Territorial Expansion: 1836 - 1850

The “LONE STAR REPUBLIC”

A. The Texas Revolution

• Texas, once part of a Spanish colony before being Mexican land, was opened to US settlers. In order for Americans to receive land grants at low prices, they had to be Catholics and Mexican citizens.

• However, many settlers did not become Catholic, and many owned slaves. Soon, Americans became the majority in Texas, holding 90% of the population in the area.

• The surge of American population alarmed the Mexican gov., and they announced slaves and Americans are not allowed in Texas. With the big American population, the Texans were angered with the abolition of slavery, rebelled and declared their independence.

B. The Annexation Issue

• Texas was trying to be a state, but Whigs opposed adding another slave state to the Union, and believed it would provoke a war with Mexico.

• It was during Jackson’s presidency that the debate for Texas admission started, and he kicked it down the road so Van Buren would not have to handle the issue a divisive campaign issue.

Polk and Territorial Expansion

A. The Doctrine of Manifest Destiny

• John O’ Sullivan declared Manifest Destiny as America’s right to westward expansion, and fill the continent.

B. Polk and Manifest Destiny

• Territorial expansion was a key issue in the 1844 presidential election, and Polk was against Henry Clay.

• The campaign started with Texas being the lone star, California being with Mexico, and America and Great Britain sharing the Oregon Terirotry

• Democratic prez. nominee Polk shared Jackson’s belief that America was chosen by God, and he will turn Manifest Destiny into reality.

C. Texas and Oregon

• When Polk was president-elect, Texas was annexed as the 28th state, and Pres. Tyler signed the resolution.

• Oregon was much difficult, and the Democrats had a slogan “Fifty-four forty or fight”. This meant US would go to war with Britain to obtain the entire Oregon territory that ended on the 54°40′ north latitude line.

• However, Polk avoided a conflict by accepting a 49th parallel proposal that divided Oregon.

Turning Points in American History: The Mexican War

A. The Outbreak of War

• Texas’s Annexation outraged Mexico, and Polk increased tensions by supporting Texas’s claim that their south border was the Rio Grande River.

  

  However, Mexico denied and insisted that Texas territory ended at the Nueces River.

• In 1846, Mexican troops ambushed a US unit in the region between the two rivers. Polk’s response to Congress was that Mexico “invaded our territory and shed American blood on American soil.” Congress approved a declaration of war.

B. Opposition to the War

• There were small, but influential critics against the Mexican War like John Quincy Adams and William Lloyd Garrison. Both denounced the war as aggressively helping the South get new slave land.

• Abraham Lincoln, another critic, challenged Polk in Congres to identify the exact spot on undisputed American soil where Americans were ambushed.

C. Making Comparisons: Civil Disobedience

• Henry David Thoreau, an important Transcendentalist, protested the Mexican War by spending the night in jail for refusing to pay a state poll tax. This event led him to write “Civil Disobedience"

• Civil Disobedience urged passive resistance to laws by citizens.

• The essay later inspired Martin Luther King Jr’s nonviolent protests.

D. The Conquest of Mexico

• Future president and General Zach Taylor and General Winfield Scott conquered Mexico.

• Taylor became a national hero, like Jackson/Washington, when he defeated larger Mexican army at Battle of Buena Vista. Scott received public acclaim when he took Mexico city.

• Colonel Stephen W. Kearny focused and captured Sante Fe, New Mexico, and California. These would later allow US to annex these territories as Nex Mexico and Arizona.

E. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

• Mexico ceded New Mexico & Cali to US and accepted Rio Grade as the Border. Mexico lost 1/3 of their territory.

• Gadsen Purchase WAS NOT part of the treaty. This purchase was land in the southern portion of the New Mexico Territory to build a railroad from Texas to California.

F. Making Connections: Nationalism and Sectionalism

• Context:

  • War of 1812 led to nationalism that supported a national bank, protective tariffs, and a spirit of political harmony known as the Era of Good Feelings.

  • This ends after the Panic of 1819 and Missouri Compromise which led to sectionalism.

