Civil war and reconstruction
The Election of 1860 and Secession
Abraham Lincoln (Republican) ran against a divided Democratic party in the North.
Lincoln won the Election of 1860 with 39% of the popular vote.
No Southern state cast its electoral votes for Lincoln.
South Carolina seceded from the Union immediately after Lincoln's election.
Six other states followed South Carolina's lead.
Florida was the third state to secede.
The Southern states formed the "Confederate States of America".
They created their own constitution and elected Jefferson Davis as their President.
Lincoln pledged not to interfere with slavery where it already existed to calm Southern fears.
He was prepared to use force to bring the Southern states back into the Union.
Lincoln's top priority was to preserve the Union.
Shots Fired at Sumter
Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, when Lincoln sent food supplies.
Lincoln called on all states to supply militia to suppress the rebellion.
Virginia and three other states seceded rather than aid the Union.
West Virginia broke off from Virginia and remained loyal to the Union.
Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware, known as border states, sided with the North.
These events initiated the Civil War.
Secession occurred from 1860 to 1861.
Alabama was the initial provisional seat of the Confederate government.
After Virginia seceded, the Confederate government moved to Richmond, Virginia.
Border States
Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri were crucial border states.
Both sides sought the support of these slave states due to their divided loyalties.
Maryland's decision was finely balanced due to geography and demographics.
Half of Maryland's African American population was free, and half were slaves.
Maryland surrounded the federal capital on three sides.
After the Baltimore Riot of April 1861, Lincoln aimed to control Maryland.
Lincoln suspended habeas corpus along key routes in Maryland, imprisoning key politicians and newspaper editors.
The federal government's actions effectively determined Maryland's allegiance.
Delaware had a majority of free blacks (90%%).
Delaware narrowly voted to stay in the Union in January 1861.
Kentucky declared neutrality, but Lincoln could not afford to lose it.
Losing Kentucky would be like "losing the whole game," potentially losing other border states.
Missouri's legislature voted to remain in the Union.
A key reason the border states did not join the Confederacy was the presence of US armed forces.
Lincoln acted more quickly and decisively than Davis in securing their allegiance.
Military Strategies
The Civil War had three theaters:
East of the Appalachian Mountains.
West of the Appalachian Mountains.
At Sea.
Campaign at sea:
Lincoln aimed to halt the Confederate States’ international trade, especially with Britain.
Blockading Southern ports was chosen as the strategy.
The North aimed to cut off trade and supplies to weaken the Confederacy.
The blockade stopped 90% of the CSA’s trade with Britain.
This strategy was known as the Anaconda Plan proposed by Union general Winfield Scott.
Major Generals
North:
Ulysses S. Grant: Union general and later President (1869-1877).
He rejoined the army and experienced rapid promotion and success.
Lincoln gave Grant overall command of the Union armies.
He defeated Lee at Appomattox in April 1865.
South:
Robert E. Lee: General Lee was one of Winfield Scott’s chief aides in the Mexican War (1846-1848).
He was loyal to the Union initially.
He accepted command of the Confederate Army when Virginia seceded.
He was the South’s supreme military commander.
Eastern Theatre:
The Northern strategy in 1861-1862 was similar to the South’s: defend when necessary, attack when possible.
Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania.
Western Theatre: The Anaconda Plan worked effectively.
The North gained control of the Tennessee, Mississippi, Ohio, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina.
Scorched Earth: A military strategy of destroying resources to undermine the enemy's ability to fight.
General Sheridan.
William T. Sherman.
Changing Approaches of Political and Military Leadership
North:
Lincoln was commander-in-chief of the federal army and head of government.
After Fort Sumter, Lincoln blockaded the coastline and requested 75,000 volunteers.
Winfield Scott was initially appointed general-in-chief but retired and was replaced by General McClellan.
All generals were educated at West Point military college.
The North decided to target the Southern people instead of their army by occupying land, controlling their economy, and undermining their resistance.
In 1864, Lincoln appointed Ulysses S. Grant as commander, with William T. Sherman in charge on the western front; they developed a new type of warfare.
South:
Jefferson Davis was the president and commander-in-chief.
Davis had prior military leadership experience.
All generals were educated at West Point military college.
