APUSH Civil War and Reconstruction Essay

Civil War and Reconstruction Essay

                The Blacks were before the war mistreated in the form of slavery. The South seceding gave to the civil war. As the war waged on the war turned into a war against slavery. The desire to help the black man rose in all. This desire continued on into the reconstruction and then decreased. During the time era, though the blacks achieved freedom, they were not truly free. 

Before the war, both in the North and South, the rich white men had power. In the North, the blacks were free, however they were still prejudiced. The poor whites were also mistreated. Though the factory workers were paid a wage, it was so meager that it barely sustained the workers and their families. It was upon this point that the South argued that they were just in the practice of slavery.

                In the south the slaves were mostly cared for. They were viewed not as people, but as property. The better the whites treated their property, the more profit they would receive. While in the North, the workers were often underpaid and faced many dangerous in their work. Though the blacks in the South were not free, they were for the most part treated fairly.

In the southern social class, the plantation owners were supreme. Because of their abundance in slaves they were at top of the social ladder. The more slaves one had, the more powerful they became. The poor whites in the South barely received any labor since the slaves were used as free-labor. For this reason the blacks were hated by the poor whites for taking away jobs. They were also thought as inferior to the whites by all.

During the war, many blacks escaped the plantations and joined the Union army. They were not given equal pay and were prejudiced against. The 52^nd regiment consisted fully of black soldiers who fought bravely and showed that blacks were of equal and better vigor when compared to whites. In the South the blacks were continued to be mistreated by the owners. Although in the beginning the war started out about keeping the union intact, it ended up being about freeing blacks.

The Civil war was controversial and expensive. Many northern did not wish to fight. Also the costs of the war were enormous. In order to keep up with the costs, both the North and the South printed paper money.  The north was by far more successful because Lincoln was able to get people have trust in the money. However in the South, the ‘greenbacks’ were a bust. Nobody trusted them. The factories in the North also helped the war effort, while the south had very limited factories. 

After the war, reconstruction started, during which the blacks in the South started receiving equal rights. This was due to the fact of the federal troops provided by Congress to protect the black’s rights. However, as reconstruction continued on, the plight for black equality lessened. Groups like the KKK emerged that terrorized the black race. Congress at first succeeded in stopping the KKK, but could not keep up the support. Democrats were elected back into Congress. Many states created Black Codes that limited the blacks to a different sort of slavery. During reconstruction, the Grant administration was wrought with corruption, which took away attention from the black man’s rights.

During this time emerged the share-cropping system. With this system, the blacks and poor whites could work on the farms of their plantation owners, and rent would be paid in half of their harvest. This system put the sharecroppers in so much debt that they had no chance of escaping it.

The end of reconstruction occurred in the presidential election of 1872, with the second corrupt bargain. In order to have a Republican president, the republicans agreed to remove federal troops from the south, and allow the states to treat the blacks however they choose. Also the southern states would be given funds in order to construct railroads. In order to reconcile with the south, the north had throw the blacks under the bus.  The blacks were the same and perhaps even worse as a result of the reconstruction.

Enduring Vision Chapter 16 Short Essay Questions

1.      Read the introduction on pages 477-478 and list the problems faced by the nation after the Civil War

After the Civil War, the nation faced many unprecedented problems. First and foremost, what should be done with the newly freed blacks? Should they be granted equal rights guaranteed by the federal government or should they be left own their own. The whole Southern structure was based on Slavery, and with it gone, how would the Southern culture and structure evolve.

The second question was how to allow the Southern states back to the Union. Were they to be added quickly or were they to be treated as conquered territories. Who would have the power to decide the fate of the Southern States- Congress or the President? And lastly, what should be done with the confederate leaders. Should they be pardoned or disenfranchised and charged with treason.

2.      Based on your reading, why was Andrew Johnson impeached by members of his own party?  What are some specific reasons? Why did the Senate fail to get the 2/3 required for conviction?

Andrew Johnson was a stubborn, white supremacist who became president after Lincoln’s assassination. During the Civil War he was the only Southern Senator to remain loyal to the Union. He hated blacks, but he also hated the Southern gentry. His reconstruction plans included providing provisional state governors, having the states declare succession illegal, ratify the 13^th amendment. When the South created Black Codes, Johnson did not stop them. He practically handed out special pardons allowing the old confederate generals to take control of the government.

