Unit 4
Reconstruction:
The Nation Reunited
Unit Focus
• In this unit, students will learn how the
United States reunited after the Civil War.
Students will understand how beliefs and ideals
of the North and South influenced changes to
laws and the Constitution. The students
examine the work of the Freedman’s Bureau
to understand how individuals, groups, and
institutions can affect society. Finally, by
thinking about conflict and change and
production, distribution, and consumption,
students will learn the effects of the Civil War
on the daily life and the economy of the
North and South.
Essential Questions
How do beliefs and
Ideals influence the
decisions people make?
How does conflict
cause change?
How did the destruction
of the Civil War determine
the economics of
Reconstruction?
What were the intentional
and unintentional
Consequences of what
people said and did as
a part of Reconstruction?
Learning Standards
• SS5H1 e
The student will explain the causes, major
events, and consequences of the Civil War.
• SS5H2
a-b-c
The student will analyze the effects of
Reconstruction on American life
Learning Standards
• SS5CG1
c-d
The student will explain how a citizen’s rights are
protected under the U. S. Constitution.
• SS5CG2
a-b
The student will explain the process by which
amendments to the U. S Constitution are made.
• SS5CG3
b
The student will explain how amendments to the
U. S Constitution have maintained a representative
democracy.
Learning Standards
• SS5E2
a
The student will describe the functions of
four major sectors in the U. S. economy.
• SS5E3
a-b
The student will describe how consumers and
businesses interact in the united States across
time.
Enduring Understandings
How do beliefs and
Ideals influence the
decisions people make?
How does conflict
cause change?
How did the destruction
of the Civil War determine
the production, distribution and
consumptions of goods and
services during
Reconstruction?
What were the intentional
and unintentional
Consequences of what
people said and did as
a part of Reconstruction?
EFFECTS OF THE WAR
The Civil War had major effects on the
North and the South. Thousands of
young men from both regions died or
were wounded during the war. Many
returned home missing legs, arms, or
bearing other scars from the fighting.
Both sides experienced great human
suffering.
• Economically: The two regions were affected
differently. The North prospered. Its
manufacturing and industries grew. More
people were employed as the Union worked to
support its war effort. The southern
economy, on the other hand, suffered. The
South had depended on cash crops. The end
of slavery meant that it no longer had its
main source of labor. Since most of the
fighting took place in the South, many of the
region’s farms and railroads had been
destroyed. At the end of the war, the North
had grown stronger. The South faced an
uncertain future.
EFFECTS OF THE WAR
•
•
•
•
•
•
NORTH
•
Prospered economically
Manufacturing and industries
•
grew
New technologies
•
Boost in steel production
Transportation improved
•
More employed
•
•
SOUTH
Cities, farms, and homes
burned
Railroads and bridges
destroyed
Businesses and industries
destroyed
300,000 men dead
Suffered economically
No main source of labor
RECONSTRUCTION
TIMELINE
• 1865
March 3 The Freedmen's Bureau established.
Provides assistance to emancipated African Americans.
• April 8 Lee surrenders.
Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court
House. Joseph E. Johnston's surrender in North Carolina on April 18
effectively ends the Civil War.
• April 15 President Abraham Lincoln assassinated.
Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes president.
• December 6 13th Amendment ratified.
Abolishes slavery in the United States.
Black Codes enacted.
Southern states enact laws restricting rights of African Americans
• 1866
April 9 Civil Rights Act of 1866
Confers citizenship on African Americans and guarantees equal
rights.
• May 1-3 Memphis Race Riot
White civilians and police kill 46 African Americans and
destroy 90 houses, schools, and four churches in Memphis,
Tennessee.
• July 30 New Orleans Race Riot
Police kill more than 40 black and white Republicans and
wound more than 150.
• Ku Klux Klan
A secret organization to intimidate African Americans and
restore white rule is founded in Pulaski, Tennessee.
• 1867
Reconstruction Acts
Congress divides the former Confederacy
into five military districts and requires
elections in which African American
men can vote.
• 1868
• March-May President Johnson's Impeachment Trial
By one vote, the U.S. Senate fails to remove the
president from office.