• This occurred again after the Mexican War

  • War fulfilled Manifest Destiny, and postwar nationalism surged.

  • However, it faded quickly as the war was a turning point that ignited the dispute over slavery into new west territories, leading to sectionalism.

  • Sectionalism threatened the fragile Union and balance of power between North and South.

The Wilmot Proviso

A. Context

• Missouri Compromise and many other measures were taken to protect the fragile balance of slave and free states, North and South, and Whigs vs Democrats.

• David Wilmot, a Democrat, added an amendment, or proviso, to a military spending bill. He cited the Northwest Ordinance by stating “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist” in territories gained from Mexico.

B. “The Right to Rise”

• Wilmot defended the proviso because he wanted white freemen farmers in new territories to not face the burden of competing with farmers with slave labor.

• With “free soil" it would lead to liberty, free competition, social mobility (“right to rise”), and the rights of white freemen.

• It was supported in the North, opposed by South, and was passed by the House twice, but lost in Senate.

C. Understanding Causation: Consequences of the Wilmot Proviso

• In my opinion, the Wilmot Proviso had an unexpected reaction because it did not further divide party lines of Whig and Democrat, but a rift in the parties themselves

• The South especially was on the defensive as they marked the proviso as the upcoming, lengthy attack on slavery.

• The Proviso also frightened the North as they began to fear of Slave Power. Slave power was the North’s fear of a slaveholding oligarchy that dominated the federal government. Because the proviso did not pass Senate, it gave the fear credibility.

The Road to Disunion: 1850 - 1860

The Compromise of 1850

A. The California Gold Rush

• James Marhsall, a carpenter, spotted gold in Sacramento in a river. This led to a rush of immigrants that eventually led to Californians wanting annexation as a free state.

• APUSH test will show you a San Francisco harbor to test knowledge about the Gold Rush. The picture depicts tall master clipper ships that brought people and goods from the East Coast cities and Asia.

B. Renewed Debates Over Slavery

• California balanced out the free-slave state dispute that was still unresolved after the new territories won from the Mexican War.

• South began to fear North having the majority in the House, and their growing political dominance. However, due to the balance in free-slave states, South was still enabled to have veto power in the Senate.

• It was proved that an agreement with South was difficult as the Southern senators warned laws against slavery will lead to secession.

C. Clay’s Compromise Proposals/Compromise of 1850

• Henry Clay, the Great Compromiser, grouped six proposals into three pairs; three for the North, and three for the South.

  • First Pair: Annexes California as a free state, and for territorial governments to be restricted to adopt a restriction or condition on slavery. This would reaffirm the permanence of slavery in the South, and rejected validity of the Wilmot Proviso.

  • Second Pair: a boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico was resolved by giving it to New Mexico, but compensating Texas with paying off their $10 million debt when they were a Lone Star republic.

  • Third Pair: Abolishing the slave trade, but not slavery in D.C, and a new Fugitive Slave Law.

D. “A Final Settlement”

• After Taylor, President Fillmore in 1850 described the Compromise of 1850 the compromise that would restore sectional harmony.

• During the decade of calm between the two disputing sides, the North grew in industrial strength, population, and presidential leadership that would equip them to win a challenge of secession.

The Fugitive Slave Act

A. Context

• The Comp of 1850 produced some unexpected Southern benefits. While California was a free state, they elected Senators who voted with the South on most issues, and the new territories of Utah and New Mexico legalized slavery.

• However, over 1000 slaves continued to escape them each year. The South viewed the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act as the only way of the North’s good faith of keeping up their end of the compromise.

B. Public Opposition

• The FSA grew antislavery sentiment because it required Northerners to enforce slavery. Abolitionists began to prevent federal marshals from returning a fugitive slave to their masters.

• The Underground Railroad of safe houses and “conductors” helped slaves free the South.

• Harriet Tubman, “The Moses of Her People” led more than 300 slaves to freedom.

C. Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abolitionist, wrote this book to help her readers understand the immoral impact on slavery upon family life.

