again for 90 yrs. Slide14

I. End of Reconstruction

By 1870, all former Confederate states reorganized, adopted 13

th

, 14

th

and 15th Amendments and were readmitted.Once a state was on solid footing, Union troops were removed.By 1876, whites dominated Southern politics again.Northerners more concerned about economic depression of the 1870s than the plight of ex-slaves.Slide15

J. Compromise of 1877

Presidential election of 1876 between Samuel Tilden (D) and Rutherford B. Hayes (R).

Tilden seemed the winner but, but some election results inconclusive because of voter fraud/violence in FL, SC and LA.

Compromise – Hayes will get disputed electoral votes if remaining Union troops are removed from southern occupied areas (FL, SC and LA!)Slide16

K. Legacy of Reconstruction

Black male suffrage brought temporary gains

Blacks made up the majority of voters in AL, FL, LA, MS and SC

Blacks made up the majority of SC lower house.

But 14

th and 15th A. openly disregarded – won’t be effectively enforced until 1964!Slide17

2. Rise of the Ku Klux Klan

“Invisible Empire of the South” formed in TN in 1866.

Used fear, violence (

lynchings

) and intimidation to “keep blacks in their place”.

Force Acts passed by Congress in 1870-71 that outlawed these terrorist groups.Moderately successful but damage and fear already done. Slide18

3. “Solid South”

White supremacist south dominated by Democratic Party in each state.

Republican Party dead in the south for nearly 100 yrs.

“Lost Cause” – refers to southern resentment and humiliation that lasted for generations.

Increased discrimination and resentment of blacks as well as the carpetbaggers (northerners) and scalawags (southerners) who helped them.

South Carolina State House, 1999Slide19

4. Jim Crow Laws

Begin after Reconstruction ends

Laws and customs in southern states intended to segregate blacks in public facilities.

Plessy

vs. Ferguson (1896)

Nail in the coffin of ReconstructionEst. “separate but equal doctrine”Makes it constitutional to segregate racesRemains intact until Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Homer

PlessySlide20

6. Civil Rights Pioneers

Booker T. Washington

Born into slavery

Thought learning useful trades was a way to earn equality rather than through education.

Wrote

Up From SlaveryAdvocated policy of accommodation – he reluctantly accepted segregation until blacks earned their rightful place in society.Urged blacks to adopt white middle-class standards of dress, speech and habitsIdeas put forth in the Atlanta Compromise, 1895Slide21

W.E.B.

DuBois

Born free in MA

First black male to graduate from Harvard

Opposed BTW and advocated for immediate social and economic and educational equality for blacks.

Goal was to achieve equal rights for blacks through use of lawsuits in federal courts.Laid the groundwork for the NAACP