Robert E. Lee believed in direct battle and concentrated forces on the eastern front.
Troops lived off Northern resources.
Aims for War
North:
Committed to preserving the Union.
Aggressive action to retake the South.
South:
Committed to secession; aimed to prevent invasion.
Occupying enemy territory was not significant.
Suffered shortages, inflation, and transport breakdowns.
Low morale; half opposed secession.
Border states remaining in the Union meant loss of urban population and industry.
Escaped Southern blacks provided labor and troops for the North.
Conflict between state and Confederate governments.
Personal differences within Davis’s cabinet; Lee and Beauregard blamed Davis for defeat.
The North also faced internal conflicts.
Advantages of Both Sides
North:
Population: 18.3 million (1860 census).
Large industrial center: provided supplies for the army.
Powerful Navy: all 42 ships stayed in the Union.
48000 km of railway track, with 34000 km in the North.
Superior War Finance: new taxes, war bonds, paper money.
Introduced income tax in 1861.
1862 Revenue Act created a federal Bureau of Internal Revenue.
South:
Population: 12.2 million.
Cotton Industry: generated wealth.
No Navy: had to rely on ingenuity or look to other countries.
War bonds, taxes, and printed money.
Excellent generals.
Troops were highly motivated to win the war because they were fighting for “survival of a way of life”.
Most of the fighting took place in Southern region.
Impact of Foreign Influences: Britain and France
Britain was particularly important because:
Leading industrial power of the time.
Main market for America’s cotton.
Home of many immigrants entering the US.
Possessed the world’s leading naval power.
Had a land border with the USA (Canada).
At the start of the war, Britain saw the conflict as being about tariffs.
North: wanted to raise tariffs.
South: wanted to keep tariffs low.
Morrill Tariff 1862: increased tariffs on all imports from around 14% to around 26%%.
Southern cotton producers burned bales of raw cotton to influence Britain but it backfired.
Jefferson Davis’s officials failed to persuade Britain to recognize the Confederate States.
Britain:
Wouldn’t sign any treaties with the CSA and wouldn’t send or accept ambassadors.
Accepted the US blockade.
Remained neutral throughout the war.
Britain and France offered to mediate in 1862.
Russia sent its Baltic Sea fleet to New York and its Pacific fleet to San Francisco in 1863.
The War Ends
Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865.
Lincoln was replaced by Vice President Andrew Johnson.
Jefferson Davis was captured and imprisoned for two years, then pardoned in 1868.
Consequences of the War
No state ever threatened to secede again.
The federal government became much more powerful.
The federal government helped the nation’s economy by building a railroad system.
A new National Bank Act created a new banking system.
The Northern economy boomed, and the Southern economy collapsed.
The North had destroyed all the South’s industry and railroads.
600000 soldiers died during the Civil War.
The lives of African Americans began to slowly improve.
The 13th amendment abolished slavery in 1865.
Limitations on Civil Liberties During the War
The North treated secession as rebellion.
Civilians were divided in their attitudes: Copperheads opposed the war, Southerners supported the Union.
Confederacy:
Conscription Act in April 1862 for white men ages 18-35 (teachers and plantation owners with over 20 slaves were exempt).
Union:
Here are the definitions and significance of the events you listed:
Enrollment Act of 1863: This was a Union law that initiated conscription for the Civil War. It required male citizens and immigrants seeking citizenship between 20 and 45 years old to register for potential military service. Exemptions and substitutions were allowed, meaning that individuals could avoid service by paying a fee or finding someone to serve in their place. This led to significant opposition, especially among those who could not afford exemptions, sparking riots and demonstrations. The Act highlighted the class tensions within the Union.
Militia Act of 1862: This act authorized the use of Black soldiers in the Union Army. It was a key step toward officially integrating African Americans into the military and utilizing their manpower in the war effort. It paved the way for the recruitment of freed slaves, which became more prominent after the Emancipation Proclamation. The act demonstrated the growing recognition of the importance of Black contributions to the Union cause.
Emancipation Proclamation of 1863: Issued by President Abraham Lincoln, this proclamation declared that all slaves in Confederate-held territory were to be freed. While it did not apply to the border states or Union-controlled areas, it reframed the war as a fight against slavery and significantly boosted the Union's moral cause. It also encouraged enslaved people to escape to Union lines, further disrupting the Southern economy and bolstering the Union army with new recruits. This proclamation was a turning point in the war, both militarily and politically.
