369 AP US HISTORY
AMERICA: PAST AND PRESENT
EIGHTH EDITION
CHAPTER 16: THE AGONY OF RECONSTRUCTION
LEARNING TARGETS
1. Contrast the presidential and congressional wartime reconstruction programs
2. Explain how Andrew Johnson’s background shaped has attitudes and policies on
Reconstruction
3. Describe the processes by which Andrew Johnson lost support in Congress, and the
Radical Republicans gained control of Reconstruction
4. Summarize the goals of Radical Reconstruction and evaluate the success with to
which these goals were achieved
5. Define the sections of the Fourteenth Amendment and understand why its
enforcement was crucial to Reconstruction efforts.
6. Describe the Radicals’ attempt to remove President Johnson from office and its
longer term impact on politics
7. Define the southern systems of contract labor and sharecropping with emphasis on
their effects upon African Americans
8. Evaluate Grant’s handling of the major problems of his administration: the money
question, enforcement of Reconstruction and governmental corruption
9. Identify the social and economic adjustments in the South during the Reconstruction
years
10. Evaluate the achievements and list reasons for the ultimate failure of the southern
Republican governments
11. Summarize the worst of the scandals that rocked the Grant administration
12. Explain the nature of the political crisis involving the election of 1876.
13. Discuss the terms and result of the “Compromise of 1877”
14. Describe the social and political effects of the “Redeemer” regimes in the New South
TERMS TO KNOW
Carpetbaggers (1865-1876)
Scalawags
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
Thirteenth Amendment (1865)
Black Codes (1865)
Freedmen’s Bureau (1865-69)
Fourteenth Amendment (1866)
Radical Reconstruction (1867)
Tenure of Office Act (1867)
Forty acres and a mule (1865)
CHAPTER 16 ID’S
Contract Labor System (1866)
Sharecropper (1867)
Civil Rights Act of 1866
“Jim Crow” Laws (late 1860s)
Fifteenth Amendment (1869)
Ku Klux Klan / Night riders (1866)
“Force Acts” (1870-71)
Election of 1876
Compromise of 1877
Waving the Bloody Shirt”(1876)
Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)
1865-1876
Carpetbaggers
Pgs. 462
After the Civil War, northerners who went south were called carpetbaggers because
of the carpetbags they often carried their belongings in. Some of the carpetbaggers were
frauds who’s purpose was to cheat the prostrate South. Most of the migrators just wanted
to make some money. Many of them bought plantations and tried growing cotton. Most of
these people moved back North because of poor crops and a depressed market. A few
carpetbaggers stayed in the South and went after careers in politics. They were very often
proponents of equality of opportunity for the newly freed slaves.
1864
Wade-Davis Bill
Pg. 457
The Wade-Davis Bill was Congress’ plan for Reconstruction. After Lincoln put
forth his idea of the 10% governments, Congress passed this bill to combat what they
thought was a plan that was too lenient on the South. The bill required 50% of the voters
of each state to take an oath of loyalty to the Union. After the people took the oath, they
could vote for delegates to a constitutional convention. Finally, the federal courts were
given power to enforce emancipation. Lincoln pocket vetoed the bill.
1865
Thirteenth Amendment
pgs. 454-55
The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and all forms of forced servitude
except as sentence for a crime. Congress passed the amendment after Lincoln was
reelected.
1865
Black Codes
Pg. 455
After President Johnson’s reconstruction plan went into effect, many of the
constitutional conventions in the Southern states set up Black Codes. These codes limited
the freedom of blacks tremendously. Part of the Black Codes were vagrancy and
apprenticeship laws. These laws forced blacks to work and didn’t give them a choice of
employers. Also, in some states Black Codes set up another penal code for blacks. Radical
Republicans in Congress saw the Black Codes as slavery in a different form.