• It became an international hit, and intensified antislavery sentiment in the North, and deep resentment in the South.

Turning Points in American History: The Kansas-Nebraska Act

A. Context

• in 1854, the Missouri Compromise allowed the issue of slavery to recede, and the issue of building a transcontinental railroad and getting goods across the nation in new West territories increased.

• Urban cities competed for the lucrative position of being the eastern city that connected the West and North.

B. The Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Stephen A. Douglas wanted Chicago to be the eastern terminus, and began his plan. He persuaded Congress to organize the Nebraska Territory, and Southern senators to support giving the eastern terminus to a Northern city.

• 1854 - Douglas proposed to organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. As these territories were above the Missouri Compromise line, Douglas wanted to appeal to the South by amending the bill to repeal the Compromise.

• He then included the democracy of the people of Kansas and Nebraska to vote on allowing or forbidding slavery. He knew that these proposals will “raise a hell of a storm.", but believed they will be free.

• Congres passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 by President Pierce.

C. Momentous Consquences

• North Democrats believed it was a violation of the Missouri Compromise’s “sacred pledge” to ban slavery north of the 36 30’ line.

• Kansas was the first test of popular sovereignty. It soon became “Bleeding Kansas” as it was a battleground between pro- and anti-slavery settlers. If your opponents are dead, they can’t vote.

• The furor over the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Bleeding Kansas would be the demise of the Whig Party. This was due to the rise of the Republican Party.

• The Kansas-Nebraska Act blew Douglas’s presidential aspirations, but increased Lincoln’s political career. He realized his opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act went beyond Whig policy, and declared himself a Republican.

The Dred Scott Case, 1857

A. The Case

• Scott was a slave who belonged to John Emerson. Both were in the Wisconsin Territory where the Missouri Compromise forbade slavery.

• When Emerson died, Scott went to Missouri where he had to now serve Emerson’s wife. After listening to abolitionists, Scott sued for his freedom.

• He said because he was in a free state, free territory, he was now a free man.

B. The Decision

• Chief Justic Roger B. Taney and Supreme Court ruled that slaves or free Blacks were citizens of the US due to the constitution. Slaves were “chattel property, and had no rights of a white man.”

• This made the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional as it allowed slaves to be taken anywhere, any state, any territory. This was the first time since Marbury v. Madison for the Supreme Court to strike a Congress act.

C. Understanding Causation: Consequences of the Dred Scott Decision

• It invalidated on Missouri Compromise, and the validity of popular sovereignty.

• Worsened sectional tensions by strengthening the Southern view that the Constitution protected slavery, and strengthened the Northern view that there was a Slave Power in the government.

• Invalidated Republican Party’s promise to oppose the extension of slavery into the territories. The party did not rescind their promise, but instead promised that a victory would reverse the Dred Scott decision and the composition of the Supreme Court.

D. Making Connections: African American Citzenship

• The 13th' Amendment overturned Dred Scott decision. Any form of slavery or action of slavery, like housing or employment discrimination, is illegal.

The Union in Peril

A. John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry, 1859

• John Brown, an extreme Abolitionist, raided Harpers Ferry which brought fear to the South. Rumors began to spread that slave insurrections began to begin.

• John Brown was not affiliated with the Republican party, but the South incorrectly linked them together, and the South now fully hated the party.

• His raid was not successful, but his capture, trial, and execution led to great Northern sympathy. He became a martyr and even celebrated in a song. This angered and perplexed Southerners who accused the North of instigating a rebellion and glorifying a fiend.

B. The Election of 1860

• The Democratic party split into Northern and Southern Democrats.

• Nothern Democrats nominated Stephen A. Douglas from Kansas-Nebraska Act who promised noninterference with slavery. The Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckinridge who called for national slave code that would protect slavery in the territories.

• Due to the split in the party, Republicans had the upper hand. The Lincoln-Douglas debates transformed Abraham Lincoln into a nationally known figure.

• Lincoln called for slavery to be protected where it already existed, but opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories.

• Lincoln won the election by having all 18 free states. He did not win a single South state.

