Reconstruction, 1865-1877
Reconstruction Issues
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Closure: when is the Civil War period over?
Fate of defeated Confederates
Fate of former slaves
How to integrate Confederate states back into the
U.S.
• Role of federal gov’t vs. state gov’t
• Role of gov’t in racial issues
• Race and American society, especially politics
Reconstruction and Race Relations
• 1865-6 – radical potential
–Early achievements for racial equality
–Not seen again until 1960’s [!]
• 1877 – conservative outcomes
–South not much different than in 1860
Reconstruction – Key Players
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Radical Republicans
Northern (white) moderates
Southern Democrats
Ku Klux Klan
African Americans
Presidents – Andrew Johnson, U.S. Grant
Congress
Radical Republican approach
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Punish Confederates for treason
Guarantee civil rights for former slaves
Extensive reform in Southern states’ laws
Support Republican Party’s power in South
Sincere about racial equality AND used racial
equality for political benefit
– The more Confederates disqualified, the more
Republicans benefit
– The more freed slaves vote, the more votes
Republicans get
Southern Democrat approach
• Resist federal involvement in Southern states
• Lightest punishment possible for former
Confederates
• Return to 1860 as much as possible
• Limit African American rights, participation
• Democratic Party embraced white supremacy as
an official doctrine
– KKK became unofficial terrorist arm of the Democratic
Party
Republican/Federal Retreat from
Reconstruction
• Most N. whites w/ little sympathy for racial
equality
– Blacks disfranchised in North and West as well
– Even in the 1866 Civil Rights Act:
• States punished for disfranchising voters
• Punishment proportional to % of voters
• Small black population in state: little penalty
• Large black population: big penalty
In 1866, easier to restrict Afr. Am. voting in
North than South [!]
Republican/Federal Retreat from
Reconstruction
• Grant’s presidency, 1869-77
– Honest man w/ corrupt executive branch
– N. distaste for military occupation of South
– Anti-KKK operations
• 1872 open, fair election in South
• Most open and fair until 1960’s
– 1873 recession
• 14% unemployment
• Many blame Reconstruction and Republicans
Compromise of 1877
Peaceful, statesmanlike transfer of power?
Corruption of the democratic process?
• 1876 election for President, very close
– Hayes – Northern Republican
– Tilden – Southern Democrat
– Disputed ballots in 3 states, including Florida
• Both campaigns work out a deal
• In a Washington, DC hotel owned by an African
American
• Hayes becomes president – Republicans benefit
• Hayes promises to end Reconstruction – So.
Democrats benefit
Sharecropping
• Pay debts with a portion of harvest
• Common among former slaves
– Almost all left slavery w/o any property
– Had only farm skills to offer
– Many poor whites in similar situation
• Economically, a lot in common
• Politically divided along racial lines
Sharecropping
• Often creates a cycle of debt
– Hard to earn economic independence
– Debts first, then food
– Landowner w/ legal and economic leverage
– Lenders demand cash crops = cotton
• Cotton prices stagnant or in decline
• Meanwhile, farm costs increasing
• International market fluctuations
Sharecropping
• Combined with “Black Codes”:
– Restrict jobs available to former slaves
– Vagrancy laws
– Harsh punishment: forced labor
• 13th Amendment allows bondage as punishment
• Result:
– African Americans in South often in same place
– Few opportunities besides farm labor
– Former slaveowners  landlords
– Confederacy wins the Civil War after all?
Racial Segregation
• “Jim Crow” laws
– Named for a minstrel (blackface) character
– Public spaces segregated by race
• Education, transportation, cemeteries, etc.
• Temporal segregation – Memphis zoo
– Enforced by police, courts, and vigilantes
• White-only juries, judges, and mobs
– Combined w/ voting restrictions
– More extensive and more overt in the South,
but existed across the entire U.S.
Racial Segregation
• “Jim Crow” laws
– Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896, U.S. Supreme Court
• Can be separate as long as equal
– Increased over late 19th C
• South more segregated than under slavery [!]
• Nationwide increase
– Ebbs and flows
• Increases in response to civil rights movement
• Major League Baseball integrated, then segregated,
then integrated again
–Jackie Robinson NOT the first
Thomas
Nast,
“Worse
than
Slavery”
Thomas Nast, “This is a White Man’s Government,” 1868
“The Chinese
Question,” 1871
The “Confederate Flag”
First “National” Flag of the CSA
Battle Flag of the Army of Northern
Virginia
Second “National” Flag of the CSA
• Virginia battle flag not a central symbol until
Reconstruction
– “The Confederate Flag” after the fact
– Becomes symbol of opposition to
Reconstruction; the “lost cause”
– More common 100 years AFTER the Civil War
– Popularity in response to civil rights
movements in 20th century
– First appeared over S. Carolina capitol:
1961