reconstruction

March 1862 compensation to any state that adopted the principle of general abolition of slavery

$400 for every slave freed

Crittenden resolution 1861 July

Crittenden Resolution was an early attempt to define the Civil War as a fight for Union preservation, not emancipation—a stance that changed as the war evolved.

House of Representatives refuses to reaffirm it and it was abandoned

August 1862 Stanton authorised creation of regiment of black troops

5000 recruited in union occupied areas of Louisiana

Number of free black men in union armies

33,000/46,000 free black men of military age

1865 existence of slavery in border states

Kentucky still had 65,000 slaves in bondage in April 1865 - survived in the state till December 1865

1865 only 5 free states allowed blacks to vote on equal terms with whites

Confederate recruitment of slaves

Feb 1865 Robert E Lee supported arming slaves and in March the confederate congress passed a law providing for the arming of 300,000 slaves

Freedmen Education

5-8% of American slaves were literate, by 1870 increased to 12-15% due to freedmen schools

Literacy among blacks 25-30% by 20th century

Created public school- South Carolina first comprehensive school law 1870 , by 1871 32% of school age attending some 1700 public schools

1875 - 50% of the school age population of South Carolina in school, over 3000 teachers paid by public tax money

South Carolina legislative created a South Carolina land commission 1868-1890

Settled some 5000 families - black and white on land that states purchased

Radical reconstruction. By 1876 about 14,000 families had participated , 1890- about 13,000 blacks in South Carolina owed a farm of some size 4000 of whom had purchased them through that land commission

Black influence in gov , historian William dunning referred to the period of republican rule as ‘Black Reconstruction’

Approx 2000 African Americans elected officials

16 African Americans from ex-confederate states elected to congress

268/1000 black delegates wrote constitution

680 African Americans served in lower houses of state governments during reconstruction - 4 presided as speakers of those houses, 112 african Americans served in state senates during reconstruction, 41 black sheriffs, 5 black mayors, 145 blacks served inc its councils

Few of top positions in state gov went to black ppl

15th amendment 1869 - conservative compromise amendment , forbade states the right to deny suffrage on grounds of race, colour or previous conditions of servitude

By 1868 , 11/21 northern states still denied the right to vote to blacks

Passed HOR 1869

Ratified by 2/3rd of state legislatures a year later

13th amendment - abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime.

Senate passed amendment in 1864 but failed to get the necessary 2/3rd support in the house

Jan 1865 - hosue approved with 3 votes to spare the 13th amendment for ratification by the states

1866 civil rights act - aimed to guarantee minimal rights to black people, all people born in USA defined as national citizens , measure allowed federal government to intervene in state affairs when necessary to protect the rights of US citizens

• Johnson vetoed the measure arguing civil rights were a state matter

• Congress argued against - April 1866 2/3rd majority ensured that Johnson’s veto was overridden and civil rights act became law

• Congress then passed a second freedman bureau act over Johnson’s veto

14th amendment - ensure civil rights could not be changed in future, guaranteed all citizens equality before law

Initially rejected by all the ex confederate states (except Tennessee) - failed to get approval of 75% of states that’s as necessary for it to become law

Passed under reconstruction acts -

• Required former Confederate states to ratify the 14th Amendment as a condition for readmission to Congress and full representation in the federal government.

1873 Colfax Massacre and The Slaughter House cases 1869 - testing 145th amendment

1869 city of New Orleans under republican state gov created a corporation to move the slaughterhouse of New Orleans - attempt to clean gov and clean cities as butchers in New Orleans would butcher and throw offal from the hogs into the Mississippi River .