Opposition led to riots and demonstrations.
The Militia Act 1862 and the Emancipation Proclamation 1863 led to the recruitment of freed slaves.
Steps to limit liberty in the Union:
In 1861, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus.
Some Marylanders attacked US troops; Baltimore was placed under martial law.
One man challenged this – John Merryman, a Maryland farmer and militia officer.
Chief judge Taney (same judge in the Dred Scott Decision) ordered the army to either release Merryman or bring him to court.
In September 1862, Lincoln extended his suspensory action across the nation.
The Military Commission was created to try soldiers and civilians in support of the Confederacy, without the protection of the Bill of Rights.
An estimated 4000 military commissions were held during the war.
Steps to limit liberty in the South:
Jefferson Davis argued for limiting civil liberties.
Many people were subject to martial law, which was first passed in February 1862.
There were no Southern military commissions, but there were Habeas Corpus Commissioners employed to decide whether civil prisoners in military prisons should be freed.
The 1863 Impressment Act gave Confederate armies the power to seize what they needed in terms of supplies, whether of food, fuel, or slaves.
The 1863 Tax-In-Kind Act enabled state officials to collect 10% of certain crops to help in the war effort.
The Aliens Enemies Act of 1861 – required all Southerners to declare themselves to be Confederacy citizens or leave or face arrest.
The Sequestration Act of 1861 – allowed the seizure of the property of absentee Unionists, or property which might be transferred to absentee Unionists, such as via the wills of the deceased. Okay, imagine these laws are like rules the grown-ups made during the war: * **Impressment Act:** If you had food or supplies that the army needed, they could just take it, even your pet goat! They said it was for the war. * **Tax-In-Kind Act:** Pretend you grew lots of yummy apples. The government said, 'Give us 1 out of every 10 apples to help feed the soldiers.' It's like sharing, but you didn't get to say no. * **Aliens Enemies Act:** If you lived in the South, you had to say you were on their team. If you didn't, or if you were from the North, they could make you leave or put you in jail. * **Sequestration Act:** If you moved away and supported the other side (the North), the Southern army could take your toys and house because they said you weren't using them anymore.
Issued internal passports – travel passes – to those travelling between the two regions. It also introduced documents for travelling within its own territory.
Emancipation Proclamation
Since the beginning of the war, the institution of slavery had started to crumble.
Northern armies were advancing into slave territory.
Slavery was abolished in Washington D.C.
Fugitive slaves headed for the capital and for Northern army camps.
By the Summer of 1863, Lincoln had publicly offered freedom to slaves in rebel-controlled states.
No offer was made to slaves in the four border states.
The proclamation was an attack on the South’s economy.
Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862, stating that slaves in rebel states would be free on January 1, 1863.
Abolition was now the central issue of fighting.
The Union recognized the freedom of slaves in the Southern states which were still in rebellion.
Responses to the Emancipation Proclamation:
For the North, the proclamation meant that a war for unity was also now a war for emancipation.
For the South, a war for independence was now a war in defense of slavery.
A few leaders in the South argued that The CSA armies should start recruiting black soldiers.
In the Union, however, 10000 black men served in the US Navy, and 180000 in the US Army.
Passage of the 13th Amendment – abolishment of slavery nationwide.
Life in the Confederate States
Life in the South had become hard for many, especially for those who sat directly in the path of union armies.
Social Divisions:
3.5 million people in the South were slaves.
According to the 1860 Census, there were around 130000 free blacks in the Confederacy.
Divisions also existed within the white majority.
The 1862 Conscription Act added to the resentment felt by the poorer majority of people towards the richer minority.
Political Divisions:
The people of the Confederacy were also divided in their loyalty to the Confederacy.
There were many Southern Unionists, and every Southern state except South Carolina raised at least one unit in the Northern Army.
Confederate Economy
Agricultural economy based on plantations producing crops for sale.
South: Produced two-thirds of the world’s cotton.
Majority of the white population lived in small rural communities, farming cattle, pigs and crops which were traded locally.
Fewer factories compared to the North.
