Unit 3: Reconstucton
I. Presidential Reconstruction
A. Lincoln's 1863 Plan for the South
- Required only 10% of voting population of a
Southern state swear allegiance to the US
government
-Oath-takers could then reconstitute the state
government and send representatives to
Congress
- CSA government officials, officers, and those
who left the U.S. government in 1861 would
have to apply for presidential pardons
- Lincoln hoped to win allegiance of Southern
Unionists to Republican Party
- The lenient terms of the Plan aimed to entice
Southern states back into the fold without more
bloodshed
- Congress rejected this plan as weak, and Lincoln's
death means his plans for Reconstruction remain
unknown – except for the 13th Amendment
B. The Wade-Davis Bill of 1864
- 50% of voting population had to take oath of
allegiance
- States had to repeal secession and abolish
slavery
- In order to vote or hold office, a southerner had
to take an “ironclad” oath stating he never
voluntarily supported the Confederacy
- Lincoln killed it with a pocket-veto (he simply
refused to sign it within 10 days)
C. President Andrew Johnson's Plan, May 1865
1. The Man
- Johnson was a former
slave-owner who accepted
emancipation
- The only Southern Senator
to remain with Union in
1861, then military
governor of Tennessee
- Self-educated small farmer
who sought the
destruction of the planter
aristocracy
2. The Plan
- He announced it when Congress was out of session
- States had to repudiate Confederate debts, declare
secession illegal, and ratify the 13th Amendment
- Wealthy Southerners and CSA leaders had to
personally request a pardon from the President
- Since those worth over $20,000 couldn't take the oath
to vote or run for office, poor whites would now
theoretically be in control
- But he quickly pardoned most Southerners and restored
Confederate states to the Union
D. The “Lost Cause”
- Many white Southerners continued to romanticize
the Confederacy
- They venerated Robert E. Lee as a great leader
- Saw Yankees as oppressors, and freedmen as
dangerous and vengeful
- Elected ex-Confederates to Congress
- Refused to ratify 13th Amendment or repudiate
CSA debt, despite Johnson's plan
- Physically attacked freedmen
- Passed the “Black Codes”
E. The Black Codes
- By 1865, blacks officially had some basic
rights: they could marry, own property, make
contracts, and testify in court against other
blacks
- But Southern states passed “black codes” to
replace slave codes
- They aimed to ensure a landless, dependent
black labor force
- Established racial segregation in public places
- Prohibited interracial marriage, black testimony
against whites, and black jury service
- Required special licenses for blacks to engage in
nonagricultural employment.
- Often prohibited blacks from buying or selling
farmland or renting property in cities
- Restricted rights of freed blacks to meet after sunset
or to own weapons
- Required blacks to have annual labor contracts with
landowners
- Allowed blacks without contracts to be arrested and
whipped as vagrants, and have their labor
auctioned off to employers who paid their fines
- Effectively barred blacks from leaving plantations
II. Congressional Reconstruction
A. Congress v. Johnson
- Congress, pushed by Radical Republicans, refused
to seat Southern delegates in Dec. 1865
- Moderate Republicans were the largest block in
Congress; at first they found Johnson too lenient
on South, but weren't ready to support the
Radicals
- But Johnson alienated moderate Republicans by
vetoing two bills, (1)expanding the Freedmen's
Bureau and (2)establishing black civil rights
- Congressional Republicans united to override both
vetoes (first major laws ever passed over a veto)
- The Civil Rights Act of 1866
– gave citizenship and equal rights to blacks
– authorized federal enforcement of these
rights
- GOP pushed the 14th Amendment to keep courts or
Democrats from undermining the new laws
- The
Congressional
elections of 1866
became
essentially a
referendum on
the 14th
Amendment, and
the GOP won in a
landslide
b. The 14th Amendment
- One of the most powerful and litigated parts of
the Constitution up to the present day
- It recognized African-Americans as citizens
(overturning the Dred Scott decision)
- Guaranteed all citizens equal protection before
the law
– Aimed against black codes
– Later the basis for Brown v. Board of
Education and Bush v. Gore decisions
- Guaranteed due process of law
– Prohibited state or local governments from
depriving people of their rights without
legislative authorization
– Later the basis for Roe v. Wade decision
- Reduced Congressional representation of states that
curtail black male suffrage
- Disqualified from office all prewar officeholders who
supported the CSA unless Congress voted 2/3 to
allow them
- Repudiated all CSA debts
C. The Freedmen's Bureau
- Established by Lincoln in 1865
- A federal relief agency that provided clothing,
medical attention, meals, education, and even
some land to free blacks and the poorer whites.
