Lecture Objective
• Understand the impact Reconstruction
policies had on former slaves and blacks.
• Understand the impact the death of slavery
had on the south.
• Understand the failures and successes of
Reconstruction policies.
Decorating the Graves of Rebel Soldiers,
Harper’s Weekly (Aug. 17, 1867)
Honoring Fallen Soldiers
I) Southern and Northern
women took part in the
memorial movement.
Hollywood Memorial
Cemetery, Richmond
The Defeated South
I) The south devastated
a) Land damaged in Tennessee, Georgia, S.
Carolina
b) Towns and cities in ruins.
II) Social impact
a) Slaves no longer a sign of wealth.
African American family by Timothy
O’Sullivan 1862 (Beaufort, S. Carolina)
Lincoln’s Plans
I) Requirements for reconstruction.
a) States had to apply for a pardon.
b) Property return to southerners.
c) South had to abolish slavery.
Special Field Order 15 (Jan.
1865)
I) Why issued by William T. Sherman?
II) Parts of coastal Georgia and S. Carolina
were given to former slaves.
a) 40 acres and a loan of mules
III) 40,000 settled in 400,000 acres.
Freedmen’s Bureau (March
1865)
I) The Freedmen’s Bureau provided food,
clothing, fuel, and supervised abandoned
land.
a) Legal assistance to blacks.
b) Helped fund schools.
Office of Freedmen’s Bureau, Memphis,
Tennessee, Harper’s Weekly, June 2,
1866
Andrew Johnson and
Reconstruction (1865-67)
I) Pardon southern states.
b) Southern states took oath of allegiance.
II) Tensions between the Republican party.
The Radical Republican Vision
I) Supported free labor
II) Universal education for whites and blacks.
II) Equal rights for African-Americans.
Civil Rights Bill (1866)
I) Granted full citizenship to blacks.
a) Johnson attempted to vetoed.
II) Republicans and Congress pushed for the
14th Amendment.
I) In June 1866,14th Amendment ratified.
a) Prohibited states from depriving U.S.
citizens of life, liberty, or property.
Congressional Reconstruction
(1867-1870)
I) Republicans issued admission requirements.
a) The South had to guarantee African American
voting rights.
b) Ratified the 13th and 14th Amend.
1) By 1868, seven states had entered the Union.
KKK threat to Louisiana
governor, Henry C. Warmoth
th
15
Amendment
I) The 15th Amendment passed on February of
1869.
a) Suffrage could not be denied based on:
color, race, and previous servitude.
II) Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, and Virginia
ratified the 14th and 15th amendments.
th
15
Amendment illustration
Susan B. Anthony
and Elizabeth
Cady Stanton
I) The American
Woman Suffrage
Association
II) The National
Woman Suffrage
Association
Former Slaves and Freedom
I) Former slaves tested their freedom.
a) Former slaves on the move
1) Moved to nearby cities or towns.
2) Moved away to look for jobs.
3) Left white communities.
Freedom and its Social Impact
I) Former slaves refused to:
a) Tip their hats
b) Step aside for whites.
c) Reunite with long lost loved ones.
1) Placed ads. in newspapers
2) Freedman’s Bureau helped
3)Questioned people
Freedom and the African
American Family
I) By 1870 the two parent household was
common.
II) Former slave men were now heads of
households.
African-American Churches
I) Very important to the community.
a) Religious, political and community centers.
II) Community constructed churches
a) Ministers highly respected.
Richmond’s First African Baptist
Church
Schools
I) 3,000 schools supervised by the Freedmen’s
Bureau.
a) Served over 150,000 students
II) African American teachers
III) Black colleges/universities established
Labor after Emancipation
I) Sharecropping, labor system in the south.
a) Consisted of detailed agreements.
b) Credit and tools advancements for a share
of the crop.
African-Americans and Politics
I) In 1865 black demand civil equality.
II) 735,000 black men registered
a) Men voted Republican
Reconstruction Failures
I) Schools segregated
II) Problems with land:
a) No capital to expand
b) No land distribution
Other Measures
I) Civil Rights Act of 1875, no racial
discrimination
II) II) The Ku Klux Klan Act passed on April
1871.
a) Federal crime a violent interference with
the civil and political rights of blacks.
White Redemption
I) Republican support faded
II) By 1874, Democrats a majority in the
House.
Republican Shift
I) Focus on railroad construction, why?
a) To industrialize the South
II) Problems
a) Political corruption
Reconstruction Ends
I) Republicans focus shifted
II) Enough had been done
III) Election crisis of 1876: Tilden (Democrat)
and Hayes (Republican)
a) The Compromise of 1877:
1) Presidency to Hayes
2) No interference in south