RECONSTRUCTION NOTES
Following the end of the Civil War, the South’s economy was in shambles.
o railroads destroyed
o plantations destroyed
o plantation owners could not afford capital for agricultural equipment to replace slave labor
o Speculative enterprises preyed on people left destitute by war.
The social structure of the South changed, creating confusion.
Aristocratic plantation owners having lost their wealth were forced to yield to the growing influence of
bankers, merchants and small farmers. African Americans made the transition from slaves to wage earners, creating
racial tensions with the whites.
Political Uncertainty.
o Collapse of the Confederacy stalled most political processes.
o State and local governments had to be organized.
o New state governments had to establish normal relations with the Union.
o Northern states and governments differed on what and how it should be done.
o Division on National level between Congress and Lincoln / Johnson on how the former Confederate
states should be admitted back into the union.
o The rift became one of the worst in the nation’s history.
The Plans
CONQUERED PROVINCES THEORY
Secession is an illegal act and that southerners must pay a heavy penalty for having committed it. By doing this,
the Southern states are now outside the protection of the Constitution and are treated as conquered provinces.
Congress had the right to govern them.
LINCOLN’S 10 PERCENT PLAN
Ignored “conquered provinces” theory. Believe right to secede did not exist. Believed South had been
punished enough and he should help the South to come back into the Union as quickly as possible. Presented a twopart plan for reconstruction. The plan pardoned all southerners (except high Confederate officials and those who left
the U.S. government or military service to aid the Confederacy) who would swear allegiance to the U.S. and accept all
acts of Congress passed during the rebellion with reference to slaves. Second, it authorized the establishment of a new
government, with representation in the national government, for any state if one-tenth of its qualified voters (in 1860)
would take the required loyalty oath.
JOHNSON’S PLAN FOR RECONSTRUCTION
Pro-Union Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee was the only southern member of the Senate not to
resign his Senate seat at the beginning of the Civil War. He was a Democrat. He became Vice President in 1864 to
Republican Lincoln to show wide spread unity. The party’s name was
temporarily changed to the Union Party.
The Johnson Plan was the Lincoln Plan with minor changes.
 granting amnesty to all former Confederates (except certain high leaders and large property holders)
who were willing to take an oath to uphold the Constitution.
 by successive proclamations he set up provisional state governments in the former Confederate states.
In doing so, he authorized loyal white citizens to ratify new state constitutions and elect state
legislatures. The job of these legislatures were to
o repeal the ordinances of secession
o repudiate the Confederate state debts
o ratify the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which ends
slavery.
THE RADICAL REPUBLICANS
Members of the Republican Party who opposed the Johnson plan. Congress would eventually be dominated by
this group. It was led in the House of Representatives by Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and in the Senate by
Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts.
Motives of the Radicals
The Radicals exhibited a blend of high moral purpose and partisan self-interest. These were the main factors:
a)
personal animosity toward Johnson because they believed he was
unworthy to be president.
b)
the fear of executive encroachment upon the authority of Congress.
c)
the desire to safeguard the interests if the freedmen (African Americans
freed from slavery) as a result of the Civil War.
d)
resentment over the speedy return of former Confederates to political
power in the South.
e)
the determination by Republican politicians to establish their party in
the South.
f)
the hope, especially by northern businessmen, that the removal of
Southern influence from Congress would result in a program of
government aid to industry.
THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT
Prohibits slavery within the United States. Passed by Congress in February 1865 and was ratified by December, thus
becoming a part of the Constitution.
THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT
The Joint Committee on Reconstruction proposed the Fourteenth Amendment. Congress passed it in June of 1866 and
it was sent to the states for ratification.
Provisions:
1.
Citizenship is given to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S.
No state laws shall deny any of these individuals of “ life, liberty
or property without due process of law.
2.
Any state that deprived any of its male inhabitants of the right to
vote will have representation in Congress reduced by the number
denied in the state. (This was very difficult to enforce.)
3.
Former Confederates were barred from holding federal and state
offices if they had held similar posts before the war.
4.
The Confederate debt was repudiated and the U.S. debt affirmed.
The 14th Amendment had to be ratified before any Confederate state could be readmitted to the Union. Tennessee
did this and came back in. The other states rejected the 14th Amendment upon President Johnson’s advice and
defeated it. In spite of this, the amendment was ratified.
THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT
The Fifteenth Amendment mandated that all states were prohibited from denying suffrage (the vote) to males
in the grounds of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (Women were not included as they did not get the
vote until the early part of the 20th century.) The amendment passed Congress in February of 1869 and was ratified
by the states by March of 1870.
