1. The Aftermath
2. Problems:
• The South
• Freedmen
• Leadership
3. President Andrew Johnson
4. Power Struggle: Johnson vs. Congress
• President’s plan: gentle---1865 to 1867
• Radical Republicans---opposed Johnson
• Congress’s plan: harsh---1867 to 1876
• South followed Johnson’s plan until??????
•What went wrong?
•Black Codes---1865 to 1866
•Johnson vetoed Civil Rights Act for Freedmen
•Congress impeached Pres. Johnson---1868
•Election of 1868: President Grant enforces
Congress’s “harsh” plan
•Reconstruction Act of 1867
4. Revolutionary changes
•Abolished slavery
•Civil War Amendments:
•gained citizenship
•right to vote
•13th, 14th and 15th
•Effects of Emancipation on Freedmen
•Freedmen’s Bureau
•New South

Human toll of the Civil War: The North lost 364,000
soldiers. The South lost 260,000 soldiers.
Between 1865 and 1877, the federal government
carried out a program to repair the damage to the
South and restore the southern states to the Union.
This program was known as Reconstruction.


Freedmen (freed slaves) were starting out their new
lives in a poor region with slow economic activity.


Plantation owners lost slave labor worth $3 billion.
Poor white Southerners could not find work because of
new job competition from Freedmen.
The war had destroyed two thirds of the South’s
shipping industry and about 9,000 miles of railroad.

South after war 1
Lincoln’s speech
“With malice
toward none; with
charity for all; with
firmness in the
right, as God gives
us to see the right,
let us strive on to
finish the work we
are in; to bind up the nation’s
wounds….to do all which may achieve
and cherish a just and a lasting peace,
among ourselves, and with all nations.”
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
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.
1865, Congress created the Freedman’s
Bureau to help former slaves get a new
start in life. This was the first major relief
agency in United States history.
Bureau’s Accomplishments
Built thousands of schools to educate Blacks.
Former slaves rushed to get an education for
themselves and their children.
Education was difficult and dangerous to gain.
Southerners hated the idea that Freedmen
would go to school.
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.
Freedmen’s Bureau Seen
Through
Southern
Eyes
Plenty to
eat and
nothing to
do.
Freedmen’s Bureau School
Freedmen’s
Bureau 4
•Remained loyal to the
Union during the Civil War.
•Lincoln chose him as his VP
to help with the South’s
Reconstruction.
•Supported Lincoln’s Plan
•Engaged in a power
struggle with Congress over
who would lead the country
through Reconstruction.
•Would be impeached but
not removed from office.
President Andrew Johnson
 Jacksonian Democrat.
 Anti-Aristocrat.
 White Supremacist.
 Agreed with Lincoln
that states had never
legally left the Union.
Damn the negroes! I am
fighting these traitorous
aristocrats, their masters!
Johnson’s plan to readmit the
South was considered too gentle.
Amnesty: Presidential pardon
•Rebels sign an oath of allegiance
•10% of the population
•Even high ranking Confederate officials
Write new state Constitutions
•approve the 13th Amendment
•reject secession and state’s rights
•submit to U.S. Government authority
No mention of
•Education for freedmen
•Citizenship and voting rights
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
As southern states were restored to the Union
under President Johnson’s plan, they began to
enact black codes, laws that restricted
freedmen’s rights.
The black codes established virtual slavery with
provisions such as these:
Curfews: Generally, black people could not gather after
sunset.
Vagrancy laws: Freedmen convicted of vagrancy– that is,
not working– could be fined, whipped, or sold for a year’s
labor.
Labor contracts: Freedmen had to sign agreements in
January for a year of work. Those who quit in the middle of a
contract often lost all the wages they had earned.
Land restrictions: Freed people could rent land or homes
only in rural areas. This restriction forced them to live on
Slavery is Dead?
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].
•Similar to Slave
Codes.
•Restricted the
freedom of movement.
•Limited their rights as
free people.
