AMH 2020Chapter 15

Reconstruction (II)

Reconstruction End of Civil War

South was devastated

African Americans no longer slaves

How to put the pieces back together?

Charleston, South Carolina

What does freedom mean? Field Order 15 “forty acres and a

mule”

1865-African Americans were hopeful

How would the new south look?

Map of Reconstruction

Politics of Reconstruction Minimal Reconstruction

• Restore Union• Andrew Johnson

Radical Reconstruction• Restore Union• Put “loyal” people in key positions• Guarantee basic rights for blacks• Congress

Ten Percent Plan Under Lincoln

Successful in LA and AR

Set up local government after 10% were “loyal”

Andrew Johnson Southerner

U.S. Senator

V.P. under Lincoln

President• Man positioned to

guide U.S. back together

Problems Many states were limiting voting to

include white only

Black codes were passed

Different laws

Black Codes

Johnson and the Veto Freedman’s bureau

• Had to be rewritten to pass

Civil Rights Bill• Congress over rode the veto

Freedmen’s Bureau

14th Amendement

“Citizenship for all persons born or naturalized in the United States”

Radical Reconstruction Contradicted Johnson’s wishes

Wanted to “re-shape” southern society

Supported military rule• Militarized for a limited period

Eventually forced to compromise

Thaddeus Stevens Radical Republican

Redistribute plantation land to slaves

Too radical for many

Impeachment Johnson refused to support

Reconstruction Act

Congress voted to impeach• Obstructing Congress

Johnson escaped Impeachment by one vote

Rebuilding the South Cities destroyed

Economy changing

Confederate currency was useless

Area set aside for Freedmen

Rejection of Field Order No.15

1865 40,000 former slaves granted

300,000 acres of land

When Johnson pardoned land owners• Land was returned

New system of Labor Contract

• Agreed upon price for one year

Share-cropping• New kind of servitude

Alabama sharecropping family

South Carolina sharecropper

Black Codes Made unemployment a crime

Mob violence

Limited voting, property rights

Reconstruction politics Republicans ruled

Protection of civil and voting rights

“Scalawags”• White southern republican

“Carpetbaggers”• Northerners who saw opportunity

“Carpetbagger”

Positive gains of Republican Rule

Schools

Expanded public services

African Americans could particpate

President Grant and Scandal Credit Mobilier Scandal

• Vice President implicated in this scheme

Whisky Ring• Corruption at all levels of government

Whiskey Ring

15th Amendment Ratified in 1870

Upheld the right of all male citizens to vote

Allowed for local level qualifications

Women oppose

Ku Klux Klan Wanted to reclaim the south

Put Democrats in control

Go back to the pre-Civil war Social Order

Targeted African-American and white supporters

KKK

1870-71 Force Acts Enforce the 15th Amendment

Illegal to interfere with voting rights

U.S. troops could intervene

Thousands arrested

Election of 1876RUTHERFORD B. HAYES SAM J. TILDEN

Compromise of 1877 Tilden won the popular vote

Electoral votes disputed

Compromise gave Hayes the win• Promised to withdraw from the South• Southern Democrats agree to side with

Hayes

End of Reconstruction

Southern white elite took control• Wealthy planter class• Business

“Reedemers”• Combination of Old South elite and

commercial/business interest groups

Rise of Jim Crow

Jim Crow Laws Began informally

Become the law

Supreme Court upheld in Plessey vs. Ferguson