1. Reconstructing the South

2. Politics in Post War South
Carpetbaggers- an unflattering name for a Northerner who moved to the South after the war. Most southerners believed that carpetbaggers wanted to exploit the South’s postwar turmoil for their own profit. However, like the scalawags, carpetbaggers had mixed motives. Some were Freedman’s Bureau agents, teachers and ministers who felt a moral obligation to help former slaves. Others wanted to buy land and start new industries legitimately. Some really were the dishonest businesspeople that southerners scorned.

3. Politics in Post-War South cont.
Scalawags- White southerners who joined the Republican Party. Scorned by their fellow southerners for betraying their region. Some hoped to gain political offices and with the help of the African-American vote and then use those offices to enrich themselves. Some so-called scalawags thought that a republican government was the best way to help the south rebuild and industrialize. The majority were poor white farmers who wanted to improve their economic and political positions and to prevent the wealthy planters from regaining power.

4. Reconstructing Society
After the war, much of the south needed to be rebuilt because most of the war had taken place on Southern soil. Because of this many Southerners were poorer then before the war had started, and this included all classes.
The wealth per capita dropped several thousand dollars per year, forms were either destroyed or were in disrepair. Much of the male population had died during the war, about 1/5.
Public works programs came into effect. The Republican government built roads, bridges, railroads and constructed orphanages and institutions for the care of the mentally ill and disabled.
They also created the first public school systems that most southern states had never had. To raise money since most northerners were not willing to invest in the south, the governments had to raise taxes of all kinds which slowed down the healing of the region and drained its existing resources

5. Gains made by African Americans during Reconstruction

7. Freedman’s Bureau
Assisted former slaves and poor whites by distributing food and clothing
Set up more than 40 hospitals, approx. 4,000 schools, 61 industrial institutes, and 74 teacher-training institutes.
Helped with contracts and jobs
How did Johnson deal with the continuance of the Freedman’s Bureau?

8. Education
80 percent of AA over the age of 20 were illiterate in So there was a mass movement to educate themselves.
For the first time they could learn to read and right without fear of punishment.
By 1877, more than 600,000 African Americans were enrolled in elementary schools

9. Civil Rights Act of 1866
Gave African-Americans citizenship and forbade states from passing discriminatory laws such as the black codes that severely restricted African-American lives
President Johnson vetoed both of these but the Radicals and the Moderates joined together to override the veto.
They then added the 14th Amendment which states that any person born or naturalized in the United States were citizens, which made them entitled to equal protection under the law

10. New-Won Freedoms Were able to test their new freedom
Before they were not able to travel without a pass, now they were able to travel to anywhere they would like to go
The majority of free African Americans moved to larger southern cities away from the plantations that they associated with oppression
From , the African American population of the ten largest cities doubled.
They were also able to travel and find their children, parents or spouses that had been taken from them.

11. African Americans Elected
To office – many hold state legislator positions
Republican Party protects right to participate
Hirem Revels – 1st African American Senator

12. Restructuring the Southern Economy

13. Infrastructure Built Roads and bridges that had been destroyed
Established orphanages and institutions to help disabled and mentally ill
$ to rebuild railroads

14. Economy

15. “40 Acres and a Mule” Field Order 15 Land south of Charleston
Extra Mules in the Union Army
Abandoned land by planters
Rid the Union of Freed Slaves following the army
1865 – Johnson ordered land returned
Southern Homestead Act of 1866

16. Reclaim Property! Plantation owners reclaimed their land
Property rights protected by Constitution
Land not lost by Due Process
Land is returned, but no $ for seed, tools, or labor
What is a Southerner to do?

17. Restoration of Plantations
The planter class wanted to restore the plantation system
Some wealthy merchants from the north as well as owners of textile mills encouraged planters in their efforts to reestablish plantations and resume widespread cotton production
Planters claimed that they needed absolute control over their workers in order to make the plantation system work.
Planters feared that they would no longer make a profit since they had to pay their laborers and could no longer force field hands to work such brutal hours.
Many former slaveholders also resented that they had to negotiate with former slaves

18. Sharecropping and Tenant Farming
Sharecropping- landowners divided their land and gave each worker a few acres, along with seed and tools. At each harvest time, the worker gave a share of his crop, usually half, to the landowner
Tenant Farming- Renting land from landowners for cash from planters but they were able to keep their harvest

19. Sharcropping: A new Economic System for the South
*1/3 each way
*difficult conditions
*cycle of poverty
*tenent= rent
v. credit
Land
Owner
Sharcropper
General
Store

20. Cotton Tax Law
Exempted tax from textile mills that produced cotton in the same county that it was grown
Outdated older textile mills move to the south
Sharecropping, slow to start, regained production
Cotton dropped in price due to overproduction by end of Reconstruction
Cotton production declined as attempts to diversify the economy took place-tobacco
Economy behind well into the 20th century