AP U.S. History Chapter 15 Reconstruction & the New South
AP U.S. History Chapter 15 Reconstruction & the New South
Main Idea / DetailsThe Problems of Peacemaking / Lincoln could not make a treaty w/the South as the Union never officially recognized its independence; however, he could not readmit the Southern states as if nothing had happened
The Aftermath of the War & Emancipation / Many Southerners returned to devastated homes, and fields
Infrastructure such as bridges & railroads had been destroyed
Many had invested in Confederate war bonds that were now worthless
Many families had to rebuild without the help of male relatives who had been killed during the war. (more than 20%; thousands more returned wounded or sick)
Some white Southerners faced starvation and homelessness
Almost all Southerners experienced loss and a cult of ‘ritualized mourning’ developed in the region in the late 1860’s.
White women wore ‘mourning clothes’ for two years or longer. Some women wore black for the rest of their lives
Some began to look nostalgically at their former way of life and romanticize the ‘Lost Cause.’
Confederate heroes were treated with extraordinary reverence: Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis.
Communities built elaborate monuments to their war dead.
The tremendous sense of loss that pervaded the South reinforced the determination of many whites to protect what now remained to their vanished world.
While conditions were bad for Southern whites, they were even worse for the nearly 4 million newly freed slaves
Nearly 200,000 freed slaves fought for the Union; 38,000 had died
As soon as the war ended, hundreds of thousands of freed slaves left their plantations, many in search of family members who had been sold.
Many had nowhere to go, many had only the clothes they wore.
In 1865, Southern society was in vast disarray. All, both black & white, faced an uncertain future
Reconstruction became a struggle to define the meaning of freedom
However, the former slaves and defeated whites had very different conceptions of what freedom meant.
Competing Notions of Freedom / African Americans = end of slavery; acquisition of rights & protection under the law
How to accomplish this?
a. redistribution of economic resources, especially land
b. simply legal equality
Southern whites = ability to control their own destiny without interference from the North or the federal government
They tried to restore their society to its antebellum form
White planters wanted to continue slavery in an altered form by keeping black workers tied to the plantations
Federal government kept troops in the South after the war to preserve order and protect the newly freed slaves
March 1865 TheFreedman’s Bureauis established. The Bureau:
Distributed food
Established schools
Helped settle blacks on lands of their own
Also helped poor Southern whites
The Freedman’s Bureau had authority to act for one year, but it
was too small to deal effectively with the enormous problems facing the South
Issues of Reconstruction / Reconstruction lasted from 1865-1877
A process was needed to re-admit defeated Confederate states to the Union
Lincoln’s Plan: His Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, also known as the ‘10% Plan’ would pardon all Confederate soldiers except high-ranking officers and those accused of war crimes if they would swear allegiance to the Union.
As soon 10% of those who voted in the 1860 election took this oath then the state could form a new state government and send representatives and senators to Congress.
Under Lincoln’s terms, four states, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia moved toward readmission to the Union.
However, Radical Republicans were angered by this plan. They believed it was too lenient on the Confederates and did nothing to help freed slaves.
Led by Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner and Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, they wanted to destroy the political power of former slave owners and give African Americans to be given full citizenship and the right to vote.
Their first effort was the Wade-Davis Bill, July 1864
a. Authorized the President to appoint a provisional governor for each conquered state
b. When a majority (not Lincoln’s 10%) pledged loyalty to the Union, the governor could hold a state convention. Delegates must be only those who could swear to the “Ironclad Oath” that they had never borne arms against the United States
c. New state constitution must abolish slavery, disenfranchise Confederate civil and military leaders, and repudiate debts accumulated by the former Confederate state government
Like Lincoln’s proposal, the Wade-Davis Bill left up to the states the question of political rights for blacks.
Congress passed the bill and Lincoln disposed of it with a ‘pocket veto.’
Radical republicans were furious and Lincoln became convinced he would have to accept at least some of the Radicals demands.
He began to move toward a new approach.
However, what plan Lincoln may have produced no one can say.
April 14, 1865 – Lincoln and his wife attended a play at Ford’s Theater
Southern Radical John Wilkes Booth entered the theater box from the read and shot Lincoln in the head. The unconscious Lincoln was carried across the street and died early the next morning.
These circumstances earned Lincoln immediate martyrdom, producing something close to hysteria in the North.
Booth was acting alone, although he had been actively involved in conspiracy groups throughout the war.
Secretary of State William Seward was also the victim of an assassination attempt the same night Lincoln was shot.
Seward was stabbed but survived his injuries.
Booth broke his leg jumping from the theater box and escaped to Virginia. He was cornered by Union troops and shot to death in a barn that was on fire.
A military tribunal convicted eight others of involvement in the conspiracy and four were hanged.
May, 1865 – With Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson assumed the Presidency.
Johnson and “Restoration” / President Andrew Johnson
Lincoln’s assassination complicated the process.While Lincoln had urged kindness and compassion, his Vice-President, now President Johnson had other ideas
Johnson’s plan was somewhat similar to Lincoln’s. Johnson tried to break former plantation owner’s power by excluding high-ranking Confederates and wealthy Southern land-owners from taking the oath.
He also pardoned over 13,000 Confederates because he believed that “white men alone must manage the South.”
(Pres. Johnson was from the South himself and a racist.)
The seven remaining Confederate states quickly agreed to the terms and all of the former rebellious states except Texas set up new state governments & elected legislators to go to Washington.
However, when the Southern legislators arrived in Washington, Congress refused to admit them.
Moderate Republicans pushed for new laws:
1866 – Congress voted to enlarge the Freedman’s Bureau
The Civil Rights Act was passed
Johnson shocked everyone when he vetoed both of these pieces of legislation.