Mississippi Governor, 1866:
“The Negro is free”
“Whether we like it or not; we must
realize that fact now and forever.
To be free, however, does not make
him a citizen or entitle him to
social or political equality with the
white man.”
Gov of Miss
St. Landry’s Parish,
Louisiana, 1865
Section 1: Be it ordained by the police
jury of parish of St. Landry, That no
negro shall be allowed to pass within
the limits of said parish without a
special permit in writing from his
employer. Whoever shall violate this
provision shall pay a fine of $2.50, or
in default thereof shall be forced to
work four days on the public road or
suffer corporeal punishment.
Black codes 2
St. Landry’s Parish,
Louisiana, 1865
Section 2: Be it ordained: That every
Negro who shall be found absent from
the residence of his employer after 10
o’clock at night, without a written
permit from him employer, shall pay a
fine of $5.00, or in default thereof,
shall be compelled to work 5 days on
the public road or suffer corporeal
punishment.
Black codes 2
St. Landry’s Parish,
Louisiana, 1865
Section 3: Be it further ordained, That
no Negro shall be be permitted to rent
or keep a house within said parish.
Any Negro violating this provision
shall be immediately ejected and
compelled to find an employer; and
any who shall rent, or give the use of
the any house to any Negro, in
violation of this section, shall pay a
fine of $5.00 for each offence.
Black codes 3
St. Landry’s Parish,
Louisiana, 1865
Section 4: Be it further ordained,
No Negroes shall be allowed to
congregate in public meetings
between the hours of sunset to sunrise
and by special permission of the police
chief may a public meeting of Negroes
occur. However, church services are
not included in this law. Pay a fine of
$5.00, work 5 days on the road crew
or receive corporeal punishment
Black codes 3
St. Landry’s Parish,
Louisiana, 1865
Section 5: Be it ordained, No Negro
who is not in the military service shall
be allowed to carry firearms, or any
kind of weapons, within said parish,
without the special written permission
of his employers. Subject to $5.00
fine, road work or corporeal
punishment.
St. Landry’s Parish,
Louisiana, 1865
Section 6: Be it ordained, That it shall
be the duty of every citizen to act as a
police officer for the detection of
offences and the apprehension of
offenders, who shall be immediately
handed over to the proper police
officer or captain.
Thaddeus Stevens
Charles Summner
•Wanted to the see the South punished.
•Advocated political, social and economic equality
for the Freedmen.
•Would go after President Johnson through the
impeachment process after he vetoes the Civil
Rights Act of 1866.
Thaddeus Stevens, in Congress, 1866
“Strip a proud nobility of their bloated
estates, send them forth to labor and you
will thus humble the proud traitors.”
Thaddeus Steven, in Congress, 1867
“I am for Negro suffrage in every rebel
state. If it be just, it should not be denied:
if it be necessary, it should be adopted: if it
be a punishment of traitors, they deserve
it.”
Quotes of Radicals
Plans compared
Reconstruction Act of 1867--76 (Harsh)
•Amnesty : Presidential pardon
•oath of allegiance---50%
•high ranking Confederate officials
•loose voting rights if you don’t sign oath
•Write new state Constitutions
•Ratify: 13, 14 & 15 Amendments
•reject secession and state’s rights
•submit to U.S. Government authority
•Help for Freedmen
•Freedmen’s Bureau for education
•40 acres and a mule
•Divide the South into 5 military districts
•13th Amendment
Abolished slavery
(1865)
•14th Amendment
Provided citizenship &
equal protection under
the law. (1868)
•15th Amendment
Provided the right to
vote for all men which
included white and
black men. (1870)
Giving the Black man the right to vote was truly
revolutionary……..A victory for democracy!
“Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for
crime, whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist within
the United States, or any place subject
to their jurisdiction.”
The Congress shall have power to
enforce by appropriate legislation, the
provisions of this article.
“All persons born in the U.S. are
citizens of this country and the state
they reside in. No state shall make or
enforce any law which deprives any
person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law, nor deny
to any person within its jurisdiction to
the equal protection of the laws.”