All of this was done while Congress was out of session. Congress was furious on its return. It formed its own reconstruction plan that was less forgiving towards the former-confederates and more helpful towards the newly freed blacks. President Johnson tried all in his power to stop the plan. He went on his “Swing Around the Circle”, going around the country campaigning against congressional reconstruction plan. The campaign completely failed. Now the Congress was filled with Republicans who hated Johnson. But Johnson continued to antagonism Congress by removing Cabinet members who were supportive of the Republicans. He finally crossed the line when he tried to fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The House of Representatives impeached for the violation of the Tenure of Office Act. However the impeachment did not pass by one vote in the Senate. The senators did not want to set the precedent of impeaching a president just because Congress did not like him. That would upset the balance of powers. So Johnson was not impeached.

3.      What was the Freedman’s Bureau?  What were some of the jobs available?  Why did Johnson veto it?  What black institutions organized to assist the Freedmen?

The Freedman’s Bureau was established in 1865 to offer assistance to former slaves and protect their new citizenship. It provided emergency food, housing, medical supplies to the freed blacks. It promised “40 acres & a mule”. They also told the Africans to show them the labor contracts before signing on with landlords. They also created new schools. It could run special military courts to settle labor disputes and could invalidate labor contracts forced on freedmen by the black codes.

4.      Why did the Republicans abandon the South in the 1870’s?  Give an example of the Supreme Court’s support for this abandonment of Reconstruction.

Major Reconstruction Legislation

Enduring Vision Chapter 16 Identifications (IDs)

APUSH: Chapter 16 Identifications

1.      13th Amendment

a.       Abolition of slavery

b.      Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

c.       Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce these article by appropriate legislation.

2.      14th Amendment (Why did some abolitionists oppose it)

a.       the most complicated and the one that has had the more unforeseen effects. Its broad goal was to ensure that the Civil Rights Act passed in 1866 would remain valid ensuring that "all persons born in the United States...excluding Indians not taxed...." were citizens and were to be given "full and equal benefit of all laws." (Quotes from the Civil Rights Act of 1866) However, it went beyond the provisions of the Civil Rights Act in many ways.

b.      Key Clauses of the 14th Amendment

c.       Four principles were asserted in the text of the 14th amendment. They were:

                                                              i.      State and federal citizenship for all persons regardless of race both born or naturalized in the United States was reaffirmed.

                                                            ii.      No state would be allowed to abridge the "privileges and immunities" of citizens.

                                                          iii.      No person was allowed to be deprived of life, liberty, or property without "due process of law."

                                                          iv.      No person could be denied "equal protection of the laws."

d.      Over time, numerous lawsuits have arisen that have referenced the 14th amendment. The fact that the amendment uses the word state in the Privileges and Immunities clause along with interpretation of the Due Process Clause has meant that state as well as federal power is subject to the Bill of Rights. Further, the courts have interpretated the word "person" to include corporations. Therefore, they too are protected by "due process" along with being granted "equal protection."

3.      15th Amendment (Why did some women oppose it)

a.       Black suffrage

b.      Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

c.       Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

d.      February 3, 1870.

4.      Radical Reconstruction Plan/Wade Davis Bill

1. After at least half the eligible took an oath of allegiance to the Union, delegates could be elected to a state convention that would repeal secession and abolish slavery. To qualify as a voter or delegate, a southerner would have to take another oath of allegiance, swearing he had never voluntarily supported the Confederacy; did not provide for black suffrage, a measure then supported by some radicals.

                                                              i.      Lincoln pocket-vetoed the Wade-Davis bill (that’s is, he failed to sign the bill within ten days of adjournment of Congress.

1.      Senator Benjamin Wade and Congressman Henry Winter Davis were outraged.

5.      Abraham Lincoln’s 10% Plan

1. Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which outlined the path by which each southern state could rejoin the Union.
2. A minority of voters (equal to at least 10 percent of those who had voted in the election of 1860) would have to take an oath of allegiance to the Union and accept emancipation.

                                                              i.      Then this minority could create a loyal state government.

                                                            ii.      Lincoln’s plan excluded some southerners from taking oath: Confederate government officials, army and naval officers, as well as those military officers who had resigned from Congress or from U.S. commissions in 1861.

