APUSH Assignment for
Wednesday, 11/28 and Thursday,
11/29:
Take Slide Summary Notes
over this PowerPoint to p.
85-86 ISN. For each slide,
write a 1-2 sentence
summary.
Reconstruction and Redemption
1863-1877
“A splendid failure…”
What Did the End of the War Mean?
For the South: A Tale of Ruin
•
Economic Devastation – destruction
of labor force, end of plantation
system, small amount of
infrastructure ruined, extreme
poverty, hyperinflation, worthless
currency, source of wealth (slaves)
erased, land values plummeted
• Social Changes – destruction of
planter aristocracy, 1/5 of all white
males dead
• White Desires – reimplementation of
slave, gang labor/wage labor with
blacks in fields, removal of federal
troops and northern encroachment
in labor contracts and regulations
Charleston, South Carolina (1865)
For the North: A Tale of Two
Stories
• Economic Opportunity – rebuild the South
with northern free labor ideology, invest in
southern infrastructure (especially RR) and
help the South industrialize, “carpetbagging”
• Social Opportunity – educate southern blacks
through the Benevolent Society
and its reform organizations,
especially school teachers; bring
South into 19th century with
abolition and more egalitarian
society
For African-Americans: A Fresh
Start
• Social Changes – freedom,
demanded to be Mr. and Mrs.,
married, migration to West,
clothing upgrades, autonomous
churches (Baptist), prioritizing
education (pooling $ to learn in
basements)
• Political Wants – should be able
to vote, testify in court, serve in
government
• Economic Desires – till own land, remove women
and children from fields, subsistence farming only,
become own masters
Presidential Reconstruction vs.
Congressional Reconstruction
Lincoln
Johnson
vs.
vs.
Thaddeus Stevens
(H.o.R.), Charles
Sumner (Senate),
and Company in
Congress
Lincoln’s (the Great Emancipator)
Plan
• 1863 Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction (wanted to re-establish
southern loyalty, bring confed. states
back into Union, end war quickly): 10%
plan of full pardons and restored rights
for all southerners willing to take oath
to the U.S. (Confed. officers, high
rankers excluded); abolition must be
accepted before re-admission, which
was decided on by Congress; no terms
for black codes, social equality,
economic aid, or franchise for blacks
Johnson’s (the Great Turncoat?)
Plan
• AJ’s Proc. of Amnesty and
Reconstruction (1865):
delivered with Congress out
of session during the
summer; pardoned
southerners except those
with $20K+ in property,
Confed. officers, high-rankers (they could apply for personal
amnesty though, which most did and received); once oaths taken
and former slaveholders pardoned, states could convene to write a
new constitution and send it to AJ for approval
Radical Republicans’ (the Return of
the Cane [Sumner, Stevens]) Plan
• Wanted South to slowly integrate
back into Union, blacks to have the
vote so they could take care of
selves w/o Republican involvement
and form political base, blacks to
gain more basic rights, and South to
accept abolition
• Reconstruction Act (1867): South must accept 14th & 15th Amend.
before readmission, until then 5 military governors would rule 5
districts to enforce black vote and equality; all orders from the
Pres. to army went through General Grant (supported radical
recon.); 50% loyalty oath (Confed. officers barred from office and
vote); still no land or educational guarantees [moderate Repub.
not in favor])
Radical Republicans Contd. (Yeah, they
had plans)
• 13th (1865), 14th (1868), and 15th (1870) Amend. – abolition of
slavery; all citizens of U.S. put under equal protection clause
w/due process, representation in gov’t based on male suffrage, no
Confed. officers in U.S. office w/o 2/3 Congressional approval,
Confed. debt repudiated; no disenfranchisement based on race,
gender, etc. respectively
• Freedmen’s Bureau (1866) – est. Mar. 1865 as temporary agency
to assist transition for freedmen and white refugees; distributed
clothing, food, and fuel; hoped to rent out confiscated land to
freedman and show South power of northern free labor
• Civil Rights Act (1866) – precursor to 14th Amend.; gave all persons
born in U.S. citizenship with full set of civil rights (suing, testifying,
due process, equal punishment); no guarantee against personal
discrimination, but freedmen did have a better chance in society
Consequences and Effects of Each Plan
Lincoln’s Legacy
• Failed 1863 Proc. – no way to establish loyalty
of Confeds. during war
• Introduction of Wade-Davis Bill (1864) –
Congress’ attempt at establishing true loyalty;
50% of 1860 voters must take Iron-Clad Oath
before re-admission of a state (military
governor would rule before that); state’s new
constitution must abolish slavery, bar Confed.
