Part 2
Civil War and Reconstruction
Reconstruction (1865-1877)
 During the era of Reconstruction
after the Civil War, the federal
government attempted to:
– Bring the Southern states back
into the Union
– Offer protections & rights to
newly emancipated slaves
– Rebuild the nation & improve the
economy after 4 years of fighting
The Successes of Reconstruction
Based upon the image below, what was
the major success of Reconstruction?
Successes of Reconstruction
 Through Reconstruction, the
national gov’t achieved Lincoln’s
original goal: “Preserve the Union”
– By 1870, all 11 Confederate
states had been re-admitted
into the United States
– The states’ rights & nullification
arguments came to an end
America
America at
at the
the End
StartofofReconstruction
the Civil War (1861)
(1877)
Successes of Reconstruction
 Reconstruction led to the end of
slavery & protections for all citizens,
including African-Americans:
– 13th Amendment ended slavery
– 14th Amendment guaranteed all
citizens, regardless of race, equal
protection under the law
– 15th Amendment gave voting rights
to African-American men
Successes of Reconstruction
 Reconstruction was the “golden age”
of voting for African-Americans:
– With the right to vote, military
districts, & federal troops in the
South to protect voters, AfricanAmericans were empowered
– The first black politicians were
elected to state & national offices
– Republicans took control of state
governments in the South
The First African-American Congressmen
Successes of Reconstruction
 Reconstruction stressed education:
– Before the Civil War, it was illegal
to teach slaves to read & write
– The Freedman’s Bureau created
schools for African-Americans
 The end of slavery allowed black
families to be reunited, marriages
to be legally recognized, & black
workers to make their own money
Successes of Reconstruction
 Reconstruction brought economic
changes to the South:
– The federal gov’t built railroads,
roads, hospitals to repair the South
– The Civil War lowered the
demand for cotton which led to a
more diverse Southern economy
– Many textile mills were created in
the South using paid workers
The Failures of Reconstruction
Based upon the image below, what were
the major failures of Reconstruction?
“Of course he wants to vote for the Democratic ticket”
Failures of Reconstruction
 The Civil War ended slavery, but
African-Americans had little job
training or money for farm land
 The federal gov’t proposed seizing
plantations, dividing land, & offering
slave families “40 acres & a mule”
– But the gov’t never enacted this
plan (can’t take citizens’ property)
– With few options, most ex-slaves
returned to the plantation to work
Failures of Reconstruction
 After the Civil War, slavery was
replaced by sharecropping:
– White land owners would “rent”
parcels of their fields to blacks in
exchange
for ½ to is
¼also
of the
Sharecropping
known
“tenant
farming”
cotton
thatasthey
produced
– But, former slaves had no money
for tools or seeds so they gained
loans from the land owner in
exchange for more of their cotton
(crop lien system)
Sharecropping
By the end of 1865, most freedmen had
returned to work on the same plantations on
which they were previously enslaved
Sharecropping remained in place from the
1860s to the 1940s when the Great Depression
& World War 2 brought an end to the system
Sharecropping family in 1937
Failures of Reconstruction
 Southern whites resisted attempts
at reconstruction by:
– Passing discriminatory laws
called black codes
– Using violence & intimidation to
keep blacks inferior to whites
– The inability of the federal gov’t
to sustain Reconstruction
– Supporting the return of the
Democratic Party to state gov’ts
Reconstruction
In Failures
some cases,ofblack
men would be
forced into slavery as punishment for
 …Passing discriminatory laws
a crime or for not paying back debts
called black codes:
– These laws restricted AfricanAmericans from serving on juries,
testifying against whites in court,
marrying whites, or owning land
– Black codes kept blacks from
being able to have true freedom
Failures of Reconstruction
 …Using violence & intimidation to
keep blacks inferior to whites:
– Groups like the Ku Klux Klan
attacked blacks who tried to vote
or spoke out against black codes;
carpetbaggers, & scalawags
(whites who voted Republican)
– Lynching became common
The “Invisible Empire” of the South
The Failure of Federal Enforcement
Failures of Reconstruction
Credit
Mobilier,
Whiskey
Ring,
 …The inability of the federal gov’t
& Indian Ring scandals
to sustain Reconstruction
– Corruption scandals during
Grant’s presidency & economic
recession in 1873 distracted
northerners from Reconstruction
– The Supreme Court ruled
against civil rights laws designed
to protect African-Americans
Failures of Reconstruction
 …Supporting the return of the
Democratic Party to state gov’ts:
– The KKK & black codes became
successful in limiting black voting
– Federal troops & military districts
had difficulty protecting blacks
– One-by-one, Southern state gov’ts
shifted from Republican control to
the Democratic Party
– These “Redeemer Democrats”
hoped to restore the “Old South”
The Rise of “Redeemer Democrats” in the South
 In 1877, Reconstruction ended:
– The Democratic Party returned to
power in all 11 Southern states
– The only thing protecting blacks were
federal troops; but by 1875, Grant
had stopped sending reinforcements
 The “Compromise of 1877”:
– In the 1876 election, neither Democrat
Tilden nor Republican Hayes won a
majority of electoral vote
– Democrats in Congress agreed to
vote for Hayes if the remaining federal
troops were withdrawn from the South
1876 Presidential Election
President Hayes
removed federal
troops & ended
military zones
Reconstruction
officially ended in 1877
Jim Crow Era (1877 to 1954)
 With Reconstruction over, the
Jim
Crow era began (1877-1954)
– Jim Crow laws, such as literacy
tests (reading requirements) & poll
taxes (fees to vote) kept AfricanAmericans from voting
– Grandfather clauses allowed poor
whites to avoid these laws & vote
 In Plessy v Ferguson (1896), the
Supreme Court said segregation was
OK (“separate but equal”)
“Jim Crow” South from 1877 to 1954