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I.Chapter 26: The Problems of Peace

a.The Aftermath of the War-

Plantations, fields and railroads were mangled from the battles. The Confederate army collapsed, leaving areas to groups such as the guerillas or deserters. Starvation threatened the South. Reconstruction promised a new land of freedom in the likeness of the free-labor North, overseen by a strong national government. Occupation forces, the Freedmen's Bureau and Northern relief agencies stayed south to clean up the mess they helped make and served as the main source of law and order.

i.The Attitude of the Southern Whites

Many southerners had contempt towards the Northerners for destroying their land and people. These attitudes were less prevalent among confederate soldiers, however, than the noncombatants. They felt as if the Southern surrender meant their fighting was all for nothing.

ii.The Attitudes of Northern Whites

Northerners celebrated their victory over the south as southern destitution poured vengeance from their hearts. They wanted to help the south rebuild so they could become a union as quickly as possible. A wide spectrum of northern ideals for reconstruction arose. Self-reconstruction was on one side of the spectrum, which allowed southern governments to proclaim loyalty to the union, who would oversee their actions. The other end of the spectrum included radicals overthrowing the southern government.

b.Presidential Reconstruction, 1865- Johnson opposed the Whig/Republican policy of using the government to promote economic development. He was also committed to white supremacy, so he did not agree with the northern idea of the freedmen's roles in society. He thought of reconstruction of more of an executive function.

i.Republican Response to Presidential Reconstruction

At first the republicans, except abolitionists and radicals, supported

Johnson’s actions. Most republicans believed blacks should take part in reconstruction.

ii.The Black Suffrage Issue in the North

Blacks were discouraged when the outcome of the CT, WI and MN

referendums in 1865 to enfranchise the few black men in those

states. Republican leaders worked to pass amendments that would

sway the northern opinion of black suffrage.

iii.The Revival of Southern Defiance

Assaults on freedmen and unionist alarmed even moderate republicans, convincing them that Johnson’s program was not very successful. Ex-Confederates began to go back to their old ideals and replacing unionists in office with confederates in union resistance.

iv.Johnson and the South

Johnson bore the responsibility for southern defiance. He believed that they needed to place a little more trust in the southern government so they will be more likely to “act in good faith and restore the former constitutional relationship with the union.” (544)

c.Land and Labor in the Postwar South
The abolition of slavery was officially announced in the spring of 1865. Many freedmen remained on the plantations at which they were slaves to work for wages, but for others, leaving their slave owners was the most essential part of freedom. They also searched for their relatives, jobs with higher wages, and protection and rations from the Freedmen's Bureau. This created labor shortages in plantations

i.The Issue of Land for the Landless

Many freedmen felt that ownership of land would make their freedom truly concrete.

If they couldn’t afford to buy land, they expected the government to grant or lease it

to them, and the Freedmen's Bureau provided land for nearly 10,000 families by

1865. Later on, the fight for land was determined by the Homestead Act of June

21, 1866. Most freedmen did not end up getting all the economic independence

they hoped for.

ii.The “Labor Question” and the Freedmen’s Bureau
Many southern whites had difficulty gathering that freedom for the blacks meant

the same thing as freedom for them. They treated blacks as closely to slaves as

they possibly could, but when freedmen began to leave their plantations for poor

treatment, the white men began complaining about labor shortage. The Bureau

decided to develop a required sort of contract for each plantation between the

workers and the owners specifying wages, hours, type of work and various

conditions.

iii.The Black Codes

These laws included: authorization of freedmen to own property, make contracts,

sue and plead in court, and contract legal marriages with stipulations. There was

some requirement of public segregation, exclusion from juries and did not allow

interracial marriage. The most important impact of the codes was not the the

operation itself but the impact on the north. The codes strengthened the resolve of

republican congressmen to keep the south on probation until they could work out

mean to protect the freedmen on their own.

