1. Reconstruction and Redemption 1863-1877
“A splendid failure…”

2. What Did the End of the War Mean?

3. For the South: A Tale of Ruin
Economic Devastation – destruction of labor force, end of plantation system, small amount of infrastructure ruined, extreme poverty, hyperinflation, worthless currency, source of wealth (slaves) erased, land values plummeted
Social Changes – destruction of planter aristocracy, 1/5 of all white males dead
White Desires – reimplementation of slave, gang labor/wage labor with blacks in fields, removal of federal troops and northern encroachment in labor contracts and regulations
Charleston, South Carolina (1865)

4. For the North: A Tale of Two Stories
Economic Opportunity – rebuild the South with northern free labor ideology, invest in southern infrastructure (especially RR) and help the South industrialize, “carpetbagging”
Social Opportunity – educate southern blacks through the Benevolent Society and its reform organizations, especially school teachers; bring South into 19th century with abolition and more egalitarian society

5. For African-Americans: A Fresh Start
Social Changes – freedom, demanded to be Mr. and Mrs., married, migration to West, clothing upgrades, autonomous churches (Baptist), prioritizing education (pooling $ to learn in basements)
Political Wants – should be able to vote, testify in court, serve in government
Economic Desires – till own land, remove women
and children from fields, subsistence farming only,
become own masters

6. Presidential Reconstruction vs. Congressional Reconstruction
Lincoln
Johnson
Thaddeus Stevens (H.o.R.), Charles Sumner (Senate), and Company in Congress
vs.
vs.

7. Lincoln’s (the Great Emancipator) Plan
1863 Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (wanted to re-establish southern loyalty, bring confed. states back into Union, end war quickly): 10% plan of full pardons and restored rights for all southerners willing to take oath to the U.S. (Confed. officers, high rankers excluded); abolition must be accepted before re-admission, which was decided on by Congress; no terms for black codes, social equality, economic aid, or franchise for blacks

8. Johnson’s (the Great Turncoat?) Plan
AJ’s Proc. of Amnesty and Reconstruction (1865): delivered with Congress out of session during the summer; pardoned southerners except those with $20K+ in property,
Confed. officers, high-rankers (they could apply for personal amnesty though, which most did and received); once oaths taken and former slaveholders pardoned, states could convene to write a new constitution and send it to AJ for approval

9. Radical Republicans’ (the Return of the Cane [Sumner, Stevens]) Plan
Wanted South to slowly integrate back into Union, blacks to have the vote so they could take care of selves w/o Republican involvement and form political base, blacks to gain more basic rights, and South to accept abolition
Reconstruction Act (1867): South must accept 14th & 15th Amend. before readmission, until then 5 military governors would rule 5 districts to enforce black vote and equality; all orders from the Pres. to army went through General Grant (supported radical recon.); 50% loyalty oath (Confed. officers barred from office and vote); still no land or educational guarantees [moderate Repub. not in favor])

10. Radical Republicans Contd. (Yeah, they had plans)
13th (1865), 14th (1868), and 15th (1870) Amend. – abolition of slavery; all citizens of U.S. put under equal protection clause w/due process, representation in gov’t based on male suffrage, no Confed. officers in U.S. office w/o 2/3 Congressional approval, Confed. debt repudiated; no disenfranchisement based on race, gender, etc. respectively
Freedmen’s Bureau (1866) – est. Mar as temporary agency to assist transition for freedmen and white refugees; distributed clothing, food, and fuel; hoped to rent out confiscated land to freedman and show South power of northern free labor
Civil Rights Act (1866) – precursor to 14th Amend.; gave all persons born in U.S. citizenship with full set of civil rights (suing, testifying, due process, equal punishment); no guarantee against personal discrimination, but freedmen did have a better chance in society

11. Consequences and Effects of Each Plan

12. Lincoln’s Legacy
Failed 1863 Proc. – no way to establish loyalty of Confeds. during war
Introduction of Wade-Davis Bill (1864) – Congress’ attempt at establishing true loyalty; 50% of 1860 voters must take Iron-Clad Oath before re-admission of a state (military governor would rule before that); state’s new constitution must abolish slavery, bar Confed. officers from office and vote, and repudiate Confed. debt (again, no terms for black franchise)
Never passed, vetoed by Lincoln, but showed northern Congressional contempt for South, precursor to 1867 Reconstruction Act

13. Johnson’s Legacy
Southern Response - Black codes (prevented black land ownership, truancy/idle laws, migration passes, blacks held to labor contracts for fieldwork, cannot sit on juries) & reclamation of land w/pardons
Congress Perturbed- Joint Committee on Reconstruction vs. AJ’s “Reconstructed South” in Dec. 1865; former invalidated the latter as newly elected southern reps. barred from Congress in Dec while Northern Congress deliberated
Congress in Arms - Tenure of Office Act, 1867 (Pres. cannot remove Senate-approved officials w/o Senate approval), multiple overridden vetoes (Civil Rights Act, Freedman’s Bureau, Tenure of Office Act)
Congress in Battle - Impeachment trial for “high crimes and misdemeanors” in Feb (avoided by one vote) for firing of Sec. of War Stanton

14. Radical Republicans’ Legacy
Oliver O. Howard’s Freedmen’s Bureau – set up labor contracts for schools and fieldwork for former masters, underfunded and understaffed, corrupt, naïve, did provide valuable services for communities as best they could (200K blacks taught to read), expired 1872
Radical Reconstruction of South – new state constitutions helped elect blacks into political bodies, tax system introduced to finance public schools, infrastructure improvements, & public works
The Big 3 Amendments – provided protection for blacks until Redemption (1877)

15. The Glorious (or not) End – 1877

16. Ku Klux Klan (KKK) – formed in 1866 by southern elites (merchants, lawyers, former planters) to intimidate southern Republicans and blacks; Force Acts and KKK Act (1870, 1) passed to allow Grant to quash KKK with force and use D.A. to prosecute individuals; all efforts were too late as both Reps. & blacks kept from voting
Election of 1876 – Rep. Hayes vs. Dem. Tilden; Tilden won electoral and popular vote, but Reps. charged South w/corrupt voting practices, so a commission formed to decide election; Hayes won w/concessions (pulling out of all federal troops from South, patronage for southern politicians, South decides on enforcement of new Amendments and regulations)
Redemption – W/O federal troops, South gradually reclaimed old power structures w/implementation of black codes and Jim Crow laws to economically and socially oppress blacks; grandfather clauses, poll taxes, and literacy tests implemented to disenfranchise blacks as well; phasing out of black congressmen and senators (after 1901, no blacks served in Congress for the next 28 years, and none represented any southern state for the next 78 years); South was “redeemed”

17. Legacies of Reconstruction
The impoverishment and underdevelopment of the South until the 1950s (crop liens, cotton lock, debt peonage, tenant farming and sharecropping)
Better education for blacks (public schools, increased literacy rates), more autonomous black institutions (Baptist over AME churches), own reform orgs. (e.g. Union League – pol. awareness club)
(Black Members of the 41st and 42nd Congress, Hiram Revels [MS] included)
13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments (at least in place, if not enforced)
Black congressional representation ( 14 H.o.R. and 2 senators from )