Four score and seven years ago…
• -- that from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure of devotion
-- that we here highly resolve that these
dead shall not have died in vain -- that this
nation, under God, shall have a new birth
of freedom -- and that government of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall
not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
– I here declare my unmitigated hatred
to Yankee rule -- to all political,
social and business connection with
the Yankees and to the Yankee
race…May such sentiments be held
universally in the outraged and
down-trodden South… until the now
far-distant day shall arrive for just
retribution for Yankee usurpation,
oppression and atrocious outrages,
and for deliverance and vengeance
for the now ruined, subjugated and
enslaved Southern States!
» Edmund Ruffin who fired the first
shots at Ft. Sumter
Chapter 15
The ruins of a
Train Depot after
the Civil War.
Reconstruction
Lincoln Assassinated
• Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes
Booth on April 14, 1865, while attending a
play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C.
• .He died the next day.
The north mourned the loss of
Lincoln and a massive manhunt
began to hunt down his killer
• John Wilkes Booth was a famous theatre actor and a southern
patriot. After the assassination he was hunted down and shot
dead on a farm in Virginia by the U.S. Army.
Booth’s co-conspirators where
tried for treason and hung.
The war ends in Texas
• On June 19th 1865 Union
General Gordon Granger
arrives in Galveston and
announces the war is
over to Texas and that all
the slaves are to be set
free!
• Juneteenth has been
celebrated in Texas ever
since as the anniversary
of freedom to African
Americans in Texas.
Gordon Granger
The people of Texas are informed that, in
accordance with a proclamation from the
Executive of the United States, all slaves
are free. This involves an absolute equality
of personal rights and rights of property
between former masters and slaves, and
the connection heretofore existing
between them becomes that between
employer and hired labor. The freedmen
are advised to remain quietly at their
present homes and work for wages. They
are informed that they will not be allowed
to collect at military posts and that they will
not be supported in idleness either there
or elsewhere.
Freedman
• A freedman or freeman is a person who has been
freed from slavery. All former slaves were now
freedman.
• Many moved from old plantations and started
“Freedtowns” or black communities.
Freedman
Problems
– Many didn’t have jobs
or homes.
– Some looked for longlost relatives.
– Some traveled to
cities searching for
work.
– Some remained on
the plantation working
for wages or a portion
of the crop.
•The Freedmen’s Bureau was created by
Congress to help former slaves by supplying
food, shelter, medicine, and in many cases, jobs.
•The freedmen’s bureau faced many challenges
from southerners who would attempt to intimidate
and in some cases kill freedmen’s bureau
workers.
•The Freedmen’s
bureau's major success
was in the creation of
schools for the former
slaves and their children.
Freedman’s Teacher School
Presidential Reconstruction
Andrew Johnson, as the President after
Lincoln, set up four requirements for
southern states to return to the union.
1. States had to accept the 13th
amendment that ended slavery
2. States had to declare that their
secession had been illegal
3. States had to cancel all war debts
4. To receive the right to vote, all
adult white males had to declare
loyalty to the United States.
The 17th President of
the United States,
Andrew Johnson
•Andrew Johnson named Andrew Hamilton, a
unionist, as governor of Texas. He called for
a new constitutional convention.
•James W. Throckmorton
was elected as president of
the convention. He had
been a unionist, but fought
in the Confederate army for
Texas. Therefore he was
thought to be a good
choice.
James W. Throckmorton
The Constitution of 1866
•The Constitution of 1866 was the same as
the Constitution of 1845, except that Slavery
was ended
•Texas refused to adopt the 13th
amendment. President Johnson agreed to
accept Texas back into the U.S. anyway.
•The Southern governments also passed
“Black Codes”.
•These laws attempted to force former
slaves back to labor on plantations
“Black Codes”
• African Americans
were second class
citizens.
• They could not
marry whites.
• They could not
hold public office,
vote, or serve on a
jury.
Ch 15 Reconstruction
The ruins of a
Train Depot after
the Civil War.
THE RADICAL
REPUBLICANS
Radical Republican leaders
Thadeus Stevens and
Charles Sumner
•Although President
Johnson agreed to let Texas
back into the Union,
Congress did not and
refused to accept the
Constitution of 1866.
•The Radical Republicans
saw Reconstruction as a
way to punish the
Southerners and gain fair
treatment for freedman.
•Not long after Texas was refused its return to
the Union, the Radical Republicans in Congress
gained enough power to win any vote in
Congress and overturn any presidential veto.
The “Black Codes”
convinced the
Republicans that
Texas could not be
trusted to deal fairly
with African
Americans.
Radicial Republicans impeached
Andrew Johnson. He survived his trial
in the Senate by only one vote.
•The Republican’s passed the
Fourteenth Amendment. Among other
parts of this amendment, it granted
citizenship to former slaves.
•The Fourteenth Amendment did away
with the black codes and granted legal
equality to former slaves.
