© 2005 Clairmont Press© 2005 Clairmont Press

Georgia Georgia and the American Experienceand the American Experience

Chapter 9: 1866-1889Chapter 9: 1866-1889

Reconstruction and the Reconstruction and the New SouthNew South

Study PresentationStudy Presentation

© 2005 Clairmont Press© 2005 Clairmont Press

Section 1: Lincoln and Reconstruction

Section 2: Reconstruction in Georgia

Section 3: Georgia’s Redemption Years

Section 4: The New South

Section 1: Section 1: Lincoln and ReconstructionLincoln and Reconstruction

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION–What were Lincoln’s plans for

rebuilding the South after the Civil War?

Section 1: Section 1: Lincoln and ReconstructionLincoln and Reconstruction

• What words do I need to know? – freedmen– Freedmen’s Bureau– Reconstruction– disfranchise– Thirteenth Amendment– Nullify– assassinated

Section 1: Section 1: Lincoln and ReconstructionLincoln and Reconstruction

• What people do I need to know? –Abraham Lincoln

–John Wilkes Booth

–Andrew Johnson

Conditions in Georgia at the end of the war:

• farms were in ruins• homes, railways, bridges,roads were

destroyed or in need of repair• not enough food• banks were closed – Confederate money

was worthless• the state owed $20,000,000 in war debt• 25,000 Georgians had died of wounds or

disease – many more were crippled and could not work

The Freedmen• Problems of freedmen (former slaves):

– homeless– hungry– uneducated– free for the 1st time– no property or goods

• Many former slaves feared re-enslavement

• Most whites had difficulty treating freeman as free persons

The Freedmen’s Bureau• Started as the

Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands by U.S. government in 1865

• Its job was to help freed slaves and poor whites with basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter

• The purpose shifted to education

– Set up 4,000 primary schools

– Started industrial schools for jobs training

– Started teacher-training schools

• Missionaries started schools like Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Clark College

Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction• Lincoln wanted to rebuild and return the south to

the Union as soon as possible

• “Reconstruction” would have two parts:1.Southerners would be pardoned after taking an oath of

allegiance;

2.When 10% of voters had taken the oath, the state could rejoin the Union and form a state government.

• Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865 during a play at Ford’s Theater by actor John Wilkes Booth.

• Vice President Andrew Johnson took over as President.

Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction

• Lincoln’s plan to reconstruct the south was challenged. Some northerners called “Radical Republicans” thought the south should be more severely punished.

• The Radical Republicans wanted to make sure the freedmen retained their new rights.

• Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured and imprisoned.

Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan

Click to return to the Table of Contents

• In addition to Lincoln’s requirements, President Johnson added a few more. Southern states had to: – approve (ratify) the 13th Amendment (outlawing

slavery);– nullify their ordinances of secession;– promise not to repay money borrowed during

the war.

Section 2: Section 2: Reconstruction in GeorgiaReconstruction in Georgia

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION– What changes occurred in Georgia

during Reconstruction?

Section 2: Section 2: Reconstruction in GeorgiaReconstruction in Georgia• What words do I need to know?

– provisional– discrimination– Black Codes– Fourteenth Amendment– carpetbagger– scalawag– Ku Klux Klan

Section 2: Section 2: Reconstruction in GeorgiaReconstruction in Georgia

• What words do I need to know?– suffrage– Georgia Act– Fifteenth Amendment– impeach– sharecropping– credit– tenant farming

Section 2: Section 2: Reconstruction in GeorgiaReconstruction in Georgia

• What people do I need to know?–James Johnson

–General John Pope

–Henry McNeal Turner

The Constitutional Convention of 1865• President Johnson appointed James

Johnson as Georgia’s provisional Governor.

• Governor Johnson held a Constitutional Convention. The representatives voted to abolish slavery and repeal the ordinance of secession.

• Elections were held in November 1865 for a new legislature.

• The General Assembly voted to extend rights to freedmen.

Black Codes• Black Codes were laws passed to keep

freedmen from having the same rights as whites.

– Didn’t allow blacks: the same jobs as whites, the right to vote, the right to marry a white person, jury service, or the right to testify.

– Blacks could be: whipped as punishment, forced to work from sunrise to sunset six days per week, or put in jail if they didn’t have a job.

Congressional Reconstruction• Congress was angry about Georgia’s Black

Codes, so it passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This law gave:

– citizenship to all freedmen;

– the federal government power to intervene any time civil rights were taken from freedmen.

• The 14th Amendment was passed granting citizenship to freedmen and required “equal protection under the law.”

Congressional Reconstruction• Congress required southern states to ratify the

14th Amendment.

• Georgia and most of the other southern states refused.

• Congress abolished these states’ governments and put them under military rule.

• Georgia was ruled by General John Pope.

• Pope was required to register all male voters – black and white. These voters would elect new representatives to form a new state government.

Constitutional Convention of 1867• Georgia male voters elected delegates to the

convention to create a new state constitution.

• Delegates were carpetbaggers (northerners who had moved south), scalawags (southerners who sided with the Republicans), and blacks.

• Accomplishments of the Convention:

– A new constitution ensuring civil rights for all citizens;

– Free public education for all children;

– Women were allowed to control their own property.