The Congress shall have power to
enforce by appropriate legislation, the
provisions of this article.
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 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”
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.
Military
Reconstructi
on
Each number indicates the
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
vetoed the Civil Rights
Act of 1866
•Gave $$$$ to
Freedmen’s Bureau for
schools and granted
citizenship to the
Freedmen
•Congress believed
Johnson was working
against Reconstruction
and overrode his veto.
•Pres. Johnson
impeached
•Led to the 14th
Amendment
An inflexible President, 1866: Republican cartoon
shows Johnson knocking Blacks of the Freedmen’s
Bureau by his veto. Johnson’s Veto
Impeachment: Bringing charges against
the President. Two steps involved……
1st Step: U. S. House of Representatives hold
hearings to decide if there are crimes committed.
They then vote on the charges and if there is a
majority, then, charges are brought against the
President.
2nd Step: U.S. Senate becomes a courtroom.
The President is tried for the charges brought
against him. The Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court is the judge. Once trial is completed,
Senators must vote to remove President with a
2/3’s vote.
Impeachment process
Brought up on 11
charges of high crimes
and misdemeanors.
Tenure in Office Act:
Law Congress passed.
President can’t fire any
of his cabinet members
without consulting
Congress.
 Presidency would suffer as
fired Edwin Stanton
a result of this failed
Missed being removed
impeachment.
from office by 1 vote
 President would be more of
a figure-head.
 Saved the separation of
powers of 3 branches govt.
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).
The 14th and 15th Amendments
In 1867 and 1869 Congress passed the 14th and
15th Amendments, granting African American
males citizenship, equality under the law and the
right to vote.
In 1867 and 1868, voters in southern states chose
delegates to draft new state constitutions. One
quarter of the delegates elected were black.
The new state constitutions guaranteed civil rights,
allowed poor people to hold political office, and set
up a system of public schools and orphanages.
In 1870, southern black men voted in legislative
elections for the first time. More than 600 African
Americans were elected to state legislatures,
Louisiana gained a black governor, and Hiram
“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.
Civil
Rights: What Blacks want
The Taste of Freedom
Freedom of movement: Enslaved people often
walked away from plantations upon hearing that the
Union army was near.
 Exodusters: moved to Kansas and Texas
Freedom to own land: Proposals to give whiteowned land to freed people got little support from
the government. Unofficial land redistribution did
take place, however.
Freedom to worship: African Americans formed
their own churches and started mutual aid societies,
debating clubs, drama societies, and trade
associations.
Freedom to learn: Between 1865 and 1870, black
educators founded 30 African American colleges.
First Black
Senators and
representatives
in the 42st and
42nd Congress.
Senator Hiram
Revels, on the
left was elected
in 1870 to
replace the seat
vacated by
Jefferson Davis.
Black Congressmen
“I felt like a bird out of a cage.
Amen. Amen. Amen. I could
hardly ask to feel any better
than I did that day…….The
week passed off in a blaze of
glory “Men are taking their
emancipation
wives and children, families
which had been for a long time
broken up are united and oh!
Such happiness. I am glad I am
here.”
“The end of the war, it come just
like that---like you snap your
fingers….Soldiers, all of a sudden,
was everywhere---coming in
bunches, crossing and walking and
riding. Everyone was a-singing.
We was all walking on golden
clouds. Hallelujah! Everybody
emancipation
went wild. We all felt like heroes,
and nobody had made us that way
but ourselves. We was free. Just
like that, we was free.”
emancipation
“Right off colored folks
started on the move,
recalled a freedman.
“They seemed to want to
get closer to freedom, so
they’d know what it was--like it was a place or a
city.”
No more auction block for me…No more, No
more…No more auction block for me…Many
thousand gone..
No more auction block for me…No more, no
more…No more auction block, whiplash for
me…Many thousand gone….
An oh, the one thing…That we did wrong…No
more, no more…Staying in the wilderness…A day
too long…No more, no more…
And oh, the one thing..That we did right..Oh yes,
oh yes… Was the day….That we began to
fight…Oh yes, oh yes….. My Lord….