1.      All such people would have to apply for presidential pardons.

2.      Also excluded, of course, were blacks, who had not been voters in 1860.

                                                          iii.      Radical Republicans in Congress, however, envisioned a slower readmission process.

6.      Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan

1. In two proclamations the president explained how seven southern states still without reconstruction governments—Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas—could return to the Union.

                                                              i.      Johnson required whites to take an oath of allegiance to the Union

1.      After which they could set up new state govts.

a.       These had to proclaim secession  illegal, repudiate Confederate debts, and ratify the 13th Amendment (abolished slavery)

                                                            ii.      Whites who had held high office under the Confederacy and all those with taxable property of $20,000 or more could NOT vote or hold office

1.      They had to apply for and receive a special pardon from the Pres.

2. During the summer of 1865

                                                              i.      Johnson undermined his own policy of excluding  planters from leadership by handing out pardons to them wholesale

3. The new govts. created under Johnson’s plan were soon dominated by former Confederate leaders and large landowners

                                                              i.      Some states refused to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment.

7.      Congressional Reconstruction

                                                              i.      the Reconstruction Act of 1867 invalidated the state governments formed under the Lincoln and Johnson plans.

1.      Only Tennessee, which ratified the Fourteenth Amendment and had been readmitted to the Union, escaped further reconstruction.

2.      The law divided the other ten former Confederate states into five temporary military districts, each run by a Union general.

3.      Voters—all black men, plus those white men who had not been disqualified by the 14^th Amendment—could elect delegates to a state convention that would write a new state constitution granting black suffrage.

4.      Once the state legislature ratified the 14^th Amendment, and once it became part of the Federal Constitution, Congress would readmit that the state into the Union.

5.      This act was far more radical than the Johnson program because it enfranchised blacks and disfranchised ex-confederates.

6.      It did not go as far as the Radicals wanted

–     It failed to confiscate southern land and redistribute it to blacks and poor whites

                                                            ii.      Johnson dragged his feet in enforcing congressional Reconstruction

b.       

8.      Scalawags

a.       White southerners who supported the Republicans

b.      Predominantly poor and ignorant whites, which sought to profit from the Republican rule.

c.       Included some entrepreneurs who applauded party policies such as the national banking system and high protective tariffs;

d.      As well as some prosperous planters, former Whigs who opposed secession.

9.      Carpetbaggers

a.       Northerners

b.      Allegedly came to the south seeking wealth and power (with so few possessions that they could be stuffed into traveling bags made of carpet material)

c.       Included many former Union generals who hoped to buy land, open factories, build railroads, or simply enjoy warmer climates.

10.  Ku Klux Klan

1. Six young Confederate veterans in Tennessee formed a social club, the Ku Klux Klan, distinguished by elaborate rituals, hooded costumes, and secret passwords.

                                                              i.      Klan dens spread throughout the state.

                                                            ii.      The Klan sought to suppress black voting and reestablish white voting.

1.      The “invisible empire” burned black owned buildings and flogged and murdered freedmen to keep them from exercising their voting rights.

11.  Nathan Bedford Forrest

a.       Prominent ex-Confederates General

b.      Leader of the 1864 Fort Pillow massacre, in which Confederate troops who captured a Union garrison in Tennessee murdered black soldiers after they had surrendered.

c.       A KKK member

12.  Sharecropping Tenant Farming/Crop Lien

1.      White landowners forced freed blacks into signing contracts to work the fields.

a.       These contracts set the terms that nearly bound the signer to permanent and unrestricted labor.

                                                                                                  i.      Slavery by another name.

2.       White landowners adopted a system of tenancy and sharecropping.

a.       The landlord provided seed and other needed farm supplies in return for a share (usually half) of the harvest.

a.       Essentially sharecroppers remained either dependent on the landowners or in debt to local merchants

13.  “Mississippi Plan”

a.       To stop black voting

b.      Local Democratic clubs in Mississippi armed their members, who dispersed Republican meetings, patrolled voter-registration places, and marched through black areas. “The Republicans are paralyzed through fear and will not act,”

14.  The “redeemers”/ Redemption

a.       The word Democrats used to describe their return to power, introduced sweeping changes.

b.      Some states called constitutional conventions to reverse Republican policies. All cut back expenses, wiped out social programs, lowered taxes, and revised their tax systems to relieve landowners of large burdens.

