Reconstruction

  • After the Civil War, some former slave masters died from heartbreak as a result of slavery ending. Some former masters attempted to hold onto their chattel. 

  • After the Civil War the most important goal for the freedmen was reuniting with family. 

  • Freedmen: Former slaves 

Land 

Land meant wealth and security, and the freedmen wanted land. (freedmen wanted land for safety/security and wealth)

Special Field Order #15

  • Issues by General William T Sherman 

  • Granted freedmen a tract of land in the area from Charleston, SC  to Jacksonville FL

  • Also known as “forty acres and a mule”

The Freedmen’s Bureau (3/18/25)

The purpose was to help former slaves transition into freedom.

  • It provided food, education, and medical care and solved labor disputes.

  • Destitute whites were also assisted.

Special Field Order #15 was revoked by President Andrew Johnson.

  • The land was returned to its white owners.

  • Johnson had issued pardons to former Confederates.

Sharecropping was a labor system that developed after the Civil War.

  • Freedmen would stay on the property and be provided with tools and seeds.

  • The sharecroppers (freedmen) would receive a portion of the crop at harvest.

The Black Church

The church was almost as important as the Black family

  • Churches offered safety, education, community meeting space, and religious training.

Blacks saved money to buy land to build a church. (3/19/25)

  • Former slaves belonged to Baptist and Methodist churches.

Congregational, Episcopal, and Presbyterian churches were attended by wealthy Blacks.

  • Usually light skinned

  • Services were solemn. 

Education

  • “To remain illiterate was to remain enslaved.”

  • Blacks were eager to learn during Reconstruction.

    • Elderly Blacks wanted to read the Bible

Freedmen preferred Black teachers.

The freedmen were taught by literate Blacks (some from the south, most were from the North) and northern whites. Values were also taught:

  • Temperance, piety, timeliness, cleanliness

Many HBCUs were established

  • Fisk, Benedict, Hampton, Bennett, Tougaloo

White southerners responded with contempt.

  • Violence was often directed at the teachers of freedom.

Violence (3/20/25)

After the Civil War, violence against freedmen was often unprovoked.

  • Beatings, shootings, and rape.

Massacres (riots) occurred when Blacks attempted to assert their rights

The justice system did not work to the benefit of the freedmen.

  • Juries were all white and refused to convict other whites.

Andrew Johnson

Johnson became President after the assassination of President Lincoln

  • Johnson felt that blacks were inferior and had no place in politics

Johnson pardoned former confederates

  • Amnesty

  • Confederate officials had to personally appeal for a pardon. 

Johnson:

  • Restored Confederate lands

  • Allowed former Confederates back into power if they accepted the 13th Amendment (The 13th amendment ended slavery)

  • Repudiate Confederate Civil War debt

  • Cancel

Black Codes (3/21/25)

Limitations on freedmen:

  • Labor contracts must be signed 

  • Children apprenticed

  • Corporal punishment was legal

  • Blacks could not serve on juries

  • Blacks could not own firearms   

Things allowed under the Black Codes:

  • Blacks could legally marry

  • Blacks could sue in court

  • Property could be purchased 

Radical Republicans (3/24/25)

Radical Republicans were determined to punish the South

  • They saw the South as a place that was not apologetic for its actions.

  • Radical Republicans supported Black Voting Rights.

White Northerners were against Black voting rights.

  • Their concern was the former Confederates returning to power.

The Freedmen's Bureau Bill and the Civil Rights Act bill were presented to Congress.

  • Freedmen’s Bureau needed funding.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1866 was for the rights of Blacks.

Johnson vetoed both bills

  • He claimed that Blacks would have too much power.

Congress overrode the vetoes.

Republicans passed the 14th Amendment

  • It made everyone born in the U.S. citizens.

  • States could be denied representatives if Blacks were not allowed to vote.
    - Black men

Answer these (3/25/25)

  • 1. The image is a picture of the Ku Klux Klan, who are a group of racist, hateful white people who terrorized colored people

  • 2. They dress in white to show white supremacy and wear masks to conceal their identity

  • 3. This would discourage African American people from trying to fight back

  • Do you think laws passed by the federal government could effectively stop widespread violence and intimidation in the South during Reconstruction? Why or why not?