• 25 butchers brought suit with support from the remaining Democratic Party ,

• - lower courts in favour of the new corporation April 1873, 5 to 4 ,

• But he’d had sued it violated 14th amendment rights

• Court ruled that Privileges or immunities clause only protects rights of federal US citizenship and not state citizenship

• THEREFORE - prevented federal gov from using 14th to protect individuals from state laws that restricted rights

Colfax 1873

• mass murder , blacks began leaving their cabins and leaving their small farms to come into colfax - symbol of safety in red river district

• Willie Calhoun owned most of red river district, turned over land without selling it to settlement of hundreds and thousands of freedmen and their families

• Colfax massacre - 150 blacks murdered

• Blacks occupied Colfax courthouse had weapons built trenches ready for battle, whites had cannon weapons, whites captured a black mana nd forced him to take a torch and light roof on fire which burnt down courthouse with blacks inside

• Many blacks executed when they came out of courthouse

• First representatives fo Louisiana gov arrived 48 hours after and recorded corpses

• National investigation by Republican appointed US attorney in New Orleans - only 3 convictions, too over 2 years, Supreme Court case which turned around reconstruction - case for 3 convictions

United States v Cruikshank 1876

• throughly Republican Party Supreme Court

• 9-0 decision

• Case test of enforcement act authorising the federal government to to enforce the right to vote with military action if necessary in the south, also testing 14th, 15th

• Overturned 2/3 convictions

• Ruled immortal , phrases of ‘due process’ and ‘equal protection’ , part 1 of 14th amendment applied only to state actions and not of individuals

  1) Mass murder went unpunished

  2) Blacks under mercy of hostile state gov

  3) Opened up all manner of discriminatory laws passed by democratic redeemer gov in southern states

• many of justices wanted to get rid of reconstruction

Southern redemption 1870s

1) panic of 1873

• ;politicians focused on currency, tariffs, unemployment, railroad subsidies, labour strifes

• price of wheat dropped from $2 a barrel to 50 cents in a year and a half

• Wages for manufacturing labourers dropped in US by 50 %

• Shifted people’s minds

• Republican fiscal policy unsuccessful - heavy taxation

• Economic depression 1873 - cotton price fell by 50%, railway building ceased, bankruptcy

Southern Redemption 1870s

2) nature of grant’s presidency

• gold standard 1869, buy gold and sell for inflated prices, made $11 million in 3 weeks, selling gold at $163.50 per ounce, forced federal government to sell all their gold, led to crisis of civil service reform

• Whiskey ring- cartel of whiskey distillers gathered to cheat gov out of excise taxes (luxury tax on whiskey), bribed treasury department, millions of dollars of liquor reverences lost to the US gov from 1870-1875, 40-50 million dollars grafted in particular scandal, 230 + indictments , 85 in fed gov

Southern redemption 1870s

3) Credit Mobile

• finance company for union pacific railroad

• Charter from federal government - each mile of track built, Union pacific reserves 10 sections of public land — 16,000 to 48,000 $

• Arranged construction contracts with its own company - credit Mobile

• Share of stock skyrocketed

• Many congressmen bribed by union pacific

• Congress reprimanded 1 gov railroad agent and 2 congressmen

• Financial corruption

Grant administration action against Klu Klax clan

• May 1870 Force act - very law Cruikshank case went against

• Feb 1871 - 2nd force act

• April 1871 - Ku Klux Clan Act - allowed president to use army and suspend the unit of habeas corpus wherever he deemed necessary if there was a state of insurrection

• Approx 3000 white southerners indicted for clan violence

• 1000s arrested

• 600 convicted

• 250 acquitted

• Fines, light jail sentences

• 65 imprisoned for up to 5 years - therefore all out before 1875 Cruikshank case — connect to Douglas quote about peace among whites

BUT most states found hard to enforce the laws effectively or deal with Klan violence because witnesses were reluctant to testify and Klansmen were ready to perjure themselves to provide one another with alibis , if Klansman on jury impossible to convict

Radical reconstruction 1867 acts passed

• military reconstruction act - spring of 1867

No legal gov existed in any ex confederate state (except Tennessee)

10 southern states were to be divided into 5 military districts each placed under a federal commander