c.       State courts limited the rights of tenants and sharecroppers. Most important, the Democrats, or “redeemers,” used the law to ensure a stable black labor force. Legislatures restored vagrancy laws, revised crop-lien statutes to make landowners’ claims superior to those of merchants, and rewrote criminal law.

d.      Local ordinances in heavily black counties often restricted hunting, fishing, gun carrying, and ownership of dogs and thereby curtailed the everyday activities of freedmen who lived off the land. States passed severe laws against trespassing and theft; stealing livestock or wrongly taking part of a crop became grand larceny with a penalty of up to five years at hard labor.

e.       By the end of Reconstruction, a large black convict work force had been leased out to private contractors at low rates.

15.  Exodusters

a.       Blacks left in mass departure

b.      In the late 1870s, as the political climate grew more oppressive, an “exodus” movement spread through Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, and Louisiana.

c.       Some African-Americans decided to become homesteaders in Kansas. After a major outbreak of “Kansas fever” in 1879, four thousand “exodusters” from Mississippi and Louisiana joined about ten thousand who had reached Kansas earlier in the decade.

d.      But the vast majority of freedmen, devoid of resources, had no migration options or escape route.

e.        Mass movement of southern blacks to the North and Midwest would not gain momentum until the twentieth century

16.  Hayes Election/Compromise of 1877

                                                              i.      Republicans=Rutherford Hayes

                                                            ii.      Democrats=Samuel Tilden

a.       Tilden won the popular vote But because of fraud and intimidation at the polls, the electoral votes in 4 states were disputed, so Hayes won.

b.      The Democrats refused to accept the finding until a compromise deal was worked out by Southern Democrats and Republican supporters of Hayes

c.       In exchange for southern acceptance of Hayes as president, the Republicans promised:

1.) to let Democrats take over the last Republican Reconstruction govts. in LA and SC

2.) to remove the remaining troops from the South

3.) to give more federal patronage to southern Democrats

4.) to provide federal aid for building railroads and for other internal improvements in the South

d.      This so-called Compromise of 1877 struck the final blow to Radical Reconstruction

e.       Also it ended all federal protection for the freedmen

17.  Freedman’s Bureau

1. Established in 1865
2. Headed by former general O. O. Howard and staffed mainly by army officers, provided relief, rations, and medical care.
3. Built schools for the freed blacks, put them to work on abandoned or confiscated lands, and tried to protect their rights.
4. Congress gave the bureau’s life three years and gave it new power: military courts to settle labor disputes and could invalidate labor contracts forced on freedman by the black codes.
5. Johnson vetoed the bill, declaring, the constitution did not sanction military trials of civilians in peacetime, nor did it support a system to care for “indigent persons.”
6. Congress enacted the Supplementary Freedman’s Bureau Act over Johnson’s veto.

Enduring Vision Chapter 16 Outline

Chapter 16:  The Crises of Reconstruction (1865-1877)

Introduction

1. The ending of the Civil War and the Reconstruction period that followed constituted a “crucial turning point” in American history

–     Between 1865 and 1877

2. Vital problems had to be solved
3. How and under what conditions the South should be readmitted to the Union
4. What the rights and status of the 3.5 million freedmen should be

Reconstruction Politics, 1865-1868

Lincoln’s Plan

–     Differences between President Lincoln and Congress on reconstruction of the Confederate states began as early as 1863

–     Would allow the formation of a new state govt. when as few as 10% of the state’s voters took an oath of loyalty to the Union

–     Also had to recognize the end of slavery

–     This plan said nothing about votes for freedmen

–     Lincoln hoped to win over southern Unionists and draw them into the Rep. Party

1. Wade-Davis Bill

–     Passed by Congress

–     Republicans who disagreed with Lincoln’s plan

–     Required at least 50% of the voters take an oath of allegiance

–     It excluded from participation in govt. all those who had cooperated with the Confederacy

2. Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill
3. At the time of his death, he and Congress were at an impasse

Presidential Reconstruction Under Johnson

1. President Andrew Johnson announced his Reconstruction Plan in May 1865

–     Unconcerned about the blacks but wished to promote the interests of the poorer whites in the South

2. Johnson required whites to take an oath of allegiance to the Union

–     After which they could set up new state govts.