And it’s no more auction block for me….No more,
no more, no more…Auction block for me….Many,
many thousand gone…...
Letter by a Teacher teaching freedmen
on the importance of education, 1869:
“It is surprising to me to see the amount of
suffering which many of the people endure
for the sake of sending their children to
school. Men get very low wages here---from
$2.50 to $8.00 month usually, while a first
rate hand may get $10.00, and a peck or two
of meal per week for rations-----and a great
many men cannot get work at all.
The women take in sewing and washing, go
out by day to sour, etc. There is one woman
who supports three children and keeps them
at school; she says, “ I don’t care how hard I
has to work, if I can only send Sallie and the
boys to school looking respectable.”
Importance of Educ to freedmen
One former Confederate
Was amazed to see a
government which was intent
on killing us………now
generously feeding our poor
and distressed…….
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
Freedmen’s Bureau
5
Letter to the Editor of the National Era
Creswell, Texas, November 29, 1867
W.V. Tunstall, School Board, Houston, Texas
Letter for teachers 1
To the Editor:
We need immediately 500 teachers for colored
schools in Texas. The colored people in this state
cannot supply the demand. There are but a few
white Republicans who can engage in the
profession of teaching and Rebels (Southern whites)
will not teach them.
Therefore, our only prospect is to get teachers
among the educated colored people of the North or
Christian white people who are willing to endure
privations among the heartless whites of the “sunny
South.” The late elections have opened the South, I
trust, for the introduction of civilization. Send us
teachers…….
Forsyth, Georgia, July 22, 1867
Dear Sir,
I write to inform you of a most cowardly outrage that
took place last Saturday night. Our teacher whom
we have employed here was shot down by a crowd
of Rebel Ruffians for no other cause than teaching
school. General, this is the second teacher that has
been assaulted.
The rebels make their brags to kill every Yankee
teacher that they find. We do not know what we may
do if the military does not assist us. The Freedmen
are much excited at such an outrage.
George H. Clower, William Wilkes, Freedmen
•Women rights
supporters refused
to support the 14th
Amendment giving
African American
Men citizenship
unless women were
added to it.
•Abolitionists would
not support
women’s rights
New South
•Becomes
industrialized
•Cities rebuilt
•Railroads
•Schools, over
a thousand
•Hospitals, 45
in 14 states
•Diversify
economy.
Funding Reconstruction
Rebuilding the South’s infrastructure, the public
property and services that a society uses, was one
giant business opportunity.
Roads, bridges, canals, railroads, and telegraph
lines had to be rebuilt.
Funds were also needed to expand services to
southern citizens. Following the North’s example, all
southern states created public school systems by
1872.
Congress, private investors, and heavy taxes paid
for Reconstruction. Spending by Reconstruction
legislatures added another $130 million to southern
debt.
During Radical Reconstruction, the Republican
Party was a mixture of people who had little in
common except a desire to prosper in the
postwar South. This bloc of voters included
freedmen and two other groups: carpetbaggers
and scalawags.
Northern Republicans who moved to the postwar
South became known as carpetbaggers.
Southerners gave them this insulting nickname,
which referred to a type of cheap suitcase made
from carpet scraps.
Carpetbaggers were often depicted as greedy men
seeking to grab power or make a fast buck.
WASP
H
I
T
E
N
G
L
O
A
X
O
N
R
O
T
E
S
T
A
N
T
White southern Republicans were seen as
traitors and called scalawags.
This was originally a Scottish word meaning
“scrawny cattle.”
Refers to one who is a “scoundrel”, reprobate
or unprincipled person.
Some scalawags were former Whigs who had
opposed secession.
Some were small farmers who resented the
planter class. Many scalawags, but not all, were
poor.
kkk
ALL HATED BY THE KKK
Carpetbaggers
Northerners/Republicans sent to help
reconstruct the South….
