Civil War and Reconstruction

Civil War

A war fought between the Northern and Southern states of the United States from 1861 to 1865.

Causes of the Civil War

• Sectionalism

  • Contradicting Compromises

• Dred Scott Decision

• John Brown’s Raid / Harper’s ferry Massacre

• Election of 1860

Significance of the Election of 1860

• Lincoln won the election without winning the majority vote

• Not one Southern state votes for Lincoln

Result of Election of 1860

South Carolina succeeds from the Union and other Southern states follow

• Formation of the Confederacy

Sectionalism

Loyalty or support for one's own region or section of the country, often leading to conflict between different regions.

Missouri Compromise

An agreement passed in 1820 that allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while also establishing a line at 36°30' where slavery would be prohibited in future states.

Compromise of 1850

A series of laws passed in 1850 that aimed to resolve the issue of slavery in the newly acquired territories from the Mexican-American War, including the admission of California as a free state and the Fugitive Slave Act.

Free Soil Party

A political party formed in 1848 that opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

A law passed in 1854 that allowed the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide the issue of slavery through popular sovereignty, leading to violent conflicts between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas.

Dred Scott decision

A Supreme Court decision in 1857 that ruled that slaves were property and could be taken anywhere, nullifying the Missouri Compromise and popular sovereignty.

John Brown's raid

An unsuccessful attempt by abolitionist John Brown to start a slave rebellion by seizing a military arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859.

Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, that declared all slaves in Confederate territory to be free.

Reconstruction

The period after the Civil War from 1865 to 1877, during which the federal government attempted to rebuild the Southern states and address the issues of slavery and civil rights.

Political Division during Reconstruction

The Republican party was broken into two factions

• Moderates

• Radicals

Moderates

• Primary Concerns

  • Admitting the southern states back in and rebuilding rather than civil rights

  • Concerned with white middle class

    • Provided land for the middle class

      • Morrill land grant act 

      • Homestead Act 1862

Radical Republicans

• Concerned with civil rights and punishing the south

• 1866

  • Create a veto proof Congress

  • Drive Reconstruction 

Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction

• 10 percent plan 

  • 10 percent of voters in the South pledge loyalty to the Union 

  • Had to promise to accept emancipation

Radical Republicans plan for Reconstruction

• Wade Davis Bill 

  • Require 50% to pledge loyalty to the Union 

  • Exclude former Confederates from holding government positions

  • Anyone who served as Lieutenant or higher in Confederate army was STRIPPED of citizenship 

  • NEVER PASSES

    • Lincoln utilizes the pocket veto

    • Put it aside and let it expire (Congress can not override the veto)

    • Sent back to the beginning 

Andrew Johnson

• Believed he would mirror Lincoln → Didn’t do that at all

  • Was harsh on paper but would pardon anyone 

• Couldn’t be a worse president

• Tried to veto everything (it’s these Andrew’s man💀) 

• Claimed to be aligned with radicals and then just went with whatever he wanted

• Charged for impeachment trials violation of tenure of office act

Tenure of Office act

Put in place by Radical Republicans to prevent Johnson from firing them

Plessy v Ferguson

• Legalized racial segregation 

• “Separate but equal” ideology

• Anything provided for whites must be provided for blacks (does not have to be in the same condition though)

Civil Rights Act of 1866

•  Very Vague 

• Attempted to ban state sponsored discrimination 

  • Couldn’t right a law barring only black people from voting 

• Attempted to define aspects of citizenship 

• Set the foundation for the fourteenth amendment

Civil Rights Act of 1875

• Last piece of legislation from Reconstruction era 

• Equal in travel and public accommodations

14th Amendment

• Defines citizenship 

• Equality before the law

• Provides the permanent solution for Radical Republicans’ concerns

South’s response to the Election of 1876

• Black Codes

• Reemergence White Redeemers

• Solid South

• Election Laws

Sharecropping

• System of land ownership

  • Rent land to black families 

  • Grew some crops

  • But black families owed rent to a landlord → maintains the cycle of poverty in the South

What was significant about the South’s Election Laws

Election laws ==  reserved powers by the states

Solid South

White Southerners often vote Democratic for 100 years

Freedmen’s Bureau

• Established in 1865

• Known for it’s commitment towards access for education for black people

• Known as First Federal relief agency sponsored by Congress

• Provided aid for black people and poor white people

Successes of the Reconstruction

• 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments

• Reunite the Union

• For a short time many blacks people held political power

Failures of Reconstruction

• Sharecropping

• Black Codes

• White Redeemers politicians

• Election of 1876

Election of 1876

• S Tilden (Dem) v Rutherford B Hayes (Repub)

• Tilden almost won

  • Thrown to the House

  • House Declares Hayes the winner

Compromise of 1877

• Hayes wins the election

• Democrats get full control of the South

• Withdrawal of troops in the South

Militant Rule

Republican approach to enforcing Reconstruction laws in the South

• Divided the South into 5 military districts