•      These had to proclaim secession  illegal, repudiate Confederate debts, and ratify the 13th Amendment (abolished slavery)

3. Whites who had held high office under the Confederacy and all those with taxable property of $20,000 or more could NOT vote or hold office

–     They had to apply for and receive a special pardon from the Pres.

4. During the summer of 1865

–     Johnson undermined his own policy of excluding  planters from leadership by handing out pardons to them wholesale

5. The new govts. created under Johnson’s plan were soon dominated by former Confederate leaders and large landowners
6. Some of the Johnson govts. refused to ratify the 13th Amend.
7. And all showed their intention of making black freedom only nominal by enacting “black codes”

–     Blacks could:

•      Marry

•      Own property

•      Make contracts

•      Testify in court against other blacks.

–     Established racial segregation in public places.

–     Restricted blacks from:

•      Racial intermarriage

•      Jury service

•      Giving court testimony against whites

–     Left freedmen no longer slaves, but not really liberated either.

8. Horrified by such evidence of continued southern defiance in Dec. 1865:

–     Republican-dominated Congress refused to recognize these govts. or to seat the men they sent to the House and the Senate

Congress vs. Johnson

1. Radical Republicans were in a minority in 1866

–     They wished to give black men the vote

–     Transform the South into a biracial democracy

–     Thaddeus Stevens

•      Hoped to impose black suffrage on the former Confederacy and delay the readmission of the southern states into the Union.

2. Moderate Republicans were in the majority

–     Wanted to get rid of the black codes

–     And protect the basic civil rights of blacks

3. The moderates attempted to accomplish these limited goals by continuing the Freedmen’s Bureau and passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866
4. Johnson vetoed both of these measures
5. This drove the moderates into an alliance with the Radicals

–     Together they overrode his vetoes

6. This alliance would create the 14th Amendment

14th Amendment, 1866

1. For the 1st time, the federal govt. defined citizenship and intervened to protect person from state govts.
2. It stated that all persons born in the U.S.A. or naturalized were citizens
3. No state could deny any person’s rights without due process of law or deny equal protection of the law
4. States that refused black men the vote could have their representation in Congress reduced
5. Former Confederate officials were excluded from voting and office-holding until pardoned by 2/3’s vote of Congress
6. The southern states (except for TN), refused to ratify the amendment
7. Pres. Johnson denounced it

–     In the Congressional elections of 1866, the Republicans won huge majorities

•      This gave them a mandate to force ratification of the 14th Amendment

•      Also it allowed to proceed with congressional Reconstruction of the South

Congressional Reconstruction, 1866-1868

1. Congress enacted its Reconstruction program over Johnson’s vetoes
2. The earlier Johnson govts., black codes, and all other laws the southern states had passed were invalidated
3. TN had been readmitted
4. All other former Confederate states were divided into districts under the temporary rule of the military
5. Each state was required to write a new constitution enfranchising black men
6. And they had to ratify the 14th Amendment
7. When these things were done, Congress could readmit the state to the Union
8. Congressional Reconstruction was more radical than Lincoln’s or Johnson’s

–     It enfranchised blacks and temporarily disfranchised many whites

9. It did not go as far as the Radicals wanted

–     It failed to confiscate southern land and redistribute it to blacks and poor whites

10. Johnson dragged his feet in enforcing congressional Reconstruction

The Impeachment Crisis, 1867-1868

1. Tenure of Office Act

–     Passed by Congress

–     March 1867

–     Aimed at reducing the president’s power

–     Tenure of Office Act

–     Johnson violated it by firing Sec. of War Edwin Stanton

2. Republicans in Congress began impeachment proceedings
3. Some Republicans wavered

–     Feared that removal of Johnson would upset the constitutional balance of powerThe vote to convict and remove President Johnson fell 1 vote short of the necessary 2/3’s of the Senate

The 15th Amendment and the Question Of Woman Suffrage

1. Congress passed a final amend. To complete its Reconstruction program
2. 15th Amendment stated that the right to vote could not be denied because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude
3. The Republicans hoped with this amendment to:

–     protect southern blacks

–     extend suffrage to northern blacks

–     gain many new voters for their party

4. When Congress refused to include woman suffrage, some feminists denounced the amendment and its Republicans sponsors
5. The 3 new amendments

