Reconstruction test

13th Amendment:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Proposed: January 31, 1865

Ratified: December 6, 1865

Lincoln's reconstruction plan

1. He would pardon and restore citizenship to the people who fought except for high ranking officers and officials.

2. 10% of voters in each state had to approve of the plan

3. Slavery would no longer exist in any state- 13th Amendment

Passed in Congress Jan 31, 1865 Ratified by the states Dec. 1865

Johnson's reconstruction plan

States must: ○ accept the 13th Amendment that abolished enslavement '

Reject the idea of secession

Johnson also refused to pay former Confederate debt

Pardoned White Confederates, even if they swore an oath to the Confederate States of America (CSA)

Did not pardon former Confederate officers or rich landowners with property of more than $20k ($804,621.69 today)- would receive individual pardons eventually

Johnson's reconstruction plan

Appointed provisional (temporary) governors and ordered them to call state conventions, elected by Whites alone, that would establish loyal (to the North) governments in the South

Granted the new governments a free hand in managing local affairs

White voters returned prominent Confederates to government positions

Former confederate officials that were allowed into the U.S senate

Former Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens

Former Confederate Senator Herschel Johnson

Black Codes

Allowed Freedpeople to: own property, legalized marriage, and they were allowed to sue or be sued in court.

Denied Freedpeople to: labor and vagrancy: You had to have a job or face a penalty, They were not allowed to vote, serve on juries, or testify against white people in court.

Some states limited Freedpeople from certain jobs or owning property.

Moderate republicans

Johnson's plan was flawed but still wanted to work with him

Didn't think Black suffrage would ever be accepted by the Union

At first, didn't allow southerners to sit in Congress, but gave in

Radical republicans

Believed in Black suffrage or interracial democracy

Wanted strict or harsh punishment for the South

Refused to allow recently elected southerners to sit in Congress

Wanted to dissolve the loyal governments Johnson created and exclude any rebels (confederates) from state and local government and allow Black men to govern

Thaddeus Stevens

Radical republican that pushed for redistribution of land to the formerly enslaved

Charles Sumner

Radical republican who pushed for the 13th amendment and black rights

Congressional reconstruction plans

Congress passes the Freedmen's Bureau extension and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (pg. 7 R.R.)

Johnson vetoes the bills

Claims they would centralize power in the federal government and deprive state's rights

Johnson also felt that Black individuals did not deserve the rights of White citizens

April 1866, Congress passes the Civil Rights Act into law over the veto (First time in U.S. history)

14th amendment (1868)

Section 2: from now on, all persons will be counted as "whole" people (excluding Native Americans)

15th amendment

Universal male suffrage

Freedman's bureau

Provided food to poor white and black people

helped build schools and hospitals ( they coordinated and financed 3,000 schools by 1869)

supervised labor contracts/legal disputes

Created the first public school program for either blacks or whites

Land reform failure

F.B. had authority to divide abandoned or confiscated land into 40 acre plots to sell to formerly enslaved people.(Sales already went through)

Johnson ordered all land to be returned to former Confederate owners

Majority of rural freedpeople were forced to return to plantations for work (Many jobs freedpeople had before the war were now their low-wage job after the war)

Sharecropping

Payment: Paid with a share of the crop, typically around half with interest because resources were loaned out

Resources: Landowners provide land, seed, tools, and sometimes food and other necessities

Control: Limited control over farming decisions and less independence

Dependency: High dependency on the landowner, often leading to debt and a cycle of poverty

Tenant farming

Payment: Paid rent with cash or a portion of the crop

Resources: Farmers provide their own tools, livestock, and supplies

Control: Greater independence in managing their farm and choosing crops

Independence: Better off than sharecroppers, though still vulnerable to economic downturns

Sharecropping & Tenant Farming

Both groups had to buy certain necessities from the landowner

Caused deep debt to the laborers

Decreased their chances of getting out of the system

The black office holder

2,000 African Americans held public office during this time

South Carolina saw the first majority Black legislature

Federal representation: 14 Black legislators in the House 2 Black legislators in the Senate representing Mississippi

Hiram Revels

Born free in North Carolina in 1827

Educated in Illinois

Became the first Black Senator in U.S. History

Served Mississippi

Blanche K. Bruce

Formerly enslaved

Elected to serve Mississippi in 1875

Carpetbaggers (derogatory)

Northerners who came to the South/Former Union soldiers who stayed after the war Investors in land or railroads

Angered Southern Whites: Some were corrupt, others wanted to help with transition

"the civilization of freedom for that of slavery."