To get back into union , southern states elect constitutional conventions which would accept black suffrage and ratify the 14th amendment

PASSED DESPITE JOHNSON VETO - all of 15 different bills vetoed by Johnson

2nd reconstruction act - details on how military conductors were supposed to conduct their districts

3rd reconstruction act - summer of 1867 - set up “registration boards” - empowered to deny voting rights to anyone they felt were not taking loyalty oaths in good faith

4th reconstruction act - spring 1868 - majority of votes cast would by sufficient to put a new constitution into effect

• acts to weaken Johnson power

A command of the army act - importance of army in reconstruction process reduced Johnson’s military powers

The tenure of Office Act - barred him from removing a host of office-holders, including members of his own cabinet (designed to protect secretary of war , Stanton , Johnson proceeded to first suspend then dismiss Stanton )—- LED TO HIS IMPEACHMENT

Johnson impeached

• republicans convinced HoR that Johnson had broken the law

• Feb 1868 (by 126 votes to 47) to impeach him for ‘high crimes and misdemeanours’

• 2 month trial , 35 senators voted against Johnson and 19 for him , 1 vote short of 2/3rd majority to impeach him,

• Survived but not useful for rest of term

Grant elected

1868 , won electoral college vote by 214 votes to 80, won only 52% of popular vote — popular majority result of southern black support

1868 election violence

KKK -more than 200 political murders in Arkansas alone

22 Georgia counties with total of 9300 black men - Grant tallied only 87 votes

Carpetbaggers

Carpetbaggers were Northerners who moved South after the Civil War. Though often portrayed negatively by critics, they played a major role in Reconstruction and expanding civil rights.

• notion that reconstruction was controlled by northern carpetbaggers who sought profit at the south’s expense FALSE

• Relatively few northerners actually settled in the south , in no state did they constitute more than 2% of the total population

• Many were teachers, clergy, officers of the freedmen bureau, agents of benevolent societies engaged in aiding ex-slaves

  • Businessmen and politicians who supported Reconstruction and civil rights.

  • Some genuinely tried to rebuild the South, while others did seek profit.

Scalawags - came from diverse backgrounds and voted republican for a variety of reasons

• rich planters, merchants and industrialists Who had once been Whigs

• Self sufficient farmers many of whom opposed Confederacy

• Did not support full racial equality - alliance with black voters was a marriage of convenience - if they were to have any chance of maintaining political control , must retain black vote

Sharecropping

1870s most black ppl became sharecroppers - white landowners provided the land, seed and tools; black tenants supplied the labour . Crop produced was divided in a fixed ratio often half to the landowner and half to the tenant

• early 1870s worldwide glut of cotton led to a disastrous fall in prices - related in most sharecroppers in a perpetual state of indebtedness to landowners and local storekeepers

• Landowners storekeepers in debt to southern merchants and bankers who were in debt to northern banks

• Piled up debts ensured south remained one crop economy

• BUT did remarkably well in terms of cotton output

• 1860 - 4.5 million bales of cotton , 1880- produced over 6.3 million bales

• Increased production added to cotton glut - prices tumbled and farmers forced to produce more

• South became poorest section in USA - 1860 , southern states produced 30% of the nations wealth , 1870 produced only 12%

• By 1870 southern income had fallen to less than 2/5th that of northerners

The Ku Klux Clan

1866 paramilitary groups formed in most southern states to fight for white rights

• established in Tennessee

• Led by war hero Nathan Bedford Forrest

• By 1870 - Forrest claimed that there were over 500,000 Klansmen in the south

Grant ready to build bridges to white southerners - Amnesty act 1872

Resulted in 150,000 ex-confederates having their rights returned

Freedmen’s Bureau collapsed

Congress situation in 1874

• Democrats won HoR control

• In wake of election 1876 - 109 R and 169 D

1875 civil rights act

• last measure to help souther black people

• Designed to prevent discrimination by hostels, theatres and railways

• Little impact

1870s white southern paramilitary groups violence - violence despite force acts Louisiana Mississippi