–     Ending slavery

–     Guaranteeing the rights of citizens

–     Enfranchising black men

6. By 1870:

–     these new amendments were a part of the Constitution

–     Congress had readmitted all the former Confederate states

7. Thereafter congressional efforts at Reconstruction weakened

Reconstruction Governments

1. The Reconstruction laws of 1867-1868 created a new electorate in the South by enfranchising blacks

–     Also they temporarily disfranchised 10-15% of the whites

2. This new electorate put in power Republican govts. what were made up of a coalition of carpetbaggers, scalawags, and blacks

–     Carpetbaggers=northerners who had come south for a variety of reasons

–     Scalawags=cooperating southern whites

Republican Rule

1. The Republican Reconstruction govts. democratized southern politics by:

–     abolishing property and racial qualifications for voting and office-holding

–     redistricting state legislatures

–     making formerly appointive offices elective

2. They undertook extensive public works, offered increased public services, and established the South’s first public schools
3. All of this cost money=taxes rose
4. Southern landowners bitterly resented the increased taxes

–     accused the state govts. of corruption and waste

•      Some of their charges were true

•      But many were exaggerated

5. In no state was the land of ex-Confederate planters confiscated and redistributed to freedmen

Counterattacks

1. White southern Democrats refused to accept black voting and office-holding

–     Launched a counterattack to drive Republican govts. from power

2. White vigilante groups began a campaign of violence and intimidation against blacks, Freedmen’s Bureau officials, and white Republicans
3. Congress investigated this reign of terror

–     Congress attempted to suppress it with the Enforcement Acts

4. But only a “large military presence in the South could have protected black rights” and preserve the black electorate
5. By the 1870’s, Congress and President Grant were no longer willing to use military force to remake the South

White Supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan

1. During the period that Republicans controlled the state governments in the South, groups of southern whites organized various secret societies to intimidate blacks and white reformers.

–     Vigilante groups sprang up spontaneously to reduce black votes and win white ones.

–     Antagonism towards free blacks became a major motif in southern life.

–     Six young Confederate veterans in Tennessee formed a social club, the Ku Klux Klan, distinguished by elaborate rituals, hooded costumes, and secret passwords.

•      Klan dens spread throughout the state.

•      The Klan sought to suppress black voting and reestablish white voting.

•      The “invisible empire” burned black owned buildings and flogged and murdered freedmen to keep them from exercising their voting rights.

•      Congress passed a series of acts to prevent violence against blacks.

•      Enforcement Act

•      To protect black voters, but witnesses to violations were afraid to testify against vigilantes, and local juries refused to convict them.

•      Second Enforcement Act

•      Provided for federal supervision of southern elections

•      Third Enforcement Act, or the Ku Klux Klan Act

•      Strengthened punishments for those the president to use federal troops to enforce the law and to suspend the writ of habeas corpus (the writ of habeas corpus is a court order and show cause for his or her detention) in areas of insurrection.

The Impact of Emancipation

Confronting Freedom

–     Freedmen left the plantations where they had been enslaved

•      Usually lacked property, tools, capital, and literacy

–     Often searched for family members from whom they had been separated

–     Once reunited, many took the 1st opportunity to legalize their marriages

•      Raise their children and live as an independent family

African-American Institutions

1. The desire to be free of white control led blacks to establish their own institutions
2. Most important were the black churches

–     Played major religious, social, and political roles

3. Many black schools were started with the help of the Freedmen’s Bureau and northern philanthropists

–     Howard, Fisk, Grambling, Southern

4. Segregation of all facilities in the South became a way of life
5. Charles Sumner’s Civil Rights Act of 1875

–     It promised that all persons, regardless of race, color, or previous condition, was entitled to full and equal employment of accommodation in "inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement."

–     In 1883 the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional

•      Congress did not have the power to regulate the conduct and transactions of individuals

Land, Labor, and Sharecropping

1. Above all, freedmen wanted to become landowning, independent farmers

–     Few did because the Republicans believed that property rights were too sacred to be violated by confiscation and redistribution of the white planters’ lands

–     Also, blacks did not have the capital to buy land and agricultural tools

2. Landless laborers and landholding planters developed sharecropping

–     A tenant farmer who farms land for the owner and is paid a share of the value of the yielded crop

3. Many white small farmers also lost their land and became sharecropping tenants
4. By 1880, 80% of the land in the cotton states was worked by landless tenants

