1 - Reconstruction ('65-'77) -- Completed* Flashcards
Recontruction - Rc Legislation/Events
- Military Reconstruction Bill ‘67 - imposed temporary military rule on south until they accepted AA suffrage
- 13th amendment ‘65 - Slavery Abolished
- 14th amendment ‘68 - State laws cannot deny anyone Rights or Property
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15th amendment ‘70 - Voting cannot be denied due to Race or Prior Servitude but had many loopholes
___ - Tenure of Office Act ‘67 - stopped President (Johnson) from removing Gov. cabinet members
- Compromise of ‘77
- Freedmen’s Bureau - Provided support (food, shelter, land) to displaced Southerners, notably AAs,faced limited recources & social opposition; failed to make significant impact
Recontruction - Westward Expansion Legislation/Events
- 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)
- Pacific Railroad Act ‘62
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Federal Territories - Land under US law, once the population was over 60k it could apply for statehood
Recontruction - AAs Legislation/Events
- Civil Rights Bill ‘66 - all born in the US declared citizens regardless of race/former slavetude
- Civil Rights Bill ‘75 - Equal treatment on public Transport, public Accommodations, Jury Service
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ruled unconstitutional in ‘83
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ruled unconstitutional in ‘83
- White violence
- Black codes (precurser to Jim Crow laws)
- temp. rise in AA officials
- Freedmen’s Bureau - Provided support (food, shelter, land) to displaced Southerners, notably AAs,faced limited recources & social opposition; failed to make significant impact
Reconstruction - Presidents
1.5T - Lincoln, ‘61-‘65
0.5T - Johnson, ‘65-‘68
2T - Grant, ‘69-‘76
Laissez Faire, Employers always Favoured, No Working Rights
Lincoln strengths & limitations
- 13th amendment ‘65 (slavery abolished)
- Freedmen’s Bureau
___ - Assassinated
- unclear vision for Rc; unwilling to punish S, low priority on AA rights
- 10% plan (not harsh enough to change the South; US ununited)
Johnson strengths & limitations
- 14th amendment ‘68 (state laws cannot deny anyone rights or property)
___ -
Tried to veto the Civil RIghts Bill ‘66
- Congress overturned it w/ 2/3rd majority (1st time ever)
- Attempted impeachment in ‘68 (avoided by 1 vote)
- RR congress disagreements: Tenure of Office Act ‘67, Military Reconstruction Bill
- VERY leniant towards South & opposed to RR
Grant strengths & limitations
- 15th amendment ‘70 (voting cannot be denied due to race or prior servitude, but had loopholes)
- KKK prosecuted
- Civil Rights Act ‘75
___ -
Legal discrimination and corruption
- Grant’s Speculation Scandal - Market Speculators associated w/ Grant failed to manipulate Gold Market & caused ‘69 Black Friday Financial Panic
- In ‘75, Grant’s Private Secretary evaded liquor tax, and Grant acquitted him
- Rc ends w/out succeeding
- Supported Rc, but not passionately enough
Recontruction - outcome strengths & limitations
- Overall positive effect on Economy
___ - failed to unify and rebuild the nation
- South suffered very little punishment - only 1 execution, only confiscated property was R.E.Lee’s estate in Virginia
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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
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Railroads:
* Railroads rapid growth, including first transcontinental railraod finished in ‘69 (Pacific Railroad Act ‘62)
* created many building and manufacturing jobs for workers and driven by Big Buisness
* from ‘60-‘80, the amount of railroads tripled
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Government Policies:
* Homestead Act ‘62 (160acres given if farmed for 5yrs; 20k Homesteaders by ‘65),
* Timber & Culture 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
* NAs & Buffalo disrupted by railways
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Railroads boom
* Ppl & Goods move faster, NYC to Cal = 6month to 6day journey
* Railroads lured settlers with ‘buy now, pay later’
* Passengers on rail from ‘70-‘82: 15k-1M/year
* Created many building & manufacturing jobs for workers, driven by Big Buisness; Vanderbilt & Carnegie (w/ Bessemer Converters)
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Economic growth
* Gold Rushes, e.g. 2nd Dakota Gold Rush ‘75 onwards
* ‘Ghost towns’
* Railroad companies stimulated
* Impacted more people than the NA genocide did
Recontruction - 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 ‘60-‘80
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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 world 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 & Urbanisation
- the Boss System - local majors buying votes for selling houses/other neccessities
- Urbinisation resulted in cramped, poor living conditions; “slum housing”
- Self-ghettoisation within ethnic groups (Chinatowns, Little Odessas, etc.)
