History 167: Reconstruction

PART 1: RECONSTRUCTION 1865-1913 alarmed by the broad expansion of presidential

RECONSTRUCTION powers under Lincoln (since the Emancipation
PERIOD: 1865-1877 Proclamation was a presidential act with
AIM: Congress having no participation)
to determine the role of the Blacks (Freedmen) Wade-Davis Bill:
in American political and social life DATE: July 1864
to restore the American Union broken up by Provision: that over 50% of the
sectionalism and the Civil War registered voters of a rebellious state
Reconstruction Presidents must take the oath of loyalty in order to
START: Abraham Lincoln set the reconstruction process in
Andrew Johnson operation
Ulysses Grant that Congress, not the President, would
END: Rutherford Hayes judge when a state had met the
Abraham Lincoln requirements for re-admission to the
LINCOLNS DILEMMA: disagreements with the Union
Democrats and the Republicans Lincolns Pocket Veto:
War Democrats Pocket Veto:
disagreed with Lincolns Emancipation 1. President does not sign a bill proposed
proclamation by Congress
*** only encouraged the Confederates to 2. Congress adjourns within the 10-day period
continue to fight when the President is supposed to sign the
hoped for a less than total victory bill
*** since total victory meant the total Lincoln Assassination
destruction of the South April 14, 1865: Lincoln is assassinated
Radical Republicans Lincolns Death
wanted complete military victory IMPACT: no Reconstruction policy set in place
*** to remake Southern society in accordance Andrew Johnson
with Republican ideals TERM: 1865-1869
constantly pushed Lincoln for the complete Raleigh (North Carolina)
abolition of slavery UNITED STATES: a nation formed by people and
RECONSTRUCTION PLAN not by states
as soon as 10% of the voters in each rebellious CONFEDERACY: a rebellion instigated by
state takes an oath of allegiance to the Union, individuals
the people of that state could organize a IMPACT/SIGNIFICANCE: states cannot secede
government and elect congressmen and from the Union
senators to Congress Confederate states did not lose their status as
Radical Republicans states during the Civil War
RESPONSE: disagreed with Lincolns states cannot be reinstated because they are
reconstruction Policy already states
ARGUMENT/JUSTIFICATION: the bloodletting RECONSTRUCTION PLAN:
and sacrifice of the Civil War would have gone 1st step: 50% of voters in each southern state
for nothing must take an oath of allegiance to the Union
FUTURE AGENDA: no intention of resuming 2nd step: new state governments must ratify the
pre-war bickering with Pro-Slavery Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution
congressmen Thirteenth Amendment
Moderate Republicans ADOPTED: December 18, 1865
sided with the Radical Republicans PROVISION: Neither slavery nor involuntary
did not want to see former Confederates servitude, except as a punishment for crime
returning to Congress whereof the party shall have been duly
Congress
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 History 167: Reconstruction
convicted, shall exist within the United States,
or any place subject to their jurisdiction
SIGNIFICANCE: abolished slavery and servitude
Johnsons Reconstruction Plan
IMPACT: allowed former Confederate officers
to be elected in Congress
Robert Anthony Hatcher
United States Congress
Missouri, 1873-1879
Richard Coke
United States Senate
Texas, 1877
Johnsons Reconstruction Plan
IMPACT: resulted in the adoption of Black
Codes by the southern states
Black Codes
laws enacted by southern states to regulate the
lives of freed slaves
laws drawn largely from earlier slave laws
Race was defined by blood; the presence of any
amount of black blood made one black.
Employment was required of all freedmen;
violators faced vagrancy charges.
Freedmen could not assemble without the
presence of a white person.
Freedmen were assumed to be agricultural
workers and their duties and hours were tightly
regulated.
Freedmen were not to be taught to read or
write.
Public facilities were segregated.
Violators of these laws were subject to being
whipped or branded.
IMPACT: rejected the rights of full citizenship
granted to freed slaves
IMPACT: created a second class status among
blacks in which they enjoyed only few civil
rights
IMPACT: Congress denied seats to congressmen
from southern states with Black Codes
Congresss Solution: proposed a constitutional
amendment preventing state governments
from discriminating against blacks
Fourteenth Amendment
ADOPTED:
July 9, 1868
PROVISION: 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
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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.
SIGNIFICANCE: prohibited states from denying
equal citizenship to any person born or
naturalized in the United States
SIGNIFICANCE: prohibited states from depriving
any person of life, liberty or property without
due process of law
IMPACT: cancelled the civil rights of high-
ranking Confederate officials in Congress until
they were pardoned (voting and holding public
office)
Radical Reconstruction
DEFINITION:
Reconstruction program pursued by the Radical
Republicans
Radical Republicans
consisted of long-standing proponents for the
abolition of slavery
SENATE: Charles Sumner (Massachusetts)
Benjamin Wade (Ohio)
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: Thaddeus
Stevens(Pennsylvania)
election of a state-wide convention to ratify the
13th and 14th Amendments and to draft a
constitution
Radical Reconstruction
division of the Confederacy into 5 military
districts governed by martial law to enforce
order
holding of a voter registration supervised by the
army
1. adult black males were eligible to register
2. Confederate officials were barred from
registering
election of a state-wide convention to ratify the
13th and 14th Amendments and to draft a
constitution
approval by Congress for the reconstruction of a
southern state
Readmission to the Union
1868:
Alabama
Arkansas
 History 167: Reconstruction

