Reconstruction

Dates:The Civil War?_________ Reconstruction? ________

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Foner Chapter 15"What Is Freedom?":

Reconstruction, 1865–1877

Introduction: Sherman Land

From the Plantation to the Senate

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The Meaning of Freedom

• Blacks and the Meaning of Freedom– African Americans’ understanding of freedom was

shaped by their experience as slaves and observation of the free society around them.

– Blacks relished the opportunity to demonstrate their liberation from the regulations (significant and trivial) associated with slavery.

The Meaning of Freedom to Ex Slaves• :

• Independence from white control

• Moving about – finding loved ones

• Using African American Churches –Withdrawing from white churches

• Schools – great thirst for education

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The Meaning of Freedom

• Families in Freedom– The family was central to the postemancipation black

community.

– Freedom subtly altered relationships within the family.

• Emancipation increased power of black men within family.

• Black women withdrew from work as field laborers and house servants to the domestic sphere.

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Family Record, a lithograph marketed to former slaves after the Civil War

The Meaning of Freedom

• Church and School– Blacks abandoned white-controlled religious

institutions to create churches of their own.

– Blacks of all ages flocked to the schools established by northern missionary societies, the Freedmen’s Bureau, and groups of ex-slaves.

Mother and Daughter Reading

2) African American ex Slaves’ Vision:

• Land and Labor After Slavery

•Control over own laborgrow own food, not cash crops

• Political Freedom: Origins of African American Politics

• Who was involved? Ex soldiers, ministers, previously free blacks.

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3) Southern White Planters’ VisionCONTROL OF LABOR:• Knew ex slaves didn’t want to work for them• So, Whites refusal to rent or sell land to freedmen.• Black Codes

– strict control while working– Contracts – pay at end of one year– “Vagrancy” laws

•Response to Black efforts: Terror

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The Meaning of Freedom

• Political Freedom– The right to vote became central to the former

slaves’ desire for empowerment and equality.

– To demonstrate their patriotism, blacks throughout the South organized Fourth of July celebrations.

The Meaning of Freedom

• Land, Labor, and Freedom– Former slaves’ ideas of freedom were directly

related to land ownership.• Many former slaves insisted that through their unpaid

labor they had acquired a right to the land.

The Meaning of Freedom

• Masters without Slaves– The South’s defeat was complete and

demoralizing.• Planter families faced profound changes.

– Most planters defined black freedom in the narrowest manner.

Map 15.1 The Barrow Plantation

The Meaning of Freedom

• The Free Labor Vision– The victorious Republican North tried to

implement its own vision of freedom.• Free labor

– The goal of The Freedmen’s Bureau was to establish a working free labor system.

The Freedmen’s Bureau

– The task of the Bureau:– establishing schools, providing aid to the poor and

aged, settling disputes, etc.

– Daunting, since it had fewer than 1,000 agents.

– The Bureau’s achievements in some areas, notably education and health care, were striking.

The Freedmen’s Bureau, an engraving from Harper’s Weekly

Freedman’s Bureau

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White SouthernAttack on Freeman’s Bureau

A Democratic Party broadside from electionof 1866 in Pennsylvania

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Freedman’s Bureau

Negroes at Freeman’s Bureau: A Positive Image27

The Meaning of Freedom

• Failure of Land Reform– President Andrew Johnson ordered nearly all land

in federal hands to be returned to its former owners.

– Because no land distribution took place, the vast majority of rural freed people remained poor & without property during Reconstruction.

The Meaning of Freedom

• Toward a New South– Sharecropping came to dominate the cotton

South and much of the tobacco areas.

– Sharecropping initially arose as a compromise between blacks’ desire for land and planters’ desire for labor discipline.

Map 15.2 Sharecropping in the South, 1880

The Meaning of Freedom

• The White Farmer– Aftermath of the war hurt small white farmers.

– Crop-lien system was the use of crop as collateral for loans from merchants for supplies.

– White farmers increased cotton cultivation, cotton prices plummeted,

– They found themselves unable to pay back loans.

The Meaning of Freedom

– Both black and white farmers found themselves caught in the sharecropping and crop-lien systems.

• The Urban South– Southern cities experienced remarkable growth

after the Civil War.• Rise of a new middle class

The Meaning of Freedom

• Aftermaths of Slavery– The Reconstruction-era debates over transitioning

from slavery to freedom had parallels in other Western Hemisphere countries where emancipation occurred in the nineteenth century.

– Only in the United States did former slaves gain political rights quickly.

Chinese laborers at work on Louisiana plantation during Reconstruction.

Making of Radical Reconstruction

• Andrew Johnson– Johnson identified himself as champion of “honest

yeomen” and foe of large planters.

– Johnson lacked Lincoln’s political skills and keen sense of public opinion.

– Johnson believed that African Americans had no role to play in Reconstruction.

The Making of Radical Reconstruction

• Failure of Presidential Reconstruction– Johnson’s plan for Reconstruction offered pardons

to white southern elite.

