Presentation Transcript

1. Reconstruction 1863-1877
2. Process – the three Rs Restoration 1863- 1866 Presidential control Reconstruction 1867-1877 Congressional control Redemption Post 1877 Return of the Planter Elite and White Supremacy The Bourbons North loses interest in reform – capitalism and industrial development is now the focus
3. Essential Questions: How did reconstruction impact the nation? How did/do we view the period. How did it impact the South? How did it impact freedmen – at the time – post reconstruction – in the future – the Second reconstruction?
4. Key Issues Role and power of the federal government The place of the freedman – politically, socially economically Stevens – “Neither a landed aristocracy nor a landless underclass protects democracy” Douglass “…the work does not end with the abolition of slavery, but only begins.”
5. Conflicting Goals: Northern Radical Republicans Remake southern society – make like the North Economics – high tariffs, national bank, RR subsidies Keep Republican party in power Political consequences for the Confederate leadership Freedmen – economic opportunity and political rights – suffrage
6. Conflicting Goals: Moderates - Republicans/Democrats (N) Restore peace and order quickly; reunite N & S –easy re-entry to union Land ownership, free labor, free markets Local/ state decision- making on economic and political issues Limited support for African American suffrage
7. Conflicting Goals: Planter Elite Amnesty, pardon, restoration of land Restore plantation, cash crop economy Restore low paid African American labor Restore white supremacy – social separate based on race -paternalism Restrict political rights and economic gains of newly freedmen
8. Conflicting Goals: Yeomen Farmers and (Whigs)Unionists (S) Restore peace and order quickly; easy re-entry into the union Greater economic diversity in S: RR, industry and diverse agriculture Gain more political power to balance the Planter Elite – new leadership in states More social value Limit rights of freedmen – suffrage for educated
9. Conflicting Goals: Freedmen Economic independence and opportunity – “40 acres and a mule” – land ownership; trade Education opportunity Political rights and participation – suffrage Civil rights and equal protection under the law Protection from abuse and physical harm Restore families and own churches
10. Sherman’s Field Order # 15 400,00 acres of SC/GA/FL to freedmen – including the Sea Islands Encouraged joining the army Johnson returned to planters
11. Power Struggles National level Executive v Legislative power Who is the key decision maker in the transformation from war to peace Within the South Economic, political and social power and decision-making Who directs the state government
12. National Level: Restoration Lincoln’s 10% plan Easy re-entry; limited protection of black rights Full pardon – oath of allegiance; accept emancipation – 10% = admission Congressional challenges – reasserted power Wade-Davis Bill – 50%; Congressional role Wade-Davis Manifesto - censure
13. Freedman’s Bureau Adjustment to freedom Varied record Food, shelter, medical help Resettlement on confiscated land (later reclaimed) Education ***** Labor contracts
14. Schools
15. Johnson Southern; not political Limited role for the federal government No desire to protect the rights of freedmen White supremacy Plan – Lincoln’s but added personal pardon for planters (assets over $20,000)
16. Restoration under the plan 11 states re-entered by 1865 Former confederate leaders –Congress Congressional Republicans challenge results (radical Republicans) Black Codes – restricted black rights Vagrancy laws Can’t buy or rent land Can’t testify against whites
17. Power Struggle J. alienates moderate Republicans – vetoes two key bills 1. extending/increasing funding for Freedman’s Bureau 2. Civil Rights Act of 1866 Nullified black codes Gave full citizenship and equal rights to African Americans
18. Election of 1866 Congress v President over these vetoes J – congress “Africanizing” the nation C – J = drunk; “waved bloody shirt” Results Race riots “Veto proof” congress – moderate and radical Republicans united Moderates – protect white economic opportunity Radicals – black civil rights – voting = key
19. Radical Republican Reconstruction 1867-1877 Sumner & Stevens – thorough changes Goals: African American political participation Education Land “Forty acres and a mule”
20. Program 14th Amendment (Civil Rights Act) Citizenship Equal protection of the law Due process of the law Repudiated confederate debt; no former confederate leaders Penalties if people kept from voting
21. Program Joint Committee on reconstruction Congress in control; tossed out original reorganization Reconstruction Acts of 1867 (J vetoes) Five military districts Ratification of the 14th amendment Protection of voting rights in the state constitution
22. Military Districts
