1. Unit VC AP United States History
RECONSTRUCTION
Unit VC
AP United States History

2. Fundamental Question
How did the Civil War change the political, social, and economical landscape of the United States?
Did the Civil War and Reconstruction solve the problems and conditions that led to the sectional conflict?

3. Reconstruction, Phase 1 Lincoln’s Plan
Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (1863)
Full presidential pardons for
1. Oath of allegiance,
2. Accept end of slavery
Ten Percent Plan
Confederate state reestablished once 10% of voters affirmed allegiance and loyalty
Provide education and voting rights for blacks
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
Bill required 50% voters to swear ironclad oath and non-Confederates
Second Inaugural Address
“with malice toward none; with charity for all”
Louisiana as example of reconstructed state
Lincoln’s Assassination
April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theater
Johnson and rise of Radical Republicans…

4. Freedmen’s Bureau
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands in March 1865
Food, shelter, medicine for freed blacks and displaced whites
Education of blacks and colleges
Viciously attacked and ridiculed by Northern racists and bitter Southerners

5. Reconstruction, Phase 2 Andrew Johnson’s Plan
About Andrew Johnson
Tennessee Democrat and Lincoln’s VP
Represented more for poor whites against Southern “aristocracy”
White supremacist
Reconstruction Plan
Pardons for loyalty oath
No pardons for Confederate leaders and owned $20,000 taxable property
Admitted Confederate states with appointed governors who established voting procedures for state legislatures
States must abolish slavery and secession clauses

6. Result of Johnson Plan Johnson’s Pardons
Alexander Stephens (former CSA VP) elected Georgia U.S. Senator
Johnson revokes General Sherman’s Special Field Orders, No. 15
40 acres and a mule for each former slave family
Readmitted states complied but did not provide provisions for blacks to vote
Black Codes
Prohibited renting land or borrowing to buy land
Contract-labor systems
No testifying against whites, curfews, no jury service, restricted commerce
Race Riots
Memphis (May 1-3, 1866)
Shooting between white policemen and discharged black Union soldiers precipitated white-led rioting against black neighborhoods
46 blacks and 2 whites killed; 91 homes, 4 churches, 8 schools burned down
New Orleans (July 30, 1866)
Radical Republicans call convention to oppose black codes; leads to public commotion of bitter white Democrats against black parade marchers
34 blacks and 3 Radicals killed
The Johnson Vetoes
Freedmen’s Bureau Bill - appropriations, protect from Black Codes
Civil Rights Bill of prohibits Black Codes, secures voting rights
Mid-Term Election of 1866 and the Radical Republicans
“Waving the Bloody Shirts” during campaign
“Not every Democrat was a rebel, but every rebel was a Democrat!”
Republicans controlled 2/3 of both houses

7. Reconstruction, Phase 3 Radical Plan
Republicans led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner overrode Johnson’s vetoes
“state suicide” and “conquered provinces”
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
Confederate leaders disavowed
Johnson-based state governments replaced with military districts under martial law
Former Confederate states may be admitted if…
Ratify the Fourteenth Amendment
Enfranchise blacks and former slaves

9. Radical Legislation Fourteenth Amendment (1868)
Anyone born or naturalized was American citizen (Citizenship Clause)
“nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” (Due Process Clause)
“nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (Equal Protection Clause)
Disavowed Confederate leaders; not paying state debt; penalty for preventing voters
Johnson Impeachment (Feb.-May, 1868)
Political ploy by Radical Republicans with Tenure of Office Act
Acquitted by one vote
Fifteenth Amendment (1869)
Blacks have right to vote
Civil Rights Act of 1875
Equal accommodations for blacks; participation on juries
Other goals and reforms
Infrastructure, penal and institutional development and codification, women property rights, public education

10. Freedmen in the South Political Recognition
Right to vote
Elected to state and national legislatures
2 U.S. Senators and a dozen Representatives
630 black state legislators
Black governor of Louisiana
Anger and resentment by Southern whites
Desire for autonomy: independent churches, schools, move out West
Exodusters
Sharecropping
White landowners provided seed and farm supplies for as much as half of production
Tenant Farming
White landowners provided land, but not tools and supplies
Only 5% of southern blacks claimed economic independence

11. Northern Influence on the South
Republicans and Northerners in the South
Scalawags
Southern Republicans fostering American System-type programs
Cooperated with Northern politics and economics
Carpetbaggers
Northerners investing in “New South,”
reformers/provide aid
squatters and plunderers