– Johnson’s plan allowed new southern state governments free hand in managing local affairs.

The Making of Radical Reconstruction

• The Black Codes– Southern governments began passing new laws

that restricted the freedom of blacks.

– These new laws violated free labor principles and created vigorous response from Republican North.

Selling a Freeman to Pay His Fine at Monticello, Florida

The Making of Radical Reconstruction

• The Radical Republicans

– The Radical Republicans called for:– dissolution of Johnson’s state governments, – establishment of new governments that did

not have “rebels” in power, – and the guarantee of right to vote for black

men.

The Making of Radical Reconstruction

– The Radicals fully embraced the expanded powers of the federal government that resulted from the Civil War.• Charles Summer• Thaddeus Stevens

Sen. Charles Sumner

1856 in senate! (pre Civil War)

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Rep. Thaddeus Stevens

Of Pennsylvania

The Radical Republicans

– Thaddeus Stevens’s most cherished aim was to confiscate the land of disloyal planters

– – and divide it among former slaves and

northern migrants to the South.

– His plan was too radical for most others in Congress.

The Making of Radical Reconstruction

• The Origins of Civil Rights– Most Republicans were moderates, not radicals.

– A moderate senator proposed two bills to modify Johnson’s policy:

1. Extend the life of the Freedmen’s Bureau2. Civil Rights Bill (equality before the law was central;

sought to overturn the Black Codes)

– Johnson vetoed both bills.

The Making of Radical Reconstruction

–Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill of 1866 over Pres. Johnson’s veto and later extended the life of the Freedmen’s Bureau.

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

A Democratic Party broadside from the election of 1866 in Pennsylvania

President Andrew Johnson, in 1868 lithograph by Currier and Ives.

Radical Reconstruction

• The Fourteenth Amendment

– It put in Constitution the principle of citizenship for all persons born in the United States and empowered the federal government to protect the rights of all Americans.

• It did not grant blacks the right to vote.

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (ratified 1868)

• Section 1.• All persons born or naturalized in the United

States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;

• nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;

• nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

•

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (ratified 1868)

The 14th Amendment

nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The underlined parts known as:

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the liberty clausethe due process clause the equal protection clause

of the 14th amendment

Radical Reconstruction

• Reconstruction Act of 1867– Johnson campaigned against the Fourteenth

Amendment in 1866 midterm elections.

– Over Johnson’s veto, Congress adopted the Reconstruction Act, which:

• Divided the South into five military districts; and• Called for creation of new southern state governments,

with black men given the vote.

The Making of Radical Reconstruction

–The Reconstruction Act thus began Radical Reconstruction, which lasted until 1877.

Radical Reconstruction

• Impeachment and the Election of Grant– To demonstrate his dislike for Tenure of Office Act

Johnson removed the secretary of war from office in 1868.

– Johnson was impeached and Senate fell one vote short from removing him from office.

– Republicans nominated Grant for president in the 1868 election.

Presidential Election of 1868

The Making of Radical Reconstruction

• Fifteenth Amendment– Ulysses S. Grant won 1868 presidential election.

– Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1870.

– Prohibited federal and state governments from denying any citizen right to vote because of race.

• It did not extend suffrage to women.

Celebrating the Fifteenth Amendment, 1870 lithograph

The “Great Constitutional Revolution”

– The laws and amendments of Reconstruction reflected intersection of two products of the Civil War era:1. A newly empowered national state; and2. The idea of a national citizenry enjoying equality

before the law.

– Before the Civil War, American citizenship had been closely linked to race.

• B: The Amendments of Reconstruction: • 13th Amendment — Dec. 1865

• Forbade slavery • 14th Amendment — July 1868 • 15th Amendment — Feb. 1870 vote cannot be withheld because of color or race.

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Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

The First Vote, an engraving from Harper’s Weekly

Radical Reconstruction

• The “Great Constitutional Revolution”

– The new amendments also transformed relationship between federal government and the states.

Radical Reconstruction

• Boundaries of Freedom

– Even Republicans did not believe “universal rights” extended to all races.

– There was widespread discrimination against Asians.

The Rights of Women

– Destruction of slavery led feminists to search for ways to make the promise of free labor real for women.

– Some feminists (Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony) opposed Fifteenth Amendment because it did not enfranchise women.

The Rights of Women

– The divisions among feminists led to creation of two women’s rights organizations that would not reunite until the 1890s.

– Despite their limitations Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and Reconstruction Act of 1867 marked a radical departure in American and world history.

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

A Delegation of Advocates of Woman SuffrageAddressing the House

Radical Reconstruction in the South

Among former slaves:– the passage of the Reconstruction Act inspired an

outburst of political organization.– Blacks used direct action to remedy long-standing

grievances.– The Union League aided blacks in the public

sphere.– By 1870 the Union had been restored and

southern states had Republican majorities.