Freedmen’s Bureau
Pgs. 456
The Freedman’s Bureau was an organization set up by Congress to aid former
slaves by providing relief, education, legal help, and assistance in obtaining land or
employment. It was a temporary agency. Many of the carpetbaggers were members of the
Freedmen’s Bureau. In 1866 Johnson vetoed a bill for the extension of the Freedmen’s
Bureau. His veto angered even moderate Republicans and brought them one step closer to
impeachment.
1865-1869
1866
1867
Fourteenth Amendment
Pgs. 456-57
At the same time he vetoed the extension of the Freedmen’s Bureau, Johnson
vetoed a civil rights bill. Congress overrode the veto with a two-thirds majority. Although
the law passed, congress didn’t think that Johnson would enforce it. For that reason, they
passed the fourteenth amendment. The amendment said that it was the responsibility of the
federal government to protect equal rights under the law to all Americans. It defined
citizenship as extending to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. It said that
everybody had the right to due process of law.
Radical Reconstruction
Pgs. 457-58
Radical Reconstruction was the reconstruction plan Congress put into effect after
Johnson’s plan failed in 1867. The plan was actually a compromise between radical and
moderate Republicans. The First Reconstruction Act, passed over Johnson’s veto, put the
South under martial law for a sort time. It also said that any state could be readmitted to
the Union if it wrote a constitution providing black suffrage. Confederates who couldn’t
hold federal office couldn’t vote for delegates to the constitutional convention. Radical
Reconstruction was based on the premise that once blacks got suffrage, they would have
the power to defend themselves against the white majority.
1867
Tenure of Office Act
Pg.459
Johnson completely disagreed with the First Reconstruction Act. He did everything
in his power to see that it wasn’t carried out. In response to this, Congress passed laws to
try and limit Johnson’s power. One of these bills was the Tenure of Office Act. The act
said that the Senate had to approve the removal of any officeholder who originally had to
be approved by the Senate.
1865
Forty acres and a mule
Pg. 461
Forty acres and a mule were what ex-slaves were supposed to start with after the
Civil War. On his march to the ocean, General Sherman, issued an order that set aside the
islands and costal areas of Georgia and South Carolina for black ownership in forty acre
plots. He was trying to get rid of all the blacks that were following his army around. Later,
the Freedmen’s Bureau had control of all of the abandoned and confiscated land in the
South and they were authorized to give forty acre plots to black settlers. The black dream
was to have forty acres and a mule to work with. This didn’t come true because Johnson
pardoned most of the owners of the confiscated land so they got their land back. Ex-slaves
ended up sharecropping and being just like slaves all over again.
1866
Contract Labor System
Pg.461
The contract labor system was what most blacks originally worked under after the
Civil War. Under this system, workers committed themselves to a full year of work for
fixed wages. Planters often withheld wages until after the harvest. Also, since many
planters abused their workers and didn’t pay them enough, the Freedmen’s Bureau stepped
in to examine and enforce contracts. The problem was that the Freedmen’s Bureau
couldn’t agree on what to do.
1867
Sharecropper
Pg. 461
After the contract labor system, blacks became sharecroppers. They were given
small plots of land to work in return for a fixed share of the crop produced on it. The
freedmen were able to become sharecroppers because of a shortage of labor for the
planters. Sharecropping became another form of slavery because the sharecroppers had to
live in debt before their cotton was sold. The planters took advantage of this and tied
sharecroppers to one planter.
1866
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Pg. 462
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 nullified the Black Codes and guaranteed due process
of the law for freedmen. Johnson vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode the veto. The act
didn’t have much effect because the cities were segregated anyway.
late 1860’s
Jim Crow Laws
The Jim Crow Laws were laws set up by most southern states to separate blacks
from the rest of society.
1860’s
Black Accommodation
pg. 467
Black accommodations were what the Jim Crow laws set up. Blacks were given
special cars to ride in on trains, special rooms that they could occupy in hotels, tables to eat
at in restaurants, etc. Black accommodations were generally worse than white
accommodations and separated the blacks from the rest of the people.
