1. Chapter Seventeen
Reconstruction, 1863—1877

2. Part One:
Introduction

3. Chapter Focus Questions
What were the competing political plans for reconstructing the defeated Confederacy?
How difficult was the transition from slavery to freedom for African Americans?
What was the political and social legacy of Reconstruction in the southern states?
What were the post-Civil War transformations in the economic and political life of the North?

4. Reconstruction,
Refer to “On To Liberty,” p. 497
What does this photograph indicate about the task of Reconstruction?

5. Abraham Lincoln’s Plan
During his life, Lincoln had promoted a plan that:
authorized amnesty for those swearing an oath of allegiance
once 10 percent of a Confederate state’s voters registered their oaths they could establish a state government.
Lincoln used a pocket veto to kill a plan passed by Congressional radicals
Redistribution of land posed another thorny issue.
Congress created the Freedman’s Bureau and passed the Thirteenth Amendment
Refer to “Freedmen’s Bureau,” p. 504

6. 13th Amendment is passed
In January 1865, the U.S. Congress approved the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, irrevocably abolishing slavery throughout the nation. To commemorate the occasion, members of the House and Senate, along with Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax, Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, and President Abraham Lincoln signed several copies of the document.

7. Timeline
In March of 1865, Congress established the Freedmen's Bureau to provide assistance to former slaves. Union Army general Oliver O. Howard was the Bureau's Commissioner.
Among other responsibilities, bureau agents negotiated labor contracts and settled disputes between black and white Southerners. The Bureau's jurisdiction in civil matters eventually became a point of controversy. It ended in 1872.

8. Lincoln is assassinated
On December 8, 1863, President Lincoln offered a preliminary plan to reunite Confederate states with the Union. Known as the 10 Percent Plan, Lincoln's proposal offered lenient terms of pardon and amnesty to Confederates who swore allegiance to the United States, but it did not give former slaves any citizenship rights.
However, President Abraham Lincoln assassinated. Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes president – April 14, 1865
Victory at Gettysburg
What happened in 1863 to cause Lincoln to create such a plan?

9. Black Codes
The Black Codes, a series of laws passed by Southern states to define freedman's rights and responsibilities, imposed serious restrictions upon former slaves.
According to Florida's Black Code, blacks who violated broke labor contracts could be whipped, pilloried, and sold for up to one year's labor.
The Black Codes created an uproar among many Northerners, who considered them to be another form of slavery.
Click on picture

10. Civil Rights and Congress
Reconstructing the South became a divisive issue in national politics, pitting President Johnson against the Republican majority in Congress. Eventually, Congress (Radical Republicans) implemented its own plan of Reconstruction, based on federal action protecting the rights of the former slaves.
Federal laws and two further Constitutional Amendments established the principle of equal rights for all citizens
When Congress assembled in December 1865, Radical Republicans (click on Radical Republicans) called for the overthrow of the governments established under President Johnson's Reconstruction policy and the establishment of new ones with black men as well as white allowed to vote. Moderate Republicans, still hoping to work with the president, rejected this plan.

11. Civil Rights and Congress
Following their lead, Congress adopted two bills, one extending the life of the Freedmen's Bureau, the second, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, guaranteeing blacks' equality before the law, short of the suffrage.
Johnson's veto of these measures moved many moderates into the radical camp, and inaugurated a bitter conflict over control of Reconstruction policy, which culminated in 1868 when he was nearly removed from office by impeachment.
In 1866, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act over Johnson's veto, and proceeded to approve the Fourteenth Amendment, which forbade states to deprive any citizen of the "equal protection of the laws," the first Constitutional guarantee of the principle of equal civil rights regardless of race.

12. Focus Questions
What were the competing political plans for reconstructing the defeated Confederacy?
How difficult was the transition from slavery to freedom for African Americans?
What was the political and social legacy of Reconstruction in the southern states?
What were the post-Civil War transformations in the economic and political life of the North?
With your table team answer these questions and be prepared to share with the class.

13. Major Reconstruction Legislation
Freedman’s Bureau ( )—Offered assistance for medical and education needs of freed slaves
Civil Rights Act of 1866 – Granted citizenship and equal protection and equal protection under the law
Reconstruction Act of 1867 – Abolished governments formed in the former Confederate states. Divided those states into 5 military districts. Set up requirements for readmission into the Union .
Enforcement Act of 1870 – Protected the voting rights of African Americans and gave the federal government power to enforce the 15th Amendment
Civil Rights Act of 1875 – Outlawed racial segregation in public services and assured the right of African Americans to serve as jurors.

14. Part Two:
American Communities

15. From Slavery to Freedom in a Black Belt Community?
In Hale County, former slaves showed an increased sense of autonomy, expressing it through politics and through their new work patterns.
One planter described how freed people refused to do “their former accustomed work.”
Former slaveholders had to reorganize their plantations and allow slaves to work the land as sharecroppers (tenet farming), rather than hired hands.
Freed people organized themselves and elected two of their number to the state legislature.
These acts of autonomy led to a white backlash, including nighttime attacks by Ku Klux Klansmen intent on terrorizing freed blacks and maintaining white social and political supremacy.