C. The Crittenden Compromise

• Lincoln’s election led to South Carolina and six other state sto secede.

• In an effort to save the Union, Senator John Crittenden proposed extending the Compromise Line to the West Coast.

• Lincoln rejected this compromise because it violated the strong Republican party position of the expansion of slavery into Western territories.

The Civil War: 1861 - 1865

The Secession Crisis

A. The Confederate States of America

• After SCarolina seceded, seven more followed before Lincoln took office. Left because they felt Lincoln was an South enemy and slave system.

• Elected Jefferson Davis as President, founded Confederate States of America in Montgomery Alabama, and created constitution that favored their state rights.

B. Lincoln Takes Charge

• Lincoln reminded in his inaugural address that he did not want to interfere with slavery in places it existed. He just wanted the Union to be together. “We are not enemies, but friends.”

• Lincoln denied the right of state secession, and said that Civil War was in the hands of the South. “The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors.”

C. Fort Sumter

• Located in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, the Union fort was running low on supplies due to South siege. Lincoln notified the SCarolina gov. that he just wanted to resupply the fort with food, and not troops.

• Six days before the supply ships arrived, Conf. opened fire on the fort. It continued for 34 hours before the fort lowered their flag. One day later, Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteer soldiers.

• This event persuaded states like Virginia, Ark, Tenn, and NCarolina to join Confederacy.

D. The Border States

• Deleware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri were all slaveholding Border States that remained in the Union.

• Kentucky was crucial industrially and agriculturally towards the Union.

E. Making Connections: Militarism

• Militarism: glorification of armed strength; occurred with North and South. Both sides proudly glorified their armies, and believed their side will win quickly.

• This relates to how Europeans in 1914 forgot war horrors, and were proud with their military strengths due to Second Industrial Revolution. They viewed WW1 as short and glorious.

Making Comparisons: The Balance of Forces

A. The North

• Advantages:

  • Bigger population; 22 million compared to the 9 million in South; 4 million were slaves. This allowed Union army to be bigger.

  • Industries and manufacturing, and more resources like horses, ships, and railroad.

  • Lincoln’s leadership as commander-in-chief who was deeply involved with the war effort. He was able to inspire and garner support for the war, even though it wavered.

  • Had more wheat (food) compared to South. Allowed them to be more economically successful with Europe due to their blockade on South cotton export.

• Disadvantages:

  • When war began, they had weak military generals. Could not land decisive blows on South’s really intelligent Robert E Lee.

  • Did not have a unified view on the war, and support wavered throughout the war. Lincoln wanted the goal to save the Union, abolitionists wanted to free slaves, and Copperheads wanted peace with South.

B. The South

• Advantages

  • Home advantage. Just had to defend and tire out the North, but North had to conquer.

  • Strong military leadership

  • Had a possibility of Europe to help them due to them being the 2/3 importer of cotton. This was solely for economical reasons, and not with moral cause.

• Disadvantages

  • Low population, industry, and railroads meant that South would run out of supplies faster than North.

  • Jefferson Davis was a poor political and military leader. Could not negotiate well with his Cabinet, and only relied on his generals to make all the moves and overall strategy.

  • Because Confederacy was based on state rights, it lacked poor central government. Confederate government struggled to coordinate a group effort on money and troops needed to fight the war.

Antietam - Turning point because the narrow victory convinced England and France to remain natural, and made Lincoln make war about abolition with the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Emancipation Proclamation

A. Contraband of War

• Escaped slaves were labeled contraband because they were enemy “property”. Union soldiers seized all property including slaves with the 1861 Confiscation Act.

• They were used to help with constructing railroads.

• Republicans wanted to abolish slavery in the North.

B. Emancipation

• Lincoln issued the Eman Proc not with Congress’s authority and approval, but with the President’s constitutional authority as commander-in-chief of armed forces. Basically did not make a law, but a military strategy.

• Strategy because it did not free slaves in all territories, just in states that rebelled the Union. Border states were allowed to keep slaves.

• Slaves were not freed until 1865 with the 13th Amendment.