Groups - Rifle clubs, red shirts, white league

30 people died in September 1874 in battle between White League and state militia

Mississippi democrat actions of intimidation resulted in Mississippi redeemed in 1875

1876 election Hayes vs Tilden

Tilden nov 1876

Popular vote - 4,284,000 to Hayes’s 4,037,000

Electoral college votes - 184 to Hayes’s 165

BUT voting returns from Oregon, South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida contested (20 electoral college votes between them )

Congress established commissions to review election returns - 8 republican, 7 democrats - by votes 8-7 commission awarded every one of teh disputes to Hayes

1877 compromise

Nothing agreed in writing

48hr meeting between 5 Ohio republicans representing Hayes and 4 southern democrats representing tilden

Democrats would accept Hayes as president in return for

• withdraw all troops from the south

• Recognise democrat gov in 3 disputed states

• Appoint southerners to cabinet and look kindly on southern railway interests HAYES CLAIMED MADE NO CONCESSIONS

• Troops withdrew from south, South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida immediate democrat control

• By 1877 ALL ex-confederate states returned to white rule

1875 shotgun policy, in wake of election events in Vicksburg Mississippi - evidence of republican claim of voter intimidation

The 1875 Shotgun Policy was a campaign of widespread violence and voter intimidation used by white supremacists in Mississippi to suppress Black political participation and end Republican rule during the final years of Reconstruction.

• Vicksburg - blacks held public 4th July celebration - politicians spoke, speeches challenging democrats

• Mob of about 50 white ppl invaded halls and a shot was fired

• Killed 2, wounded 10 died later

Johnson reconstruction

Went another step in its leniency of 10% plan

• Instead of 10% “that portion who are loyal”

• BUT would not pardon any southerner who owned $20,000 worth property or more

• Led to new gov predominantly white

Began to form black codes - ensure black peoples remained 2nd class citizens

• Most states required black peoples to possess contracts which provided evidence of employment - those without forcible set to work

• Black children could be taken as ‘apprentices’ and put to work on plantations

• Some codes prevented black people from renting or buying land, marrying white people, serving on juries and receiving poor relief or education

Joint Committee on Reconstruction

• 15 member 12 republicans , 3 democrats

• Purpose - investigate what was going on the ground in south, investigate the needs of freedman’s bureau and recommend to congress what legislation ought to be passed to reconstruct

• Massive hearings - 144witnesses over 2 months including Robert e lee

• Reduction in union armies was overnight

• Conclusion “madness” to let ex-confederates run the new southern state governments

• Johnson style of leniency towards reconstruction was foolish

• Series of recommendations called safeguards - necessary to guarantee security in south

Fall elections of 1866

• referendum on reconstruction

• 2 racial riots or massacres in south - neworleans, Memphis

• Police riots - Memphis - 40 black killed , over 200 wounded

• New Orleans - massacres that was conducted by the white police of New Orleans against its black community was stimulates by a political parade of black republicans - 34 blacks killed, 250 wounded , homes destroyed

• Democrats blamed republicans for causing southern violence

Freedmen’s Bureau 1865 march

• social reform by military force

• Aid refugees and displaced people

• Provide physical supplies, medical services, schools

• Manage confiscated and abandoned land

• Relieve suffering of southern blacks and poor whites

• Creation symbolised the widespread republican belief that the federal government should shoulder some responsibility for the freedmen’s well being

Freedmen Bureau effort to redistribute land

• Freedman lacked physical and human capital . White supremacists wanted black peoples to be landless, dependent and stationary - agricultural labour force

• Thaddeus Steven’s bill in 1867 which didnt pass called for 40 acres and 50 dollars to be given to each freedman family

• Douglas had the idea of national freedman’s loan agency - subsidised by federal gov , didn’t happen

• Happened - Freedman’s bank - chartered in late 1865 , lasted 8,9 years