THE BLACK CODES
A series of discriminatory laws passed by southern state legislatures established by the Johnson plan. These laws
regulated the status of the FREEDMEN. While these laws confirmed some rights of citizenship, they helped to ensure
white supremacy.
The severity of the laws varied from state to state.
Examples:
o denied the right to hold public office
o denied the right to serve on juries
o denied the right to carry weapons
o must had to have a license to hold any job except for farming.
Impact in the North was increased support for the Radical Republicans.
THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU
Purpose: to provide the freed slaves with the basic necessities of life and protect their civil rights as well as care for the
abandoned lands in the South.
Originally passed to last for a limited time. Congress renewed bill to extend the bureau indefinitely. It also contained a
provision for the military trial of civilians violating the Constitution. Johnson vetoed this bill. A later bill, which
enlarged the bureau’s powers, was passed and also vetoed. Congress overrode this veto.
THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON RECONSTRUCTION
Congress refused to seat the senators and representatives sent by the states who followed Johnson’s plan.
Thaddeus Stevens and Members of both houses formed the Joint Committee to look at the issue of political
reconstruction of the South.
THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT
April 1866 - Civil Rights Act is passed by Congress over veto by Johnson. It gave citizenship to all African Americans,
making them equal to whites under the law.
The Radical Republicans and their quarrel with Johnson also became more violent. They insisted upon
the political punishment of former Confederates.
CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OF 1866
The Radical Republicans gain control of both houses of Congress.
THE RADICAL REPUBLICAN RECONSTRUCTION ACTS
1.
The ten former Confederate states that were still unreconstructed were divided into five military
districts with a major general in charge of each district.
2.
In order to be admitted back into the union, the following must be done:
o a constitution convention, elected by African Americans and Whites, was to write a new
state constitution that allowed the the right to vote for males, both African American
and White.
3.
Qualified voters were to elect to elect a state legislature that would ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.
4.
With the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment the state could applyfor representation in Congress.
THE IMPEACHMENT OF JOHNSON
The leaders of the Radical Republicans were frustrated because they could not control the executive branch of
government.
They passed the Tenure of Office Act which forbid a president to fire anyone whose appointment had been
approved by the Senate. This act violated the system of checks and balances written into the Constitution.
Johnson continued to basically follow Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction while the Radicals wanted a plan that
would punish the South.
Johnson’s Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton was a radical republican. He had also been appointed by Abraham
Lincoln, who was a Republican, not Johnson, who was a Democrat.
Johnson vetoed the Tenure of Office Act and Congress overrode the veto.
Stanton caused so many
problems for Johnson, that Johnson fired him.
The House of Representatives immediately impeached Johnson ( which means to indict or formally charge) on
the charges of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Johnson was put on trial in the Senate. The radicals failed by one vote (35 to 19) to secure the two-thirds
majority needed to remove Johnson from office. Seven moderates voted with the Democrats to keep him in office.
The Tenure of Office Act was repealed by Congress in 1887.
THE SOUTH IN TRANSITION
Because of Radical Reconstruction, it brought rapid changes to the economic and social life of the South and
the upper classes, which had been dominant before the Civil War, began to lose their political power.
The Radicals Reconstruction required in their plan of 1867 the registration of male voters. When this had been
accomplished, approximately 700,000 African Americans were on the lists and about 625,000 Whites.
CARPETBAG GOVERNMENTS
African Americans were members of the conventions that drafted the new state constitutions. They made up
about one-third of the membership.
Many, both African American and White, were inexperienced but on the whole were able and honest.
The White legislators were the “carpetbaggers” and scalawags”.
Carpetbaggers were northerners who had gone south after the Civil War. Since a number of them carried
cheap bags made of carpeting material, they got the nickname of “carpetbaggers” Many wanted to help African
Americans adjust to freedom; others anticipated power and fortune through business and political enterprises.
Scalawags were southern whites who cooperated with the carpetbaggers and the freedmen to aid the Radical
program. It is a slang term for “rascal”. Like carpetbaggers, their motives were mixed. Many were eager to help both
African Americans and lower-class Whites achieve security in a rebuilt South. Others were interested in political
preferment and lucrative contracts during a period of widespread confusion.
THE KU KLUX KLAN
Terrorist group in the South that was founded in Pulaski, TN, in 1866. Its purpose was to frighten African
Americans into renouncing their new political power and economical and social gains.
The members would take refuge under white robes and hoods and go on gruesome “night-riding” missions.
They used whips, branding irons, ropes, torches, guns, and knives on African Americans. They also resorted to lynching
innocent African Americans.