C. Importance

• The Proc made the war a moral cause that the troops could fight and believe in, and not just to conquer the South. The North now became liberators.

• Completely swung European favor to the North because they did not want to oppose the end of slavery.

D. Blacks in Blue

• The Eman Proc allowed freed slaves to be in the army. Frederick Douglas rallied freed slaves to help the Union to make sure slavery ends once and for all.

• 180,000 African Americans served in the army, and while they were paid less, they were very brave in their efforts. Sometimes, they performed even better compared to other white regiments.

E. Making Connections: “A Great Beacon Light of Hope”

• Martin Luther King used Eman Proc as historical reference for African Americans to have the same rights as there. Connected that the Declaration of Independence was the reason why slaves were free. So, they must have equal rights too.

The Republican Economic Agenda

A. The Republican Congress

• The North and West had always tried to pass tariff, railroad, banking, and land polices that favored them, but South always stopped it.

• Because the South left, Congress was left to the Republicans and allowed their measures to be placed without opposition.

B. The Homestead Act, 1862

• Settlers can receive 160 acres of land when settlers tended to it after 5 years. All for free.

• Opened the Great Plains to settlers, and 1.6 million homesteaders occupied 270 million acres.

C. The Morrill Land-Grant College Act, 1862

• Set aside federal land for colleges in agriculture and mechanical art. Promoted education.

D. The Pacific Railiroad Act, 1862

• South wanted a railroad that would connect New Orleans to California.

• With the South gone, North connected Omaha, Nebraska with Sacramento, California.

E. The National Banking Act of 1863

• Banking policies have always been controversial since First National Bank. The Civil War made it necessary for a national currency and orderly banking system.

• National Banking Act established a system just for a uniform currency. It wasn’t until 1913 with the Federal Reserve Act that banking changes were added to the system.

Understanding Causation: Consequences of the Civil War

A. For the Federal Government

• Civil War ended the South principle of state rights. States could not nullify a federal law or secede.

• Broadened the federal government’s power. With the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery, it affirmed federal government power based on the general welfare of all Americans.

B. For the South

• Before, planters held political power in national affairs. Presidents before the Civil War were mostly from the South. Civil War ended this era of power for over 50 years.

• South had devastating losses. Over 20% of the South’s adult, male white population died.

C. For the North

• Solidifed alliance with North business interests with West farmers in Republican Party.

• Accelerated the creations of powerful enterprises from the rise of industry.

D. For Women

• Women on both sides of the war received more responsibilities as men left their homes to fight. Wives and daughters had to manage the plantations or farms in the South. For the North, they occupied paying jobs in business and government.

• They pushed traditional roles by serving as nurses, a once male-occupied gender.

• Under Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, North had a nurse training program. She was the first American women to graduate from medical school.

• Clara Barton founded the Red Cross, and helped women work in military hospitals.

• Did not remove sexual inequality, but only pushed boundaries.

E. For the Freed Slaves

• The Civil War emancipated 4 million slaves, but denied them legal rights and equality.

• The Freed Slaves were not tied to plantations, but also not tied to any resources that would help them.

What happened to the democratic party during the election of 1860?

During the election of 1860, the Democratic Party split into Northern and Southern factions. Northern Democrats nominated Stephen A. Douglas, who promised noninterference with slavery in the territories, while Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckinridge, who advocated for a national slave code to protect slavery in the territories. This division within the party weakened their position and ultimately helped the Republican Party, led by Abraham Lincoln, secure the presidency. Lincoln won the election by carrying all 18 free states, while he did not win a single Southern state.

Reconstruction And The New South: 1865 - 1900

Presidential Reconstruction

A. Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan

• After the Civil War, Lincoln’s next task was to restore the Union peacefully, overcome Southern resentment, and define Black freedom.

• His plan was generous: He offered full pardon for those who pledge full loyalty except for Confederate leaders. It was called 10% Plan because 10% of Southern votes had to take that oath and accept emancipation for the Union.

• In his second inaugural address, he said he wanted no malice towards anyone, but charity for all. However, he never had the chance to enact his plan because he was assassinated.

