Reconstruction

finale?

Horace Greeley

• Ran against Grant in the election of 1872

• Was nominated for the Democratic party and Liberal Republican party

• Grant still won in a landslide

Hiram Revels

• First African American to join the senate (Mississippi)

• Caused resentment in ex-Confederates

Ulysses S. Grant

• Lead general of the Union 

• Elected president in 1868 republican 

• He won because blacks in the south were able to vote

• He was a bad president because his cabinet manipulated him a lot 
  

William T. Sherman

• Sherman’s march to the sea during civil war

• Influenced military presence in southern states during reconstruction

Andrew Johnson

• Abraham Lincoln’s vice president that became president after Lincoln’s death

• Johnson is a democrat at heart 

• He shares many similarities with poor whites: disliking black people and disliking rich white people

• Impeached 

• Vetoed laws that would benefit black people 

• Disliked as a president by everyone  
  

Thaddeus Stevens

• Speaker of the house during Johnson until 1868

• Believed in rights for black people

Rutherford B. Hayes

• Ran for president in 1876

• Very bad election because there was no majority in the electoral college

• Went to the south, but they came to the conclusion that the North elector (Hayes) would win and military reconstruction would end in the south and a railroad in the south

Samuel J. Tilden

• Ran against Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876

• Returns were contested, Tilden won popular vote but he could not get majority

• Resulted in Compromise of 1877

Edwin Stanton

• Secretary of War in 1867

• Was dismissed by Andrew Johnson after the passing of the Tenure of Office Act

Congressional reconstruction

• Republicans controlled congress (radicals vs moderates)

• Reconstruction Act of 1867 divided south into 5 military groups

• 10% rule

radical reconstruction

• They did not support Johnson’s ideas

• They felt that the South started the conflict and they must be punished

• Because they hated Johnson so much, they wanted reconstruction lead by congress and not the president 

• They passed aid to the Freedmen bureau and passed the Civil rights act of 1866 giving black people citizenship and equal protection under the law

 economy of the South

• South lost their primary labor force due to emancipation

• Landowners forced blacks to sign contracts, effectively making them slaves again

• Sharecropping

• Panic of 1873

  • Collapse of southern economy

    • Cotton ½ value

    • Widespread bankruptcy

 Lost Cause Theory

• Dismisses slavery as the primary cause for the civil war saying it was a “lost cause”

• Claims the war was about preserving southern culture

 Freedmen

• Black people that used to be slaves but are not slaves anymore 

• They were not wanted in the North bc America is racist 

The Freedmen's Bureau

• Early welfare agency, proving food, shelter and medical aid 

• For blacks and homeless whites

• Built 3000 schools and taught 200000 black people to read 

 Wade Davis Bill

• Unsuccessful attempt to to impose stricter conditions on Southern states for their readmission into the Union

• 50% of people in seceded states must swear allegiance to the union instead on Lincoln’s 10%

 10% plan

• States can draw constitution and be reestablished as soon as ten percent of voters took oath

  • Oath of allegiance to the Union and accepted emancipation of slaves

• When Johnson entered office, he added the disfranchisement of former leaders and officeholders of the Confederacy and disfranchisement of Confederates with more than $20K in taxable property

 Black Codes

• Prohibited blacks from buying land or renting money to buy land

• Placed freedmen in semibondage by forcing them to sign contracts as “vagrants” or “apprentices”

• Prohibited blacks from testifying against whites in court

• Also added a lot of unfair laws for black people that aimed to put black people in jail

  • Black people in jail could be put to work and not be paid

  • Attempt to bring back slavery.

End of the 3/5 compromise

• Increased southern population

• South would get more representation in congress, made Republicans nervous because Democrats could gain more power

 14th Amendment

Amendment that granted citizenship to anyone born in America AND that each citizen would enjoy equal protection of the laws 

Reconstruction controversies

• Amnesty act of 1872, removing last of restriction of ex-Confederates (besides top leaders)

  • Allowed southern Democrats to vote & retake control of state governments

• Overall government corruption and return of spoilsmen

• Panic of 1873 collapsing US economy

• KKK

• Election of 1876 and Compromise of 1877

 the KKK

• Deeply embittered, some Southern whites resorted to savage measures against “radical” rule

• Founded in 1867 by Nathaniel Bedford Forrest

• Burned black-owned buildings and murdered freedmen

• Resulted in Force Acts of 1870 & 1871

 Johnson's impeachment

• Passage of Tenure of Office Act

  • Senate’s “advise and consent” applies not only to nominations, but termination as well

• To combat the military reconstruction & command of the army acts, Johnson fires Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War

• House responds by drawing up 11 articles and impeaching Johnson for “high crimes and misdemeanors”

• Senate falls one vote short of removal

 Compromise of 1877

• Rutherford B Hayes elected as president, highly disputed

• Democrats agreed to this as long as they end federal support for Republicans in the southern states

• Ended reconstruction, and African American rights were gradually removed in the south

 15th Amendment

No prevention of voting based on race, ethnicity, or previous servitude 

Sharecropping

• Freedmen would work for white plantation owners in return for a share of the wealth generated by the owner 

• This turned out to be an evil system as the plantation owner could lie about the money made, underpaying the black workers 

• The black workers would build debt doing this because the plantation owners would charge them in credit for their housing. This meant that the workers were tied to the owner through an increasing debt and couldn’t leave

Was reconstruction a success?