1868
Government redemption of Civil War debts
Pgs. 466
During Reconstruction, one item that received a lot of attention was the issue of
money. During the war, both the North and the South had printed greenbacks in order to
cause inflation and jumpstart economies. After the war, all these paper bills were still
circulating around the country. There was a question as to whether to pay Civil War debts
back in specie or greenbacks. Eventually, Congress passed a law saying that all debts
would be paid in specie, but that the bonds were exchanged for some due in ten or fifteen
years.
1873
$356 million in greenbacks still in circulation
After the Civil War $356 million worth of greenbacks were still circulating around
the country. Two factions grew in the country. One faction was the hard money supporters
who wanted a return to specie. The other faction was the soft money supporters who
wanted to stay with greenbacks. Grant took the middle road and let the greenbacks
circulate until the economy would make them equal to the gold they were supposed to be
worth. Then the switch back to specie would be made very easily. The panic of 1873
messed this up because many more people started calling for the use of greenbacks.
Eventually, Congress passed a law calling for limited reduction of greenbacks leading to a
full resumption of specie payments as of 1879.
1869
Fifteenth Amendment
Pg. 467
The fifteenth amendment was the culmination of legislation for freedmen after the
Civil War. The amendment said that no one could be denied suffrage based on their race,
color, or previous condition of servitude. Southern states got around the amendment by
requiring literacy tests and other such things that would keep blacks from voting.
1866
Klu Klux Klan/Night Riders
Pg. 467-68
The Klu Klux Klan was a secret society whose purpose was to restore white
supremacy to the South. They would intimidate blacks to keep them from voting
Republican. The Klan started in Tennessee in 1866 and spread rapidly all over the South.
There was no central organization, and it attracted whites of all classes, so it was very hard
to suppress. Klan members known as Night Riders would come at night to the houses of
freedmen and whip them, beat them, or even kill them.
“Force” Acts
Pgs. 468-469
In response to KKK terrorism, Congress passed the “Force” or “KKK” Acts. These
acts were supposed to protect black suffrage by letting the army take care of the Klan. The
acts said that interference with voting rights was a federal crime and gave the president the
right to call out troops and suspend the writ of habeas corpus to quell insurrection.
Thousands of suspected Klansmen were arrested, and although they weren’t sentenced,
decreased KKK terrorism.
1870-1871
1876
Election of 1876
Pg. 471-72
In the election of 1876 Republican Rutherford B. Hayes ran against Democrat
Samuel J. Tilden and Greenback Peter Cooper. Tilden clearly won the popular vote, but
Hayes won the electoral college after months of dispute. Tilden was going to win a small
majority in the electoral college, but votes in Republican South Carolina, Florida, and
Louisiana were contested. If Hayes won these votes and one from Oregon, he would have
won the election. Congress appointed a special committee to examine the election made up
of seven Democrats, seven Republicans, and an independent. The independent quit to run
for the Senate, and was replaced by a Republican. That made Hayes win the election by
one vote because it was 7 Democrats to 8 Republicans.
1877
Compromise of 1877
Pgs. 472
Congress had to approve Hayes’ selection by the special committee. The Senate
approved it immediately, but Democrats in the House planned a filibuster until they could
get enough votes to vote down Hayes. Republican leaders secretly negotiated with some
Democrats to end the filibuster. Eventually a compromise was reached. Hayes became
president, and federal support would be withdrawn from the Radical Reconstruction
governments. This was called the Compromise of 1877 or Hayes Tilden Compromise.
1896
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Pgs. 477
Plessy vs. Ferguson was one of several Supreme Court cases in the 1890’s that
helped make blacks little more than slaves again. The decision upheld segregation by
saying that segregation was not necessarily discrimination. The Supreme Court espoused
the idea of separate but equal. The case was about special black cars on trains.