Chapter 11: Post-Civil War Reconstruction - Vocabulary

Presidential vs. Radical Reconstruction

  • Presidential Reconstruction:

    • Initiated by Abraham Lincoln and continued by Andrew Johnson, favoring lenient, nonpunitive policies toward the South to heal sectional bitterness.

    • Offered pardons to former Confederates who took an oath of allegiance and restored confiscated lands, reversing the Confiscation Act of 1862.

    • Allowed Southern whites to reestablish state governments and institute restrictive Black Codes that kept freed people subservient and tied to agricultural labor.

  • Johnson's Vetoes and Congressional Conflict:

    • Johnson vetoed both the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the bill extending the Freedmen's Bureau, claiming federal overreach.

    • Radical Republicans in Congress successfully overrode both vetoes, marking a major power struggle over Black civil rights.

  • Impeachment Crisis:

    • Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act to block Johnson from firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who supported military enforcement in the South.

    • When Johnson dismissed Stanton in violation of the act, the House impeached him; he survived removal in the Senate by a single vote.

  • Radical Reconstruction Policies:

    • Radical Republicans, led by Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Senator Charles Sumner, refused to seat Southern delegates until civil rights were secured.

    • Congress passed three Reconstruction Acts in 1867, dividing the ten unrestored Southern states into five military districts governed by federal troops.

    • Required former Confederate states to draft new state constitutions guaranteeing Black male suffrage and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to gain readmission to the Union.

Constitutional Amendments and Political Rights

  • Fourteenth Amendment (1868):

    • Granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, effectively overturning the 1857 Dred Scott decision.

    • Mandated a reduction in congressional representation for any state that denied voting rights to adult male citizens.

    • Opposed by President Johnson on the grounds of states' rights.

  • Fifteenth Amendment (1870):

    • Prohibited federal and state governments from denying the right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

    • Moderate Republicans championed the amendment partly to secure Black voters across the North and South, ensuring Republican electoral strength.

  • Hiram Revels and Early Black Representation:

    • In February 1870, AME minister Hiram Revels became the first African American U.S. Senator, taking the Mississippi seat previously held by Jefferson Davis.

    • Revels advocated for integrated public education and self-defense, while navigating intense white Congressional hostility by balancing pragmatism with civil rights advocacy.

Debates Over Black Suffrage and Woman Suffrage

  • Split in Reform Alliances:

    • The inclusion of the word "male" in Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment created a deep rift between women's rights advocates and Black suffrage leaders.

    • Abolitionists like Frederick Douglass argued for a "Black men first" strategy due to immediate physical threats faced by freedmen in the South, while Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony strongly objected.

  • Rival Organizations and Strategies:

    • National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA): Founded by Stanton and Anthony; opposed the 14th and 15th Amendments because they excluded women, sometimes resorting to racialized arguments.

    • American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA): Interracial organization formed by Lucy Stone and Harriet Purvis (who served as its first Black president in 1876), supporting 15th Amendment ratification.

    • Colored Woman's Progressive Franchise Association: Established in 1871 by Mary Ann Shadd Cary after breaking from NWSA, advocating for Black women's voting rights, entrepreneurship, and legal status.

Black Leadership and Antiblack Violence

  • Elected Black Officials:

    • By 1870, seven African Americans served in the U.S. Congress, with hundreds more serving in state and local positions across the South (e.g., Texas Senator George Ruby and Florida delegate Emanuel Fortune).

    • Black leaders prioritized expanding public education, securing economic independence, and reforming infrastructure.

  • Political Strategies and Compromise:

    • Pragmatic Black politicians like Revels and Blanche K. Bruce supported the Amnesty Act of 1872 to cultivate white moderate allies and secure federal patronage jobs (e.g., customs, post office, military academy appointments).

    • Outspoken leaders like Representatives Jefferson Long of Georgia and Richard Cain of South Carolina opposed amnesty, citing unpunished violence against Southern Unionists and Black citizens.

  • White Backlash and Terror:

    • The Ku Klux Klan, established in Tennessee in 1866, used night raids, arson, lynchings, and physical torture to intimidate Black voters and destroy Republican organizations.

    • White moderate planters often sought economic control, whereas radical reactionaries used terror to restore prewar racial hierarchies.

  • Federal Enforcement Acts:

    • Congress passed the Enforcement Acts (1870–1871) / Klan Acts to make voter interference and civil rights violations federal crimes punishable by federal courts.

    • Despite Congressional investigations and testimony, widespread violence persisted, culminating in atrocities like the 1873 Colfax Massacre in Louisiana.

  • Collapse of the Freedmen's Bank:

    • Chartered in 1865 to help former slaves accumulate wealth, the Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company failed in July 1874.

    • White board members made speculative investments in real estate and railroads during the 1870s boom; despite Frederick Douglass stepping in as president with $10,000 of his own money, the bank closed, destroying Black depositors' life savings and eroding trust in federal institutions.

The End of Reconstruction and Migration Movements

  • Judicial Rulings:

    • In the Slaughterhouse Cases (1873), the Supreme Court narrowed the Fourteenth Amendment by distinguishing between U.S. citizenship and state citizenship, leaving state civil rights unprotected by federal law.

    • In 1883, the Court invalidated the Civil Rights Act of 1875, declaring that federal power did not extend to prohibiting private discrimination in public accommodations.

  • Compromise of 1877:

    • Resolved the contested 1876 presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden.

    • Democrats conceded the presidency to Hayes in exchange for the withdrawal of remaining federal troops from the South, ending federal Reconstruction and ushering in Southern Democratic "redemption."

  • Exodusters and Western Migration:

    • Led by Benjamin "Pap" Singleton and the Edgfield Real Estate and Homestead Association, thousands of Southern Black Americans ("Exodusters") migrated to Kansas under the Homestead Act of 1862.

    • Formed independent Black towns such as Nicodemus, facing armed resistance from Southern whites attempting to block their departure and preserve cheap labor.

  • Emigration Movements to Africa:

    • Frustrated by systemic violence and disenfranchisement, Martin Delany and Bishop Henry McNeal Turner organized the Liberian Exodus Joint Stock Company.

    • In 1878, the ship Azor carried 200 Black emigrants from Charleston to Liberia, West Africa, though financial collapse prevented long-term operations.