Reconstruction Notes: Key Concepts, Legislation, and Consequences

Johnson vs Congress: Clash Over Reconstruction

• Johnson is a Southern Democrat, not aligned with the party controlling Congress; frames the political battle as a tug-of-war over the South after the Civil War.
• Johnson favors a soft, watered-down Reconstruction: a quick reintegration of the South with lighter terms and minimal civil rights protections for freed slaves; he does not envision full rights for Black southerners.
• Congress (the Radical Republicans) pushes for robust civil rights for freed people and a harsher, more transformative Reconstruction.
• The two branches repeatedly clash over how to shape the postwar South and how far civil rights should extend.

Freedmen's Bureau (March 1865) and early postwar efforts

• Congress creates the Freedmen's Bureau (Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands) in $1865$ to aid former slaves transitioning to freedom.
• Bureau initiatives include setting up educational systems (initially basic education, later expanding to higher education).
• Out of the Bureau movement emerges the inception of historically Black colleges, with roots in the Freedmen's Bureau initiatives.
• The Bureau’s work helps initiate integration of freed people into Southern society and politics.

Southern backlash and the Black Codes (1865–1866)

• White Southern planters and former Confederates feel disenfranchised and threatened by Black political participation and labor competition.
• In response to rapid social changes, discriminatory Black Codes are enacted in $1865–1866$ to maintain a racial hierarchy and effectively recreate a form of slavery through law.
• Black Codes deny Black people basic civic participation and rights:
  • Deny the right to vote; prohibit serving on juries; restrict weapon ownership; restrict land rental.
  • These codes codify white supremacy and restrict the newly freed population from economic and political participation.
• The Black Codes are designed to fulfill an economic need within the postwar South: replacing slave labor with a controllable labor system while keeping costs low for plantation owners.
• The transition creates friction and volatility across the South, fueling clashes between radical Republicans in Congress and white Southern interests.

Freedmen's Bureau extension and the push for civil rights (1866–1867)

• Congress extends the Freedmen's Bureau to counteract Black Codes and buffer the transition from slavery to freedom.
• The first Civil Rights Act is passed in $1866$, establishing citizenship for African Americans and outlining equal protection under the law.
• The Civil Rights Act of $1866$ directly challenges the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which had held that Black people could not be citizens.
• Johnson vetoes the Civil Rights Act of $1866$, but Congress overrides the veto, enacting the act nonetheless.
• Despite the act, Black Codes persist, highlighting a tension between statutory rights and local enforcement.

The Fourteenth Amendment: citizenship and equal protection (1866–1868)

• The Fourteenth Amendment is proposed and sent to state legislatures for ratification in $1866$.
• Core provisions:
  • All persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens, and citizens are entitled to equal protection under the law.
  • Repeals the Three-Fifths Compromise by eliminating it as a basis for representation; $rac{3}{5}$ of enslaved people count as part of the population for representation and taxation.
  • States denying suffrage to adult male inhabitants (Black or white) reduce their number of voting representatives and electoral college electors.
  • Debts incurred by the Union in the Civil War are honored; Confederate debts are not.
• The amendment helps set the stage for federal protection of civil rights, but it does not yet explicitly ban certain insidious practices (see the later discussion of the Fifteenth Amendment and literacy tests).
• Johnson strongly opposes the Fourteenth Amendment and argues for its rejection; he frames Reconstruction as a matter of simply ending slavery and returning the South to the Union as it was.
• The Fourteenth Amendment signals a shift toward a more centralized federal role in guaranteeing rights, a shift opposed by Southern Democrats and some conservative Republicans.

The rise of the Military Reconstruction and the Reconstruction Acts (1867–1868)

• The Reconstruction Act of $1867$ divides the ten former Confederate states into five military districts, each under martial law administered by Union generals.
• Approximately $20{,}000$ troops are deployed to enforce order and implement Reconstruction policies in these districts.
• The Acts require new state constitutions that:
  • ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, and
  • extend male suffrage to all citizens aged 21 and older, including African Americans.
• Only after meeting these terms can Southern states be readmitted to the Union.
• Johnson vetoes the Reconstruction Act, but Congress overrides the veto, reinforcing federal authority in the South.
• By the end of $1870$, all Southern states under military rule have ratified the Fourteenth Amendment and been readmitted.
• The period marks a clear public confrontation: Radical Republicans promote a transformative Reconstruction; Johnson and his allies resist its scope and implications.
• Journal coverage and public discourse describe Johnson as hostile to Reconstruction, with radicals portraying him as anti-civil-rights and anti-reconstruction.

Checks and balances: Army and office removal, impeachment, and political crisis (1867–1868)

• The Command of Army Act limits the president’s ability to issue military orders; orders can only be issued through the commanding general of the Army and cannot be relieved or reassigned without Senate consent.
• The Tenure of Office Act (1867) requires Senate approval for the removal of certain officeholders, protecting Radical Republican appointees and preventing presidential purges of supporters.
• Johnson attempts to remove Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and replaces him with Ulysses S. Grant; Grant resigns in protest.
• Impeachment proceedings are launched against Johnson, with House articles of impeachment and Senate trial following; Johnson is impeached by the House but narrowly survives acquittal in the Senate (by a single vote).
• These constitutional battles intensify the rift between the White House and Congress and demonstrate the struggle over who controls Reconstruction policy.