•Texas did not accept it and of the
former Confederate states, only
Tennessee agreed to the amendment.
The
Fourteenth
Amendment
Reconstruction Act of 1867
• Congress was angered by Texas and the
other Confederate states refusing to ratify the
14th Amendment.
• The Radical Republicans took a stand by
passing the Reconstruction Act of 1867.
– This act put Texas and the other Southern
states (excluding Tennessee) under
military rule.
– This act divided the ten states into five
military districts.
5 Military
Districts
•Texas was combined with Louisiana and placed
in the 5th district and fell under command of
General Philip H. Sheridan.
Ironclad
Oath
•The military controlled the
South for several years, the
Governors were appointed had
no real power.
•Union troops began to register
voters, but required those voters
to take an “ironclad oath” which
claimed that their past loyalty
was only to the Union.
•This meant that white men who
were former Confederates
could no longer vote. This
angered many in the South
Carpetbaggers
The South saw
the Northerners
as
Carpetbaggers, or
people trying to
ruin the south for
their personal
gain.
The Ku Klux Klan
• Many plantation owners and
former Confederate soldiers
did not want African
Americans to have rights.
• A secret group called the Ku
Klux Klan was formed.
• The goal of this group was to:
– restore Democratic control
of the South
– keep former slaves
powerless
Nathan Bedford Forrest was a former
Confederate General and the First
Leader of the Ku Klux Klan
The 15th Amendment
•The 15th Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution was passed
to guarantee freedman the
right to vote
•Despite the efforts of the Klan,
over 50,000 African American men
in Texas registered to vote.
•Ten were even elected to the
Constitutional Convention of 1869.
Freedman Voting
Matthew
Gaines
became a
Texas State
Senator in
1869.
AFRICAN AMERICAN LEGISLATORS
• The New Constitution of 1869:
– This was a Radical Republican Constitution for Texas!
– declared the Constitution of the U.S. as law
– guaranteed the right of all men to vote or suffrage
(regardless of race, color, or former condition)
– established the foundation for a public school system
for ALL children
– system of law enforcement
• In November 1869 elections of officers of the new
state government were held.
• Radical Republican E.J. Davis was elected Governor
• Many Texans claimed that the
army had unfairly made sure
Davis was elected.
• Many Texans remained
determined to regain control of
their state.
• Davis and the legislature
ratified the 14th Amendment,
which was a requirement
from then US Congress for
Reconstruction.
• Texas was readmitted to the
Union on March 8th , 1870.
E.J. Davis
The Redeemers
•After Texas was re-admitted to the Union,
President Ulysses S. Grant declared
reconstruction over in Texas.
•The Texas legislature gave Davis
significant power. The people that
opposed Davis were known as
redeemers. They determined to
“save” Texas from the Radical
Republicans.
•The redeemers called Davis’
programs the “Obnoxious Acts”
Davis had been a
General in the Union
Army
The Redeemers “I won’t be Reconstructed!”
•Soon the Supreme Court ruled that the Ironclad
Oath was unconstitutional. The government has
no authority to disenfranchise (take away the right
to vote) people who had never been convicted of
a crime in a court of law.
Southerners hated the oath and a
similar “Oath of Allegiance” they
were forced to take after the war.
They didn’t feel they should be
“pardoned” for their actions and
did not want forgiveness for the
war. They felt they had fought for
their rights.
“Good Ole Rebel”
-Popular song in
the south at the
time
The Redeemers “I won’t be Reconstructed!”
•Soon the Supreme Court ruled that the Ironclad
Oath was unconstitutional. The government has
no authority to disenfranchise (take away the right
to vote) people who had never been convicted of
a crime in a court of law.
Southerners hated the oath and a
similar “Oath of Allegiance” they
were forced to take after the war.
They didn’t feel they should be
“pardoned” for their actions and
did not want forgiveness for the
war. They felt they had fought for
their rights.
“Good Ole Rebel”
-Popular song in
the south at the
time
In the 1872 elections,
Democrats gained control of
Texas and began to undo the
actions of Davis.
Davis was defeated in the
1873 governor’s race by
Richard Coke.
Richard Coke was
the first Democratic
Governor in Texas
since the war
•Davis refused to leave office, claiming the
election was a fraud. He and his supporters
even barricaded themselves in their offices.
•Eventually, Coke took office and this truly
signaled the end of Reconstruction in Texas.
•The redeemers called a Constitution convention
to re-write the Constitution once again.
•The new Constitution of 1876 would supremely
limit the power of the governor and allow the
legislature to meet only every other year.
As a result of the redeemers,
African Americans soon lost
much of the social ground they
had recently gained.
Racist “Jim Crow Laws” would
The Constitution of 1876 is the
be written and followed for
same one Texas has today, though
many changes have been made.
over a hundred years.
Reconstruction Amendments sing along
Free, Citizen,
Vote
13,14,15