• July 21 Fourteenth Amendment ratified.
Guarantees due process and equal protection under the
law to African Americans.
• November 3 Ulysses S. Grant elected President.
The former Union general becomes the 18th president.
• 1869
• First Redeemer Government
Tennessee is the first state to
replace a bi-racial Republican state
government with an all-white
Democratic government, followed by
Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia
in 1870.
1870
• February 23 First black senator elected.
Hiram Revels of Mississippi elected to U. S.
Senate as the first black senator.
• March 30 Fifteenth Amendment ratified.
Extends the vote to all male citizens
regardless of racer or previous condition of
servitude.
1871
• Forty-second Congress.
Five black members in the House of
Representatives:
– Benjamin S. Turner of Alabama
– Josiah T. Walls of Florida
– Robert Brown Elliot, Joseph H. Rainey and
Robert Carlos DeLarge of South Carolina
• 1872
• Freedmen's Bureau abolished.
• First African American governor.
P. B. S. Pinchback, acting governor of
Louisiana from December 9, 1872 to January
13, 1873. Pinchback, a black politician, was the
first black to serve as a state governor,
although due to white resistance, his tenure
is extremely short.
1874
• Democrats control the Forty-third Congress
For the first time since before the Civil War,
Democrats control both houses of Congress.
– Robert Smalls, black hero of the Civil War,
elected to Congress as representative of
South Carolina.
– Blanche K. Bruce elected to U. S. Senate.
1875
• March 1
Civil Rights Act of 1875
Guarantees equal rights to African Americans
in public accommodations and jury service.
Ruled unconstitutional in 1883.
1867
• Disputed Presidential election
Republicans challenged the validity of the
voting in Souh Carolina, Florida, and
Louisiana.
Wade Hampton inaugurated as governor of South
Carolina.
The election of Hampton, a leader in the
Confederacy, confirms fears that the South is
not committed to Reconstruction.
• 1877
• Rutherford B. Hayes inaugurated President.
Electoral Commission awards disputed electoral
votes to the Republican candidate.
• Reconstruction ends.
President Rutherford Hayes withdraws federal
troops from the South protecting the Civil
Rights of African Americans.
President Lincoln’s Plan
 10% Plan
*
*
*
*
*
Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction (December 8, 1863)
Replace majority rule with “loyal rule” in
the South.
He didn’t consult Congress regarding
Reconstruction.
Pardon to all but the highest ranking
military and civilian Confederate
officers.
When 10% of the voting population in
the 1860 election had taken an oath of
loyalty and established a government, it
would be recognized.
President Lincoln’s Plan
1864  “Lincoln Governments”
formed in LA, TN, AR
*
*
“loyal assemblies”
They were weak and
dependent on the
Northern army for
their survival.
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
 Required 50% of the number
of 1860 voters to take an
“iron clad” oath of allegiance
(swearing they had never
voluntarily aided the
rebellion ).
Senator
Benjamin
Wade
(R-OH)
 Required a state
constitutional convention
before the election of state
officials.
 Enacted specific safeguards
of freedmen’s liberties.
Congressman
Henry
W. Davis
(R-MD)
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
 “Iron-Clad” Oath.
 “State Suicide” Theory [MA Senator
Charles Sumner]
 “Conquered Provinces” Position
[PA Congressman Thaddeus Stevens]
President
Lincoln
Pocket
Veto
Wade-Davis
Bill
Jeff Davis Under Arrest
13th Amendment
 Ratified in December, 1865.
 Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the
United States or any place subject to
their jurisdiction.
 Congress shall have power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.
Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)
 Bureau of Refugees,
Freedmen, and
Abandoned Lands.
 Many former northern
abolitionists risked
their lives to help
southern freedmen.
 Called “carpetbaggers”
by white southern
Democrats.
The Freedmen's Bureau
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned
Land; often referred to as the Freedmen's Bureau, was
established in the War Department by an act of March
3, 1865. The Bureau supervised all relief and educational
activities relating to refugees and freedmen, including
issuing rations, clothing and medicine. The Bureau also
assumed custody of confiscated lands or property in the
former Confederate States, border states, District of
Columbia, and Indian Territory. The bureau records
were created or maintained by bureau headquarters, the
assistant commissioners and the state superintendents
of education and included personnel records and a
variety of standard reports concerning bureau programs
and conditions in the states.
