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Rebuilding the South

Rebuilding the South. Ch. 17 : Reconstruction. Reconstruction. The process of readmitting the former Confederate states to the Union Lasted from 1865 to 1877. Damaged South. Cities, towns, and farms were ruined High food prices and crop failures meant starvation

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Rebuilding the South

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  1. Rebuilding the South Ch. 17: Reconstruction

  2. Reconstruction • The process of readmitting the former Confederate states to the Union • Lasted from 1865 to 1877

  3. Damaged South • Cities, towns, and farms were ruined • High food prices and crop failures meant starvation • Confederate money was worthless • Banks failed • Merchants went bankrupt

  4. Mary Boykin Chesnut wrote in her journal: “We are shut in here…All RR’s destroyed – bridges gone. We are cut off from the world.”

  5. Lincoln’s Plan • Wants to reunite the country • Ten Percent Plan: offered southerners amnesty, or official pardon, for all illegal acts supporting the rebellion • Sweat an oath of loyalty to the Union • Agree that slavery was illegal • Ten Percent of voters in a state had to make the pledge in order to be readmitted to the Union

  6. Freedom for African Americans • Thirteenth Amendment made slavery illegal throughout the United States • Many people held marriage ceremonies • People looked for relatives that had been sold away • Many people moved just because they were free “I must go, if I stay here I’ll never know I’m free.” • Many changed their names

  7. Forty Acres and a Mule • Many plantations were broken up into 40 acre plots and given to former slaves as compensation • Eventually, the U.S. government returned the land to its original owners • Many were unsure what they would do or where they would live • Freedoms were difficult to enforce

  8. Freedmen’s Bureau • An agency providing relief for freedpeople and certain poor people in the south • Provide food for the poor • Education • Legal help • Established schools – Slaves had never learned to read or write “I never before saw children so eager to learn.”

  9. A New President • April 14, 1865, President Lincoln and his wife Mary attend a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C. • During the play, John Wilkes Booth, a southerner shot Lincoln • http://youtu.be/6qAeFjCscRY (4:33) • Vice President Andrew Johnson was sworn into office

  10. Opposition to President Johnson “This is a white man’s government, and intended for white men only.” ~ Governor Benjamin F. Perry, South Carolina Black Codes: laws the greatly limited the freedom of African Americans

  11. Black Codes • Southern States • Sign work contracts • Unemployed African Americans could be arrested, punishment = 1 year of work without pay • http://youtu.be/aAUXdd-DAh0 “If you call this freedom, what do you call slavery?”

  12. Radical Republicans • Wanted the federal government to force change on the South • Thought Black Codes were cruel and unjust • Critical of President Johnson Thaddeus Stevens: Leader of the Radical Republicans

  13. Fourteenth Amendment • Read Johnson Versus Congress, pg. 560-561 • What rights did the Fourteenth Amendment protect? • Johnson opposed the amendment

  14. Reconstruction Acts • Divided the South into five districts • Military would control the South until southern states rejoined the Union • Each state had to write a new constitution supporting the Fourteenth Amendment • Give African American men the right to vote • Look at quick facts page 562

  15. Congress Takes Control • Election of 1866: Republican Party has a 2/3 majority in both House and Senate • Override veto • Passed Reconstruction Acts • Laws that divided the South into five districts • Controlled by a military commander • States had to write a new state constitution supporting the Fourteenth Amendment

  16. President on Trial • President Johnson strongly disagrees • African Americans did not deserve the same treatment as white people • House of Representatives voted to impeach the president • Impeachment: bring charges of wrongdoing against a public official • However, he was not convicted • Johnson did not run for another term

  17. Grant • Grant is elected the next president even though he has no political experience • Grant supported reconstruction • Many African Americans voted for him

  18. Fifteenth Amendment • Gave African Americans the right to vote • Women were angry – it did not include them

  19. Reconstruction Governments • Republicans were unpopular with white voters • Carpetbaggers: Northern born republicans who had moved south and now held office • Disliked by southerners • Scalawags: white southern republicans • African Americans were Republicans • During Reconstruction more than 600 won elections to state legislatures

  20. Ku Klux Klan: formed 1866 by white southerners • Opposed civil rights • Opposed suffrage for African Americans • Used violence and terror

  21. KKK attacked and even murdered African Americans, white republican voters, and public officials, often at night • Government did little to stop the violence • Many were sympathetic towards or feared the clan • Read about KKK, page 566 • The KKK today http://www.kkk.com/

  22. Reconstruction Ends • Republicans begin to lose power • Former Confederates are elected back into power • Financial and political scandals during Grants presidency

  23. Panic of 1873 • Severe economic downturn • Value of land along the Northern Pacific RR • Investors lost money • Panic swept through the stock market • Unemployment rises to 14% • Strikes and protests around the nation • Republicans were blamed for the problems

  24. Election of 1876 • Republicans choose Rutherford B. Hayes • Democrats choose Samuel J. Tilden • Tilden appeared to have won but was challenged by Hayes • Compromise of 1877: Democrats agreed to accept Hayes’s victory. In return, all remaining federal troops would be removed from the South

  25. Redeemers • Democrats in power • Limit the rights of African Americans • Lower state budgets • Get rid of social programs • Cut property taxes • Cut public funding for schools • Poll tax: special tax people had to pay in order to vote • Literacy test • Segregation: Jim Crow laws • http://youtu.be/FgG6LPnkfto

  26. Farming in the South • Sharecropping: sharing the crop. Landowners provide land, tools, and supplies, and sharecroppers provide the labor. • Most of the crop goes to the landowner • Created a cycle of debt • Little cash meant items were bought on credit • Cycle of good and bad years, weather, crop prices

  27. Rebuilding Industry • Southern business relied on industry to rebuild the South • Work appealed to rural families • African Americans were not allowed to work in mills • Long hours, dangerous working conditions, low wages

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