Reconstruction review

Reconstruction era (1865-1877)

The era after the civil war in which the north abolished slavery and the south tried to restablished slavery, ending with the north withdrawing from the south in 1877

13th amendment

Outlawed slavery

14th amendment

Birthright citizenship

15th amendment

can’t deny vote based on race (black men gain right to vote)

Sharecropping

A system in which landowners in the south would give freedmen land (and maybe a house and tools) and in return the freedmen would have to give a portion of their crops to them

The landowners also often forced people to do work and people selling tools often charged very high interest, keeping freedmen in debt and was basically slavery without the word

crop lien system

A system in which toolmakers/sellers would loan tools to freedmen to start their farms in return to a portion of their harvest

Tenant farming

When people work on land that is not theirs in return for a share of their crops or money

Debt peonage

In order to repay a debt, people would need to work on something for someone, and since most contracts were shady, this enabled slavery

Southern homestead act of 1866

An act planning on giving land to blacks and whites after the civil war to restablish the economy, but mostly benifited whites and was shut down in 1876

Amnesty act (1872)

removing all crimes from people who fought for the confederates

Poll taxes

Making poor whites and blacks pay in order to vote and as they could not, they were disinfranchised (taken away the right to vote)

Grandfather clauses

Due to these new limits, most whites could also not vote, causing the south to implement voting eligibility on whether one’s ancestors were eligible, disinfranchising blacks

Old vs New south

Old south was heavily agriculturally based and the new south wanted to industrialize

Freedmen’s Bureau

A bureau created by the north to help freedmen in the south by educating them in schools and helping them get job, but it ultimately failed since there was not enough federal funding and its ambitions were too large for the money provided

Why was the south split into 5 states?

It was mostly to destroy the previous southern states idea that they were as before

KKK

The ku klux klan which wanted to restore white supremacy, destroy repub govts, and stop black political participation, using violence and threats, succeeding in suppressing black voting in the south (johnson didn’t care about enforcement of protecting freedmen)

Most of these people at the start were educated and saw it their mission to restore the south

President Lyndon B johnson

The vice president (a border state southerner) of Lincoln which became president after his assasination and was very lenient with reconstruction, leading to the south basically staying the same as before, causing congress to turn on him

President Abraham Lincoln

The president who led the union through the civil war and wanted a rather lenient reconstruction

President Ulysses Grant

The president after Johnson which had a very laissez faire approach, causing the continued suppresion of blacks. His presidency was also marked by scandals such as the credit mobilier and the whiskey ring

President Hayes

The president that succeeded Grant, which was mostly important in this era because he caused the compromise of 1877

Confiscation Acts

a war law put in place by the union that allowed their soldiers to take any property of the confederates, leading to them taking slaves.

This ultimately led to the emancipation proclamation

Emancipation

The term used to refer to slaves being freed

Lincoln’s 10% plan

Had 3 terms for confederate states to rejoin the union

• 10% of the voting population in each seceeded state had to take an oath basically saying that they’re sorry

• Each state must abolish slavery before rejoining

• States would need to form new governments before rejoining

Wade Davis Bill

A radical proposition to reunite with the south which wanted

• 50% of white males to take the ironclad oath, stating that they never supported or helped the confederacy

• stronger protection of freedmen

• military rule in the south

Lincoln vetoed it even though it was passed in the house and senate, thinking that it was too harsh and risked punishing the south

Black Codes

laws that restricted black movement in the south which included curfews, notice of where they were going, etc

Reconstruction acts (1866-67)

Acts passed to rule the south with the military, placed federal enforcement over state govts, split the south into 5 districts and required southern states to ratify the 14th amendment (birthright citizenship)

“redeemers”

a part of the democratic party which wanted to oust, republicans, carpetbaggers, and freedmen, reestablishing white supremacy

White Supremacy

The idea that the white race is above all the other races

Lost Cause

Words southerners stated in response to slavery

Johnson’s Impeachment

When he got into office, Lincoln’s cabinet members were still in power and Johnson wanted to change that so he fired the minister of war, general stanton, which interfered with the tenure of office act, causing congress to impeach him. The senate although did not find him guilty and set the precedent that congress cannot impeach a president just because they politically disagree with him (Johnson was obstructing reconstruction)

Emancipation proclamation

a speech given by lincoln that only freed slaves in rebelling states

40 acres and a mule

A radical idea from the north that suggested that every freedmen should get 40 acres and a mule (it was not passed)

1876 presidental election

A very disputed election between democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutheford Hayes, in which tilden won the popular vote but lost the electoral college, causing there to be dispute and the compromise of 1877

Compromise of 1877

A compromise between the north and south behind the scenes that would make the north withdraw their soldiers from the south in return for Hayes (the republican) to become president