• Georgia had satisfied Congress, so General Pope and his troops left the state.

African Americans in Politics• The election of 1867 was the first time African

Americans had voted.

• Several African Americans were elected to Georgia’s General Assembly.

• Rev. Henry McNeal Turner was one of the first black men elected in Georgia.

• The African Americans elected to the General Assembly were expelled in 1868.

• It was argued by whites that civil rights laws gave blacks the right to vote but not to be elected.

Ku Klux Klan• Secret organization – originally started as a

social club for men returning from the war.

• Members hid behind robes and masks.

• The group terrorized blacks to keep them from voting.

• As a result, Congress passed “The Georgia Act” and sent troops back to Georgia.

• The act required Georgia to pass the 15th Amendment giving all males the right to vote.

Economic Reconstruction• Without slaves, landowners needed laborers to

work their large farms.

• Two systems emerged: tenant farming and sharecropping.

• Cotton was Georgia’s most important crop.

• Continuous growing of tobacco and cotton ruined the soil on many farms.

• Railroads expanded across the state.

• Savannah and Brunswick became important shipping ports.

• Atlanta began its growth into an important business center.

Tenant Farming and Sharecropping

Sharecropping Tenant FarmingLandowner provides a house, land, equipment, animals, fertilizer and seeds.

The landowner issued credit to the worker to buy medicine, food, clothing and other supplies.

The landowner gets a share of the crop and crops to pay any debt owed.

Sharecroppers rarely had any cash.

Landowner provides house and land.

Landowner received a set amount of cash or a portion of the crop at the end of the season.

Tenant farmers usually made a small profit.

The End of Reconstruction• The African Americans who had been

expelled from the General Assembly in 1868 were readmitted by the Georgia Supreme Court in 1870.

• The Assembly approved the 14th and 15th Amendments.

• Georgia was readmitted to the Union, again, ending Reconstruction.

Click to return to the Table of Contents

Section 3: Section 3: Georgia’s Redemption Georgia’s Redemption

YearsYears• ESSENTIAL QUESTION

– How did Georgians work to improve their state after Reconstruction?

Section 3: Section 3: Georgia’s Redemption Georgia’s Redemption

YearsYears• What words do I need to know?

– redemption– white supremacy– Bourbon Triumvirate– ally– temperance– convict lease system

Section 3: Section 3: Georgia’s Redemption YearsGeorgia’s Redemption Years

• What people do I need to know? –Joseph E. Brown–Alfred H. Colquitt–John B. Gordon–Rebecca Latimer Felton–Tom Watson–Leo Frank

The Bourbon Triumvirate

• Democrats controlled Georgia’s government after Reconstruction.

• Powerful Democratic leaders, known as the “Bourbon Triumvirate” were Joseph E. Brown, Alfred H. Colquitt, and John B. Gordon.

• Their goals were:

– expand Georgia’s economy and ties with industries in the North;

– maintain the tradition of white supremacy.

Decline of the Bourbon Triumvirate

• “Independent Democrats” criticized the Bourbons for not attending to the needs of the poor or improve education and working conditions in factories.

• Leaders William and Rebecca Felton worked to improve conditions for poor Georgians using newspapers to highlight problems in the state.

• The convict lease system “rented” prisoners to companies to use as workers. It took many years for the poor conditions the prisoners endured to be brought to light and changed.

Click to return to the Table of Contents

Section 4: Section 4: The New SouthThe New South

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION–What changes occurred to create the

era of the “New South” in Georgia?

Section 4: Section 4: The New SouthThe New South

• What words do I need to know?– New South– normal school– segregation– Grange– Farmers’ Alliance– co-op

Section 4: Section 4: The New SouthThe New South

• What people do I need to know?–Henry Grady–Joel Chandler Harris–Sidney Lanier–Charles Henry Smith

The New South Era

• Challengers to the Bourbon Triumvirate wanted Georgia to be more industrialized.

• Henry Grady was a speaker and newspaper editor.

• Grady described Georgia as a place which could have competitive industry and more efficient farming.

• Grady envisioned improved race relations in a “New South” which left its antebellum past behind.

Education in the New South Era• Funding to provide elementary education for all

children in Georgia grew slowly from 1868-1895.

• Teachers were paid a little more than farm hands and had little or no training.

• Normal schools were started to train more teachers.

• The “school year” was only three months long which allowed children to work on farms or in factories.

• The state constitution of 1877 did not allow for school beyond 8th grade and segregated black and white students.

The Arts of the New South Era

• Several Georgians gained fame for their work as writers:

– Joel Chandler Harris’ most famous work was Uncle Remus: His Sayings and Stories;

– Sidney Lanier was one of the best known poets of his time;

– Charles Henry Smith wrote satire for newspapers in Georgia.

Agriculture in the New South Era

• Crop prices declined through the 1870s.

• The Grange and the Farmers’ Alliance started out as social groups but began to reorganize to put pressure on lawmakers to find ways to help farmers.

• Georgia created the first state to have a Department of Agriculture.

• Co-ops allowed farmers to work together to buy goods and equipment at a lower cost.

Click to return to the Table of Contents

Click to return to the Table of Contents