- Led by former General O.O. Howard
- Grew powerful during Radical Reconstruction
Period of late 1860s
- Ran special military courts to settle labor disputes
and could invalidate black codes
- Helped found universities like Howard and Fisk
- Effectively disbanded by 1870 due to lack of
support
D. Reconstruction Act of 1867
- Invalidated current Southern state governments
- Split the old Confederacy into 5 military
districts run by Union generals
- Black and non-disqualified white voters could
reconstitute state governments ensuring black
suffrage and 14th Amendment
- Aimed to prevent a rebel resurgence
- Passed despite another Johnson veto
E. The Impeachment Crisis, 1867-1868
- Johnson tried to reign in Reconstruction by
pulling executive levers of power
- He replaced radical military officers in South
with conservative ones
- Thaddeus Stevens and other Radicals passed a
string of laws helping to enforce their priorities
- The Tenure of Office Act (1)curtailed Johnson's
ability to fire Cabinet members and (2)forbade
Johnson from issuing military orders except
through General Grant (who was seen as
sympathetic to radicals)
- Johnson soon tried to fire Secretary of War Stanton,
and the House impeached (charged) the President
on 11 counts of violating the law
- However the Senate failed by 1 vote to convict
Johnson (remove him from office)
- Moderates were wary of his replacement, the
radical Benjamin Wade, and of destroying balance
of power among branches of government
- The result discouraged impeachment trials for
decades but also sharply curtailed Johnson's power
F. The 15th Amendment
- With Johnson politically neutered, the GOP
moved to entrench black suffrage
- Fairness aside, this allowed Republicans to
solidify their electoral advantage in the North
and create a power base in the South
- The 15th Amendment guaranteed no male citizen
could be denied right to vote “on account of
race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
- White Southerners rejected it as violating states'
rights, but some noted there were enough
loopholes that they could “work with it”
- Caused split among radicals, some of whom
demanded that women get the right to vote as well
- Other radicals, like Frederick Douglass, argued that
black suffrage was more urgent and mustn't be
derailed, and that women have other avenues to
protect themselves
- Adopted in 1870
III. Southern Governments
A. A New Electorate
- Newly reconstituted GOP-led state governments
were supported by three main groups with
diverse and sometimes contradictory goals
1. Freedmen
- After Congressional Reconstruction, black voters
outnumbered white voters in 5 Southern states
- They helped elect African-Americans to state
legislatures and Congress (but never to
governorship)
- Wanted land redistribution
- Often chafed at the
leadership role taken by the
black elite (usually born
free, often mulatto, from
the North)
- Black elites often looked
down on uneducated
former slaves and were
more interested in political
than economic equality
2. Carpetbaggers
- Migrants from North
- Often former Union
soldiers or Freedmen's
Bureau agents looking
to buy land or start
businesses
- Also included many
missionaries, and
teachers
3. Scalawags
- Southern whites who supported Reconstruction
- Often poor men who wanted land and education
- Some entrepreneurs who approved of GOP
economic policies (tariffs, banking, infrastructure)
- Some former Whigs and pro-Unionists
- Generally not interested in black rights or suffrage
- Held most political offices in South
- Many eventually drifted back to Democratic Party
as the political winds changed
B. Republican Rule
- New Southern state governments were corrupt,
but these were the most democratic governments
in the South yet
- The GOP crafted new state constitutions which
reflected the party's procedural and policy ideals
- Abolished property qualifications for
officeholding, made more offices elective, and
redistricted more evenly
- Universal male suffrage
- Improved infrastructure: roads, bridges, public
buildings, railroads
- Created system of public works: increased
government capacity to care for orphans, insane,
disabled
- Established public school system
- Integrated a few schools, including USC (whites
promptly withdrew)
- No land redistribution anywhere
- Freedmen were a
majority of the SC
legislature
- GOP rule lasted
longest in states with
the most freedmen:
SC, MS, AL, and LA
IV. The Counter-Reconstruction
A. Democrats
- The Democratic Party challenged black voters'
eligibility on a large scale
- States avoided the 15th Amendment by requiring
citizens to pass literacy tests or poll taxes (requiring
a set amount of money to vote)
- As most African-Americans in the South were
uneducated and poor, they couldn't vote
- Grandfather clauses allowed anyone (meaning poor
whites) to vote if they or their ancestors had voted in
previous elections
- Democrats filed suit in court when they lost elections
- Democratic newspapers attacked any black
political activity
- The Party
slowly won
over
scalawags,
appealing to
white
solidarity
B. Vigilantes
- The Ku Klux Klan, the White League, and other
vigilante groups sprang up in the post-war years
- The KKK was started in TN in 1866 by young CSA
veterans as a social club with elaborate rituals,
passwords, and hooded costumes
- It spread through the state, and then through the
South, and soon became essentially the terrorist
wing of the Democratic Party
- Leaders included Nathan Bedford Forrest, who also
led the 1864 Fort Pillow massacre of black troops
- KKK used threats,
violence, and murder,
against black voters,
schools, businessmen,
and militia units, as
well as Republicans or
Freedmen's Bureau
officials
- White mobs lynched
thousands of black
people in the decades
after the Civil War
- President Grant suspended writ of habeas corpus in
9 SC counties devastated by the Klan
- Despite federal laws targeting the Klan, few
members were convicted for their activities
- The Colfax(LA) Massacre of 1873: in one of the
worst acts of violence of the era, a mob of
Democrats wrested control of the local courthouse
from black officeholders and state militiamen,
massacring 100 or more of them.