Scalawags
Southerners who helped Carpetbaggers
Freedmen
Blacks who tried to vote or were
involved in the reconstruction of their
states governments.
South’s Backlash
kkk
Ku Klux Klan refers to
a secret society or an
inner circle
Organized in 1867, in
Polaski, Tennessee by
Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Represented the ghosts
of dead Confederate
soldiers
Disrupted
Reconstruction as much
as they could.
Opposed Republicans,
Carpetbaggers,
Scalawags and
Freedmen.
KKK
Spreading Terror




The Ku Klux Klan
The Klan sought to eliminate the
Republican Party in the South by
intimidating voters.
They wanted to keep African
Americans as submissive
laborers.
They planted burning crosses on
the lawns of their victims and
tortured, kidnapped, or
murdered them.
Prosperous African Americans,
carpetbaggers, and scalawags
became their victims.
The Federal Response
 President Grant’s War On
Terrorism.
 The Enforcement Act of
1870 banned the use of
terror, force, or bribery to
prevent people from
voting.
 Other laws banned the
KKK and used the military
to protect voters and
voting places.
 As federal troops withdrew
from the South, black
suffrage all but ended.
Letter About Ku Klux Klan Terror*
State of Mississippi. Monroe County.
March 30, 1871
My beloved Sister: I will endeavor to answer
your joyfully received letter. I must tell you
something about the Ku Klux, they are raging on
the other side of the River. They have whipped
several white men, whipped and killed several
Negroes.
They whipped Colonel Huggins, the
Superintendent of the free schools nearly to
death, and everybody rejoiced when they heard it,
for everybody hated him. He squandered the
public money, buying
KKK Quote 3
pianofortes, organs, sofas, and furniture for the
Negro School house in Aberdeen.
The people are taxed beyond endurance. The Ku
Klux gave him seventy lashes, and then gave him
ten days to leave the country. He left and went to
Jackson.
There was a Regiment of Militia came into
Aberdeen Friday. They are sent here to put down
the Ku Klux. Huggins has come back with the
Militia, but I wouldn't give a straw for his life, for
he will be killed.
It is the opinion of most everybody there will be
war. The Yankees coming here will make the
Negroes more insolent.
KKK Quote 3
With Country full of Yankees, things are going too
far, for the free whites of the South are
determined not to put up with it.
A Negro can kill a white man, take it in Court, get
a Negro jury, clear him and then turn him loose,
things can't go on this way. We are in a most
peculiar situation.
Give my love to all the Connections and write
soon. Yours, Jennie
*Mrs. Webb was the wife of William J. Webb,
who owned and operated the City Hotel on the
site of the Plainview Hotel, on the Block North
of the Monroe County Courthouse, Aberdeen,
Mississippi. The Shaw Family patronized this
Hotel. Colonel Huggins left Aberdeen in the
night and went back North.
KKK Quote 3
The 1868 Republican Ticket
The 1868 Democratic Ticket
Waving the Bloody Shirt!
Republican “Southern
Strategy”
1868 Presidential Election
Once
Johnson is
impeached,
Congress passes
Reconstruction Act
of 1867.
The
South would
be reconstructed
under the Radical
Republicans plan.
Republicans
would elect Grant
as their President
and he would carry
out the Radical
Reconstruction.
“The Strong
Government”,
1869-1877. Grant
enforcing the
Reconstruction Act
of 1867 and
“forcing” the South
to change.
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’!
Sharecroppers were Freedmen
and poor Whites who stayed in
the South and continued to
farm.
Freedmen signed a work contract
with their former masters .
Picked cotton or whatever crop the
landowner had.
Freedmen did not receive “40 acres
and a mule”
•Sharecropping is primarily
used in farming
•Landowner provided land,
tools, animals, house and
charge account at the local
store to purchase necessities
•Freedmen provided the labor.
•Sharecropping is based on the
“credit” system.