Moderate & Radical Republicans, angered by Johnson’s veto, decided to work together and shift control of Reconstruction from the executive to the legislative branch.
Mid-1866 – Congress overrode the President’s vetoes of both the Civil Rights Act and the Freedman’s Bureau;the first time in history Congress overrode the veto of a president; in addition, they drafted the 14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment prevented states from denying rights & privileges to any U.S. citizen, now defined as “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.”
This amendment also was specifically intended to overrule the
Dred Scott decision from the Supreme Court.
Elections of 1866 – Moderate and Radical Republicans gained control of Congress.
They joined together to pass the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which did not recognize state governments, except Tennessee, formed under the Lincoln or Johnson Plans
The Act divided the former Confederate states into 5 military districts
The states were required to grant African American men the vote and to ratify the 14th Amendment in order to reenter the Union.
When Johnson vetoed the legislation, Congress promptly overrode it.
The 14th Amendment / April 1866 the Joint Committee on Reconstruction proposed a new amendment to the Constitution.
Congress approved it in early summer and sent it to the states for ratification
Eventually, it became one of the most important of all the provisions in the Constitution
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The 14th Amendment offered the first constitutional definition of American citizenship:
Everyone born in the United states, and everyone naturalized, was automatically a citizen and entitled to all the ‘privileges and immunities’ guaranteed by the Constitution
Including…..
Equal protection under the law by both state and national government
The could be NO OTHER requirements (for example, being white)
for citizenship.
It imposed penalties – reduction of representation in Congress & the electoral college on states that denied suffrage to any adult males
(However, it did reflect the prevailing view that voting was still restricted to males only)
It also prohibited former members of Congress or other former federal officials from the Confederacy from holding any state or federal office unless two-thirds of Congress voted to pardon them.
Only Tennessee ratified the 14th Amendment.
All other former Confederate states, along with Delaware and Kentucky, refused, leaving the amendment temporarily without the necessary approval of three-fourths of the states.
But by now, the Radical Republicans were growing more confident and determined.
Bloody race riots in New Orleans and other Southern cities- riots in which African Americans were the principal victims- strengthened their resolve.
In the 1866 congressional elections voters returned an overwhelming majority of republicans, most of them Radicals, to Congress.
The Congressional Plan / Radical Republicans passed 3 bills early in 1867 and overrode Johnson’s vetoes of all of them.
Under the Congressional Plan, Tennessee, who had ratified the 14th Amendment, was promptly readmitted
Congress rejected the ten other Lincoln-Johnson state governments
and combined them into 5 military districts
a. Military commander governed each district
b. Federal troops stationed in each district to ensure policy carried out
c. Adult black males and any white Southern males who had not
participated in the rebellion were registered to vote
d. Voters would elect conventions to prepare new state constitution
e. Once voters ratified their new state constitution, they could elect
state governments
f. The state must ratify the 14th Amendment
Once enough states had ratified the 14th Amendment, the former Confederate states could be restored to the Union.
By 1868, all former Confederate states except Virginia, Texas, and Mississippi had been readmitted to the Union. Conservative whites held up their return until 1869 for TX and VA, and 1870 for MS.
By delaying ratification, these states also had to ratify the newly proposed 15th Amendment:
Section 1. 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.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation
To prevent Pres. Johnson from further interfering with their plans, Radical Republicans passed two laws of questionable constitutionality in 1867:
The Tenure of Office Act
The Command of the Army Act
The Tenure of Office Act forbade a president from removing civil officials, including Cabinet members, without consent of the Senate
- Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton
- Ulysses S. Grant
(Limit the Supreme Court power, reduce Supreme Court to three judges or even abolish it)
The Impeachment of the President / President Johnson had ceased to be a serious obstacle to the passage of Radical legislation, but the Radicals believed Johnson remained an impediment to their plans.
In early 1867, they began looking for a way to impeach him and remove him from office.
When Johnson dismissed Secretary of War Edwin Stanton without the Senate’s approval, he violated the Tenure of Office Act.
Radicals quickly impeached the President and sent the case to the Senate.
The Radicals put heavy pressure on all the Republican senators but the Moderates wavered.
When it came to a vote on the charges, seven Republicans joined the Democrats to support acquittal, and the vote fell one short of the constitutionally required 2/3rds majority.
After that, the Radicals dropped the impeachment effort.
The South in Reconstruction
Education
Landownership and Tenancy
The Crop-Lien System
The African American Family in Freedom
The Grant Administration
The Grant Scandals / Credit Mobilier – construction company which helped build the Union Pacific railroad
Heads of Credit Mobilier used their positions as Union Pacific stockholders to steer fraudulent contracts to their construction company, bilking the company and the government out of millions
To prevent investigations, the directors gave Credit Mobilier stock to key members of Congress.
In 1872, Congress launched an investigation revealing highly placed Republicans, including Vice-President Schuyler Colfax as participants
Benjamin H. Bristow, Secretary of Treasury (#3) discovered some of his officers operating a ‘Whiskey Ring” cheating the government out of taxes by filing false reports
William K. Belknap, Secretary of War, accepted bribes to retain an Indian-post trader in office, scamming the government out of money that was to be used to provide supplies to Indians on reservations. The scam was known as the ‘Indian Ring’
The Greenback Question
Republican Diplomacy
The Abandonment of Reconstruction
The Southern States Redeemed
The Ku Klux Klan Acts
Waning Northern Commitment
The Compromise of 1877
The Legacies of Reconstruction
The New South
The “Redeemers”
Industrialization and the New South
Tenants and Sharecroppers
African Americans and the New South
The Birth of Jim Crow