The Crisis of Reconstruction,
1865-1877
Chapter 16
Results of the Civil War:
1. Over 620,000 men died
2. The South’s economy was destroyed
3. What about status of 3.5 million former slaves?
Reconstruction:
The process of putting the
nation back together after
the Civil War (1865-1877)
The re-building of the Union
(and the South in particular)
13th Amendment (1865)
• “Neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude,
except as a punishment
for a crime whereof the
party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist
within the United States,
or any place subject to
their jurisdiction.”
• Prohibited slavery.
Reconstruction (1865-1877)
• When the North won the Civil War in 1865, the era of
Reconstruction began
Should the president, as
What
branch
Quickly,
to show
Americans
that
How
should
the
“Old
South”
basedShould
onin
cotton
commander-in-chief,
be
charge?
freed
blacks
be given
the
they are
willing
to forgive?
of
government
North
bring
farming
with the
blacks as workers?
right
to vote?
Should Congress be in charge
is inthe
charge
of
South back into
Slowly,
to
make
sure
South
“New
South”
textile
How do
factories
you protect
blacks against
because
the with
Constitution
gives
it
Reconstruction?
the
doesn’t
try to secede
again?
& railroads
with paid
racists
labor?
whites
in the South?
power
toUnion?
let territories
in
as states?
How should the
North rebuild
the South after
its destruction
during the war?
How should the
North integrate
and protect
newly-emancipated
black freedmen?
Lincoln’s Plan (1863)
VERY lenient…
1. 10% of Confederate voters in southern states must:
a) Accept emancipation
b) Swear loyalty to the Union
2. High ranking Confederate officials could not vote
Congress
rejected
Lincoln’s
plan:
or hold office
unless
pardoned
by the President
Radical Republicans wanted black male
suffrage
added & were
feared
that
Confederate
 Once
these conditions
met,
a state
could
leaders
return
to the would
Union take charge in the South
Opposition to Lincoln’s Plan
Wade-Davis Bill:
▫ In 1864, Congress wrote its own plan:
By the end of the Civil War, the
 50%government
of state populations had
to swear
U.S.
had
no plan for
an oath of loyalty
Reconstruction
in
place
 Confederate leaders were not eligible to
vote or participate in state governments
 Did not require black suffrage but did
enforce emancipation
This problem was compounded in
1865
when
was assassinated
• Lincoln killed
the bill
usingLincoln
a
pocket veto (it passed in the last 10
days of the legislative session)
Lincoln’s
Assassination
• April 14, 1865 by
John Wilkes Booth
• Watching the play,
“Our American
Cousin,” at Ford’s
Theater in
Washington, DC
After Lincoln’s Death, 3 Men:
• Thaddeus Stevens
• Charles Sumner
• Andrew Johnson
Radical Republicans
Stevens
Sumner
Radical Republicans:
1.
Members of the
Republican Party who
wanted to:
•
Punish the south for
causing the Civil War
•
Fought to protect the
rights of former slaves
Thaddeus Stevens (Radical Republican)
• Member of the House of Reps
• Goal: economic opportunity
for former slaves
Charles Sumner (Radical Republican)
• Member of US Senate
• Goal: citizenship/political
rights for former slaves
Charles Sumner vs. Preston Brooks (1857)
Andrew Johnson
• Former Senator from TN,
became Lincoln’s VP
• A Democrat;
Reconstruction plan
similar to Lincoln’s
• Issued 13,000 pardons
• Unconcerned with rights
of former slaves
• Impeached in 1868
Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan:
1. Appointed provisional state governors to lead
state constitutional conventions
2. States must declare secession illegal & ratify
the 13th Amend’t
•
Southern conventions reluctantly obeyed
Johnson’s Reconstruction policy but passed
Black Codes
The Freedman’s Bureau
• The Freedman’s Bureau was established in 1865
to offer assistance to former slaves & protect
their new citizenship:
▫ Provided emergency food, housing, medical
supplies
▫ Promised “40 acres & a mule”
▫ Supervised labor contracts
▫ Created new schools
Freedmen’s Bureau Seen Through
Southern Eyes
“Plenty to eat & nothing to do”
Freedmen’s Bureau School
Many former
abolitionists moved
South to help freedmen,
called “carpetbaggers”
by Southern Democrats
Congressional Reconstruction
•
•
Following Johnson’s impeachment, Congress
controlled reconstruction.
Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts
(1867-68):
1. The former Confederate States were
militarily occupied by US troops
2. States could re-enter the Union once they
ratified the 14th Amendment
Map 16.1: The Reconstruction of the South
The 14th Amendment
• In 1866, Congress voted to extend
the Freedmen’s Bureau & passed
a Civil Rights Bill to protect
against Black Codes
• Johnson vetoed both bills,
arguing that they violated states’
rights
• Congress overrode both vetoes
(for the 1st time in U.S. history!)
14th Amendment (1868)
1.
All persons born the US
are citizens of the US
2. All citizens are
guaranteed equal
treatment under the
law
3. Punished states that
denied adult males the
right to vote
Johnson’s “Swing Around the Circle”
In the 1866 mid-term elections,
Johnson toured the South trying to
The
plan
back-fired
&
Republicans
won
a
convince voters to elect Congressmen
3-1
majority
boththe
houses
of Congress &
who
would in
reject
14th Amendment
gained control of every northern state
Radical Reconstruction
• Congress, led by Thaddeus
Stevens,
Thaddeus
Stevens the
trumped Johnson by
passing
it its of the
most
influential
own Radical Reconstruction
plan in He
“radical” Republicans;
1867:
opposed the Crittenden
▫ Congress could confiscate
&
Compromise,
led the
redistribute Southern
plantationscharges
impeachment
▫ Allowed quick re-entry
for states
against
Johnson, &
that supported black suffrage
drafted the Radical
▫ Ex-Confederates couldn’t vote
Reconstruction plan used
from 1867 to 1877
But, Radical
Reconstruction
so dependent
Created
5 military
districtswas
to enforce
acts
on massive & sustained federal aid that it was
not adequate to enforce equality in the South…
…and Johnson obstructed Republicans’
plans by removing sympathetic cabinet
members & generals
Impeachment and Removal of a President
1. Impeachment: to bring formal charges
against the President (Majority vote in the
House of Reps)
2. Trial/Removal: The President stands trial
(the Senate acts as jury; 2/3 majority vote is
needed for removal)
The Impeachment Crisis
Johnson argued that removal could only
• In Feb 1868, the House voted 126-47 to impeach
occurJohnson,
due
to “high
crimes
&
misdemeanors”
Some
Republicans
refused
establish
but the Senate fell 1 voteto
short
of
but
no “crime”
had
committed
the
precedent
of been
removing
a president
conviction
& removal
from
office
But…Johnson did promise to
enforce Reconstruction for the
remainder
his term…&
he Act
did!when
For violating
theofTenure
of Office
he tried to fire Sec of War Edwin Stanton
The Johnson Impeachment & Senate Trial
Johnson and Impeachment
• Johnson was impeached, but not removed from
office; he was ineffective following impeachment
Reconstructing Southern Society
• How did Reconstruction impact the South?
▫ Southern whites wanted to keep newly-freed
blacks inferior
▫ Freed blacks sought equality, property, education,
& the vote
▫ Many Northerners moved South to make money or
to "civilize" the region after the Civil War
Sharecropping: A New Slavery?
• The Civil War destroyed Southern land,
economy, & transportation
• Recovering meant finding a new labor system to
replace slavery:
▫ The South tried a contract-labor system but it was
ineffective
▫ Sharecropping “solved” the problem; black farmers
worked on white planters’ land, but had to pay ¼
or ½ of their crops
Problem:
families accumulated debt to the
Sharecropping
landowner before their crop was sold;
This cyclical process led to mortgages on
future crops (crop lien system)
By the end of 1865, most freedmen had
returned to work on the same plantations on
which they were previously enslaved
Black Codes: A New Slavery?