23. Civil Rights Amendments 13th – no slavery 14th – equal protection; due process; citizenship 15th – voting rights Problem –Radical Republicans assume that right to vote was enough to protect economic rights/social rights Not enough federal support to complete transition to full citizenship *****
24. Impeachment Tenure of Office Act; Army Appropriation Act “high crimes and misdemeaners” Impeached but not removed ---Ross Sg: maintained checks and balances Role of moderate Republicans
25. Power Struggle in the South planter elite reconstruction
26. New State Governments New legislators/basis of new government Newly freedmen More educated; often free before war Conservative; NOT disproportionate to pop. Unionists – Scalawags Northerners who went South for opportunity - Carpetbaggers
27. Evaluation: state gov’t Successes Education – system**** Asylum, prison reforms Hospitals & public services Women’s rights – legal RR Industry Debt relief Tax reform More democratic state/local gov’t Failures Bankruptcy Corruption – general for the nation – the tone of the times
28. Goals of the Planter Elite White Supremacy – racism used to create separation Return power to the PE – thus need to discredit reconstruction state governments Redeem the South – decrease the role of the federal government Laissez faire economics
29. African American Gains/Response to Freedom Marriage Naming Mobility Education Land – though lost later Political experience Employment choices
30. Key Institutions Family – parallel to traditional white institutions; women’s work Church – source of community; separate – African American controlled Education – literacy and opportunity–”dynamite”
31. African Americans in Post Reconstruction Era: Economics Sharecropping – why emerges Debt peonage/ crop lien system Lost land (Bethel)
32. Political Disenfranchisement (disfranchisement) Legal Poll tax Grandfather clause Literacy test Extra legal Terrorism/ KKK – Knights of White Camilia The White League Mississippi Plan Bull dozing
33. Social Jim Crow Society – legal segregation legal discrimination Decrease educational opportunities
34. Federal Actions Force Acts (KKK acts) – interference w/ voting rights = federal crime; federal supervision of election Decreased involvement after 1874 Amnesty Act 1872 – pardoned former confederates – Democrats regain control over state governments
35. Supreme Court Rulings Slaughter House Cases (1873) – state control over rights of citizenship Cruikshank v US (1876) – power of enforcement acts to protect African American rights denied
36. Civil Rights and Court Cases Civil Rights Act of 1875 – protected African Americans from public and private discrimination Civil Rights Cases 1883 – S Ct struck down major parts of Civil Rights Act – private discrimination = OK Plessy v Ferguson 1896 – S Ct allowed legal segregation by public institutions – “separate but equal” Harlan’s Dissent – Constitution is color blind – no second class citizenship”
37. Majority Opinion “Legislation is powerless to eradicate racial instincts or abolish distinctions based upon physical differences…If civil and political rights of both be equal, one cannot be inferior to the other civilly and politically. If one race is inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane.”
38. End of Reconstruction Election of 1876 – disputed Compromise of 1877 (bargain) Republican president Home rule in the South – last troops out $ for RR and industrial development Promise to “protect” rights of African Americans Loss of the economic promises of citizenship – a free citizen could remain landless, poor laborer Dependence – economic opportunity is blocked
39. Abandonment of goals Racism – legacy of segregation Abandonment of ideas of reform and “new” freedom – real opportunity for change is missed – fading hope New focus = business, making money, materialism
40. Strange Fruit Southern trees bear strange fruit Blood on the leaves and blood on the roots Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
41. Strange Fruit Pastoral scene of the gallant South The bulging eyes and twisted mouth The scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
42. Strange Fruit Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop Here is a strange and a bitter crop Ida B. Wells – Anti- lynch laws
43. Redemption New South – restoration of white supremacy and the control of the planter elite South lost the war but won the peace and the battle of history Historiography – Dunning School – captured the interpretation of the time Birth of a Nation
44. Dubois Reconstruction as a “splendid failure” The sleeping giants – 13, 14, 15 Amendment – make America be America for every one Second Reconstruction – Civil Rights Movement
45. Foner Amazing that it accomplished as much as it did A noble “seeking” to reform society and create democracy based on racial equality and opportunity for all
46. Post War National Issues Grantism - post war corruption – both North and South – but often associated w/ reconstruction government, scandals Spoilsmen v Reformers – patronage and civil service reform Monetary policy – greenbacks Women’s suffrage – two methods State by state (success in the West) National amendment