Reconstruction

• What factories they had were destroyed• Farms were destroyed• What railroads and roads they had were

destroyed or unusable• Many men’s lives were lost so there were

many families left with just a mother

What was the South Like at the End of the Civil War?

What Was the Government’s Goal in Reconstruction?

• The government believed it was each state’s responsibility to rebuild itself

• They government’s goal was to reunite the country and how they would bring the southern states back in

• Problem was that the South didn’t accept the fact that their slaves were now free….so the government focused on protecting the rights of the newly freed people against the southerners.

Lincoln’s 10% Plan

AKA Presidential Reconstruction

1.Presidential Pardons

2.Oath of Loyalty

3.Acceptance of the Emancipation Proclamation

Andrew Johnson Takes Over

•Confederates must ask for personal pardon•10% needed to take loyalty Oath•Johnson lacked appeal

Still North v South

• South determined to keep things the way they were.

• Passed “Black Codes”- replaced the old slave codes aimed at keeping newly freed blacks in a condition similar to slavery.

• Reelected former Confederate officers to Congress

• Formed white supremacy groups like the KKK

South Carolina Black Codes

• the codes did grant black persons a few more civil rights than they possessed before the Civil War. South Carolina’s code declared that “persons of color” now had the right “to acquire, own and dispose of property; to make contracts; to enjoy the fruits of their labor; to sue and be sued; and to receive protection under the law in their persons and property.” Also, for the first time, the law recognized the marriages of black persons and the legitimacy of their children. But the law went on to state that, “Marriage between a white person and a person of color shall be illegal and void.”

Vagrants could be arrested and imprisoned at hard labor. But the county sheriff could “hire out” black vagrants to a white employer to work off their punishment. The courts customarily waived such punishment for white vagrants, allowing them to take an oath of poverty instead.

Civil War

The South Carolina code included a contract form for black “servants” who agreed to work for white “masters.” The form required that the wages and the term of service be in writing.

laws passed on the state and local level mainly in the rural Southern states in the United States to limit the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans. Codes controlled almost all aspects of life and prohibited African Americans from the freedom that had been won.

BLACK CODES

South Carolina’s Black Code established a racially separate court system for all civil and criminal cases that involved a black plaintiff or defendant. It allowed black witnesses to testify in court, but only in cases affecting “the person or property of a person of color.” Crimes that whites believed freedmen might commit, such as rebellion, arson, burglary, and assaulting a white woman, carried harsh penalties. Most of these crimes carried the death penalty for blacks, but not for whites. Punishments for minor offenses committed by blacks could result in “hiring out” or whipping, penalties rarely imposed on white lawbreakers.

The KKK was one violent group that tried to prevent freedmen from exercising their

newly found freedom

The Mississippi and South Carolina Black Codes of 1865 provoked a storm of protest among many Northerners. They accused Southern whites of trying to restore slavery. Congress refused to seat Southerners elected under the new state constitutions. A special congressional committee investigated whether white Southern Reconstruction should be allowed to continue.

Military Reconstruction Districts

Military ReconstructionEnacted in 1867 because the South was doing all theycould to keep from giving up their way of life

It was backed by the “RadicalRepublicans”because Andrew Johnson wasblocking alltheir legislationto guaranteeAfrican Americans rights wereprotected and because the South was trying to keep control.

Radical Republicans

Thaddeus Stephens Charles Sumner

A group of Republicans who thought both Lincoln and Johnson were taking it too easy on the South. Inreality the South brought it on themselves because they tried to return to the way it had been before thewar and take control including trying to retain controlof the formerly enslaved people.

13th Prohibition of slavery 1865

14th Citizenship, due process, and equal protection

1868

15th No denial of vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude

1870

Reconstruction Amendments

How did these amendments expand democracy?

• Fourteenth Amendment overturned the Dred Scott decision by recognizing African American’s citizenship

• By giving them full citizenship they also gained full protection of the law.

• Fifteenth Amendment fully guaranteed all African American men the right to vote.

• The federal troops in the South protected these rights.

Were All Southerners Against Reconstruction Policies?

•Scalawags - white Southerners who supported Reconstruction policies following the American Civil War often for personal gain. ( traitors)•Most were poor farmers before the war who saw this as their opportunity to improve their situation.

Northerners Benefitted Too

Carpetbaggers - Northerners who went to the South

during Reconstruction to make money

Freedman’s Bureau

The bureau’s chief focus was to provide food, medical care, help with resettlement, administer justice, manage abandoned and confiscated property, regulate labor, and establish schools for African Americans. – One of the main ways the African Americans made some social progress.

Freedmen’s Bureau School

Freedmen’s Bureau

• In addition to the social services and basic education provided, they also established teacher training programs for African Americans.

• The first all black colleges were formed. One of the best known is Tuskegee Institute founded by

Booker T. Washington.

African American Churches

Many African Americans who had been going to white churches began to leave and establish their own churches.

These churches became increasingly important as the Freedmen’s Bureau was only funded for a few years.

The churches took on the role of social service agenciesin addition to being a place to worship as they pleased without worrying about their masters watching them.

African Americans participate in government for the first time

The Right to Vote

Protected by federal troops during military Reconstruction

Began to run for both state and national offices

Hiram Revels from Mississippi was the first African American senator in Washington.

What happened to the African Americans who had nowhere to go?

Some went west – some became what is known as“exodusters.” Others became “buffalo soldiers.”

Some went looking for relatives who had been “soldDown the river.”

Some went North but did not receive the warmwelcome they thought they would get and still faced discrimination

Some ended up sharecroppers or tenant farmers

SharecroppingRent on the land waspaid by giving a portion of the crops they grew to theland owner –could be aas much as 50%

Most sharecroppers depended on the “crop lien” systemwhich left them ina condition knownas debt peonage.Many of them didall they had ever known to do and that was grow cotton. Theystill remained economicallydependent on thewhite man.

Crop Lien System- Landowners and sharecroppers borrowed (at high interest rates) against the future harvest. Lenders insisted that they produce cash crops like cotton. The system made landowners and sharecroppers dependent on local merchants, and it prevented the development of diversified farming in the South.

Forty Acres and a Mule

Many African Americans believed the US government was going to assure they got the 40 acres and a mule

This was never said by the government but was a comment made some say by General Sherman