II.Chapter 27: The Origins of “Radical” Reconstruction

a.The Making of Another Constructional Crisis

Republicans remained divided among themselves over how to reunite the confederates to the union, as well as guaranteeing the former slaves freedom. They did all agree, however, not to let any southern representatives into congress. THis was meant to provoke a basis for accommodation between the president and the moderate majority of republicans.

b.The Fourteenth Amendment

The 14th amendment was to be the basis for readmission of the southern senators

and representatives to congress. It would have to provide a constitutional guarantee

of the of the rights and security of the freedman, insure against a revival of the

neo-confederate political power and enshrine in the constitutions the sanctity of the

national debt and the repudiation of the confederate debt. The 14th amendment

overall provides that all states will provide equal protection to everyone within their

jurisdiction. It provides due process under the law and equally provides all

constitutional rights to all citizens of this country, regardless of race, sex, religious

beliefs and creed.

c.The Military Reconstruction Act

The Military Reconstruction Act of 1867 was meant to rebuild the governments of

southern states by using those of the north as an example. It was also to ensure

civil rights to freedmen in the south by requiring the southern states to include the

rights of freedmen in their constitutions. It also required the new southern governments to accept the Fourteenth Amendment.

III.Chapter 28: Reconstruction and the Crisis of Impeachment

a.Johnson’ s Continued Defiance of Congress

i.The Southern Response of the Reconstruction Acts

Ex-Confederates advised southerners to accept the inevitable and comply

with the laws. some white southerners hoped to influence the reconstruction

process in a moderate direction. They hoped to create a third party

independent of the democrats and the republicans, in which they were

unsuccessful. However, with the passage of the Military Reconstruction

Acts, the Southern Republicans became a prominent party in in nearly half

of the southern states by winning the allegiance of the freemen.They

recruited blacks into the republican party with the Union League, created in

the north during the war.

b.The Impeachment and Acquittal of Johnson

The replacement of Sheridan by Hancock reversed many of Sheridan’s

policies and set back Republican efforts for improvement. Johnson also

replaced two republican generals in the GA-AL-FL district with

conservatives expected to follow Hancock’s examples. These steps only

encouraged southern resistance. Southern Republicans expressed dismay

toward this negative power of the president.

i.The House Votes Impeachment

After Johnson violation of the Tenure of Office Act by removing Stanton from

his position and replacing him with Thomas without the Senate’s consent,

moderates who opposed impeachment were swayed toward it. They

believed he truly overstepped his boundaries.

d.Readmission of Southern States

After the 1867 voter’s registration ended, approx. 735,000 blacks and 635,000 whites had enrolled in the ten underconstructed states. Democrats searched for ways to either control or defeat reconstruction. They encouraged followers to abstain from voting in hopes of a constitutional convention.

i.The Constitutional Conventions
These constitutional convention of 1867-1868 were of the most

progressive in the nation. Modeling the most advanced features of the northern state constitutions, they determined factors such as public education, social welfare responsibility, boards for public charities, prison reforms, and public services. They also discussed property issues such as taxes and ownership. They also dealt with the issue of the disfranchisement of the ex-Confederates, which took place slowly throughout the states until the last one, Arkansas, removed its disabilities in 1872.

IV.Chapter 29: The First Grant Administration

a.The Election of 1868

The struggles between Johnson and Congress taught Republicans that the program of reconstruction demanded not just executive action but legislation as well.

i.The Republican Convention
Grant became a major republican candidate after turning against Johnson's

restoration program. Chase was his only real threat, who had ambitions not satisfied by his chief justiceship of the Supreme Court. The radicals favored Chase until there were reservations made about Grant, like his endorsements of the congressional program in 1867 by his actions as commanding general of the army, the democratic gains in the the 1867 elections, and his bitter break with Johnson in 1868 when siding with congress and allowing Stanton to keep his position in office. The Republican party made a unanimous decision to nominate Grant.

ii.The Democratic Convention
The Democrats favored Seymour as their candidate. They stood for the

abolition of the Freedmen’s Bureau and all other political instrumentalities designed to “secure negro supremacy”.

b.The Fifteenth Amendment

The 15th amendment states that voting rights in states cannot be withheld on the

basis of race, color, or previous position of servitude.