Florida IMPACT: created a gap between rich and poor

Louisiana
North Carolina
South Carolina
1870:
Georgia
Mississippi
Texas
Virginia
Reconstruction President
Ulysses Grant
1869-1877
Point Pleasant
(Ohio)
RECONSTRUCTION PLAN:
to give the blacks the right to vote
won the 1868 Presidential Election only
because of the 500,000 blacks who were
allowed to vote
Republic Party in 1869: proposed the Fifteenth
Amendment
Fifteenth Amendment
ADOPTED: March 30, 1870
PROVISION: 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.
SIGNIFICANCE: prohibited the federal and state
governments from denying a citizen the right to
vote on the basis of race, color or previous
condition of servitude
Problems of Reconstruction
Reconstruction: regarded by many as a failure
(1) Carpetbaggers: refers to northerners who
went to the South to engage in business; so-
called because they went to the South bringing
only a carpetbag (cheap suitcase); accused of
exploiting the poverty of southerners
IMPACT: projected a negative image of
northerners among the southerners
(2) Scalawags: refers to the poor whites in the
Southern states; regarded as the dregs of
Southern society; used the Souths defeat in
the Civil War to get revenge on the planter elite
who looked down on them
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southerners; perpetuated the issue of racial
inequality
(3) Redeemers: refers to white Democrats who
regained control of southern states
so-called because they redeemed the
Southern states from Radical Republicans
IMPACT: placed in the hands of whites the task
of maintaining stability in the South
(4) Ku Klux Klan: usually dressed in ghostly
white costumes that concealed their identities
AIM: to frighten the blacks from voting
METHODS: used terror on blacks who insisted
on carrying out their civil rights; harassing,
beating and even killing blacks
IMPACT: forced the blacks out of public life
1876: only 3 Southern states were still governed
by Radical Reconstruction governments friendly
to the blacks
1. Louisiana
2. Florida
3. South Carolina
(5) Black Economic Bondage: the constitutional
program for racial equality did not extend to
economic equality between blacks and whites
SIGNIFICANCE: the grant of political freedom
was not accompanied by the provision for
economic security
Reconstruction: regarded as an unfinished
revolution
SIGNIFICANCE: blacks remained poor after the
Civil War and Reconstruction
(6) Black Poverty:
ORIGIN:
rejection by Radical Republicans to confiscate
large plantations and to divide them into small
farms for former slaves
RESULT:
made the blacks merely sharecroppers:
1. farmed small plots owned by landlords
2. paid rent by turning over part of the harvest
ECONOMIC IMPACT:
black sharecroppers remained poor
POLITICAL IMPACT:
black sharecroppers surrendered their right to
vote in exchange for permission to continue
farming the lands of their landlords
End of Reconstruction
PRESIDENT:
 History 167: Reconstruction

Rutherford Hayes
1877-1881
AIM:
to build a Republican Party in the South
needed the support of Southern conservatives
sympathetic to the Republicans
wanted to remove the Southern perception that
the Republican Party only favored the blacks
1877: dropped the Republican defense of the
blacks
1877: removed federal troops in South Carolina,
Florida and Louisiana
1877: regarded as the Compromise with the
South
RESULT: South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana
elected Redeemer governments
IMPACT: return/restoration of white rule in
Southern states
IMPACT:
End of Reconstruction
Betrayal of the Negro
PART 1: RECONSTRUCTION 1865-1913

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