Reconstruction

Origins and Goals of Reconstruction

• Period spans only $12$ years (from $1865$ to $1877$); aims:
  • Re-admit seceded Southern states to the Union.
  • Define place of $4$ million freedpeople—transition from coerced labor to citizens.
• Immediate post-war South:
  • Infrastructure devastated by Union “hard-war” tactics (e.g., Sherman’s March).
  • Economy in ruins; labor system abolished.
• Core political-legal questions: citizenship, rights, & racial/economic hierarchy.

Wartime Foundations

• Emancipation Proclamation (effective $01/01/1863$) = wartime measure; only freed slaves in rebelling areas.
• “Lincoln governments” created where $10\%$ of voters swore loyalty; Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana gained exemption from proclamation (could keep slavery).
• Highlighted limits of wartime emancipation ⇒ necessity of constitutional amendment.

Thirteenth Amendment

• Text: slavery abolished except as punishment for crime.
• Passed Congress $1865$; ratified by $3/4$ of states ⇒ nationwide abolition.

Lincoln’s Assassination & Johnson’s Ascension

• $04/14/1865$: John Wilkes Booth shoots Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre.
• Booth: pro-slavery, failed March kidnap plot, coordinated attacks on VP & Sec. of State.
• VP Andrew Johnson (Tenn. Unionist Democrat) becomes president:
  • Racist, strict constructionist, states’-rights advocate.
  • Political mismatch with Republican Congress.

Johnson’s “Presidential Reconstruction”

• Quick readmission plan: states must
  • Repudiate secession,
  • Repay Confederate debts,
  • Ratify $13^{th}$ Amendment.
• Blanket pardon for ex-Confederates except those owning >\$20{,}000 property (aristocracy must seek individual pardon).
• Republicans refuse to seat Southern delegations ⇒ legislative standoff.

Black Codes

• Southern legislatures (and some Northern locales) enact codes to re-inscribe racial hierarchy.
  • Recognize limited rights (property, marriage, contracts).
  • Deny jury service, testimony against whites, militia service.
  • Vagrancy laws: absence of labor contract ⇒ arrest ⇒ fine ⇒ “hired out” to pay fine (de facto forced labor).
• Goal: social control & quasi-slavery.

Congressional (Radical) Reconstruction

• Furious Republicans craft stronger protections:
  • Civil Rights Act $1866$: nearly all U.S.-born (except Indigenous) = citizens; illegal to deny rights.
  • Fourteenth Amendment (proposed $1866$, rat $1868$): embeds CRA in Constitution;
  – Birthright citizenship, due process, equal protection.
  – Penalizes states denying male suffrage (reduced representation).
• Johnson vetoes CRA & opposes $14^{th}$; Congress overrides.

Reconstruction Acts $1867$

• Post-midterms $1866$ GOP super-majority overrides Johnson; passes Military Reconstruction Act:
  • Dissolves Southern gov’ts; divides South into $5$ military districts.
  • Readmission requires: ratify $14^{th}$, extend vote to Black men, repeal Black Codes.
• Johnson impeached (Tenure of Office Act fight) Feb $1868$; survives Senate removal by $1$ vote.

Election of $1868$

• Democrat Horatio Seymour pledges to end Reconstruction.
• Republican Ulysses S. Grant (Union hero) pledges to uphold it.
• Black Southern vote decisive ⇒ Grant wins electoral landslide despite close popular vote.

African-American Political Mobilization

• $1867$–$1877$:
  • Record Black turnout; at times outnumber white electorate in Deep South counties.
  • Approx. $2$ U.S. Senators, $14$ Representatives; hundreds in state legislatures; majority in S.C. House.
  • Roles in drafting new state constitutions, founding public schools & welfare institutions.
  • Leaders from varied backgrounds: formerly enslaved, freeborn, educated, skilled, even ex-slaveholders.

Land Reform & Freedmen’s Bureau

• Gen. Sherman’s Special Field Order $15$ (“$40$ acres & a mule” along Ga./S.C. coast) lacked legal authority.
• Freedmen’s Bureau (est. $03/1865$): manage abandoned/confiscated lands, provide rations, courts, education.
  • Land redistribution reversed $1866$ (lands restored to pardoned ex-Confederates).
  • Bureau becomes primarily relief & legal aid body; expires $1872$.