Advantages
Part of
Disadvantages
a business
venture
Raised their social
status
Received 1/3 to 1/2
of crop when
harvested
Raised their self
esteem
Blacks stay
Sharecroppers
in South
Some
landowners
refused to honor the
contract
Blacks poor
debt
and in
Economic slavery
Sharecropping
6. Sharecropper
cannot leave the
farm as long as he
is in debt to the
landlord.
1. Poor whites and
freedmen have no
jobs, no homes, and
no money to buy
land.
2. Landowners need
laborers and have no
money to pay
laborers.
3. Hire poor whites
and freedmen as
laborers
5. At harvest time,
the sharecropper is
paid.
•Pays off debts.
•If sharecropper
owes more to the
landlord or store
than his share of the
crop is worth;
4. Landlord keeps track
of the money that
sharecroppers owe
him for housing, food
or local store.
•Sign contracts to
work landlord’s land
in exchange for a
part of the crop.
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
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.
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 Election
•Tilden did not
receive enough
electoral votes.
*
•Special
Commission gives
votes to Hayes.
•Hayes wins the
election
•Democrats refuse to
recognize Hayes as
President
*Disputed
Electoral votes
164
369 total electoral votes, need 185 to win.
1876 Presidential Election
The Political Crisis of 1877
 “Corrupt Bargain”
Part II?
Rutherford B. Hayes
Samuel Tilden
The election of 1876 and the Compromise of 1877 are
referred to as the Corrupt Bargain.
The Democrats and Republicans work out a deal to
recognize Hayes as President
In return, President Hayes must end Reconstruction
and pull the Union troops out of the South.
Once this happens, there is no protection for the
Freedmen and the South will regain their states and go
back to the way it was.
Agreement between
Democrats and
Republicans
•Hayes pulls the troops
out of the South.
•Southerners take over
their state governments
called “REDEEMERS”
•Successes Freedmen
would be lost because
Southerners would take
over their state
governments.
•Jim Crow laws kept
Blacks from voting and
becoming equal
citizens.
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
social reality
After Reconstruction, 1865 to 1876, there
were several ways that Southern states
kept Blacks from voting and segregated,
or separating people by the color of their
skin in public facilities.
Jim Crow laws, laws at the local and state
level which segregated whites from blacks
and kept African Americans as 2nd class
citizens and from voting.
poll taxes
literacy tests
grandfather clause
social reality
The systematic practice of
discriminating against and
segregating Black people,
especially as practiced in the
American South from the end
of Reconstruction to the mid20th century
Derogatory name for a Black
person, ultimately from the
title of a 19th-century minstrel
song.
Goal: Take away political
and constitutional rights
guaranteed by Constitution:
Voting and equality of all
citizens under the law.
JC laws
Jim Crow Laws: segregated
Whites and Blacks in public
facilities became the law after
Reconstruction:
•Used at the
local, state
levels and
eventually the
national to
separate the
races in
schools, parks,
transportation,
restaurants,
etc….
•kept Blacks, minorities
and poor whites from
voting and as 2nd class
citizen status
JC laws1
social reality
Poll Taxes: Before you could vote, you had
to pay taxes to vote. Most poor Blacks
could not pay the tax so they didn’t vote.
Literacy Test: You had to prove you could
read and write before you could vote….
Once again, most poor Blacks were not
literate.
Grandfather clause: If your grandfather
voted in the 1864 election than you could
vote…..Most Blacks did not vote in 1864, so
you couldn’t vote….
social reality
Supreme Court decision which
legalized segregation
throughout the nation.
•“Separate but Equal” as long as
public facilities were equal
•Problem: Black facilities would
never be equal to White facilities
•Our nation would be segregated
until the 1960’s.
The Struggle for African
American Suffrage
1865
Civil War ends
Reconstruction
begins
1900s-1940s Jim Crow
laws prevent African
Americans from voting
1870s
Reconstruction
ends.
Plessy vs Ferguson effected
social equality for Black
Americans from 1896 to 1960’s
1950s-1960s
Civil Rights
movement begins.
South’s Backlash1
Lynchings of
Whites/Blacks
0 to 20
20 to 60
60 to 100
100 to 200
200 or more