1. Themes: 1877-1898 An overwhelmingly rural society
A largely absent Federal government
Rise of corporate capitalism
Savage boom and bust cycles
Utopian social movements, constantly thwarted by:
Political and social fragmentation
Enormous ethnic complexity/cultural isolation, and racism
The economic instability of the period
After the election of 1896, utopianism replaced by progressivism

2. What does “freedom” mean now?
Newly free family in Richmond, Virginia, circa 1865
For African Americans:
Access to land
Access to the vote
Access to education
For white Southerners:
Freedom from the Federal government
“States rights”

3. Lincoln’s 10 percent plan
General amnesty to white southerners who pledged an oath of loyalty to the government and to the elimination of slavery
When 10 percent took the oath in a given state, they could set up a state government

4. Andrew Johnson plan Loyalty oath
Governor invokes constitutional convention
State becomes repatriated if it abolishes slavery, revokes secession, and repudiates its confederate war debts

5. Civil Rights Act of 1866 14th Amendment, ratified 1868
Declared blacks citizens of the United States
Gave the Federal government power to intervene in southern state affairs
Gave Freedmen’s Bureau the power to open special courts to nullify the black codes
First constitutional definition of citizenship
Gave individuals “equal protection of the laws”
Reduction of representatives to any state that denied men the suffrage

6. Radical Reconstruction
South transformed into five military districts
Military commanders could register all qualified male voters who had not participated in the rebellion.
State constitutional conventions had to include black suffrage
State legislatures had to approve the 14th amendment.

7. The 15th Amendment, 1869
Forbade states to deny suffrage on basis of “race, color, or previous condition and servitude”
Made this a requirement for last states applying for repatriation: Mississippi, Virginia and Texas
All southern states had to pass 15th amendment to return to the Union

8. Andrew Johnson escapes conviction of the articles of impeachment, 1868

9. The Freedman’s Bureau
Federal employment agency, banking system, legal advocacy agency, medical service, and, for a little while, a land agency for African Americans

10. The Credit Mobiler Scandal, 1867-1872
Union Pacific railroad board of directors hires and pays itself to build the Union Pacific railroad at exorbitant prices
Pays off members of Congress to keep quiet
President Ulysses S. Grant

11. Colfax massacre, 1873
40 African-American farmers murdered in Louisiana
Federal government indicts 98 men of violating the 14th amendment
Supreme Court overthows convictions in Cruikshank vs. United States
Removing the dead after the Colfax massacre

12. The Stolen Election of 1876 Hayes’ corrupt bargain:
“Rutherfraud” B. Hayes
Hayes’ corrupt bargain:
South will support him if he withdraws Federal troops.

13. Electoral crisis of 1876 and 1877
Four contested states
One electoral commission
Oregon
Louisiana
South Carolina
Florida
19 electoral votes in dispute
Five U.S. Senators
Five House Representatives
Five Supreme Court Justices
(7 Democrats; 7 Republicans; 1 independent)

14. 1890 - a class divided society
Wealthiest 1 percent of families in 1890 owned 51 percent of all real estate, personal property, and $$$$.
The 44 percent least wealthy owned 1.2 percent of all property.
Wealthy and better off own about 86 percent of all wealth

15. Two visions of America Identity of interest:
Basic harmony exists between capital and labor
The free market benefits all
Laws helping poor damned as “class legislation “
Conflict of interest:
U.S. society essentially out of joint
U.S. on the way to developing an aristocracy
Government needed to take active steps to prevent this . . .

16. The Knights of Labor emphasized alternatives to the wage system
created diverse assemblies of workers not based on their craft

17. The Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882
Congressional response to the Workingmen’s Party of California
Prohibited most Chinese from immigrating to the United States
Exceptions: wives of men already in the U.S.; teachers, students, and merchants
Chinese-American population halved by 1920

18. Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886)
Yick Wo was denied a permit to operate a laundry in San Francisco (while white operators received permits).
U.S. Supreme Court declared that the application of a statute as well as the statute itself must not be discriminatory
Yick Wo Elementary School, SF
Declared City of San Francisco in violation of the 14th amendment
Case later cited in Texas v. Hernandez (1954)