• Violence & discrimination against freedmen by
whites was common:
▫ Southerners used black codes to keep former
slaves from voting, getting jobs, buying land
▫ 1,000s of blacks were murdered
▫ U.S. army did not have enough troops to keep
order in the South
Republican Rule in the South
• In 1867, a Southern Republican Party was
formed by:
▫ Northern “carpetbaggers”
▫ Southern “scalawags” interested in making money
Southern
in the
South Republicans were only in
powerwhite
for farmers
1-9 years
improved
public
▫ Small,
whobut
wanted
protection
from
creditors
education, welfare, & transportation
▫ Blacks who wanted civil rights
•
Many Southern blacks were elected to state &
national gov’t
Black House & Senate Delegates
Black & White Political Participation
“Colored Rule in
a Reconstructed
South”
Black
Republicans
were accused of
corruption &
lack of civility
Civil War & Reconstruction Review
• Examine “Reconstruction Plans…” & identify the
major components of each section of the chart;
Be prepared to discuss your answers to the
discussion questions.
Gaining Rights for Blacks
• In 1870, the 15th Amendment
gave all men the right to vote
regardless of “race, color, or
previous condition of
servitude”
• Freedmen fought for civil
rights:
▫ Legalized marriage
▫ Used courts to assert claims
against whites & other blacks
Women’s
rights
▫ Saw education
as their
1st groups were furious
that they
were not granted the vote!
opportunity
to become
literate
Reconstruction in the
Grant Administration
(1869-1877)
Arkansas
Tennessee
Louisiana
Alabama
The
Election ofSouth
1868Carolina
Florida
North
Carolina
Georgia
• In 1867, Thaddeus Stevens’ Radical
Reconstruction plan was in place & a
southern Republican party hoped to build
a New South
• By 1868, 8 of the 11 former Confederate
states were accepted back into the Union
after creating state constitutions &
ratifying the 14th Amendment
Re-Admission of the South
The Election of 1868
• But, the U.S. had lots of problems:
▫ Excessive printing of greenbacks during the Civil
War led to high inflation which hurt both the
Northern & Southern economies
▫ Southern “Redeemers” & secret societies tried to
undermine Congressional attempts to reconstruct
the South
Democrats refused to re-nominate Johnson
The &
1868
Presidential
chose
NY governor Election
Horatio Seymour
Republicans nominated Civil War hero
Ulysses S. Grant who had the support of
Republicans in the North & South as well as
Southern freedmen who voted for the 1st time
In the election of 1868, both parties “waved the bloody
shirt” to remind voters why the Civil War was fought
Republican goal:
Keep ex-Confederate
leaders from restoring
the “Old South”
Southern Democratic
Strategy
Keeping freed blacks
inferior was the most
important goal of
Southern Democrats
Southern Republican
Strategy
Deflations hurt indebted farmers the most
Grant’s
Reconstruction
Plan
In National
1876, the Greenback
Party was
formed
to support
keepinghe“soft” money
• When
Grant
was elected,
supported:
…but
not enough
widespread
▫ Shifting
backtotoencourage
gold (“sound”
or
resentment
among thetoSouthern
“hard” money)
deflate population
American
currency
▫ Using a limited number of U.S. soldiers
in the South to enforce Reconstruction
efforts
Enough
troops should be sent to work with state militias
to protect blacks’ rights, reduce violence, & support
▫ Civil rights
forSouthern
freed state
blacks
Republican
leaders in
governments…
Grant’s National Reconstruction Plan
• Republicans sought equal protection for blacks;
ratified the 15th Amendment in 1870:
▫ Prohibited any state from denying men the right
to vote due to race
▫ But…the amendment said nothing about literacy
tests, poll taxes, & property qualifications
A Reign of Terror Against Blacks
• From 1868 to 1872, southern Republicans were
threatened by secret societies like Ku Klux Klan
▫ Hoped to restore the “Old South”
▫ Sought to restrict black voting
▫ Oppose Republican state gov’ts
• The KKK was successful in its terror campaigns,
helping turn GA, NC, & TN to the Democratic
Party
The “Invisible Empire of the South”
“Of course he wants to vote for
the Democratic ticket”
The Failure of Federal Enforcement
A Reign of Terror Against Blacks
• In 1870, Congress passed the Force Acts (the
“KKK Acts”):
▫ Made interference in elections a federal crime
▫ Gave the president the military power to protect
polling places
▫ Allowed for high black turnout & Republicans
victories in 1872