BUILT SCHOOLS
TAUGHT TO READ
AND WRITE
HELD OWN
COURT OF
LAW
HELP WITH
CONTRACTS
AND FAIR PAY
STARTED
COLLEGES
THE
FREEDMEN’S
BUREAU
GAVE FOOD
AND CLOTHING
RECEIVED
MEDICAL CARE
HELP FIND
LOST RELATIVES
GAVE LAND
Freedmen’s Bureau Seen Through
Southern
Eyes
Plenty to
eat and
nothing to
do.
Freedmen’s Bureau School
• Abraham Lincoln had thought about the process of restoring
the Union from the earliest days of the war. His guiding
principles were to accomplish the task as rapidly as possible
and ignore calls for punishing the South.
• In late 1863, Lincoln announced a formal plan for
reconstruction:
• A general amnesty would be granted to all who would take an
oath of loyalty to the United States and pledge to obey all
federal laws pertaining to slavery
• High Confederate officials and military leaders were to be
temporarily excluded from the process
• When one tenth of the number of voters who had participated
in the 1860 election had taken the oath within a particular
state, then that state could launch a new government and elect
representatives to Congress.
• The states of Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee rapidly acted
to comply with these terms. However, the Lincoln plan was
not acceptable to Congress
President Andrew Johnson
 Jacksonian Democrat.
 Anti-Aristocrat.
 White Supremacist.
 Agreed with Lincoln
that states had never
legally left the Union.
President Johnson’s Plan (10%+)
 Offered amnesty upon simple oath to all except
Confederate civil and military officers and those with
property over $20,000 (they could apply directly to
Johnson)
 In new constitutions, they must accept minimum
conditions repudiating slavery, secession and state debts.
 Named provisional governors in Confederate states and
called them to oversee elections for constitutional
conventions.
1. Disenfranchised certain leading Confederates.
EFFECTS?
2. Pardoned planter aristocrats brought them back
to political power to control state organizations.
3. Republicans were outraged that planter elite
were back in power in the South!
Growing Northern Alarm!
 Many Southern state
constitutions fell short of
minimum requirements.
 Johnson granted 13,500 special
pardons.
 Revival of southern defiance.
BLACK CODES
Slavery is Dead?
The Civil Rights Act of 1866
• A federal law in the United States declaring that
everyone born in the U.S. and not subject to any
foreign power is a citizen, without regard to race,
color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary
servitude. As citizens they could make and enforce
contracts, sue and be sued, give evidence in court, and
inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and
personal property. Persons who denied these rights to
former slaves were guilty of a misdemeanor and
upon conviction faced a fine not exceeding $1,000, or
imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both.
• The activities of organizations such as the Ku
Klux Klan undermined the workings of this
act and it failed to guarantee the civil rights
of African Americans. This statute does not
cover visitors, diplomats, and Native Americans
in the United States on reservations. It was
aimed at the Freedmen (freed slaves) and was
a major policy during Reconstruction. It was
vetoed by President Andrew Johnson, then
passed over his veto by Radical Republicans in
Congress
Black Codes
 Purpose:
*
*
Guarantee stable labor
supply now that blacks
were emancipated.
Restore pre-emancipation
system of race relations.
 Forced many blacks to
become sharecroppers
[tenant farmers].
Congress Breaks with the President
 Congress bars Southern
Congressional delegates.
 Joint Committee on
Reconstruction created.
 February, 1866  President
vetoed the Freedmen’s
Bureau bill.
 March, 1866  Johnson
vetoed the 1866 Civil Rights Act.
 Congress passed both bills over
Johnson’s vetoes  1st in
U. S. history!!
Johnson the Martyr / Samson
If my blood is to be shed
because I vindicate the
Union and the preservation
of this government in its
original purity and character,
let it be shed; let an altar to
the Union be erected, and
then, if it is necessary, take
me and lay me upon it, and
the blood that now warms
and animates my existence
shall be poured out as a fit
libation to the Union.