Presidential Reconstruction (johnson)

Johnson made states ratify the 13th amendment, void their secessions, refuse to accept debts, and elect new state governments and representatives

He was very lenient and even gave high ranking army officials from the south pardons, totaling around 13 thousand pardons

Southern Response to Presidential Reconstruction

Due to johnson being leninet, they tried to restablish slavery with sharecropping and also limited black rights with black codes and vagrancy laws (control the movement of blacks), leading to arrests for minor infractions

There were also lots of former confederates being elected into public positions, including the vice president of the confederacy, alexander stephens

all states reconstructed by december 1865 under johnson’s terms

Congressional Reaction to Presidential Reconstruction

refused to seat southern delegations

created joint committee on reconstruction

passed freedmens bureau extension and civil rights act (johnson vetoes, congress overrode)

decided that reconstruction needs to be taken out of johnson’s hands and given to congress

Congressional reconstruction

Passed 14th amendment ( citizenship for all brorn people (including african americans, “due process of law”, “equal protection of the laws”)

Passed reconstruction acts

Johnson’s Response to Congressional Reconstruction

He stated that congress had no authority to run reconstruction since they were not in charge of the district, and that he represented national will, opposing nation civil rights protections. He opposed military rule and the freedmens bureau, also believing in white supremacy, ultimately leading to congress impeaching him

“Black Republican” Governments

Reconstruction state governments made up of freedmen, scalawags and carpetbaggers, helping with public education, civil rights protections,, infrastructure improvements, equal taxes, and better hospitals

Grantism

Ulysses Grant’s precidency in which lots of scandals happened and he did nothing about them nor created oversight to prevent them

Whiskey Ring

A scandal during Grant’s presidency in which whiskey brewers payed off officials to not pay taxes, highlighting corruption in the Grant administration

Credit Mobilier

Another scandal during the grant presidency when a the pacific union created a new company to construct a railroad between missouri and utah, but the new company, credit mobilier charged way more than expected and the excess money went to Union pacific execs and to pay off govt people including the vice president

Slaughterhouse Cases

When new orleans passed a charter that only allowed 1 company to do slaugthering in the city, causing freedmen to complain and state that this infringed their 14th amendment rights of equal opportunity

The supreme court ruled against them stating that it is not a federal issue, but a states rights issue, slowly narrowing the definition of the 14th amendment

Panic 1873

a severe depression that lasted 5 years and caused multiple financial institutions to fail, caused when a bank invested too much in railroads

These economic problems overshadowed the civil rights, and caused the north to lose interest in reconstruction

Bayonet Rule

The military rule of the north controlling the south, with many northerners disliking it and thinking it was unecessary

Waving the Red shirt

when people waved red shirts to remind people of all the dead that the civil war caused, wanting to remind them for what they fought for and that they needed to vote to keep it that way

it lost importance to people since time had passed

Carpetbaggers

Slurs southerners called northerns who came down, thinking that they were only there to exploit them

Lynching

When black people were horribly tortured and killed after usually being taken to prison under false charges of assault or minor crimes

Charles sumner

A senator from MA who was a leader of the radical republicans

Thaddeus stevens

Congressman from PA which led the fithtr for radical reconstruction in the house.

andrew johnson

A former slave owner and senator from tennessee who became the successor of lincoln and was disliked by congress

civil rights act of 1866

Made blacks us citizens, it was vetoed by johnson but overturned (the first ever overturn)

Reconstruction act of 1867

Military rule in the south and required the south to pass the 14th amendment (citizenship to all people)

Tenure of Office act

A law making the president require to ask the senate before removing a senate approved position

Enforcement acts (1870-71)

series of laws wanting to protect blacks, outlawing groups such as the KKK

Civil rights act of 1875

called for desegregation of transport, juries, and public places, later invvalidated by the supreme court in 1883

Liberal republicans

A group of people which opposed president grant and wanted civil service reform as well as an end to congressional reconstruction

Greenback party

People who wanted to keep greenbacks (paper money not backed by gold issued by the Union) in circulation as it would help with farmers

exodusters

Blacks who left the deep south for homestead in kansas

Scalawags

White southern republicans

3 main goals of reconstruction

• Freedmen (give rights, make sure no racism)

• rebuild south (

• reunite north and south

why did the freedmen’s bureau fail?

There was not enough funding put into the bureau to achieve its goals and as the north lost interest in the south due to industrialization, they also put even less money in it

They needed money to teach the freedmen, to hire police to protect the freedmen, and to give freedmen jobs

Mississippi plan

A plan in the south that would involve using violence and suppresion to keep blacks from voting and whites in power

White league

A KKK like group which wanted to oust repubs from office and intimidate black people from voting