Toward a Crop-Lien Economy

1. Rural merchants often sold supplies to sharecroppers on credit

–     A lien on the tenants’ share of the crop as collateral

2. Sharecroppers fell deeper and deeper into debt

–     Interest rates were exorbitant, cotton prices low, and merchants often dishonest

3. Southern law prohibited their leaving the land until they had fully repaid their debt

–     Sharecroppers were locked into poverty and indebtedness

New Concerns in the North, 1868-1876

Grantism

1. Ulysses S. Grant won the presidency in 1868

–     Republican

–     Popular war hero

2. His administration was marred by rampant corruption

–     Many state and local govts. of the time also had corruption

3. In 1872, some Republicans broke from Grant and formed the Liberal Republican Party

–     Disgusted with the scandals

The Liberals’ Revolt

1. In 1872, the Liberal Republicans nominated Horace Greely for president

–     The Democrats endorsed him as well

2. The regular Republicans renominated Grant
3. Grant won the election
4. The split in the Republican ranks seriously weakened Republican efforts to remake the South

The Panic of 1873

1. During Grant’s 2nd term, the nation suffered a financial panic and a severe economic depression:

–     business failures

–     mass unemployment

–     heightened labor-management conflict

–     disputes over the country’s currency system

2. All these issues further divided Republican attention from Reconstruction

Reconstruction and the Constitution

1. The Supreme Court in the last quarter of the 1800’s also undermined Republican Reconstruction
2. In a series of decisions, the Supreme Court interpreted the 14th and 15th Amendments in a way that made them all but useless for protecting black citizens
3. It declared the Civil Rights and Enforcement Acts unconstitutional and upheld state segregation laws

Republicans in Retreat

1. By the 1870’s, the Republicans were abandoning their Reconstruction policy
2. Most of them were more interested in economic growth than in protecting black rights
3. The Radicals who were committed to biracial democracy in the South were dead or had been defeated in elections
4. Many northerners wanted to normalize relations with the white South

–     They shared the racial belief that blacks were inferior to whites, and the federal govt. could not force equality

Reconstruction Abandoned, 1876-1877

Redeeming the South

–     After 1872, congressional pardons restored voting and office-holding rights to all ex-Confederates

–     The Democratic Party attempted to redeem the South from Republican rule

•      These men pardoned and the South’s rising class of business entrepreneurs

1. By 1876, the Democrats had regained control of all the southern states but SC, FL, and LA

–     Used economic pressure, intimidation, and violence

2. Once in power the Democrats:

–     Cut taxes and public works and services

–     passed laws favoring landlords over tenants

3. Some blacks responded to the deteriorating situation by migrating from the South

–     Most were trapped where they were

•      Debt and poverty

The Election of 1876

1. Republicans=Rutherford Hayes
2. Democrats=Samuel Tilden
3. Tilden won the popular vote

–     But because of fraud and intimidation at the polls, the electoral votes in 4 states were disputed

4. A special congressional electoral commission awarded all the disputed votes to Hayes

–     Commission was stacked in favor of the Republicans

5. The Democrats refused to accept the finding until a compromise deal was worked out by Southern Democrats and Republican supporters of Hayes
6. In exchange for southern acceptance of Hayes as president, the Republicans promised:

–     1.) to let Democrats take over the last Republican Reconstruction govts. in LA and SC

–     2.) to remove the remaining troops from the South

–     3.) to give more federal patronage to southern Democrats

–     4.) to provide federal aid for building railroads and for other internal improvements in the South

7. This so-called Compromise of 1877 struck the final blow to Radical Reconstruction

–     Also it ended all federal protection for the freedmen

Conclusion

1. By the end of the Reconstruction era the Republicans had firm support in the Northeast and Midwest
2. The Democrats were solidly entrenched in the South

–     Would remain so for nearly a century

3. Many historians today look back on Reconstruction as a democratic experiment that failed

–     Partly because Congress did not redistribute land to freedmen

•      without any property freedmen were too economically vulnerable to hold on to their political rights

4. Also, it failed because the Republicans were unwilling to continue using military force to protect blacks and remake southern society
5. Reconstruction did leave as a lasting legacy of the 14th and 15th Amendments
6. During the brief Reconstruction Era, southern blacks:

–     reunited their families

–     created their own institutions

–     for the first time participated in govt.