V. Life after Slavery
A. New Freedoms
- Many freed house slaves and artisans left
plantations altogether after emancipation
- Field laborers were more likely to stay
- Many freedmen moved to cities or even the
Deep South, where there was a labor shortage
- Many sought out lost family members, with the
help of the Freedmen's Bureau, and
reconstituted stable, officially married families
B. Black Institutions
- Churches were the only institutions owned and
controlled by African-Americans
- They became the centers of black society, and of
political discussion and organization
- Ministers naturally became community leaders
- Black children and adults attended new schools
- Teachers were usually white women or black exsoldiers who had received some education in the
Union Army
C. Land, Labor, and Sharecropping
1. The Failure of '40 Acres and a Mule'
- Post-war Southern economy was still based on
cotton and agriculture
- “40 acres and a mule”, Sherman's phrase
describing a proposed policy on the Sea Islands,
was the ideal of economic independence
- But the federal and southern state governments
balked a redistributing land
- Most freedmen had no property, tools or capital,
few skills, and little mobility due to black codes
- The 1866 Southern Homestead Act granted public
land to freedmen and loyal poor whites, but the soil
was poor and no assistance (tools, seeds, loans)
was provided, so very few small farms flourished
- The Freedmen's Bureau encouraged wage labor as a
path to advancement
- But blacks disliked the wage system, because it
involved gang labor and resembled slavery
- White plantation owners also disliked it, because
they were less able to coerce high productivity out
of non-enslaved laborers
2. Sharecropping
- Evolved as a compromise between freedmen and
landowners
- Under sharecropping, a family farmed a portion of
a landowner's land in return for housing and a
share (often 50%) of the crop
- It allowed planters and tenants to share risk: if the
crop failed, they both suffered
- Freedmen benefited from a far higher percentage of
their labor than under slavery
3. The Planters Win Again
- Under sharecropping, landowners could expel
undesirable tenants
- Landowners also kept the most productive land
- Planters relinquished daily control of freedmen, but
preserved their elite status
- Landowners and merchants often advanced money
for supplies to sharecroppers, using future harvests
as collateral (called crop liens)
- A bad harvest or low prices could plunge
sharecroppers, black or white, into a cycle of debt
- They would be effectively tied to the land, not
allowed to diversify away from cash crops, and
without the money to invest in better equipment or
techniques
VI. Changes in the North
A. President Grant
- Elected in 1868, he was a passive president and
often drunk
- His policy preferences were mostly in line with
Republicans in Congress
- Though personally not corrupt, he appointed or was
linked to corrupt officials on a large scale
- Under a “spoils system” (or a “patronage system”),
the party in power rewards its friends, relatives,
and supporters with government jobs or contracts
- Under the weight of scandals and tired of
Reconstruction, a large faction left the GOP to
form the Liberal Republican Party in 1872
- This undercut Grant's own commitment to
Reconstruction, and he soon granted most
remaining ex-Confederates amnesty
B. The Panic of 1873
-Over-investment in railroads
and industry created a bubble,
which burst, leading to a
financial panic and a
depression lasting 5 years
- Labor protests, industrial
violence, and unemployment
soared
- The depression drove both
freedmen and whites into
sharecropping
C. Republicans in Retreat
- By Grant's second term, Northern white support for
Reconstruction was ebbing because:
1. Most Americans preferred the primacy of state law
to than federal law
2. Northern idealism was eroding after a decade of
conflict
3. Northern businessmen wanted opportunities to
make money in the South
4. Many were distracted by the depressed economy
5. The main Radicals had died
VII. Reconstruction Abandoned
A. Redeeming the South
- The GOP base in the South crumbled as:
1. Scalawags and carpetbaggers quit politics or
defected to the Democrats
2. Ex-Confederates were pardoned
3. Democrats mobilized formerly apathetic whites
- Democrats who pushed these changes were called
“redeemers”
- Taxes were lowered, and social programs and
