1 - Reconstruction ('65-'77) Flashcards
Recontruction - Legislation
- Freedmen’s Bureau - faced limited recources & social opposition; failed to make significant impact
- Military Reconstruction Bill ‘67 - imposed temporary military rule on south
___ - 13th amendment ‘65 - Slavery Abolished
- 14th amendment ‘68 - Freedmen given citizenship
-
15th amendment ‘70 - All male citizens given right to vote but had many loopholes
___ - Civil Rights Bills: ‘66 & ‘75
- compromise of 1877
- Homestead Acts
___ - White violence
- Black codes
- temp. rise in AA officials
Reconstruction - Presidents
1.5T - Lincoln, ‘61-‘65
1T - Johnson, ‘65-‘69
2T - Grant, ‘69-‘77
Lincoln strengths & limitations
Strengths
+13th amendment
+Freedmen’s Bureau
Limitations
-assassinated
-unclear vision for Rc; unwilling to punish S, low priority on AA rights
-10% plan
Johnson strengths & limitations
Strengths
+14th amendment
-Civil RIghts Bill ‘66
* Johnson Vetoed it, but Congress overturned it w/ 2/3rd majority (1st time ever)
Limitations
-Attempted impeachment in ‘68 (avoided by 1 vote)
-RR congress disagreements: Tenure of Office Act, Military Reconstruction Bill
-VERY leniant towards South & opposed to RR
Grant strengths & limitations
Strengths
+15th amendment
+KKK laws
+Civil Rights Act ‘75
Limitations
-Legal discrimination and corruption
-Rc ends w/out succeeding
-Supported Rc, but not passionately enough
Recontruction - outcome strengths & limitations
Strengths
* Overall positive effect on Economy
Limitations
* failed to unify and rebuild the nation
* loss of interest in Rc as a whole:
* AA rights (Rep.s already guaranteed their votes)
* punishing South
Recontruction - Westward Expansion Causes
-
Manifest Destiny:
- Belief that White Americans had a God-given right to settle the whole continent
- Culturally significant, driven by Gov policy
-
Railroads:
- Railroads rapid growth, including first transcontinental railraod finished in ‘69,
- created many building and manufacturing jobs for workers and driven by Big Buisness
-
Government Policies:
- Homestead Act ‘62 (160acres given if farmed for 5yrs; 20k Homesteaders by ‘65),
- Timber & Culure Act ‘73 (Homesteaders given 160acres more if trees planted on 40acres),
- Desert & Land Act ‘77 (640acres more for $1.25/acre)
- No Gov intervention when the 2nd Gold Rush violated a treaty recognising the Black Hills of Dakota as NA land
- Pacific Railroad Act ‘62
Recontruction - Westward Expansion Effects
- Native American Genocide
- Sand Creek Massacre ‘64 - 700 poorly disciplined troops attacked undefended camp of the Cheyenne, killing Men, Women & Children
- Great Souix War ‘76 - caused by Dakota Gold Rush, Gov told them to return to Reservations, NAs either didn’t recieve or ignored the threat
- Battle of Little Bighorn ‘76 - Custer & all 200 troops killed by Souix & Cheyenne
- Reservations: NAs forced to be reliant on Gov supplies, ‘Americanised’ children
- Ppl & Goods move faster, NYC to Cal = 6month to 6day journey
- NAs & Buffalo disrupted
- created many building and manufacturing jobs for workers and driven by Big Buisness
CRecontruction - Industrial Growth Causes
-
Civil War Impact
- high demand led to mass production & distribution
- Financial Infastructure (paper money, high tariffs)
- Transport
- NYC to SanFran = 6month to 6day journey, thousands of workers, miles of railroad tripled from ‘60 to ‘80
-
Land Availability
- railroad development, expansion of farming mechanisation
- Availability of Capital (sellable products)
- developed stock market,
- increasing investments & shares,
- 2nd largest money market in the worls by ‘80
- Role of Gov
- Laissez Faire
- poor workers’ rights, Employers always favoured
- Tech growth
- new tech allowed Buisnesses to grow faster
- Bessemer Converter invented by Carnegie to speed up steel production
- Corporations & Trusts bypassed laws preventing Buisnesses from getting too Big
- Urbinisation & Immigration
- Agriculture
- Big Agri-buisness grows
- Farmers go into debt buying new equipment
- Prices of goods dropping
Recontruction - Immigration & Urbinisation
- the Boss System - local majors buying votes for selling houses/other neccessities
- Urbinisation resulted in cramped, poor living conditions
- Self-ghettoisation within ethnic groups (Chinatowns, Little Odessas, etc.)
