Reconstruction 1865-77

reconstruction

• continuing military efforts to put US back together post secession (11 state broke away to form confederacy)

  • → confed backlash, ⭡ white supremacist groups

• period of conflict over ba legal status

• presidential recon = Lincoln, Johnson

• radical recon = aimed to achieve full civil rights by changing pol/soc framework esp in S

civil war

• 1860 - Lincoln elected, states began to secede

  • war began after decades tensions n + s states over slavery, states vs fed power + westward expansion

• ‘61-65

• Republican N (union)👍vs Democrat S👎(confed)

Emancipation Proclamation ‘63 - declared all ppl held as slaves within rebellious states = free

• save union, reunify US, encouraged enslaved to migrate n for army

• abolishing slavery became n war aim

• border states x incl (moral v political), Lincoln’s letter to NY Tribune

  • x afford lose support in war

union general Sherman’s ‘March to the Sea’ ‘64

• Georgia, troops, destruction

• confed econ damage, ⭣ morale (contributed to union victory)

• → soc tensions

13th Amendment

• Lincoln re-elected ‘64 = mandate for emancipation

• ratified ‘65 = abolished slavery

• 2B property wiped out

• 4M ppl → freedmen

• gallery at HoR

• n states/congress passed new leg (2nd class position) → postmen, Washington DC streetcars, fed court cases witnesses

  • Garrison (leading member anti slavery soc) declared vocation as abolitionist over

• building blocks for ba citizenship

• limited practical application - socioecon measures (de facto)

ba socio position postwar

• migration within S → urban ba pop ↑

  • black consciousness → limited black voice (churches, schls)

• illiteracy

• white supremacy backlash

Sherman’s Special Field Order 15

• ‘40 acres + a mule’

• plan = seize 400,000 acres land from former plantation owners + redistribute 40 acre units ba

• large scale land redistribution x happened - ba x experience/edu/money, wa x sell land to them

Freedman’s Bureau ‘65

• congress - resources, land for ba + s poor

• ‘72 shut down (opp, funds)

Sharecropping - x assets to buy land

• slave system replaced w exploitative cheap black labour

• tenant farming

• tenant contributed labour, paid owner in form of share + had to offer future crop as ‘forward credit’ ⭢ perpetual debt

• x escape subsistence (indentured servitude)

Johnson ‘65

• Lincoln assassinated

• Johnson = vice (s demo - chosen to ⭡ votes)

  • x officially elected, racist

• Proclamation of Amnesty + Reconstruction

  • confed states cld rejoin US if 10% registered voters swore oath of allegiance

Black Codes

• j est limited regulations on state govt powers

• s states still mostly run by confeds - developed restrictive laws (legalised discrimination)

  • x carry arms, liquor

  • carry passes when on road - ‘to prevent vagrancy’ (disprop. targets ba = itinerant workers)

  • big fine if x follow code ⭢ ba x pay ⭢ sold into private servitude (to ‘work off’ fine)

• Mississippi

  • rejected 13th - only rat 2013

  • x hold own land

  • criminalised black/white relationships (seg, mixed race babies)

    • wa punishment ⭡ than ba (deterrent)

  • prevented ba gatherings (so x form communities)

Radical Republicans

• radical factor in rep party = want slavery immediately eradicated

  • Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner

  • united by 14th

• ⭡ divide - Johnson + congress

• ‘66 congress elections ⭢ reps became maj party

  • trigger for change along w violence in s

• radical recon ‘67-77 = radical reps became driving force of passing leg

Military Rule

• ‘67

• Military Recon Act

  • invalidated state admins approved by J

  • divided former confed into 5 districts (commanders)

  • to be recognised by congress = former confed needed to give vote all adult men + support 14th

• Command of the Army Act

  • J military orders had to go thru Army HQ (led by Grant = pro radical reps)

• Tenure of Office Act

  • J x remove office holders w/o senate consent

consequences

• president power ↓

• fed influence ↑

• enabled fed to implement freedman’s bureau changes

  • incl protecting ex-slaves, scalawags, carpetbaggers

    • 2 = s wa work w recon state govts est by n

• temp disenfranchised 15% wa voters (confed office holders)

• enfranchised over 700,000 ex-slaves

  • → black majs (Mississippi)

• state vs fed rights tensions

  • abt controlling confed or helping ba

ba pol participation

• ba began participating pol

  • pol conventions, joined union leagues to help rep party

• c 600 legislators

• 2 senators → congress (Bruce, Revels)

  • accused under control carpet/scala

• limited - only 1 state pol convention = maj ba delegates (S Carolina)

  • none voted governor of state

consequences

• led to some reforms

  • cost millions

  • backlash - wa blamed ba reps

• statewide edu system

• ba right to register to marry

• ba women withdrew from field labour

constitutional amendments

• 14th rat ‘68 = all citizens equal protection under law

  • born/naturalised = citizen (ex slaves) - except untaxed indians

  • asserted right of fed govt to intervene state affairs to protect citizen rights