Teachers in the new F.B. public schools were also given the label of carpetbagger

Scalawags

White Southern Republicans: Non-slaveholding farmers, Wartime Unionists

Seen as traitors to their race and to the South (hated more than carpetbaggers)

Motivation: Prevent "rebels" from governing

Hoped new Republican governments would help with debts and protecting small property holders from losing their homes from creditors

Black Legislators During Reconstruction

1867

32 black legislators elected to the Georgia General Assembly

Black legislators suffered hardships

Constantly harassed

Many were expelled from General Assembly in 1868

1/4 of the Black legislators were beaten, jailed, or killed

Most important contribution of these Black legislators:

1868 Georgia Constitution called for free general public education

1867 - Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

began in Tennessee as a social club

Loosely governed organization

Consisted mostly of Confederate veterans

Became more political and violent

Used terroristic actions to intimidate freed blacks and white Republicans

KKK (Ku Klux Klan)

Tried to stop African-Americans from voting and running for office

Used tactics of intimidation, physical violence, and murder

Hoped to establish social control over African Americans and their white allies

KKK (Ku Klux Klan)

KKK was successful in their political goals:

Democrats gained control of Georgia politics in 1871

Many were members of the KKK

First Enforcement Act (May 1870)

President Ulysses S. Grant pushed Congress to pass laws against the KKK

First Enforcement Act (May 1870): Also known as the Civil Rights Act of 1870, this law protected Black voting rights and penalized anyone who used force, bribery, or intimidation to prevent citizens from voting under the Fifteenth Amendment

Second Enforcement Act (February 1871)

This act placed congressional and federal elections under the direct supervision of federal election supervisors and federal judges in Southern states

The Third Enforcement Act- The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871

which designated Klan activity as federal offenses and suspended Due Process

Used federal troops to suppress KKK conspiracies

Klan would go underground until 1915

The Colfax Massacre

April 14, 1873 Louisiana.

the white supremacist group began to kill black people indiscriminately after the accidental shooting of their leader. An estimated 150 people were killed once the Louisiana state militia came. The state made no arrests but the federal troops arrived a few days later and arrested 97 white men in connection to the massacre. several of them were convicted under the enforcement acts, But they were released because the supreme court declared the laws unconstitutional.

The Colfax murder is believed to be the deadliest single incident of racial violence from the reconstruction era

In the late 1870s the thought of enforcing racial equality in the South collapsed and in the 1880s it was fully abandoned and that led to the Jim Crow Era

The White League

White Supremacist terrorist organization

Established in Louisiana 1874

Made up of former Confederate soldiers including those who participated in the Colfax Massacre

The White League

Described themselves as "hereditary civilization and Christianity"

Wanted to "exterminate the carpetbag element" and restore white supremacy

Operated openly and tried to keep freedpeople from voting, participating in political organizations, or getting an education

Julia Hayden

A 17 year old school teacher who was shot and killed by the White League 3 days after she started to work at a school for freedpeople in Tennessee

Amnesty Act of 1872

Congress passed a general Amnesty Act

Removed the last restrictions on ex-Confederates (except for top leaders)

Allowed for ex-Confederates to vote for Democrats so they could retake state governments

Reconstruction phases

1. Legal Phase) Lincolns plan, Johnsons, plan, and congressional plan

2. Reconstruction in Action) Freedman's bureau, radical reconstruction(Interracial democracy), And 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment

3. Reaction to Reconstruction) Removal of Black legislators, the creation of the KKK, Federal action