The Fifteenth Amendment and ongoing suffrage debates (1869–1870)

• After the Fourteenth Amendment, Congress passes the Fifteenth Amendment to address voting rights more directly.
• Fifteenth Amendment (ratified in $1870$): Citizens cannot be denied the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
• However, the Fifteenth Amendment does not explicitly prohibit literacy tests or poll taxes, which allows Southern states to continue disenfranchising Black voters through these devices.
• This limitation fuels ongoing political struggles and paves the way for later civil-rights battles and voting-rights enforcement debates.

The parallel Civil Rights movement and the Women’s suffrage movement (late 1860s–1870s)

• A broader civil rights movement grows alongside Reconstruction, focusing on equal rights and political participation for African Americans.
• Concurrently, the Women’s suffrage movement gains momentum, led by figures such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
• Although Anthony and Stanton had long supported broader civil rights for Black people, the rapid emphasis on Black male suffrage in the Fifteenth Amendment creates tension within the movement, and women do not gain the right to vote at this time.
• The resulting rift foreshadows future struggles over gender and race rights in American history.

The collapse of Reconstruction and the rise of the Redeemers (early 1870s–1877)

• By the early 1870s, Black Americans hold notable positions (sheriffs, congressmen, city officials) in the South, marking a visible but contested shift in Southern political life.
• White supremacist terror organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan and other groups, engage in terror campaigns against African Americans and their white allies, using violence rather than legal processes to intimidate and suppress Black political participation.
• The economic system shifts toward sharecropping (crop-lien system): former enslaved people work on land they do not own, earning wages so low that land ownership remains out of reach, and landlords continue to dominate the agricultural economy.
• Sharecropping and debt-based labor entrench economic subservience for Black families and many poor whites, reinforcing social hierarchy and dependency on landowners.
• White Southern elites—landowners and political leaders—form the Redeemers, a coalition seeking to restore prewar social order and roll back Reconstruction gains.
• The Civil War-era policies provoke ongoing resentment in the South toward Northern-led governance and federal intervention in domestic affairs.

The Compromise of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction

• The 1876 presidential election leads to a political compromise: the Compromise of $1877$.
• Republican Senate leaders and Democratic leaders agree to Hayes’s presidency with concessions:
  • One Southern Democrat appointee to Hayes’s cabinet.
  • Democrats gain control over federal patronage in the South.
  • Federal troops are withdrawn from Southern states, effectively ending Reconstruction.
• By $1877$, Redeemers have solidified political control in the South, and Reconstruction is effectively ended.
• Despite political control returning to the South, the economic and social system of sharecropping and the subservient status of African Americans largely persists, and racial disenfranchisement continues through mechanisms like literacy tests and poll taxes.
• The period sets the stage for the long arc of post-Reconstruction race relations, economic restructuring, and ongoing political struggle in the South.

Recap: key developments, themes, and exam focus

• Major themes: federal vs. state power; civil rights and citizenship rights; transformation of labor systems; violence and terror as political tools; the limits of constitutional amendments; the tension between ending slavery and achieving true social equality.
• Core amendments and acts:
  • $1865$: Freedmen's Bureau established; education initiatives begin.
  • $1866$: Civil Rights Act establishes citizenship and equal protection; Johnson vetoes, overridden.
  • $1867$: Reconstruction Acts; military districts; martial law; voting rights extended; Johnson vetoes, overridden.
  • $1868/1869$: Fourteenth Amendment ratified; emboldening federal civil rights protections.
  • $1870$: Fifteenth Amendment guarantees Black male suffrage; literacy tests and poll taxes persist as barriers.
  • 1867: Tenure of Office Act; 1867: Command of Army Act; impeachment crisis culminates in Johnson’s near-impeachment and Grant’s presidency.
  • $1877$: Compromise ending Reconstruction; federal troops withdrawn; Redeemers regain power in the South.
• Contextual notes:
  • The Civil War-era changes to citizenship and voting rights were unevenly enforced; legal changes did not automatically translate into equal social and political reality everywhere.
  • The struggle included not only legislative battles but violent resistance and terror (e.g., Ku Klux Klan), as well as complex economic shifts (like sharecropping) that shaped life for decades.
  • The chapter anticipates broader historical patterns, including debates about the balance of state and federal authority and the long arc toward later civil rights movements.

Preview of upcoming topics and assignments

• Chapter 17 will cover roughly $1840–1900$ and continues into related topics.
• The upcoming midterm will cover material up to this point; an exam format will resemble this lecture.
• Assignment window: available starting at noon today; due by $11:59PM$ on Sunday.
• Emphasis on themes and concepts rather than memorizing dates; focus on understanding the big ideas and their implications.

Quick questions to test your understanding (sample prompts)

• How did the Freedmen's Bureau influence education and the emergence of historically Black colleges?
• What were the key provisions and limitations of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and how did they interact with Black Codes and literacy tests?
• Why did the Reconstruction Acts rely on military districts and martial law, and what were the political consequences?
• What roles did the Tenure of Office Act and the Command of Army Act play in the Johnson impeachment crisis?
• How did the Compromise of $1877$ reshape federal involvement in the South, and what were the immediate and long-term consequences for African Americans?