The Ordeal of Reconstruction

1865-1877

AP U.S. History

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To what degree did the Civil War politically, socially, and economically change America? Some scholars argued Reconstruction was a national

disgrace because radical Republicans wronged the South by disproportionately punishing Southerners.

Others suggested the North merely sought to exploit Southern labor and resources behind a false front of “concern” for freed slaves. As well as ensure the Republican Party would dominate Southern political life.

Still other saw Reconstruction as a noble, but failed, attempt to extend American principles of equity and justice to disadvantaged blacks.

Essential Question

The Problem of Peace

How will the South be rebuilt?

How will blacks fare

as free people?

How will Southern states be

reintegrated into the Union?

Who will be in charge of

Reconstruction – states, the

president, or Congress?

Don’t worry boys – I got your back.

The Southern economy was ruined and the social order was upended, but white Southerners remained defiant; which was an ill omen for what was to come.

President Johnson

Freedmen Define Freedom

The Freedmen’s Bureau was originally established to provide food, clothes and education, such as the school in the image above, for emancipated slaves.

Some Southern counties freed slaves, while other counties did not. Regardless, after emancipation, many blacks traveled in order to find lost family members or seek new economic opportunities

Southern Blacks who moved West were called “Exodusters”

The church became the focus of black community life because blacks could have their own churches with black ministers.

The Freedmen’s BureauCongress created the Freedmen’s Bureau in 1865 in order to help unskilled and uneducated blacks survive. The white South resented the bureau as a welfare agency that upset white racial dominance.

How does this cartoon portray the bureau, Congress, and President Johnson?

Radical Republicans, like Thaddeus Stevens, passed the Wade-Davis Bill in Congress; which required 50 percent of a state’s voters to swear allegiance to the Union and be treated as conquered provinces – Lincoln vetoed the bill.

Presidential Reconstruction

Lincoln believed the Southern states never legally withdrew from the Union. So, he said a state would be readmitted after 10 percent of its voters took an oath of allegiance to the U.S. and promised to respect emancipation.

Moderate Republicans, like Lincoln, favored states’ rights and opposed direct federal involvement in individuals’ lives.

President Johnson liked Lincoln’s plan. He moved forward with it, but Southern states also had to ratify the 13th Amendment.

Thaddeus Stevens

The Baleful Black Codes

The new Southern state governments in 1865 passed laws, known as Black Codes, in order to regulate the free blacks and restore the old social and economic order, which was a stable and subservient labor force under white control.

Sharecropping was a good way to create a “slave” labor for poor blacks and whites in the South.

Under the Black Codes, blacks couldn’t serve on juries and blacks were not allowed to vote.Did the North

really win the war?

Congressional Reconstruction

The South might take control of Congress!

In December 1865, many former Confederate leaders were elected by their constituents and claimed their seats in Congress.Alexander Stephens was

the ex-vice president of the Confederacy and he was elected to Congress!

In yo face, Northerner

s.

Before the war, a black slave was 3/5 of a person in apportioning congressional representation. But counting free blacks gave the rebel states 12 more votes in Congress

Swinging ‘Round the Circle with Johnson

Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment, which provided for Full citizenship and civil rights for former slaves. Southern states had to ratify it to be readmitted to the Union.

Besides putting the South under the rule of federal soldiers, the Military Reconstruction Act of 1867 required that Southern states give blacks the vote as a condition of readmittance to the Union (13th Amendment).

Game on.

The congressional elections of 1866 resulted in a decisive defeat for Johnson and a veto-proof Republican Congress. Congress began to strike back at belligerent Southerners.

No Women Voters

Women’s-rights leaders opposed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments because the amendments granted citizenship and voting rights to black and white men but not to women.

The passage of the Reconstruction-era Amendments – the 13th, 14th, and the 15th Amendment, which provided for voting rights for former slaves, delighted former abolitionists.

Charles Sumner, healed from his beat-down by Brooks, led the Radical Republicans in the Senate.

Thaddeus Stevens led the Radical Republicans in the House.

Susan B. Anthony Elizabeth Cady Stanton

This is the thanks women get for leading the abolitionist

movement?

Fight the Amendments!

C’mon ladies - be cool.

The Realities of Radical Reconstruction in the South

Most of the Northern “carpetbaggers” were former Union soldiers, businessmen, or professionals. “Scalawags” were Southerners, often former Unionists and Whigs.

Having gained the right to vote, southern black men organized the Union League as a vehicle for political empowerment and self-defense. Many served in state and national politics. Between 1868 and 1876, fourteen black congressmen and two black senators were elected from the South.

I totally thought blacks would

gradually get the right to vote.

Dude, their votes will

elect Republicans to Congress

Many white southerners lashed out at the freedmen’s white allies, labeling them “scalawags’ and “carpetbaggers.’

Is this guy a scalawag or carpetbagger?

The Realities of Radical Reconstruction in the South

The radical Reconstruction regimes in the Southern states included white Northerners, white Southerners, and blacks. They took steps to establish public schools and effective tax systems. Despite the achievements of radical Reconstruction governments, corruption, especially in South Carolina and Louisiana, was common.

Many whites resented the success and ability of black legislators as much as they resented alleged corruption by Reconstruction governments. Some joined organizations like the Ku Klux Klan in order to intimidate black voters, while others created literacy tests under the Black Codes.

Johnson Walks the Impeachment Plank

Congress was able to override President Johnson’s vetoes since the Republicans maintained a 2/3 majority in both chambers, but that wasn’t good enough. Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act (over Johnson’s veto, of course), which required the president to secure approval of the Senate before he could remove anyone from his Cabinet. President Johnson violated the law by removing his Secretary of War to see what would happen.

We were one vote short of

removing you!

Radical Republicans Sumner and Stevens led the effort to impeach and remove Johnson from office.

I was the first president to be

impeached – ouch.

The Purchase of Alaska

Congress and the public were preoccupied with Reconstruction and very anti-expansionist after the Civil War.

Nonetheless, in 1867, the skeptical public finally accepted Secretary of State Seward’s purchase of Alaska because Russia had been the only great power friendly to the Union during the Civil War. Alaska was a steal, at $7.2 million, and rich with natural resources.

The one good thing Johnson was able to pull-off!

1. What was the purpose of congressional Reconstruction, and what were its actual effects in the South?

2. Why did Reconstruction apparently fail so badly?

3. What was the greatest success of Reconstruction?

Questions to Consider