education were defunded
- Freedmen were intimidated from voting
- Black codes were tightened, creating a large black
convict population that was hired out as forced
laborers
- Some blacks fled to Kansas in the “Exodus”
movement, but most lacked the resources or legal
ability
B. Reconstruction and the Constitution
- Throughout the 1870s, the Supreme Court chipped
away at Reconstruction:
1. Striking down military courts that enforced it
2. Applying the 14th Amendment to rights of national
citizenship but not to rights on the state level
3. Curtailing federal defense of black suffrage
4. Undercutting federal suppression of the Klan
C. The Election of 1876
- Due to the bad economy and scandals
surrounding Grant, Democrat Samuel Tilden
won 300,000 more votes than Republican
Rutherford B. Hayes
- The two parties disputed results in SC, FL, OR, and
LA, leaving the electoral college count unclear
- In reality, both sides tried to steal the election: GOP
state governments discarded legitimate Democratic
votes, and Democratic officials prevented
freedmen from voting
- Congress appointed a commission to settle the
controversy
- In the Compromise of 1877, Democrats agreed to
Hayes being president and Republicans agreed to
end Reconstruction
- The South also
received federal
money, home rule,
withdrawal of federal
troops
- Though Hayes
guaranteed protection
to freedmen, and the
Democrats promised
to treat them fairly,
these promises were
ignored
D. Impacts of Reconstruction
1. Political Impacts
- Southern states were readmitted to Union and
controlled mostly by the antebellum white elite
- Blacks were now free (13th Amendment), but forced
to fend for themselves in a hostile environment
- Courts gutted the 14th Amendment, allowing
Southern states to pass Jim Crow laws, which
required racially segregated public facilities
- States avoided the 15th Amendment, disenfranchising
blacks by requiring citizens to pass literacy tests or
pay poll taxes
2. Two paths for the Freedmen
a. Booker T. Washington
- Founder of the Tuskegee Institute, he argued for
accepting Jim Crow in the short term and focusing on
economic advancement
- In his “Atlanta Compromise”
speech of 1895, he said the
black community should
pursue industrial education,
acquire practical skills, and
adopt white middle class
values
b. W.E.B. Du Bois
- The first African-American to get a PhD from
Harvard, he believed in agitating for political and legal
equality without delay
- He was founder of the NAACP and leader of the
“Niagara Movement,” an elite group of black political
activists
- Du Bois strongly protested
lynchings, segregation, and
discrimination, and he thought
moderates like Booker T.
Washington were sellouts
- He was also an important
Marxist historian
3. Longer Term Political Impacts
- The KKK continued to operate in the South
- In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court
ruled in favor of “separate but equal” facilities for
whites and blacks
- The “Solid South:” for nearly a century, white
Southerners remained distrustful of the Republican
Party and overwhelmingly voted Democratic
- During the 1950s and 60s, the 14th and 15th
Amendments were the basis for the establishment
of lasting black legal and political equality
- Likewise, black families, schools, and churches
would be the basis for the Civil Rights Era
4. Social Impacts:
- There was stability of white social classes, though
planters saw some loss of power
- Racial segregation remained
- Freedmen were more interested in liberty and
independence than in racial integration
- New school systems brought education to Deep
South, but 25% of white children and 75% of black
children were still illiterate by 1880
- Black family structure came to resemble that of
whites as women left the fields and increasingly
cooked, cleaned, and did laundry
5. Economic Impacts:
- There was little intervention by the Federal
government to rebuild the war-torn economy
- No land reform left blacks without the economic
power to defend their liberty
- There was a small but growing number of black
landowners, businessmen, and professionals
- Blacks worked 1/3 fewer hours than under slavery
- Soil depletion, erosion, and agricultural
backwardness entrenched Southern poverty
- In Birmingham and a few other areas, increases in
textile, iron, steel, and railroad production led some
to speak of a modern, industrializing “New South”