officers from office and vote, and repudiate
Confed. debt (again, no terms for black
franchise)
– Never passed, vetoed by Lincoln, but showed
northern Congressional contempt for South,
precursor to 1867 Reconstruction Act
Johnson’s Legacy
• Southern Response - Black codes
(prevented black land ownership,
truancy/idle laws, migration passes,
blacks held to labor contracts for
fieldwork, cannot sit on juries) &
reclamation of land w/pardons
• Congress Perturbed- Joint Committee on Reconstruction vs. AJ’s
“Reconstructed South” in Dec. 1865; former invalidated the latter as newly
elected southern reps. barred from Congress in Dec. 1865 while Northern
Congress deliberated
• Congress in Arms - Tenure of Office Act, 1867 (Pres. cannot remove Senateapproved officials w/o Senate approval), multiple overridden vetoes (Civil
Rights Act, Freedman’s Bureau, Tenure of Office Act)
• Congress in Battle - Impeachment trial for “high crimes and misdemeanors”
in Feb. 1868 (avoided by one vote) for firing of Sec. of War Stanton
Radical Republicans’ Legacy
• Oliver O. Howard’s Freedmen’s Bureau –
set up labor contracts for schools and
fieldwork for former masters,
underfunded and understaffed, corrupt,
naïve, did provide valuable services for
communities as best they could (200K
blacks taught to read), expired 1872
• Radical Reconstruction of South – new
state constitutions helped elect blacks
into political bodies, tax system
introduced to finance public schools,
infrastructure improvements, & public
works
• The Big 3 Amendments – provided protection for blacks until
Redemption (1877)
The Glorious (or not) End – 1877
• Ku Klux Klan (KKK) – formed in 1866 by southern elites (merchants,
lawyers, former planters) to intimidate southern Republicans and
blacks; Force Acts and KKK Act (1870, 1) passed to allow Grant to
quash KKK with force and use D.A. to prosecute individuals; all
efforts were too late as both Reps. & blacks kept from voting
• Election of 1876 – Rep. Hayes vs. Dem. Tilden; Tilden won electoral
and popular vote, but Reps. charged South w/corrupt voting
practices, so a commission formed to decide election; Hayes won
w/concessions (pulling out of all federal troops from South,
patronage for southern politicians, South decides on enforcement
of new Amendments and regulations)
– Redemption – W/O federal troops, South gradually reclaimed old power
structures w/implementation of black codes and Jim Crow laws to
economically and socially oppress blacks; grandfather clauses, poll taxes,
and literacy tests implemented to disenfranchise blacks as well; phasing out
of black congressmen and senators (after 1901, no blacks served in
Congress for the next 28 years, and none represented any southern state
for the next 78 years); South was “redeemed”
Legacies of Reconstruction
• The impoverishment and
underdevelopment of the South
until the 1950s (crop liens, cotton
lock, debt peonage, tenant farming
and sharecropping)
• Better education for blacks (public
schools, increased literacy rates),
more autonomous black institutions (Black Members of the 41st and 42nd
Congress, Hiram Revels [MS]
(Baptist over AME churches), own
included)
reform orgs. (e.g. Union League –
pol. awareness club)
• 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments (at least in place, if not enforced)
• Black congressional representation ( 14 H.o.R. and 2 senators from
1868-1876)