Reconstruction

Reconstruction 1865-1872

• A time of major change in the state following the devastation of the Civil War

• Georgia was decimated after Sherman’s March and 4 years of fighting.

• >40,000 Georgians had been killed or wounded

• Many Georgians lost their land completely

• US will attempt to reconstruct the South using 3 different

Reconstruction Plans.– Presidential Reconstruction– Congressional Reconstruction– Military Reconstruction

Page 108- LH assignment

• Freedmen’s Bureau

• Sharecropping• Tenant Farming• 13th Amendment• Black Codes

• 14th Amendment• Ku Klux Klan• 15th Amendment

1.Use the books to copy the definition

2.Write a sentence using the word

3. Colored Picture

Presidential Reconstruction

• The first of 3 plans (1865-1866)• President Johnson

– Native of Tennessee – Remained loyal to the union during the War – Very lenient with the southern

• His plan was based on Lincoln’s 10% plan– Southern states could rejoin the Union if

10% of their population swore allegiance to the US

– Required to Ratify the 13th amendment

Georgia’s 1866 Constitution Convention

• Repealed the Ordnance of Session

• Passed the 13th Amendment • Banned Interracial marriages• Alexander Stephens to

Congress

• Georgia was readmitted into the Union in December of 1865 due to passing the 13th Amendment

Temporary

Congressional Upset

• Republicans in Congress were upset that Confederate leaders were given congressional positions.– Alexander Stephens Radical Republicans- favored harsher

treatment for the Confederate Southern States.

• Accused Johnson of abusing power• Began his impeachment process

Black Codes & the 14th Amendment

• Black Codes were enforced in the south– Laws that did not allow blacks to vote,

testify against whites in court, or serve as jurors.

• Radical Republicans were appalled at the treatment of freedmen.

• As a result congress introduced the 14th Amendment – Made blacks citizens of the US and

required them to be given same rights as all other citizens.

Congressional Reconstruction 1866-1867

• Georgia refused to ratify the 14th Amendment

– Georgia eventually ratified the 14th amendment on 21 July 1868

• Placed under authority of congress as a result

Reconstruction Act of 1867—Lumped the South into 5 Military Districts. Georgia is a part of the 3rd Military District directed by John Pope

•Congress sends southern representatives home

•require passage of the 14th amendment

Military Reconstruction

• 3rd district was under command of General John Pope (1st Military Governor)– Georgia, Alabama, and Florida

• Pope registered Georgia's eligible voters:

– Whites 95,214 – Blacks 93,457

• Election held for Constitutional Representatives – Republicans and 37 African Americans were

elected

Constitutional Convention of Atlanta

December 1867 - March 1868

• New constitution created – Provisions for black voting– Free Public schools– Moved the Capital to Atlanta– gave wives control of their property– increased the governor's term to four

years

After the Convention..• Rufus Bullock was elected Governor • General Assembly began its session

– Republican controlled

• Military presence remained in Georgia– To monitor KKK

• 1870- Georgia remitted to the Union when the republicans and black legislators passed the 15th Amendment

– African American men the right to vote

• 1872- Southern Democrats “redeemers” voted back into office – Governor and General Assembly

Freedmen's Bureau• Created to help Freedmen adjust to

freedom– Black and poor whites– Fed, clothed, and sheltered

• Helped build the freedmen’s schools and hospitals

• Supervised labor contracts• Created the first public school program for

either blacks or whites in Georgia– Set stage for modern public school system– Clarke Atlanta University and Morehouse

College

Ku Klux KlanKu Klux Klan• Organized in 1866 by Organized in 1866 by

Confederate veterans to Confederate veterans to resist reconstruction resist reconstruction efforts.efforts. – Made up of southern Made up of southern

DemocratsDemocrats• Used terror to Used terror to keep keep

freedmen from using their freedmen from using their rights.rights. – To intimidate white republican To intimidate white republican

and blacksand blacks• The violence kept federal The violence kept federal

troops in Georgia to protect troops in Georgia to protect blacks.blacks.

Page 112 Left-Hand

Use CRCT book P. 87 &93

Ku Klux Klan Freedmen’s Bureau

Created by?

Why established?Who did it

help & harm?What did it

do?Impact on Georgians?

Changes in Agriculture

• After the war the plantation owners and freedmen still needed each other to grow crops.

• Federal Currency was not available to pay the workers as there were no longer slaves.

• Freedmen were paid as sharecroppers and tenant farmers to work the fields.

SharecroppingSharecropping• Landowners provided Landowners provided

land, housing, seed, land, housing, seed, tools, farm animals and tools, farm animals and fertilizer.fertilizer.

• Workers gave a Workers gave a percentage percentage of their of their crop to the owners in crop to the owners in return.return.

• They often owed more They often owed more to the owner than they to the owner than they could get for their crop. could get for their crop.

• DebtDebt meant they may meant they may never be able to buy never be able to buy their own land.their own land.

Old sharecroppers houseOld sharecroppers house

Tenant FarmingTenant Farming• Tenants (farmers) Tenants (farmers)

rented the land rented the land but but owned much of their own owned much of their own tools, animals and seed.tools, animals and seed.

• Easier to make a profit Easier to make a profit but was but was very risky if very risky if crops failedcrops failed..

• Some tenant farmers lost Some tenant farmers lost what they owned and what they owned and turned to sharecropping.turned to sharecropping.

• Tenant farmers were a Tenant farmers were a higher social classhigher social class than than sharecroppers.sharecroppers.

LH page 114Create a Double Bubble Map

Compare and contrast:

Sharecropping And

Tenant Farming

Black Legislators

• 32 black legislators were elected to the Georgia General Assembly in 1867– After military reconstruction helped

register eligible voters.

• Henry McNeal Turner was the most prominent.

Henry McNeal Turner (1834-1915)• Born in South Carolina

• 1853- began preaching– Traveled through the south – After the civil war traveled through Georgia converting freedmen

• 1867- helped organize the Republican Party in Ga– Elected to the 1867 Constitutional

Convention• He promoted land ownership, voting rights

and education for blacks. • White democrats expelled him and other

elected blacks from office in1869.

The End of Reconstruction

• Northerners began to tire of protecting African American rights in the South.

• The Freedmen’s Bureau was very difficult and expensive to maintain.

• Rutherford B. Hayes promised to remove U.S. troops from the South if elected in 1876.

• He won and federal troops left the South in 1877 effectively ending Reconstruction.