Reconstruction of the South
1865 - 1876
Wartime Reconstruction
Lincoln - 1862
Goals - Shorten the War & Guarantee Emancipation
- Get states back to Union quickly
- Easy qualifications for states to return
Emancipation Proclamation
Declares slave in Confederacy ONLY - free
Strikes at South’s ability to produce food - workforce
Lincoln’s 10 Percent Plan
- 10% of 1860 voters in “occupied” states pledge loyalty
- States must abolish slavery
- Authorization to set up new, loyal government
- Southerners (except Confederate Leaders) pardoned
Congress Opposes Lincoln
•
Radical Republicans - Charles Sumner (MA) &
Thaddeus Stevens (PA) plus old abolitionists favor:
- Full Civil Rights for Freedmen
- Punishment of Confederate Leaders
- Congressional authority over re-admission of
Confederate states to the Union
• Don’t recognize President’s Constitutional authority
Won’t recognize elected congressmen from re-admitted states
• Struggle for Political control of Reconstruction Process
Wade – Davis Bill
• Congress authorizes President to appoint governors.
• Requires “Iron Clad Oath”
50% of all adult males pledge loyalty.
Never willingly served Confederacy
• Guarantee the equality of Freedmen
• Only those who took the oath could vote for delegates
to a Constitutional Convention.
• Then could re-apply for statehood in Union
President Johnson’s Plan
• Distrusted Southern Plantation class; OK with slavery
• Agreed with Radical Republicans - Rebel leaders punished
• Appointed governors of rebel states to supervise election
of “loyal” state representatives.
• Required ratification of 13th Amendment (freeing slaves)
But states forbid Freedmen from voting & pass Black Codes
so Congress seeks more control over Reconstruction
Black Codes
• Designed to suppress rights of Southern freed slaves
Vagrancy Laws – Work or be arrested
“Apprenticeship” Laws – No choice of employers
No Land Ownership – No travel without permits
Looks like slavery to Radical Republicans
Political Ideological Battle
• Republicans united, controlled Congress during & after the
war.
• Passed laws benefiting the northern economy, while the
Confederacy existed, and while Democrats (No. vs. So.)
divided.
Railroad Subsidies; Tariffs; Banking & Currency Reform
• Needed control so Democrats could not “undo” laws that
helped Northern economy once the country was united.
• Punish Rebel leaders; keep them from office; help blacks
vote; …would all help control economy and the nation.
Radical Reconstruction
• Freedmen’s Bureau
-Organized in late 1865 – reauthorized in Feb. 1866
- Gov’t. agency giving legal, educational & employment help
- Civil Rights Act of 1866 - passed to repeal Black Codes
• Fourteenth Amendment – Ratified 1868
- Guaranteed equal rights & protection under the law
- Made “…all persons born or naturalized in the United
States…” citizens, including ex-slaves.
Reconstruction Acts – 1867
Politics
• Divided Confederate states into 5 military regions
• Required voting rights for freed slaves
• No ex-Confederates could participate in government
Belief was that if blacks could vote they
could protect themselves and their interests.
Johnson Battles Congress
• President Johnson believes “Radical Reconstruction“ too
harsh and resists – vetoes acts, impounds funds.
• Congress stops him by passing laws limiting his power
Tenure of Office Act – No firings w/o Congress’ OK
• Johnson objects – violates Separation of Powers & fires a
Radical Republican in his cabinet.
• Congress “impeaches” Johnson for violating the act.
Reconstruction - Economic
• “40 Acres and a Mule” – some blacks got land to farm
taken from plantation owners who rebelled.
• Contract labor system emerges in two forms:
Sharecroppers – Former slaves worked land and
paid “share” of their “crops” to owners.
Could evolve into…
Tenant Farmers – paid landowners rent and kept
all produce. A better way to improve lives.
Reconstruction - Economic
Corruption in business & gov’t hampered South’s growth.
Rampant throughout the war as business “skimped” on
materials used to build weapons & supplies.
Carpetbaggers – Northerners who came to South
to invest in reconstruction – corrupt opportunists.
Scalawags – Southern whites who believed
Republicans would help the Southern economy .
(Former Whigs, Nationalists)
Reconstruction – So. Politics
• Provides first opportunities for African American
Representatives in Congress.
• 13% of reps - Hiram Revels (MS); Benjamin Turner (AL);
Robert deLarge (SC); Jefferson Long (GA); Josiah Walls (FL)
• By 1866 most state govt’s – under Republican rule – had
repealed the Black Codes, but were not well enforced.
Final Efforts of Reconstruction
Fifteenth Amendment – 1870
Prohibited the “…abridgement or denial of
the right to vote by Federal…or state
governments on the basis of race, color or
prior condition as a slave…”
Constitutional Guarantees
for Freedmen
13th Amendment - Guarantees Freedom – Step 1
Only freemen could vote.
14th Amendment – Guarantees Citizenship – Step 2
Only citizens could vote.
15th Amendment - Prohibits the denial of right - Step 3
Resistance to Reconstruction
• Ku Klux Klan – Nathan Bedford Forrest
Organized as early as 1866 to keep blacks down,
stop reconstruction & restore pre-war society.
“Force Acts” by Congress held Klan in check until 1876
US Military actively pursued Klansmen who threatened blacks
with violence, preserved the few gains blacks made during
Reconstruction until 1877 when it ended.
Reconstruction Fails
• Ulysses S Grant wins 2 presidential terms – 1868 – ’77
• Big scandals in administration erodes confidence in the
Republican party’s ability to govern fairly.
“Credit Mobilier” – Cabinet officials took money from
railroads who got grants from government.
“Whiskey Ring” – Grant’s secretary worked with booze
makers to steal whiskey taxes from gov’t & keep cash.
• Panic of 1873 – Too many people borrowed money to invest in
Southern reconstruction. Big banks failed. People lost millions
Reconstruction Fails
• Democrats elected to state & US government office
and win back or “Redeem” the south – undermine
blacks’ gains.
• Deal between Republicans & Democrats over Election
of 1876 – all troops leave South – Republican
Rutherford B. Hayes wins presidency in disputed
election.
• Southern States established “Home Rule” - governing
by white southern Democrats w/o Federal influence.
The “New South”
• “Redeemers” - Northern investors, former planters, financiers
and some formerly poor white farmers - worked to develop
industry in South.
• Textile manufacturing; Railroad development; tobacco
processing ; iron and steel mills;
• Supreme Court decisions weaken 14th & 15th Amendments
US v Cruikshank - US could not punish oppression of blacks
US v Reese - 15th Amendment – no “right to vote” – only lists
grounds on which suffrage could not be denied.
• Freedmen’s rights dwindled as South reintegrated into Union.
“Jim Crow” Laws
Efforts by “redeemers” of New South to secure their control.
“Disenfranchised” certain voters they would exclude
Literacy tests – Read and interpret the state constitution for
blacks. Much easier tests for poor whites.
Poll Taxes – pay a tax or you couldn’t vote
Grandfather Laws – One could vote if their ancestors did so
before Reconstruction began.
Segregation - of schools and public facilities
Legacy of Reconstruction
Successes
1) Slavery abolished
2) 14th & 15th Amendments
set groundwork for 20th
Century gains.
3) For 12 years after the Civil War
freedmen held office and voted.
4) Literacy improved
Failures
1) Congress did not protect the
rights freedmen gained.
2) Supreme Court decisions
reduced the effectiveness
of civil rights gained.
3) Government could not
counteract the racism that
existed.