Population Growth:- 31M to 50M (‘60-‘80)
- Consumers & cheap labour
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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
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PUSH FACTORS - Famines in Ireland & 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; Britain payed $13.5M
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
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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 - State laws cannot deny the right to vote based on race/former servitude,but had many loopholes
___
Civil Rights Bills
* Civil Rights Act ‘66 - Defined citizenship & guaranteed rights to all citizens regardless of race, Johnson vetoed it, but Congress overturned it
* precursor to the 14th Amendment
* Civil Rights Act ‘75 - allowed the Gov. to prosecute states which intervened with people’s right to vote but SC ruled it unconstitutional in ’83
___
Social Position:
* Increase in black institutions
* small no of black men became teachers, lawyers or doctors
* seperate schools were inferior but better than nothing
Recontruction - Limitations for African Americans
- Problems of the Freedmen’s Bureau
- White violence - KKK formed in ‘66
- Black codes in South - precurser to Jim Crow laws
- Political loss of interest, as Republicans basically guaranteed the black vote and so appealed only to white voters
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Colfax Massacre ‘73 - Louisiana, Rep.s narrowly won Governor Vote, Dem.s & White supremacists killed 60-100 - mostly Black, initially charged, but later released
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Employment: - Little to no land given to ex-slaves
- in ‘65, Johnson ordered all confiscated land to be returned to ‘pardoned’ Southeners
- by ‘70s most ex-slaves became sharecroppers
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Social Position: - remained in poor position, but was moving away from slavery
Reconstruction - ‘68 Election
Grant won w/ 52% against Seymor (anti-reconstruction)
* Grant’s war hero status
* Grant campaigned for reconstruction & AA civil rights enforcement (as seen in the 15th Amendment ‘70)
* AA vote, the unpopularity of Seymor’s white supremacist views in the North, Democrats blamed for starting the war & the country’s instability
* “Let us have peace” slogan
* Rep. control of Congress; better organised
___
Turnout: 81%
Reconstruction - ‘72 Election
Grant won w/ 55%, against Greeley
* Continued popularity as war hero
* Domination of the Republican party
* Grant had secured the popularity of pro-reconstruction vote (e.g. AAs)
* Grant’s opposition was desperate to win, thus supporting Greeley, the nominee from a split off Rep.; the Liberal Republican Party, but Greeley failed to unite the opposition
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Turnout: 72%
Reconstruction - Changes in the Republican Party
Change:
* After Lincoln’s assassination, there was a surge in Radical Republicans, thus radical legislation to enforce reconstruction
* Civil Rights Act ‘66, 14th amendment ‘68, Military Reconstruction Act ‘67
* Federal power to enforce Rec. & AA voting rights
* Military reconstruction Acy ‘67, Enforcement Acts ‘70-71 to combat KKK & protect AA voting rights
* Internal Divisions
* Emergence of Liberal Republicans who opposed Rec., though Grant still won against them
* Decline in interest in Rec. by ‘77
* focus instead on economic issues such as panic of ‘73, Compromise of ‘77 (Hayes withdrew fed. troops from the South)
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Continuity:
* Commitment to maintaining the Union & federal authority
* Military Reconstruction Act ‘67, Rec. amendments
* Initial support of Civil Rights, though interest dwindled
* Civil Rights Act ‘66, 14th & 15th amendments
* Prioritised economic development & protectionism
* National banking act ‘63 (set up first national bank & beginnings of centralised banking), higher tariffs
Reconstruction - Change in the Democrat Party
Change:
* Pre-war to post-war: from pro-salvery & states’ rights focused –> anti-Rec. & “home rule”/”white rule” focused
* Dem.s supported Black Codes & resisted Rec. Gov.s
* Rebuilding power in the South
* used groups such as the KKK, “redeemer” Gov.s re-established white control in South
* Aimed to appear more moderate under Tilden, who won the pop. vote in ‘76, but lost presidency due to the compomise of ‘77
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Continuity:
* Opposition to Rec.
* resisted all forms of Rec.
* Southern Dominance
* Rise of “Redeemer” Gov.s in the South by ’80s
* Focus on states’ rights & limited Gov.