Manufactured goods imported from the North and Europe.
Naval blockades had a devastating effect.
The CSA planned to finance the war through tariffs on imports and taxes on exports but was unable to do this because of the Naval blockade.
Instead, the CSA government printed money and issued bonds.
Led to rapid inflation and prices rises for basic goods.
Transportation routes were also put at a halt when the Northern armies took control of river routes and railways.
In 1863, the Confederate government took control of the railroads for military activity, which caused further food shortages.
Introduction of a 10% tax on all farm products in 1863 did not greatly affect the lifestyles of the wealthy.
The Nature of Democracy in the North and the South
Southern Politics:
South was still developing its institutions.
No Confederacy-wide political parties.
The first Congress, separately elected in 1861, was broadly supportive of Davis’s government.
The second Congress, in 1863, contained more who were critical of Confederate policies.
Northern Politics:
Candidates fought as Republicans, Democrats and smaller parties.
Three acts which strengthened their interests in the North and the West were passed –
The Morrill Tariff 1861
The Homestead Act 1862
The Transcontinental Railroad Act 1862
In 1862, the Democrats gained some 25 seats in the House of Representatives.
In 1864, the National Union Party was formed in an effort to allow Lincoln to run for office.
Aims and Outcomes of Reconstruction
Reconstruction: the process by which the Southern states were readmitted into the Union and slavery was prohibited.
Effects of the War:
The entire Southern region was devastated after the Civil War.
The South had a debt of $250000, few businesses and an ill-educated workforce.
Southerners who had invested in CSA war bonds faced financial ruin.
The abolition of slavery wiped out most of the assets of the South.
Questions at hand:
How would the seceded states’ governments be re-established?
What had caused them to secede and how could further problems be prevented?
What would the social system look like? The social status of the slaves?
Who would lead Reconstruction?
Presidential Reconstruction:
Lincoln intended to be merciful in victory.
Southern states, in his view, should be readmitted to the Union when 10% of their citizens had sworn loyalty, and when they had an education system which would be able to cope with the new freed slaves and constitutions which banned slavery.
This became known as Lincoln’s 10% Plan.
The 10% plan was faced by the Wade-Davis Bill, requiring 50% instead of 10%.
Lincoln vetoed this bill.
In March 1865, Lincoln and Congress jointly established the Freedmen’s Bureau.
Andrew Johnson:
Became president after Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson, a War Democrat.
In May 1865, Johnson:
pardoned ex-Confederate soldiers and civilians, with exceptions such as major political and military office holders and those with property (land) worth over $20000$.
did not change voting rights, instead suggesting that Southern states emancipate their freedmen
where possible, returned land. to its pardoned owners.
Congressional Republicans immediately refused to acknowledge the newly elected senators and representatives from the South.
Over the next few months, Congress prepared legislation to extend the mandate of the Freedmen Bureau.
This was passed in 1866, but Johnson vetoed it. This was on the grounds that the bureau was a military institution, and that the military should not be able to overrule the (state run) civil courts.
In March, Johnson vetoed Congress’s Civil Rights Bill, which aimed to protect and enfranchise freedmen, this time on the grounds that it could not be constitutional to change the law so fundamentally when the South had not been allowed to sit in Congress which had passed it.
This time, Congress was able to override the veto and in April 1866, the bill became law.
Radical Reconstruction
Charles Sumner suggested South be treated as not-yet-organized territories.
Thaddeus Stevens was the leading voice for radical change in the House.
Congress which met in 1867 differed from earlier ones:
A Radical majority.
Benjamin Wade and Thaddeus Stevens with congress having radical leadership.
A mandate to oppose President Johnson.
Johnson firmly identified with Southern aristocracy and former Confederate leaders.
The Military Reconstruction Act of March 1867 divided the South into five districts, ruled by military governors.
The Impeachment of President Johnson
February and March 1868, a committee of the House led by Stevens voted to impeach him.
A two-thirds vote against Johnson (36 senators) would be enough to remove him from office.
Reasons:
A show of Radical strength might have had an effect on the 1868 elections.
Johnson would be humiliated
Congress could devote its time to finishing the job in the South, with a cooperative president not disrupting the role of the military governors.
In the absence of a vice president, Senator Wade would assume the presidency.