(February 1866)
• The looming showdown between Lincoln and the Congress over
competing reconstruction plans never occurred. The president
was assassinated on April 14, 1865. His successor, Andrew
Johnson of Tennessee, lacked his predecessor’s skills in
handling people; those skills would be badly missed. Johnson’s
plan envisioned the following:
• Pardons would be granted to those taking a loyalty oath
• No pardons would be available to high Confederate officials and
persons owning property valued in excess of $20,000
• A state needed to abolish slavery before being readmitted
• A state was required to repeal its secession ordinance before
being readmitted.
• Most of the seceded states began compliance with the
president’s program. Congress was not in session, so there
was no immediate objection from that quarter. However,
Congress reconvened in December and refused to seat the
Southern representatives.
• Reconstruction had produced another deadlock between the
president and Congress.
th
14
Amendment
 Ratified in July, 1868.
*
*
*
Provide a constitutional guarantee of the
rights and security of freed people.
Insure against neo-Confederate political
power.
Enshrine the national debt while repudiating
that of the Confederacy.
 Southern states would be punished for
denying the right to vote to black
citizens!
The Balance of Power in
Congress
State
White Citizens
Freedmen
SC
291,000
411,000
MS
353,000
436,000
LA
357,000
350,000
GA
591,000
465,000
AL
596,000
437,000
VA
719,000
533,000
NC
631,000
331,000
The 1866 Bi-Election
 A referendum on Radical Reconstruction.
 Johnson made an ill-conceived propaganda
tour around the country to push his plan.
 Republicans
won a 3-1
majority in
both houses
and gained
control of
every northern
state.
Johnson’s “Swing around
the Circle”
Radical Plan for Readmission
 Civil authorities in the territories were
subject to military supervision.
 Required new state constitutions,
including
black suffrage and ratification of the 13th
and 14th Amendments.
 In March, 1867, Congress passed an act
that authorized the military to enroll
eligible black voters and begin the
process of constitution making.
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
 Military Reconstruction Act
*
*
Restart Reconstruction in the 10 Southern states
that refused to ratify the 14th Amendment.
Divide the 10 “unreconstructed states” into 5
military
districts.
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
 Command of the Army Act
*
The President must issue all
Reconstruction orders through
the commander of the military.
 Tenure of Office Act
*
The President could not remove
any officials [esp. Cabinet members]
without the Senate’s consent, if the
position originally required Senate
approval.
 Designed to protect radical
members of Lincoln’s government.
 A question of the
constitutionality of this law.
Edwin Stanton
President Johnson’s Impeachment
 Johnson removed Stanton in February, 1868.
 Johnson replaced generals in the field who were
more sympathetic to Radical Reconstruction.
 The House impeached him on February 24
before even
drawing up the
charges by a
vote of 126 – 47!
The Senate Trial
 11 week trial.
 Johnson acquitted
35 to 19 (one short of
required 2/3s vote).
• In July 1864, Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill,
their own formula for restoring the Union:
• A state must have a majority within its borders
take the oath of loyalty
• A state must formally abolish slavery
• No Confederate officials could participate in the new
governments.
• Lincoln did not approve of this plan and exercised his
pocket veto.
• An angry Congress would later pass the Wade-Davis
Manifesto (August 1864), which charged Lincoln with
usurping the powers of Congress. This statement
would have little impact on the public, as the
military news from the South improved; Sherman’s
Atlanta Campaign restored Lincoln’s popularity and
helped assure his reelection.
• On the political front, the Radical Republicans wanted to
maintain their wartime agenda, which included support for:
• Protective tariffs
• Pro-business national banking system
• Liberal land policies for settlers
• Federal aid for railroad development
• If the South were to fall back into Democratic hands, these
programs would suffer. This threat brought many Republicans
around to supporting the vote for blacks (15th Amendment).
• The postwar Congress pushed through a number of measures
designed to assist the freedmen, but also demonstrate the
supremacy of Congress over the president. These measures
included the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the 14th Amendment,
the Tenure of Office Act and the Army Appropriations Act.