▫ “Redeemer” Democrats openly appealed to white
supremacy & laissez-faire government
A Reign of Terror Against Blacks
• The KKK responded by becoming more open
with its terror tactics:
▫ Northerners grew impatient with federal
Reconstruction efforts & “corrupt” Southern state
gov’ts
▫ Grant began to refuse to use military force against
KKK terrorist attacks
• By 1876, only SC, FL, & LA were controlled by
Republicans
The 1875 Civil Rights Act
In the Slaughterhouse Cases (1873), the court
th Amendment
•ruled
Congress
Civil Rights Act
of 1875 to
thatpassed
the 14the
protects
only
protect freedmen:
national
citizenship rights & does not protect
▫ Outlawedfrom
racialdiscrimination
discrimination in public
&
citizens
by theplaces
states
in jury selection
• But the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional
& weakened the 14th & 15th Amendments,
leaving southern blacks defenseless against
discrimination
In U.S. v Reese (1876) & U.S. v Cruikshank
(1876), the court weakened the KKK Act by
stating that the 14th Amendment does not
protect against actions by individuals
Corruption in Grant’s
Administration
Corruption in Grant’s Administration
• The Republicans experienced rampant
corruption during Grant’s 1st term as president:
▫ Grant’s Secretary of War was impeached &
Attorney General resigned due to corruption
▫ Grant’s VP & others were ruined by the Crédit
Mobilier scandal involving railroad stock in
exchange for political favors
These scandals distracted Americans
from Reconstruction efforts
The Election of 1872
• Corruption scandals & the failure of
Reconstruction in the South led to a split among
Republicans:
▫ Liberal Republicans were tired of the Grant
scandals & believed in reconciling with the South,
not military intervention
▫ In 1872, Liberal Republicans ran Horace Greeley
against Grant
Republicans
suppressed
the
KKK
in
time
for
1872
Presidential
Election
the election; Southern blacks enjoyed a voting
freedom they would not see again for a century
Grant was the only consecutive, 2-term
president from Jackson to Teddy Roosevelt,
but is commonly regarded as a failure
½ the nation’s RRs defaulted Over 100 banks
collapsed
18,000 businesses closed
Unemployment
Grant’s Second
Term reached 15%
• Grant s 2nd term was plagued by economic
depression & corruption
▫ Panic of 1873 was the longest depression (until
1929); many blamed large corporations & begged
Grant to create jobs
▫ Whiskey Ring—Grant’s personal secretary was
caught embezzling whiskey taxes
The Grant administration did not see job
creation or relief for the poor as its duties
Essential Question:
▫ What events from 1868 to 1876 led to the
abandonment of federal reconstruction attempts
in the South by 1877?
The New South &
the Rise of Jim Crow
Rutherford B. Hayes Video
The Compromise of 1877
• In 1876,
A filibuster
is Republicans ran Rutherford B. Hayes
againsttoDemocrat reformer Samuel Tilden
an attempt
extend debate
upon
a
▫ Election
results were disputed in three Southern
proposal in
order tostates
delay
or prevent a
vote▫ on
its
A special
commission gave the disputed votes to
passage
Hayes, but Democrats in Congress blocked this
decision by filibuster
1876 Presidential Election
1876 Election
•
A commission was established to determine
winner:
Compromise of 1877:
1. Hayes became President
2. Military occupation of the South ended
1. The rights of former slaves were not protected
A Political Crisis:
The Compromise of 1877
The “Second Corrupt Bargain”
President Rutherfraud B. Hayes
The Rise of Jim Crow
• From 1877 to 1910, “Redeemer” Democrats
imposed restrictions called Jim Crow Laws to
limit the civil rights of African Americans
▫ 187 blacks were lynched yearly
▫ A convict-lease
systemwere
& prison
farms
resembled
“Black
codes”
laws
passed
from
slavery
1865 laws
to 1877
keep freed
slaves
▫ Segregation
led toto
separate
railroads,
from
gaining
rights & voting
streetcars,
& public
facilities
“Jim Crow laws” were passed after
Reconstruction ended to obstruct rights given to
black Americans in the 14th & 15th Amendments
Conclusion:
The “Unfinished
Revolution”
The “Unfinished Revolution”
• Reconstruction lasted only 12 years from 1865 to
1877:
▫ Reconciliation between the North & South
occurred only after Reconstruction ended
▫ By the late 1880s, “reunion” was becoming a
reality but at the expense of the blacks’ rights
• Reconstruction remained an “unfinished
revolution”
How effective was the U.S. in addressing
these Reconstruction questions?