B. The Thirteenth Amendment

• On Dec. 6, 1865, slavery and involuntary servitude was formally abolished.

• Lincoln believed that freedmen should be able to vote due to their military contribution. He fully believed that the government will fulfill that belief.

C. Johnson’s Plan

• Lincoln’s death meant that his president Andrew Johnson would have to fill his big shoes.

• Johnson wanted a swift peace and social normalcy. He wanted to pardon Confederates who swore an oath of loyalty.

  • Southern whites could then elect delegates to a state convention where at that convention they must repeal all secession laws, pay back Confederate debts, and ratify the 13th amendment.

  • Only then could that Southern state re-enter the Union.

• Johnson did not support racial equality, but white supremacy. He allowed formal rebel leaders to regain political power again across the South.

Radical Reconstruction

A. The Black Codes

• Slavery made it very difficult for Black Americans to be accepted as equals. Southern legislatures passed Black Codes that limited basic civil and economic rights.

• Significance: continued the legal distinction between Whites and Blacks. For instance, blacks could not carry weapons, intermarry with Whites, assemble in groups, serve on juries, and could only be paid for agricultural work.

B. The Civil Rights Act of 1866

• President Johnson, a Southern sympathizer that Lincoln chose to appeal to the South in his re-election, did not object the Black Codes.

• Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, leaders of the Radical Republicans, insisted on protecting the basic rights of freedmen.

• Because the Republicans who were in the North still had the majority in Congress, they passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that declared that Blacks were equal American citizens as Whites.

• Johnson vetoed the bill to the shock of Congress as he claimed it would provoke chaos among the White people. The angry Congress overturned his veto, and this began the struggle between Johnson and Congress over civil rights.

C. The Fourteenth Amendment

• The Republican majority in Congress feared Johnson would not enforce the Civil Right and that the courts would declare the law unconstitutional.

• These fears made them pass the Fourteenth Amendment in June 1866. Significance: the 14th Amendment is considered the most important addition to the Constitution since the Bill of Rights.

• Defines national citizenship as “all persons born or naturalized in the United States”

• Significance: gave federal government the responsibility to give equal rights to all Americans.

Making Connections: The Incorporation Doctrine

• Before the 14th Amendment, the courts ruled that the Bill of Rights only applied to federal government.

• In 1925, Gitlow v. New York, by using the 14th Amendment that protected citizenship to all United State persons born or naturalized, they began the Incorporation Doctrine which nationalized the Bill of Rights and its provisions across the states.

D. The Reconstruction Act of 1867

• The 14th Amendment made Johsnon campaign for Congressional candidates who supported his policies of Blacks not having citizenship. This backfired, as voters did not want to associate with him, and voted a Republican majority once again.

• The Reconstruction Act of 1867 passed by the Republican congress repealed the state government’s that Johnson envisioned in his Reconstruction Plan. It divided the South into 5 military districts, each under command of a Union general. It could only become a state once again if they approve the 14th Amendment.

• Johnson tried to veto the bill, but the Republican majority overthrew it.

E. The Impeachment Crisis

• Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act: required Senate consent for an official removal who was appointed with Senate confirmation (which lowk makes sense)

• Johnson was like nah, its unconstitutional, and fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton who was a leader in the Rad Rep. Party. (ig wanted to do an example, but lowk anger issues bro just be a chill guy)

• This made the Rad Reps to declare impeachment on Johnson for his crimes and misdemeanors in office, including violating the Tenure of Office Act. It went through the House, but lost in Senate by 1 vote.

• While Johnson escaped, the trial crippled his presidency, and Ulysses S Grant, the Union war general, became the 18th president. The Republicans kept their two-thirds majority.

F. The Fifteenth Amendment

• This was the 3rd of the Reconstruction Amendments: forbade the federal government citizen suffrage based on their race, color, or condition of servitude.

• “Second Founding”: Term that described the new constitutional amendments to protect newly-freed slaves’ promised equality and liberties in the Declaration of Independence.

