Reconstruction and the New South

Chapter #13(1865-1900)

Explain the policies and consequences of Reconstruction

Reconstruction

• After the end of the Civil War, the North and South each experienced a number of problems politically, economically, and socially.

• The North focused on rebuilding the Union while the South was experiencing a greater number of problems.

Economically

• First, the economy was in trouble as a result of the destruction of much of the South

• sources of income such as farms, warehouses, railroads, and other forms of transportation.

Socially

• The South was in disarray at the great numbers of freed African American slaves on whom Southern shipping, manufacturing and agriculture depended.

• Many Southerners did not trust the previous leaders as they were heads of the Confederacy.

Politically

• President Johnson and Congress had different ideas about how to rebuild the south, incorporate it back into the union, and deal with justice issues.

President Lincoln and Reconstruction• President Abraham Lincoln want to bring Confederate State back in

Quickly.

• December 8, 1963• Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction

• Swear Allegiance to U. S. Constitution• 10 % of Population swears loyalty to Union

• What happened to Lincoln’s reconstruction plan?

Presidential Reconstruction

•President Andrew Johnson believed in states rights. He believed that the South had never really seceded from the Union, and therefore they should rebuild their governments as they saw fit.

•While Johnson originally thought that some wealthy, elite people who had ties to the Confederate cause should not be in power anymore, he gave many of them pardons. This meant that some ended up having economic and political power.

• Under new Southern leadership, officials created Black Codes.

• These codes were an attempt to legalize practices that would keep African Americans at second class citizenship status.

• Johnson announced that the United States was whole and in 1865, shortly before Congress reconvened in December, he considered Reconstruction to be "done".

Congressional/Radical Reconstruction:• There were several different factions in congress that disagreed

strongly over what to do with reconstruction, but over all everyone agreed that much more needed to be done before reconstruction could be considered “done.”

• They launched a series of plans known as the 2nd Reconstruction or Radical Reconstruction.

• Congress did not want to allow southerners to be able to participate in government.

• They thought the southern states had, in essence, lost their status as states because of their participation in rebellion.

• Congress thought that the Southern states needed to go through a process of rebuilding and recommitting to the union before they could be considered worthy of participating in government again.

• Congress was concerned about the discrimination African Americans faced. It ratified the 14th Amendment to help secure rights for everyone.

• Congressional Reconstruction

Civil Rights Acts

• African American Suffrage

• Land Reform

• The Freedmen's Bureau

• The Civil Rights Acts of 1866

• The Fourteenth Amendment

Impeachment of President Andrew Johnson• In 1868, after years of frustration in dealing with the

President Johnson over issues of reconstruction, the House of Representatives impeached Johnson on eleven charges, the most famous being his violation of the Tenure of Office Act.

• The impeachment was also in reaction to his opposition to civil rights acts and other positions on Reconstruction. The impeachment process failed by one vote from removing Johnson from office.

Amendments to the Constitution

14th Amendment (1868)

-Comprised of five sections, the 14th Amendment broadly defines citizenship.

• 15th Amendment (1870): stated that the rights of citizens could not be denied based on “race, color or previous condition of servitude.”

The election of 1868 Ulysses Grant

Reconstruction in the South

• Many, if not most, Southern whites resisted Northern attempts at reconstructing the South.

• Southerners felt threatened by readjusting to a life without being able to exercise legal control over other human beings.

• Many also harbored ill feelings against the North, which they had just spent years fighting and rebelling against.

• Their resistance manifested itself in many ways. One such way was the creation of Black Codes (see above). Another way was the formation of the Ku Klux Klan in 1865.

• Carpetbaggers and Scalawags

• Radical Reconstruction refers to the Congressional efforts to redefine Reconstruction and reform Johnson’s form of Reconstruction. Under Radical Reconstruction, Congress:

• Made the five southern state governments set up by Johnson illegitimate and divided the South into five military districts.

• Ruled that for states to be readmitted to the Union they had to accept the fourteenth amendment and allow black men to vote

• Created the 15th Amendment (see above).

Election of 1876

• After many years of Reconstruction, Americans began to feel that it was time for it to come to a close. In 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden ran against each other.

• Very close and controversial: Southerners opposed Hayes, but accepted him when he motioned to remove troops from the South, put a southerner in Congress, and called for an official end to Reconstruction

Jim Crow Laws

• were oppressive laws instituted by white southerners in an attempt to restrict the rights and opportunities of African Americans.

• focused on segregating blacks and whites, with whites maintaining access to institutions of power and nicer facilities.

• was a way for Whites to maintain some level of economic and social control over African Americans despite the abolition of slavery.

• interactive map showing Jim Crow laws by state

Plessy v. Ferguson

• Plessy v. Ferguson was 1896 Louisiana court case that established the legality of “separate but equal” accommodations for blacks and whites on interstate trains.

• This law helped to solidify segregation.

• Plessy v. Ferguson would prove to be detrimental for blacks and society as a whole for more than 50 years.