16. The Politics of Reconstruction
Part Three:
The Politics of Reconstruction

17. The Defeated South
The South had been thoroughly defeated and its economy lay in ruins.
The presence of Union troops further embittered white Southerners.
The bitterest pill was the changed status of African Americans whose freedom seemed an affront to white supremacy.
Refer to “Decorating the Graves of Confederate Soldiers,” p. 501

18. Andrew Johnson and Presidential Reconstruction
Andrew Johnson, the new president, was a War Democrat from Tennessee.
He had used harsh language to describe southern “traitors” but blamed individuals rather than the entire South for secession.
While Congress was not in session he granted amnesty to most Confederates. Initially, wealthy landholders and members of the political elite had been excluded, but Johnson pardoned most of them.
Johnson appointed provisional governors who organized new governments.
By December, Johnson claimed that “restoration” was virtually complete.

19. The Radical Republican Vision
Radicals Republicans wanted to remake the South in the North’s image, advocating land redistribution to make former slaves independent landowners.
Stringent “Black Codes” outraged many Northerners.
In December 1865, Congress excluded the southern representatives.
Congress overrode Johnson's vetoes of a Civil Rights bill and a bill to enlarge the scope of the Freedman’s Bureau.
Fearful that courts might declare the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional, Congress drafted the Fourteenth Amendment.
Republicans won the Congressional elections of 1866 that had been a showdown between Congress and Johnson over Reconstruction and the amendment.

20. Congressional Reconstruction
The First Reconstruction Act of 1867 enfranchised blacks and divided the South into five military districts.
Congress passed the first Reconstruction Act on 2nd March, The South was now divided into five military districts, each under a major general. New elections were to be held in each state with freed male slaves being allowed to vote.
The act also included an amendment that offered readmission to the Southern states after they had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment and guaranteed adult male suffrage. President Andrew Johnson immediately vetoed the bill but Congress re-passed the bill the same day.
Click on title to view Adobe Acrobat map.

21. What happened to labor on Southern plantations right after the war?
“Perhaps the most fundamental thing that had to be decided the day that slavery ended was what form would labor take now. Slavery is fundamentally a form of extracting labor from unwilling people. Now what's going to happen? You can't wait to find out. This is not an abstract question. The day that freedom comes, it's springtime. It's time to be plowing the fields. It's time to be putting in the seed. It's time to be clearing the ditches. If you don't do it now, it's going to be too late. Soon that hot Southern sun's going to come baking down, and if those plants haven't started, they're never going to start. And if they don't grow, there's nothing to eat. So these are not just sort of things that people can sit around and decide later what they're going to do...”Edward Ayers, Historian

22. Impeachment
A crisis developed over whether Johnson could replace Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.
In violation of the Tenure of Office Act, Johnson fired Stanton.
The House impeached Johnson but the Senate vote fell one vote short of conviction.
Johnson’s trial began in March 1868 and lasted 11 weeks
The vote was 35 to one vote short of the 2/3rds needed.
Grant is elected as a war hero in 1868 but won by a small margin. The republicans knew they needed the black vote.
1870 the 15th Amendment was passed.

23. The Election of 1868
By 1868 eight of the eleven ex-Confederate states were back in the Union. Republicans nominated Ulysses Grant for president.
The Republicans attacked Democrats’ loyalties.
Democrats exploited racism to gather votes and used terror in the South to keep Republicans from voting.
Republicans won with less than 53 percent of the vote.

24. Reconstruction and Ratification
The remaining unreconstructed states had to ratify both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to be admitted to the Union.
Texas and Virginia were the last to be readmitted in1870
Refer to “Fifteenth Amendment,” p. 503 and “Reconstruction Amendments,” p. 507

25. Woman Suffrage and Reconstruction
Women’s rights activists were outraged that the new laws enfranchised African Americans but not women.
The movement split over whether to support a linkage between the rights of women and African Americans.
Refer to “Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton,” p. 508

26. Part Four:
The Meaning of Freedom

27. Moving About
For many freed people, the first impulse to define freedom was to move about.
Many who left soon returned to seek work in their neighborhoods. Others sought new lives in predominantly black areas, even cities.
Former slaves enjoyed the freedom of no longer having to show deference to whites.

28. The African American Family
Freedom provided the chance to reunite with lost family members.
The end of slavery allowed African Americans to more closely fulfill appropriate gender roles.
Males took on more authority in the family.
Women continued to work outside the home.

29. African American Churches and Schools
Emancipation allowed ex-slaves to practice religion without white interference.
African American communities pooled their resources to establish churches, the first social institution that they fully controlled.
Education was another symbol of freedom.
By 1869 over 3,000 Freedman’s Bureau schools taught over 150,000 students.
Black colleges were established as well.
Refer to “First African Baptist Church,” p. 510

30. Land Labor After Slavery
Most former slaves hoped to become self-sufficient farmers, but with no land redistribution this dream was not fulfilled.
The Freedman’s Bureau was forced to evict tens of thousands of blacks that had been settled on confiscated lands.
At war’s end most planters expected blacks to work for wages in gangs, but was unacceptable to many ex-slaves.