Southern Whites who disliked the Klan and other secret societies used subtle forms of coercion. African
Americans were denied employment and kept from voting by psychological intimidation.
The Klan and the other secret societies became such a problem that it led to the passage of three laws called
“The Force Acts”
The Enforcement Act of 1870 imposed heavy penalties for violations of the 14th and 15 Amendments.
The Enforcement Act of Feb. 1871 placed congressional electionsunder the control of the federal
authorities.
The Enforcement Act of April, 1871 (also called the Ku Klux Klan Act) gave the president military
authority to suppress violence in the southern states. In 1871 President Grant used these powers to subdue the Klan
in South Carolina.
Even with the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments and the enforcement acts, the Radical Republicans
lost ground in the South after 1870.
THE GENERAL AMNESTY ACT
By 1872, legislation was passed by Congress that restored political privileges thousands of former Confederates
and hastened the collapse of governments based on African American votes.
This was pushed through by a combination of Democrats and moderate Republicans. By 1876, only three
southern states were still under the control of the Radicals.
THE END OF RECONSTRUCTION
As a result of a compromise to work out the disputed 1876 election of Rutherford B. Hayes as President,
Hayes agreed to withdraw all federal troops from the South in 1877. The state governments still in Republican hands
quickly fell to the southern Democrats.
POLITICAL READJUSTMENTS
Many Southerners came to believe that the Republican Party was, as a whole, made up of African Americans
and corrupt Whites who despised the Old South. Whoever captured the Democratic nomination on the state or local
level was certain of winning the election. Between 1876 and 1920, the Republican Party did not carry a single state
from the old Confederacy.
While avoiding violence, the Democratic leaders still managed to steadily reduce the number of African
Americans who could meet the qualifications to vote.
Several different means were used:
o The Literacy Test, constructed so that African Americans could not pass.
o The Poll Tax (a tax levied on adults, the payment of which was required for voting.)
o Property Requirements
o The “grandfather clause” of newly revised state constitutions, granting the right to vote
to those whose fathers or grandfathers had voted before 1867. (This last step barred
African Americans but made it possible for uneducated whites to vote.
DISRUPTION OF THE PLANTATION SYSTEM
Changes brought about the War compelled southern landowners to reduce the the size of their plantations.
Since the plantation owners couldn’t afford to hire labor, some sold off large portions of their acreage.
The majority of the Plantation owners preferred to use a plan of cultivation using tenant farmers, White or
African American, who
themselves did not possess enough money to pay a cash rental.
This system was known as “sharecropping”. The way it worked was that the tenant farmer (the sharecropper)
giving to the landowner as rent a portion (usually half) of the crop he raised by his labor.
RISE OF THE MERCHANT / CROP LIEN SYSTEM
If the landowner did not supply what was needed to the sharecropper, the sharecropper was frequently forced
to pledge another share of his crop to the local merchant in order to secure credit for his working requirements. This
would be the only way he could afford to purchase the tools, see and draft animals he needed.
This was called the crop-lien system. Small farmers who owned their land were also forced to use the croplien system. Sometimes they would have to pledge
their entire crop. This forced the small farmers to limit
their crops that have widespread and constant appeal, such as cotton and tobacco. They became, in a sense,
economically enslaved to the merchant-creditors.
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
Industrial development replaced the plantation system. The exploitation of coal, iron, phosphates and lumber
gained momentum. This led to work in factories, which were located where cheap water power was available. The
increase in railroad mileage began to keep pace with the output of coal and
iron and with the multiplication of
cotton mills.
STATUS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS
In many communities, the bitterness engendered by imposed government and military occupation by the
Radicals brought about conflicts between the Whites and the newly liberated African Americans. The impact was that
it curbed the African Americans development.
With the breakup of the large plantations, meant the loss of jobs for the African Americans.
Many ended up in mill towns or got employment in mines and factories where their labor was exploited.
THE NEW SOUTH
In 1886, the editor of the “Atlanta Constitution”, Henry Grady coined the phrase “The New South”.
This denotes the primary economic develops in the region after the Reconstruction period.
Grady asserted that the South, instead of looking backwards, should look to the future with hope and
confidence.
The phrase was widely accepted but much still needed to be accomplished.
REMAINING PROBLEMS
Critical Problems remained:
1.
The southern economy had not escaped the control of northern
financiers.
2.
southern political leaders remained far more interested in sectional
than national problems.
3.
many farmers, both White and African American, still lived in poverty.
4.
mindful of the heavy personal losses during the Civil War and the
Reconstruction period, most voters refused to accept tax programs
that would have provided funds for the social services needed to
rebuild after the war’s destruction.