  1. Chapter 30- The making of the new regime in the South
  2. Southern Republicans: Blacks, Carpet Baggers, and Scalawags
  3. Controlled almost all Southern States
  4. Southern Republicans
  5. Saw as incredibly uneducated and very lower class of society
  6. Voting
  7. 80% of voters were black
  8. 20% of voters were white- Party leadership
  9. Whites were intimidated by blacks in office
  10. Scalawags and Carpetbaggers
  11. Fought
  12. Scalawag- Southern White that joined Republicans
  13. Racially tolerant
  14. Carpetbaggers- Union members that moved South
  15. Usually educated
  16. Help economy and rebuild South
  17. Wanted to industrialize the South
  18. Southern Republicans in power
  19. The Amnesty Question
  20. Total Forgiveness of Rebellion
  21. Carl Schurz
  22. Horace Greeley
  23. Wanted a moderate Southern Republicans Party
  24. Klu Klux Klan (KKK)
  25. Used to intimidate blacks
  26. Regain social and economic control of the black population
  27. Keep Blacks out of office
  28. Violent to intimidate before elections
  29. Lost Republican control- 1869
  30. Laws to protect blacks
  31. 14th and 15th Amendments
  32. Act- Federal Offence to interfere with voting
  33. Klu Klux Act- Authorized President to use the Army while empowering the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus against Klansmen in areas declared to be a state of insurrection
  34. Most Klansmen were not convicted or granted pardons by President Grant
  35. Election of 1872
  36. Liberal Republican Convention- Cincinnati 1872
  37. Republicans attempt to find new candidate
  38. Split from Republican party and formed Liberal Republican Party
  39. Agreements on Reconstruction
  40. Campaign
  41. Grant won
  42. Social and Economic Reconstruction
  43. Education in the South
  44. Blacks were eager to learn
  45. Whites felt white supremacy was threatened
  46. 1866- Freedmen’s bureau started public schools in south for Blacks
  47. W.E.B. Du Bois
  48. Segregation in Schools
  49. It was allowed for schools to be desegregated, but white children rarely went to school with black children
  50. Some states forced schools to desegregate causing whites to drop out of the school
  51. Civil Rights Act of 1875-Desegregation Act
  52. Charles Sumner introduced a bill prohibiting racial discrimination
  53. Law was weakly enforced
  54. Found Unconstitutional because under the 14th Amendment Congress had no right to legislate against discrimination against an individual, only a state.
  55. The New Order in Southern Agriculture
  56. Lien Laws to protect worker’s wages
  57. Black per capita agricultural income in the cotton states increased 46% from 1857-1879
  58. Land
  59. The Evolution of Tenantry- The owner of a plantation would be offering share of the crop. Also the freedmen got their own plot of land that made them feel pride.
  60. Land and crop began to work more on a credit system
  61. Poverty in the south was caused by dropping prices of cotton, emancipation, and post-war debt.
  62. Postwar Commercial and Industrial Developments
  63. Railroad
  64. Crucial in benefit of a country and trading
  65. 1866-1873 35 thousand miles were laid
  66. There were many skeptics because the railroad put small farmers out of business
  67. Violent strikes caused 4 years of depression starting in 1877
  68. 1866- National Labor Union
  69. The Destruction of Reconstruction
  70. The Overthrow of the Regimes
  71. The Wheeler Compromise and wavering commitment of Northern Republicans
  72. The Supreme Court and Reconstruction
  73. The Democrats had control over the Supreme Court and had over ruled the radical reconstruction policies.
  74. The Election of 1876-
  75. Republican Hayes and Democrat Tilden tied in electoral votes
  76. The Compromise of 1877
  77. House controlled by Democrats had decided Hayes could win if the North would take troops out of the South, ultimately taking away the protection from the freemen.
  78. The Making of the Solid South
  79. Persistence of the Southern Question
  80. United in their opposed to Reconstruction
  81. Ideology and Reality in the New South
  82. Economy boomed after 1878 Depression with steel production
  83. The Ideology of the New South
  84. Democratic former Confederates who were granted amnesty had continued to rule the South after the Compromise of 1877 when the troops had withdrawn from the South.
  85. They ruled through Jim Crow Laws and continued prejudices against black 1960s.
  86. Farewell to the Bloody Shirt
  87. Bloody Shirt- During elections Republicans would automatically gain the black vote due to them being against slavery and a part of the Union. The election of 1888 was the first time since the Civil War that a democrat was elected.