31. Sharecropping and Living Patterns
Sharecropping represented a compromise between planter and former slave.
Sharecroppers set their own hours and tasks.
Families labored together on adjoining parcels of land.
Refer to “The Barrow Plantation,” p. 513

32. The Origins of African American Politics
Former slaves organized politically to protect their interests and to promote their own participation.
Five states had black electoral majorities.
The Union League became the political voice of former slaves.
New leaders, drawn from the ranks of teachers and ministers, emerged to give direction to the black community as it fought for equal rights.
Refer to “Electioneering,” p. 514

33. Southern Politics and Society
Part Five:
Southern Politics and Society

34. Southern Republicans
Most northerners were satisfied with a reconstruction that brought the South back into the Union with a viable Republican Party.
Achieving this goal required active Federal support to protect the African American voters upon which it depended.
Republicans also drew strength from:
white, northern, middle-class emigrants called carpetbaggers
native southern white Republicans called scalawags who were businessmen and Unionists from the mountains with old scores to settle
The result was an uneasy alliance, with each group pushing an agenda that was incompatible with the plans devised by its allies.

35. Reconstructing the States
Throughout the South, state conventions that
had a significant African American presence
drafted constitutions
instituted political and humanitarian reforms
The new governments insisted on equal rights, but accepted separate schools.
The Republican governments did little to assist African Americans in acquiring land though they did help protect the rights of black laborers to bargain freely.
Republican leaders envisioned promoting northern-style prosperity and gave heavy subsidies for railroad development.
These plans frequently opened the doors to corruption and bankrupted the states.

36. White Resistance
Many white southerners believed that the Republicans were not a legitimate political group.
Paramilitary groups like the Ku Klux Klan used terror to destroy the Reconstruction governments and intimidate their supporters.
Congress passed several laws to crack down on the Klan.
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 outlawed racial discrimination in public places
Refer to “The Klan Photo,” p. 517

37. Redemption
As wartime idealism faded and Democrats gained strength in the North, northern Republicans abandoned the freed people and their white allies.
Conservative Democrats (Redeemers) won control of southern states.
Between 1873 and 1883, the Supreme Court weakened enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and overturned convictions of Klan members.

38. “King Cotton” Map: Southern Sharecropping and the Cotton Belt, p. 519
The South grew more heavily dependent on cotton.
The crop lien system provided loans in exchange for a lien on the crop.
As cotton prices spiraled downward cotton growers fell more deeply into debt.
The South emerged as an impoverished region.
Click on title to view Adobe Acrobat map.

39. Reconstructing the North
Part Six:
Reconstructing the North

40. The Age of Capital
Republicans like Lincoln believed that their society was bound by a harmony of interests without class conflict that allowed for social mobility.
A violent railroad strike in 1877 suggested that the North had undergone its own reconstruction, shattering that harmony.
Fueled by railroad construction, the postwar years saw a continued industrial boom that concentrated industries into the hands of a few big businesses.
Several Republican politicians maintained close connections with railroad interests resulting in the Credit Mobilier scandal.
Refer to “Promontory Point,” p. 521

41. Liberal Republicans and the Election of 1872
The Republican Party underwent dramatic changes because:
the old radicals were dying or losing influence
party leaders concentrated on holding on to federal patronage
a growing number of Republicans were appalled by the corruption of the party and sought an alternative.
The Liberal Republicans:
were suspicious of expanding democracy
called for a return to limited government
proposed civil service reform to insure elites would have federal posts
opposed continued federal involvement in Reconstruction
In 1872, Horace Greeley challenged Ulysses Grant for the presidency. Grant easily won but the Liberal Republican agenda continued to gain influence.

42. The Depression of 1873
In 1873, a financial panic triggered the longest depression in American history.
Prices fell, unemployment rose, and many people sank deeply in debt.
Government officials rejected appeals for relief.
Clashes between labor and capital led many to question whether their society was one with a harmony of interests.
Refer to “The Tramp,” p. 523

43. The Election of 1876 Map: The Election of 1876, p. 524
As the election of 1876 approached, new scandals in the Grant administration hurt the Republicans.
The Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden of New York, a former prosecutor. Democrats combined attacks on Reconstruction with attacks on corruption.
The Republican nominee, Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, accused Democrats of treason and promised to clean up corruption.
Click on title to view Adobe Acrobat map.

44. Crisis and Resolution
Tilden won more votes than Hayes, but both sides claimed victory.
In three southern states two sets of electoral votes were returned.
An electoral commission awarded the disputed votes to Hayes.
Hayes struck a deal that promised money for southern internal improvements and noninterference in southern affairs.
The remaining federal troops were removed from the South.
The remaining Republican governments in the South lost power.

45. Part Seven:
Conclusion

46. Reconstruction , 1863-1877 Media: Chronology, p. 525
Refer to “Chronology,” p. 525