- Population Growth:
- 31M to 50M (‘60-‘80)
- Consumers & cheap labour
-
PULL FACTORS
- Land Availability
- more opportunities
- relatives could already live in US; safe
- industry and economy growing
- more rights than in Europe at the time
-
PUSH FACTORS
- Famines in Ireland and Russia
- War
- poor living conditions
- few opportunities
Reconstruction FP
Upholding the Monroe Doctrine
* Monroe Doctrine 1823
* US would avoid involvement in EU wars unless US interests involved
* EU colonisation on the ‘American Continent’ would be regarded as an ‘unfriendly’ act
* Indicated a disinterest in foreign affairs
* Intervention in Mexico
* ‘46, US-Mexico war for California
* ‘66, France invades Mexico, US demands its withdrawl & moves 50k troops to the border; France backs down
* Demanded British compensation for supplying the South w/ ships during the civil war
Beginnings of expanding influence
* Birlingame Treaty ‘68 - endorsed ‘open door’ policy between US & China
* Midway Island aquired in ‘67
* Alaska purchased in ‘67 to - among other reasons - stop Britain from getting it (preclusive imperialism begins)
Primarily Isolationist
Recontruction - US Isolationism Reasons
- US ‘moral superiority’
- US was a nation of immigrants; international intervention would divide the population
___ - sufficient raw materials for self-sufficiency
- protected by Pacific and Atlantic Oceans
- no country the US bordered was considered a major threat
Effects of Reconstruction on the South
- not harsh on South; only 1 execution, no major confiscation of property
- Democrat dominance
- Some corruption (present nationwide) though little from Carpetbaggers - drastically exaggerated (only 2% of Southern pop. was northern)
- 1788-1860 = all southerner Presidents, 1864-1914 = one southerner President
- Positive Economic effects:
- Benefited from general prosperity
- High cotton prices
- Railroads rebuilt
- Textile manufacturing expanded
- Negative Economic effects:
- Did not keep up with the North
- ‘70s white Southerners income was 2/5 of white Northerners
- Highly dependent on Agriculture - especially cotton (cotton prices fall in the ‘70s)
Recontruction - differing approaches to the South
Ten Percent Plan ‘64
* introduced by Lincoln
* Rebel states would be admitted to the union if:
* 10% of their electorate swore an oath of future allegiance to the US
* supported all existing acts of Congress regarding slavery
* They allowed AAs to vote
Wade-Davis Bill ‘65
* ‘65
* introduced by Radical Republicans who felt the 10% plan wasn’t strong enough
* Required 50% of electorate to take a much tougher pledge of allegiance
* excluded all those involved in the Confederacy from any role in future government
* state constitutions must ban slavery
* Johnson’s reaction to the Wase-Davis Bill:
* Oath of loyalty accepted, but constitutional revisions would only be made by officials elected by pre-emancapation white electorate
Recontruction - Improvements for African Americans
Reconstruction
* 13th amendment ‘65 - Slavery Abolished
* 14th amendment ‘68 - Freedmen given citizenship
* 15th amendment ‘70 - All male citizens given right to vote but had many loopholes
___
Civil Rights Bills
* Civil Rights Act ‘66 - Gave some rights to AA, Johnson vetoed it, but Congress overturned it
* Civil Rights Act ‘75 - allowed the Gov. to prosecute states which intervened with people’s right to vote
___
Social Position:
* Increase in black institutions
* small no of black men became teachers, lawyers or doctors
* seperate schools were inferior but better than nothing