Southern Labor Systems After Emancipation

• Severe labor void ⇒ sharecropping & wage contracts with ex-masters.
• Sharecropping: tenants work plots, pay rent via share of crop ⇒ chronic debt cycles, little mobility.
• Economic elites prioritize cotton output & “stability” over racial justice.

Rebuilding Black Civil Society

• Family reunification: newspaper ads, migration; legal marriages shift dependents’ support from govt to patriarch.
• Education: freedpeople of all ages pursue literacy; schools often housed in churches.
• Independent Black churches proliferate; hubs for worship, schooling, politics, mutual aid.
  • Women gain leadership roles; address sexual violence, community welfare.
• Formation of all-Black towns (e.g., Mound Bayou, Miss., $1887$) to seek autonomy.

Women & Reconstruction Politics

• Fourteenth Amendment first to insert word “male” → fractures women’s rights movement.
• American Equal Rights Association $1866$ seeks universal suffrage; splits $1869$:
  • National Woman Suffrage Association (Stanton, Anthony) oppose $15^{th}$, ally with white supremacists.
  • American Woman Suffrage Association supports Black male vote first.
• “New Departure” argument: Constitution already implicitly enfranchises women; hundreds (incl. Susan B. Anthony) attempt to vote $1868$/$1872$, many arrested.
• Southern white women: Ladies’ Memorial Associations glorify Confederacy; spearhead Lost Cause myth, monuments, Memorial Day rituals.
• Southern Black women create aid societies, memorial events (origin of federal Memorial Day in Charleston $1865$).

Racial Violence & the KKK

• White backlash intensifies after $14^{th}$ & $15^{th}$ Amendments: riots, intimidation at polls.
• Ku Klux Klan founded Pulaski, Tenn. $1865$: vigilante terror to restore white supremacy.
• Enforcement Acts $1870$–$1871$ criminalize conspiracies to deny rights; classify Klan violence as rebellion; federal troops deploy.
• Limited success; Southern juries seldom convict whites; violence continues, especially where Black turnout high.

Post-War Economic Realities

South

• Pre-war slave economy valued ≈ $\$3{,}000{,}000{,}000$; cotton the backbone.
• War destruction + emancipation ⇒ capital wiped out; food shortages; hyper-inflation.
• Sharecropping & crop-lien systems lock both Black & poor white farmers in debt till $1930s$.

North

• Industrial diversification (mining, textiles, rail, food).
• War-time policies:
  • First national income tax $1862$.
  • Higher tariffs $1862$ protect industry.
  • National Banking Acts create uniform currency & bond-backed “greenbacks.”
• Post-war boom; innovation offsets labor shortages via mechanization.
• Close gov’t–business ties ⇒ scandals (e.g., Whiskey Ring $1875$ siphons millions); focus shifts to corruption over racial justice.

Waning of Reconstruction

• New Departure/Redeemer Democrats argue citizenship ≠ suffrage; promise “home rule” by white Democrats.
• GOP idealism erodes amid Depression of $1873$–$1879$:
  • Bank failures, rail crashes, $6$-year slump; workers fight low wages, debt bondage.
• Democrats regain House $1874$; obstruct Reconstruction funding & enforcement.
• Federal troop withdrawals begin; Black voter suppression (poll violence, literacy tests, tax tests) rises.

Compromise of $1877$ & Formal End

• Election $1876$ deadlock:
  • Democrat Samuel J. Tilden wins popular vote; lacks $1$ electoral vote for majority.
  • GOP Rutherford B. Hayes behind in popular but contests $20$ disputed electors.
• Secret deal:
  • Democrats concede presidency to Hayes.
  • Hayes pledges removal of remaining federal troops from South + federal subsidies for southern rail & internal improvements.
• Troop withdrawal = collapse of Republican state gov’ts; “Redeemers” entrench white rule.
• Black office-holding & turnout plummet; segregation & Jim Crow laws follow.

Historical Significance & Legacy

• Reconstruction: first national attempt at interracial democracy; constitutional revolution (Amendments 13$–$15).
• Achievements: abolition, birthright citizenship, due process, equal protection, Black male suffrage, beginnings of public education in South.
• Failures: land redistribution aborted; economic dependence unchanged; women’s suffrage sidelined; white supremacist violence unchecked; federal commitment short-lived.
• Sets stage for 80$$+ years of segregation until Civil Rights Movement.