1. How did the
federal gov’t
bring the South
back into the
Union?
2. Was the
South
transformed
into a
“New South”?
4. What branch
of gov’t took
control of
Reconstruction?
3. How were
newlyemancipated
black freedmen
protected?
How effective was the U.S. in addressing
these Reconstruction questions?
Should the president, as
What
branch
Quickly,
to show
Americans
that
How
should
the
“Old
South”
basedShould
onin
cotton
commander-in-chief,
be
charge?
freed
blacks
be given
the
they are
willing
to forgive?
of
government
North
bring
farming
with the
blacks as workers?
right
to vote?
Should Congress be in charge
is inthe
charge
of
South back into
Slowly,
to
make
sure
South
“New
South”
textile
How do
factories
you protect
blacks against
because
the with
Constitution
gives
it
Reconstruction?
the
doesn’t
try to secede
again?
& railroads
with paid
racists
labor?
whites
in the South?
power
toUnion?
let territories
in
as states?
How should the
North rebuild
the South after
its destruction
during the war?
How should the
North integrate
and protect
newly-emancipated
black freedmen?
Limits to Reconstruction
• The Civil War Amendments were a success
• H/e, there was no redistribution of land and most African
Americans lived as sharecroppers and faced little economic
opportunity
Reconstruction: EVALUATION
• Some argue it was a success because slavery was
abolished and African Americans were
guaranteed equal treatment
• Others say it was a failure because after 1877
those rights were only in place on paper; not in
reality.
• Your opinion: Was it a success or failure…?
Up From Slavery
The African-American Struggle for
Equality in the Post-Civil War Era
The Hard Reality of Emancipation
• After the Civil War ended and the 13th Amendment abolished
slavery (1865), freedmen found themselves without significant
resources to start a new life
• The Freedmen’s Bureau (est. 1865) provided direct relief,
education, jobs, and medical care in an effort to give freed slaves
an opportunity to adjust to their new lives
• Despite such efforts, many blacks ended up as tenant farmers
who engaged in sharecropping – which involved pledging a
share of their harvest as repayment to landowners who leased
the land; debt peonage often resulted as black farmers went into
debt as a result of not being able to cover costs and debt owed to
creditors
The Failure of Radical Reconstruction
The Radical Republican attempt to re-engineer Southern society
and politics (1865-77) failed due to:
1.
terrorism - as practiced by the Ku Klux Klan and other white
supremacist groups; violence and intimidation kept reformers
from carrying out Radical policies
2.
redemption – Southern Democrats regained control of their
state governments as a result of the Compromise of 1877,
which (after the disputed election of 1876) gave Republican
candidate Hayes the White House in exchange for a
Republican pledge to withdraw the last federal troops from
the South and end Reconstruction
3.
“Jim Crow” laws created institutionalized segregation through
such measures as poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather
clauses – effectively disenfranchised blacks despite rights
provided in the 14th and 15th Amendments
Thomas
Nast’s
View of
the PostWar South
The Supreme Court Limits Rights
• Ex parte Milligan (1866) – the Court ruled that military courts could
not try civilians where civil courts were functioning – limited ability of
the federal government to prosecute Southern whites who violated the
law
• Slaughterhouse cases (1873) – the Court created the concept of “dual
citizenship” – the idea that the 14th Amendment only guaranteed
national civil rights, not state civil rights; effectively limited the scope
of 14th Amendment due process protections
• Civil Rights cases (1883) – the Court further weakened the 14th
Amendment by declaring that it protected only against government
infringement of rights, not private infringement (i.e., private
businesses could still discriminate against blacks)
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – ruled segregation legal as long as facilities
were “separate but equal” – not overturned until Brown v. Board of
Education in 1954
Two Views
of Progress
• Booker T. Washington, a
former slave and the founder of
Tuskegee Institute, argued that
blacks would only gain
acceptance by white society
through education and hard
work; patterned after his own
life experience
• Equality must first come on
socio-economic terms and
political equality would follow; a
popular approach with white
Americans
• W.E.B. DuBois, a northern
intellectual, argued that blacks
must achieve political equality
first before socio-economic
equality would be fully achieved
• His approach was widely
adopted by civil rights leaders in
the 1950s/1960s
• DuBois helped to lead the
Niagara movement and founded
the NAACP