• The culmination of this process occurred in 1867 and 1868,
when Congress passed a series of Reconstruction Acts; these
measures were implemented and constituted the final
restoration program for the South. The Radical Republicans in
Congress, however, were not satisfied until they dealt with
their chief tormenter in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson
The 1868 Republican Ticket
The 1868 Democratic Ticket
Waving the Bloody Shirt!
Republican “Southern
Strategy”
1868 Presidential Election
President Ulysses S. Grant
Grant Administration Scandals
 Grant presided over an era of
unprecedented
growth and
corruption.
*
*
*
Credit Mobilier
Scandal.
Whiskey Ring.
The “Indian
Ring.”
The Tweed Ring
in NYC
William Marcy Tweed
(notorious head of Tammany Hall’s political machine)
[Thomas Nast  crusading cartoonist/reporter]
Who Stole the People’s Money?
And They Say He Wants a Third Term
The Election of 1872
 Rumors of corruption
during Grant’s first
term discredit
Republicans.
 Horace Greeley runs
as a Democrat/Liberal
Republican candidate.
 Greeley attacked as a
fool and a crank.
 Greeley died on
November 29, 1872!
1872 Presidential Election
Popular Vote for President: 1872
The Panic of 1873
 It raises “the money
question.”
*
*
debtors seek
inflationary
monetary policy by
continuing circulation
of greenbacks.
creditors, intellectuals
support hard money.
 1875  Specie
Redemption Act.
 1876  Greenback Party formed & makes gains in
congressional races  The “Crime of ’73’!
Sharecropping
Tenancy & the Crop Lien System
Furnishing Merchant
 Loan tools and seed
up to 60% interest
to tenant farmer to
plant spring crop.
 Farmer also secures
food, clothing, and
other necessities on
credit from
merchant until the
harvest.
 Merchant holds
“lien” {mortgage} on
part of tenant’s
future crops as
repayment of debt.
Tenant Farmer
 Plants crop,
harvests in
autumn.
 Turns over up to ½
of crop to land
owner as payment
of rent.
 Tenant gives
remainder of crop
to merchant in
payment of debt.
Landowner
 Rents land to tenant
in exchange for ¼
to ½ of tenant
farmer’s future
crop.
Black & White Political Participation
Establishment of Historically
Black Colleges in the South
Black Senate & House Delegates
Colored Rule
in the South?
Blacks in Southern Politics
 Core voters were black veterans.
 Blacks were politically unprepared.
 Blacks could register and vote in states since
1867.
 The 15th
Amendment
guaranteed
federal voting.
15th Amendment
 Ratified in 1870.
 The right of citizens of the United States
to vote shall not be denied or abridged by
the United States or by any state on
account of race, color, or previous condition
of servitude.
 The Congress shall have power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.
 Women’s rights groups were furious that
they were not granted the vote!
The “Invisible Empire of the South”
The Failure of Federal Enforcement
 Enforcement Acts of 1870 & 1871
[also known as the KKK Act].
 “The Lost Cause.”
 The rise of the
“Bourbons.”
 Redeemers
(prewar
Democrats and
Union Whigs).
The Civil Rights Act of 1875
 Crime for any individual to deny full &
equal use of public conveyances and
public places.
 Prohibited discrimination in jury
selection.
 Shortcoming  lacked a strong
enforcement mechanism.
 No new civil rights act was attempted
for 90 years!
Northern Support Wanes
 “Grantism” & corruption.
 Panic of 1873 [6-year
depression].
 Concern over westward
expansion and Indian wars.
 Key monetary issues:
*
*
should the government
retire $432m worth of
“greenbacks” issued during the Civil War.
should war bonds be paid back in specie or
greenbacks.
1876 Presidential Tickets
“Regional Balance?”
1876 Presidential Election
The Political Crisis of 1877
 “Corrupt Bargain”
Part II?
Hayes Prevails
Alas, the Woes of Childhood…
Sammy Tilden—Boo-Hoo! Ruthy Hayes’s got my
Presidency, and he won’t give it to me!
A Political Crisis: The
“Compromise” of 1877