  • reversed dred scott case

• 15th rat ‘70 = fed/state govts cant deny citizens vote on racial grounds

  • limitations - women, x made voting requirements uniform

    • loopholes - states cld est restrictions disproportionately target ba

Civil Rights Act

• ‘75

• intro Sumner

• guaranteed all citizens access to public places (theatres)

  • x prohibit seg in public schls

• largely unenforced

• backlash - SC decisions

  • (‘73 Slaughterhouse decision - negated 14)

  • ‘76 US v Reese - x charge Kentucky official who had x ba vote (15th)

  • ‘83 - invalidated act

white supremacist groups

• KKK

• The Knights of the White Camellia

• The White League

• want enforce pre war soc system

  • rights = zero sum, stereotypes (b men = rapists)

• targets - Ba, carpetbaggers, rep party, fed govt officials

KKK

• Grand Wizard - Forrest

• ‘65 Pulaski former confed soldiers

• light hearted intimidation → maj terror org

  • beating, arson, murder

• ‘70 autumn after 15th rat - Tuskegee - nearly every ba schls/church burned down

  • winter - Spartanburg, many ba slept woods

• lynching ba at random ⭡ after ‘65

  • initially = to purge ba in rep party (prevent rat. new s state constitutions)

  • elections - murdering of potential rep voters

  • ⭣ after KKK act

The Knights of the White Camellia

• Colonel de Blanc - ba guilty of crimes against wa

• Colfax Massacre ‘73 - Easter Sunday

  • offered to surrender → continued, 280 ba killed

The White League

• demo party military arm (when under fed military rule)

• Coushatta Massacre ‘74

  • trigger = dispute w Twitchell (carpet) - had become state senator

  • 6 rep officials - forced to resign then murdered (+ 5 Ba)

• The battle of Liberty Place ‘74

  • Grant withdrew fed troops - Louisiana, (yellow fever)

  • New Orleans → ousted governor Kellog + defeated police

    • 3 days govt overthrown

  • fed troops → x charges

enforcement acts

• to disrupt terror groups

• 1st ‘70 - penalties if interfere w a citizen

• 2nd - congress elections under fed officials surveillance

• 3rd (kkk act) ‘72 - fed troop power to suspend habeas corpus + arrest suspected kkk

  • outlawed assoc activities (disguises)

why did recon end?

• tensions - johnson vs congress, rep party divided on s policy (radicals vs moderates)

• Grant (rep) elected president ‘69-77

  • turning point, less radical approach to former confed

    • Amnesty Act ‘72 (pardoned all but senior officials)

• demos start making big gains ‘74 - restore s control

  • strong pol base for white supremacist groups, ba scared to vote

  • wa resented military rule + impact of ba pol participation

• indicator recon ended = US v Cruikshank ‘76

  • sc ruled fed authority x prosecute accused white supremacists (amends only abt state actors)

• official end - ‘77 election of Hayes (rep)

  • sought s support, believed leaving s alone = best option

was recon futile?

• failed in main aim = achieve full civil rights/racial equality

• x futile - significant gains made (emancipation, amends)

  • era of temp freedom for ba

• led to ⭡ white supremacy = undo gains

  • indicator progress being made - reactionary to Ba ⭡ civil rights (believe rights = zero sum gain)

• theory/law vs reality/practical implementation

the great exodus

• fear of violence → migration from s (‘exodusters’) → Great Plains

  • eg Kansas = fought to be free state, lots cheap land, recruitment efforts to est ba colonies

• steamboats via St Louis

• More than 20,000 ba migrated late 70s/early 80s

• biblical reference - promise land, escape oppression, Egypt, enslaved Israelites

W.E.B Dubois

• harvard uni

• soc study ‘The Philadelphia N*gro’ - ba biggest challenges Philadelphia's 7th Ward = poverty, lack edu, crime

• 1910 - leader of NAACP (national assoc for advancement of coloured ppl)

Blanche Bruce

• mississippi rep senator during recon - 1st ba senator to serve full term + only former slave to serve

• campaigned against election/pol corruption

• fair treatment for ba, Indians, Chinese immigrants

Booker Washington

• conflict w ba leaders (Dubois) over seg

  better to remain separate than attempt deseg

  • as long as full access to econ progress/edu/justice

  • econ self-determination over pol/civil rights

• est Tuskegee Uni (now known as)

• helped thousands ba access to edu

Frederick Douglass

• leader of abolitionist movment

• when enslaved - taught self/others to read/write using bible

• part of American Anti-Slavery Soc’s “Hundred Conventions” project

  • 6 month US tour - oft assaulted

• 1st ba to hold high office

  • ambassador to Dominican Republic

• womens rights (esp vote)