12. Southern Life under Reconstruction
Political Corruption
Reconstruction state governments influenced by carpetbaggers and scalawags
Southern perception of corruption steadily increased and white Democrats return to dominate state legislatures
Public services greatly improved
State-funded public education
Infrastructure
Railroads, utilities, waterways
Modernized hospitals and prisons
Highly susceptible to corruption and spending cuts
Economics
Sharecropping and tenant farming not very productive
Crop-liens
Cash crops over food crops slowed Southern recovery
Cotton production significantly decreases in the early years of Reconstruction
As cotton plantations recover and more farmland converted to cotton, prices decrease due to overproduction and profits decrease for farmers
Led to foreclosures, more sharecropping and tenant farming
Tax rates and collection increased

13. White Southern Resistance
Paramilitary groups based on white supremacy
The South Will Rise Again!
White League
Openly criticized, attacked, killed Republicans and freedmen
Ku Klux Klan (1867)
Nathaniel Bedford Forrest
“invisible empire” to scare or destroy Republicans and freedmen
Force Acts ( ) disband KKK
“The Union as it Was”
Harper’s Weekly
October 1874

14. The North
As the South struggled to recover, Republicans pursued economic expansion through industry and infrastructure
Political and Financial Corruption
Abuse of patronage (spoils system)
Grant’s connection to stock market speculation, tax fraud, embezzlement
Political Machines
Network of elected officials, businessmen, “behind-the-scenes” people to command the vote
Typically run by an authoritative boss or leadership group
Patronage and spoils system
Provide for underprivileged, immigrants, businesses in return for votes
William “Boss” Tweed and Tammany Hall (Democrats in NYC)
Reaction to Radical Republicanism
Racism entrenched in the North
Immigrants and poor whites feared losing economic opportunities to freedmen and entitled blacks

15. Evolution of Northern Attitude Toward Blacks During Reconstruction
Shown through the political cartoons of Thomas Nast of Harper’s Weekly
“And Not This Man?”
August 1865
“This Is A White Man’s
Government”
September 1868
“Colored Rule in a
Reconstructed State”
March 1874

16. Election of 1868 Republicans Democrats
Nominate war hero General Ulysses S. Grant
Democrats
Nominate Horatio Seymour
Radical Republican legislatures in the South limited Democratic influence

17. Grantism
Civil War hero, but no political experience; linked with moderates and Radicals
Scandalous Administration
Black Friday Scandal (1869)
Jim Fiske and Jay Gould attempted to corner gold market
Had Grant’s brother-in-law convince Grant to halt gold sales
Salary Grab Act (1873)
Double salaries of Congress retroactive to beginning of ending terms
Credit Mobilier
Union Pacific Railroad creates dummy construction company to hire execs at inflated salaries and earn high dividends
Sold stock to Republican congressmen and bribed press to keep quiet
Sanborn Contract Fraud
Congressman John Sanborn hired private tax collector for 50% of commission, some of which went to Republican campaign funds
Whiskey Ring
Republicans embezzled liquor tax revenues using bribes and networks
Secretary of War W.W. Belknap
Accepted bribes for trader contract (Fort Sill)
Amnesty Act of 1872
Election of 1872

18. Panic of 1873: The Long Depression
Causes
Expansion of railroads, enterprises in industries and mines outpaces market demand
Coinage Act of 1873
Demonetizes silver contracting the money supply
“Crime of 73”
Jay Cooke & Company bankrupt
Major financing investment firm leads to chain reaction of banks
Effects
Contractionary monetary policy increases interest rates
Harder to acquire or afford new loans
Over 100 railroads fail; 16,000 businesses fail
Unemployment at 14%

19. “Election” of 1876
Samuel
Tilden (D)
Rutherford B.
Hayes (R)
Republicans struggle to nominate “boring” Rutherford B. Hayes
Democrats nominate solid and popular Samuel J. Tilden
Tilden won the popular vote solidly and needed only 1 more electoral vote for majority
Contested electoral votes in 3 Reconstruction states (Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida)
Electoral Commission rewarded 3 sets of electoral votes to Hayes
Split ideologically 8-7 in favor of Republicans

20. Compromise of 1877
Angry Democrats and riots around the nation due to Hayes’ “victory” forced a deal
Hayes will become president, if…
Remove federal troops from the South
Help develop infrastructure in South, ex. Railroads
Appoint Southerner to Cabinet
Limited enforcement of racial equality
End of Reconstruction
With no enforcement by federal troops, civil rights limited or eliminated in the South
Democrats return to power in the South
Redemption Democratic state governments take hold of former Confederate states
Democrats had majorities in House of Representatives in 1875 and also the Senate in 1877