The Ku Klux Klan (O_O)

Fear and intimidation were used to keep Blacks subservient.

The Klan began in 1866 in Pulaski, TN.

  • Nathan Bedford Forest was the first Grand Wizard.

  • The Klan was originally a social group.

The name of the group (KKK) comes from:

  • Kyklos - a Greek word which means “circle”.

  • Clan, which means “family”.

    • A “K” was added for alliteration.

The KKK targeted Blacks and white Republicans.

Terrorism

  • Klansmen believe Blacks are there to only serve white southerners.

  • The white uniforms represented the ghosts of dead Confederates.

The Fifteenth Amendment (3/26/25)

  • It granted voting rights to Black Americans. (1870)

    • But, women still couldn’t vote.

The Enforcement Acts

Acts which attempted to combat waves of violence in the South.

1870 - Outlawed the wearing of masks and disguises.

1871 - The KKK Act; made it a crime to interfere with a person’s right to vote.

Habeas corpus - the right to appear before a judge and not be charged or jailed for no reason.

The North began to lose interest in Reconstruction in the 1870s.

  • Some Republicans grew tired of aiding Black people.

The Panic of 1873

  • The Panic of 1873 was an economic slowdown. (a depression)

    • Banks closed and unemployment rose.

  • Republicans were more concerned with the economy and corruption

  • Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives.

“Panic” is an outdated word for an economic depression.

  • People were unemployed

  • Banks closed

  • Businesses failed

Grant was in his second term when this panic happened. The “Panic” lasted for several years.

(4/1/25)

Terms

  • Carpetbagger: a Northerner that would travel to the South to make money, they would carry their stuff in carpet bags

    • They were greedy, and opportunistic

  • Scalawag: a pejorative term for a white Southerner who supported the federal plan of Reconstruction or who joined with black freedmen and the so-called carpetbaggers in support of Republican Party policies.

Tenure of Office Act

  • Johnson attempted to remove Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton from his position

The KKK Act

  • Attempted to overthrow the Klan.

  • Masks were outlawed and they couldn’t be on private property.

The KKK Act also made it a crime to infringe on voting rights or someone’s right to hold public office.

Habeas Corpus Act

  • A Person cannot be held without knowing of their crime.

    • Did not apply if the KKK Act was violated.

Freedmen’s Bank

Chartered by Congress in 1865.

It was to help Blacks manage their deposits

  • Black people had little to no money after the war.

The Panic of 1873 caused the bank to fail

  • Black people lost millions of dollars

The Civil Rights Act of 1875

This attempted to enforce the right of citizens to public accommodations and transportation.

  • It was not supported

Ruled unconstitutional in 1883. 

Redemption (4/2/25)

Redemption refers to restoration of Democratic Party rule in the South. 

  • Violence was the method used. 

  • (Redeem meant the same thing)

The Shotgun Policy

Open warfare against Blacks in Mississippi

  • President Grant did not send troops which caused the violence to grow 

Mississippi was redeemed through violence.

Support for Black rights was fading in the South. 

Hamburg Massacre

This started because a Black drill team was confronted by whites who thought they had no right to perform. 

South Carolina then decided to imitate the Shotgun Policy. (was originally from Mississippi)

Democrats attacked and killed Blacks

  • Blacks fought back in the low country.

  • However, there are some blacks that supported Democrats in South Carolina.

Compromise of 1877 (4/3/25)

  • Samuel Tilden (D) was the winner of the popular vote in 1876.

Rutherford B. Hayes (became president as a result of the Compromise of 1877)

  • Hayes had 67 Electoral college votes while Tilden had 185

  • 20 remaining electoral college votes in dispute.

  • Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina > Unredeemed States Democrats and Republicans both claimed victory. 

Oregon had one contested vote whoever took the electoral votes would be the president.

The dispute ended when:

  • Democrats accepted a Hayes victory 

  • Hayes wouldn’t support the Republican governments in FL, LA, and SC.

Federal troops were removed from the South by Hayes, and the Republican governments collapsed. 

  • Democrats took control.

The South had been redeemed.

  • Reconstruction came to an END.

Review questions that wasn’t on notes (4/7/25)

What was the 15th amendment?

  • Gave voting rights to freedmen / black men.

Which state was not a part of the military districts?

  • Tennessee