Electioneering at the South, an engraving from Harper’s Weekly

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

From the Plantation to the Senate

Sen. Hiram Rhodes Revels

• United States Senatorfrom Mississippi

• In officeFebruary 23, 1870 – March 3, 1871

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Radical Reconstruction in the South

• The Black Officeholder

– Two thousand African Americans held public offices during Reconstruction.

• Fourteen elected to U.S. House of Representatives

• Two elected to U.S. Senate

The Operations of the Registration Laws andNegro Suffrage in the South

Carpetbaggers and Scalawags

– Scalawags were southern-born white Republicans.

• Some were wealthy (e.g., James Alcorn, a Mississippi planter).

• Most had been up-country non-slaveholders before the Civil War and some had been Unionists during the war.

Radical Reconstruction in the South

• Southern Republicans in Power

– Southern Republican governments established the South’s first state-supported public schools.

– The new governments also pioneered civil rights legislation.

– Republican governments took steps to strengthen the position of rural laborers and to promote the South’s economic recovery.

Black students outside a schoolhouse in a post–CivilWar photograph. The teacher is seated at the far right.

Radical Reconstruction in the South

• The Quest for Prosperity

– During Reconstruction, every state helped to finance railroad construction.

– Investment opportunities in the West lured more northern investors than southern investors.

– Economic development remained weak in South.

The Overthrow of Reconstruction

• The Liberal Republicans

• The North’s Retreat

• The Triumph of the Redeemers

• Jim Crow & Segregation for African Americans

The Overthrow of Reconstruction

• Reconstruction’s Opponents

– Corruption existed during Reconstruction but it was not confined to a race, region, or party.

– Opponents could not accept the idea of former slaves voting, holding office, and enjoying equality before the law.

Winslow Homer’s 1876 painting

Murder of Louisiana, an 1873 cartoon

Overthrow of Reconstruction• “A Reign of Terror”

– Secret societies sprang up in the South with the aims of preventing blacks from voting and destroying the organization of the Republican Party.

– The Ku Klux Klan was organized in 1866.

• It launched what one victim called a “reign of terror” against black and white Republican leaders.

• Example: Colfax, Louisiana massacre (1873)

•Terror: - the Ku Klux Klan

•D: White Resistance in the South

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A Prospective Scene in the City of Oaks

The Overthrow of Reconstruction

• “A Reign of Terror”

– With passage of three Enforcement Acts in 1870 and 1871 -

– Congress and President Grant put an end to the Ku Klux Klan by 1872.

Overthrow of Reconstruction

• The Liberal Republicans– The North’s commitment to Reconstruction

waned during the 1870s.

– Some Republicans, alienated from Grant by corruption in his administration, formed the Liberal Republican Party.

• Horace Greeley

Changes in graphic artist Thomas Nast’s depiction of blacks in Harper’s Weekly

Overthrow of Reconstruction• North’s Retreat

– The Liberal attack on Reconstruction contributed to a resurgence of racism in the North.

– 1873 depression also distracted the North from Reconstruction.

– Supreme Court whittled away at Congress’s guarantees of black rights.

• Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)• United States v. Cruikshank (1876)

Map 15.4 Reconstruction in the South, 1867–1877

The Overthrow of Reconstruction

• Triumph of the Redeemers

– Redeemers claimed to have “redeemed” the white South from corruption, misgovernment, and northern and black control.

The Overthrow of Reconstruction

• Disputed Election and Bargain of 1877

– Contest between Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) and Samuel Tilden (Democrat) was very close, with disputed electoral votes from Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina.

– Congress set up a special Electoral Commission to determine the winner of the disputed votes.

Map 15.5 The Presidential Election of 1876

The Overthrow of Reconstruction

• Disputed Election & Bargain of 1877

– Behind the scenes, Hayes made a bargain to allow southern white Democrats to control the South if his election was accepted.

– The compromise led to Hayes’s election and gave the Democrats a free hand in the South.

The Overthrow of Reconstruction

• The End of Reconstruction– Reconstruction ended in 1877.

– It would be nearly a century before the nation again tried to bring equal rights to the descendants of slaves.

The Second Reconstruction:

• Civil Rights Era - (1950s- 1960s)

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Is This a Republican Form of Government?

This concludes the lecture presentation for

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Chapter 15: "What Is Freedom?": Reconstruction, 1865–1877

Reviewing the American People’s Core Freedoms:

(the freedoms we do have)

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The Jewels in Our Crown of Freedoms

(with us all being the royalty :)

• 13th Amendment (ending Slavery)• 14th Amendment• Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10)• Constitutional Court• George Washington giving us Civilian

Government• Separation of Power• Broad Franchise 9-9-12 97

Broadened Franchiseincludes:

• 14th & 15th Amendment• 19th Amendment• 24th Amendment• Civil Rights Acts (1960s)

– Including the Voting Rights Acts

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Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & CompanyUncle Sam’s Thanksgiving Dinner, an engraving by Thomas

Nast from Harper’s Weekly