Making Connections: Women’s Suffrage

• Women right advocates felt left out because they wondered why Congress was granted suffrage to ex-slaves, and not women. Some women reluctantly accepted that it was the “Negro’s hour”, such as Julia Ward Howe. However, strong leaders such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton actively opposed the 15th Amendment.

• In the 1900s, the Progressive movement had a new generation of woman suffragist activists. The amounting campaign numbers pressured Congress to pass the 19th Amendment which added to the 14th Amendment on no citizen to be denied the right to vote “on the account of sex.”

Reconstruction in the South

A. Radical Republican Governments

• Republicans were called radical because they extended civil and political equality to African Americans.

• The 15th Amendment allowed Black men to vote, and the new changes were apparent in the South. 80% of the votes were freedmen, 600 Blacks served as state legislators in rejoined South States, and 14 Blacks went to the HoR and 2 to Senate. Black voters helped Grant in his presidential elections.

• Republicans launched public school reforms for Black students, new hospitals, reformed the criminal justice system, and new infrastructure based on taxes.

Making Connections: Black Colleges

• Colleges like Howard University in Washington, D.C. allowed the training of African American leaders in the fight against segregation.

B. Criticism of South Reconstruction

• Criticism on Republican state governments consisted claims of misuse public funds by accepting high bids for contracts, and politician corruption of accepting bribes from construction and railroad companies to build federal infrastructure.

• White Southerners hated carpetbaggers and scalawags.

  • Carpetbaggers: Northerners who moved to South for wealth and power.

  • Scalawags: Southeners who supported and benefited from Rad Rep. policies.

C. Understanding Causation: The End of Reconstruction

“Slavery is not Honestly Dead.”

• Some abolitionists like Frederick Douglass believed that slavery was not over yet. This was because he pointed out that slavery was gone due to a military win, not a moral win.

• This theory became true as the decades of slavery deeply rooted racial prejudice that the Rad Rep. Second Founding of Constitutional Amendments couldn’t resolve. White Southerners resented the Rep governments that got rid of the South legislatures and Black Codes, as well as granting African American suffrage.

The Ku Klux Klan

• Beginning in Tennessee and rapidly spreading to the South, the Klan maintained “white supremacy” and aided the revival of the Democratic Party which overthrew the Rad Rep.

• Klansmen burned Black communities and murdered hundreds of African Americans.

• Their reign of terror weakened Rep governments, and Democratic governments took control. Only SC, Louisiana, and Florida remained under Rep control in 1876.

The Erosion of Northern Support

• Radical Republican Reconstruction and support for freedmen began to slow down as their leaders died or left office. Politicos became the new political movement who focused their attention on West expansion, Indian wars, tariffs, and railroads.

• President Grant did not do much to help the Reconstruction movement. His administration filled with scandals, a business panic, and economic depression all undermined support for Reconstruction.

The Compromise of 1877

• The Election of 1876 was a constitutional crisis because the Democratic candidate won the popular vote over Rep. Rutherford B. Hayes. The outcome was unclear because 3 South states had disputed electoral votes.

• Congress created an electoral commission to choose what candidate gets the votes. The Compromise of 1877 resolved the issue:

  • Democrats would support Hayes, but Rep had to withdraw all federal troops from the South, appoint at least one Southerner to the cabinet, and grant federal funds for South internal improvements.

• The compromise ended Reconstruction. The remaining Republican governments collapsed because the Southern Democrats proclaimed they had taken back control, and white supremacy shall reign.

The New South

A. Henry Grady’s Vision

• Editor of the Atlanta Constitution, he called for a “New South” which will prosper a new generation of Southern leaders to build a more diversified Southern economy other than agricultural.

B. The Industrial South

• A textile industry using South’s cheap labor, low taxes, and vast cotton fields flourished in the region. Cotton mills spread across the Southern states.

• James Buchanan Duke led South’s big industries when he founded American Tobacco Company. His company would produce 80% of cigarettes by 1900.