The bill prohibited the president from removing officials confirmed by the Senate without senatorial approval and was designed to shield members of Johnson’s Cabinet like Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who had been a leading Republican radical in the Lincoln administration.
Reasons for and the Passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments
The 13th Amendment:
Banned slavery throughout the entire US
Proposed in Congress in 1864
Essential to prevent individual states passing their own laws.
It was under Andrew Johnson’s administration that the 13th Amendment was accepted.
By the end of 1865, the amendment had become law.
The 14th Amendment:
Intended to give black people equality under the law with white people.
Came about from the frustrations of Congressional Radicals at President Johnson’s support for the Southern courts.
Destroy the possibility of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 being found unconstitutional.
Now that black people were no longer slaves, they counted as whole persons.
The 15th Amendment:
Gave the right to vote to all male citizens regardless of race, color or having been a slave.
A way to consolidate the gains of the 14th, and to prevent Radical worries about what might happen with a Congress less willing to enforce the 14th .
Even though the 15th Amendment gave African Americans the right to vote, many Southern states created other ways to circumvent the law (imposing literacy tests, poll taxes and passing the grandfather clause).
In its first 100$$ years, the main effect was in guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote in the North.
How Successful was Reconstruction?
The changing position of ex-slaves
First problem: Immediate and economic, freedom but still unemployed and homeless. Many lived on the same plantations as before.
Visible change of distribution (living & work) + freedmen worked shorter hours.
The new Southern economic model
Economy shattered, more by emancipation.
The value of the South had not been in land, but in the workforce + banking system ruined.
Sharecropping was the only solution to the immediate economic problem. agree to rent land from their landowners by sharing their crops as a form of payment instead of money.
Achievements of the Freedmen’s Bureau
Met with needs of the newly freed slaves = clothing / food relief/advice/ reassurance about news of freedom was true. Bureau also assisted freedmen to get married or move around.
along with American Missionary Association (education of freedmen) + set up of universities & schools including prestigious Howard University.
Responses of the White South
Active politicians made up of poor Southerners (white/black) + Northerners coming to the south, either to provide governmental assistance or for their own profit = carpetbaggers.
Another group are known as scalawags = Southerners who supported REconstruction.
The Black Codes
Series of state discriminatory laws , to collectively maintain the social & economic structure of the social slavery where some laws granted freed people to marry/ to testify in court.
Black codes are designed to codify white supremacy by restricting the civic participation of freed people.
Laws deprived them of the right to vote/ the right to serve on juries/ the right to own/carry weapons.
in Florida = illegal to disrespect a white employer + In South Carolina = The Death penalty could be enforced for stealing cotton + had to prove that you were employed or risk being arrested.
Ku Klux Klan
Initially an economic organisation, who became a viciously racist secret society, which used violence and intimidation + by 1869 – KKK WAS A CRIMINAL ORGANISATION – HEADED BY NATHAN BED FORD FORREST ( a confederate General = Grand Wizard).
LIFE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS – PREVIOUSLY NO ONE WOULD HAVE INJURED ANOTHER MAN’S SLAVE (THAT WAS HIS PROPERTY) BUT VIOLENT IMPULSES NOW UNLEASHED.
Ulysses S. Grant’s Reconstruction Policies
Task one was to promote the passage and implementation of the 15th Amendment (Radical Republicans declining in majorities/mandates).
The Black Codes were still in force + the Southern Governments were becoming MORE Democratic, AND so the Administration had to use military & legislative power to crack down violent groups, like the KKK.
Grant also passed the Force Acts to enforce portions of the 14th & 15th Amendment. E.g – Force Act of 1876 (Also known as the KKK act) (designed to enforce the 15th Amendments Section about suffrage).
Grant made it VERY CLEAR “ whatever may be my course in regard to Southern affairs, I shall see to it that every citizen SHALL have the protection guaranteed to him by the constitution”.
List of Grant’s accomplishments – list these.!
Force Acts of 1870- 71 + opposition to High profile violent anti-black groups (KKK). Which included military action (until 1872)
Freedman Bureau was allowed to lapse in 1872.
Amnesty Act 1872 – Allowed former all Confederates to serve in politics / hold office/ office.
Civil Rights Act of 1875