• Birmingham, Alabama became a major industrial center due to its iron and steel mills. People proclaimed the city as “The Pittsburgh of the South”

C. The Limits of Development

• Even though there was Southern industry development, 2/3 of Southern men still earned their income by farming in 1900. They also still had an income 40% of the North.

Southern Agriculture

A. Dependence Upon Cotton

• Cotton continued to be South’s cash crop. In the 1870 to 1900, cotton production doubled to 10 million bales.

• Because of the overdependence on cotton sales, the Southern economy was vulnerable to the fluctuations on the global price of cotton. During the 1890s, a 50% drop in cotton prices plummeted the Southern economy, and debts and unemployment rose.

B. Sharecropping

• The dynamic between white plantation owners and Black workers continued even though slavery was abolished. A new system called sharecropping emerged.

  • Blacks (some whites) sold their labor to use their land, tools, and seeds. They had to give landowner half of the crop as payment.

• In addition to being in continuous debt with the landowner, sharecroppers also had to borrow food, clothing, and other supplies from storekeepers as they were not paid with money. The merchants then took a share in the crop results.

C. A Cycle of Debt and Poverty

• Sharecropping was not economic independence. Sharecroppers had interest rates as high as 50%, and sharecroppers became continuously in debt.

• This cycle led to a formation of farmers’ alliances and Black migration out of the South.

The Restoration of White Supremacy

A. The Redeemers

• The new Democratic leaders in Southern governments were known as the “Redeemers” because they saved the region from Republican rule.

• The party had those who promoted economic growth based upon industrialization and railroad expansion. They also wanted to restore a social system based on white supremacy.

B. The Disenfranchisement of Black Voters

• The 15th Amendment denied all governments to deny the right to vote based on race. Redeemer governments used literacy tests and poll taxes to make it harder for Black voters.

  • Voters who skipped an election would have their poll tax to accumulate from one election to the next. It was hard because Blacks in the South were already in debt.

• Black votes began to plummet due to the taxes, and by the early 1900s, they had lost their political rights in the South.

C. “Separate but Equal”

• The Civil Rights Act of 1875 allowed Blacks equal enjoyment of public facilities. As more of the South rejected the idea of racial equality, communities began to enact Jim Crow Laws.

• In the 1883 Civil Rights Cases, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amedment of equal protection only applied to state action and not private individuals and organizations.

• In 1896, the Supreme Court moved further to legal segregation in Plessy V. Ferguson, where they approved “separate but equal” railroad facilities for African Americans.

• Soon, segregation affected every part of social life from schools, restaurants, hotels, restrooms, water fountains, and more.

Making Connections: Segregated Public Schools

• Plessy v. Ferguson allowed segregation to continue. Segregated schools in the South were consistently inferior and underfunded compared to White schools.

• In 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren overturned Plessy v. Ferguson based on the decision in Brown v. Board of Education and the 14th Amendment clause.

  • Concluded that the doctrine of separate but equal is illogical. Separate facilities with different conditions of quality are inherently unequal.

Making Comparisons: Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois

Booker T. Washington

• Believed that white racism was a consequence of lsavery.

• Advocated Black economic self-help and learning trades. He bleived that gradually their economic progress would earn white respect and overcome racism.

• Supported the accommodation of white society, and had a positive view on Whites.

• Supported vocational education, and helped found an institution in Alabama to provide industrial education for Black students.

• Opposed political agitation, like protests, to challenge Jim Crow laws. Believed that the wall of discrimination would go away if they were patient. He firmly believed their economic success would lead to their political rights.

W.E.B. Du Bois

• Believed white racism was the cause of slavery and the primary reason why African Americans were being segregated.

• Advocated for a tenth of the African American population to be well talented to fight for social change for African Americans.

• Supported legal action to oppose Jim Crow Laws. He helped found the National Assocation for the Advancement of COlored People which used lawsuits to fight Jim Crow.

• Opposed Booker’s gradual and accommodation policy, and insisted on voting and education to protect their rights.

• Believed economic success could only happen after they won politcal rights. Therefore, he advocated for “ceaseless agitation” and litigation to achieve equal rights.