Ch 15 Reconstruction Flashcards
Conservative/moderate Republicans
Most Republicans
Wanted abolition but proposed few other conditions
-economic gains for white middle-class
~Several became more radical in 1866 in fear that reunified Democratic Party may become dominant
Radical Republicans
- led by
- goals
House: Repsentative Thaddeus Stevens (PA)
Senate: Charles Sumner (MA)
- ->want to revolutionize Southern society through military rule where
(a) blacks exercise civil rights
(b) educated schools by fed gov’t
(c) blacks receive confiscated lands from planter class
Wanted
- civil rights for blacks
- Confed leaders punished
- protect black legal rights
- confiscate property of Cofed whites & redistribute to freedmen
-SOME want suffrage to freed slaves
(Ppl hesitant bc few N states allow blacks to vote)
- many supported liberal causes: women’s suffrage, rts for labor unions, civil rights
Ex: Benjamin Wade (Ohio)
Proclamation of amnesty and reconstruction
Lincolns 10% plan
–> when 10% of people took loyalty oath, state government could be established
-Full presidential pardons given to confederates who
(a) Took oath of allegiance to the union + US Constitution
(b) accepted emancipation
Wade-Davis Bill
- radical response to Lincoln’s 10% plan as mild
- president appt governor for ea state
- required 50% of voters in state to take a loyalty oath
- NO Confederates allowed to vote for a new state constitution
Lincoln refused to sign
–> pocket vetoed
Pocket veto engraved radicals
Freedmen’s Bureau
1865
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands
-provided food, shelter, medical aid: blacks + homeless
Freedmen’s Bureau + education
-benefit white + blacks
BUT no white attended Freedmen schools
- by 1870s public school system= greater % blacks+white in school
1876: 50+% white, 40% blacks
-large network of schools for former slaves
(tho White opposition – giving blacks “false notions of equality”)
Freedmen’s Bureau + segregation in education
Civil Rights Act of 1875= mandate school integration
NEVER PASSED- segregation!!
When Repub govt replaced by S Democrat: integration abandoned
Lincoln’s last speech
April 1865
Encouraged N to accept LA as reconstructed state
–> had already made constitution to abolish slavery + provide education for blacks
Andrew Johnson
- Southern Democrat
- BUT loyal to Union
- White supremacist
Johnson’s Reconstruction policy
1865
~ Lincolns 10% plan:
disfranchisement of
- All former leaders of confederacy
- Confederates with more than $20,000 in taxable property
BUT
President had power to grant individual pardons to “disloyal” southerners
–> escape clause for wealthy planters
RESULT of Johnson’s reconstruction
Pardons: former Confederate leaders back in office by FALL 1865
…all 11 Ex-confed states qualified to become pt of union!!
- S made a constitution repudiate secession
- negated debts of Confederate government
- ratify 13th amendment abolish slavery
- -> NO extension for voting rights to blacks tho
Black Codes
of S state legislatures
- Prohibited blacks from renting land/borrowing money to buy the land
- Prohibited blacks from testifying against whites in court
Blacks restricted to certain jobs: plantation work, domestic servants
Ex: contract-labor system = blacks worked cotton fields under white supervision for low wages
Johnson’s vetoes
1866
Freedmen’s Bureau Act- offered services and protection
Civil Rights Act- guaranteed full citizenship and equal rights to African-Americans
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Pronounced all African-Americans to be US citizens
***repudiated the decision in the Dred Scott case & legal shield to Black Codes
-gave federal gov’t power to intervene to protect rights of citizens
Johnson vetoed
Alexander Stephens
1866
Georgia’s choice for Senator
Northern Republicans in Congress refused to seat Alexander Stevens + other elected representatives & senators from
Ex- confed states
14th amendment
Significance
Congress passed 1866
RATIFIED 1868
- all persons born and naturalized in the US were citizens
- States obligated to respect rts of US citizens & provided them with equal protection of the law
SIGNIFICANCE
-1st time: Constitution required STATES + federal gov’t to uphold rights of citizens
14th amendment on congresses plan of reconstruction
- disqualified former Confederate political leaders from holding state/federal offices
- penalized state that prevented an eligible voter from voting
Report of the joint committee (1866)
- States of confederacy not allowed to representation in Congress
- CONGRESS (NOT pres) had authority to determine conditions for allowing reconstructed states to join Union
- Congress REJECTS presidential reconstruction plan
- -> 14th amendment
Election of 1866
Victory for Republicans – had more than two thirds of majority in the House and Senate
–> Southern race riots in 1866 overwhelmed Republican majority
ReConstruction acts of 1867
(Congress passes three plans, overrode Johnson’s vetos)
- South under military occupation – confederate states into five military districts
- To win readmission must ratify the 14th amendment
- Grant franchise to ALL adult males
First former Confederate states to be brought back to Union
Tennessee July 1866
Tenure of office act 1867
~ unconstitutional violation of executive authority~
-prevented president from removing a federal official or military commander without the approval of the senate
- -> radicals prevent president from interfering
- -> protects radical Republican Secretary of State Edward Stanton (military in South!!)
Impeachment of Johnson 1867 to 1868
-Johnson challenged tenure of office act = unconstitutional
- House response by impeaching him
- Johnson = 1st president to be impeached
- One vote short of necessary 2/3 vote to remove the president from office
-some Republicans voted against conviction bc thot bad precedent to remove president for political reasons
Command of the army act 1867
No military orders except thru commanding general of the army or w/ Senate’s approval to relieve general
Ex Parte Milligan
SC case of 1866
declared that
Military tribunals where civil courts existed = unconstitutional
Radicals don’t want to supply just to southern states with military
- -> supposed bill threatening court
- -> court didn’t hear reconstruction cases for two years
Election of 1868
Democrats nominee: Horatio Seymour
-though grants popularity in North, he won 300,000 more votes than Democratic nominee + many black votes
–> republicans realize voting rights of Friedman needed federal protection
By 1868 how many states readmitted?
10 former Confederate states for field conditions of 14th amendment, which is part of constitution
15th amendment
1869; ratif 1870
States readmitted after this reconstruction amendment
Limited any state from denying a citizens right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude
1869 – Virginia, Texas
1870 – Mississippi
13th amendment
1865
Abolish slavery
Civil rights act of 1875
Last civil rights reform en acted by Congress in reconstruction
- equal accommodations in public space
- Prohibit Court from excluding African-Americans from juries
** poorly enforced bc Republicans trying to reform S – feared losing white votes in N
When we construction abandoned by Congress
1877
Scalawags
- Southern Republicans
- former Whigs, successful
- Republic better for economic interests
Carpet baggers
- Northern newcomers
- investors interested in setting up new businesses
- professionals/veterans (well educated)
State legislature
-in every Republican state government in south, whites = majority
EXCEPTION
**SC- Freedmen controlled lower house 1873
–> no black man ever elected governor of the southern state
African Americans in power = Resentment
African Americans with elective office = educated property holders MODERATES
Repubs in S chose AAs
1. Blanche K Bruce
2. Hiram Revels
To Senate
+12(+) AAs to House of Representatives
–> revels elected 1870 to take senate seat from Mississippi (prev held by Jefferson Davis)
Reconstruction governments characteristics
-corruption
(N result of economic expansion of government services + revenues = strains on the elected officials)
-larger budgets = needed services in S for public EDU, public works, poor relief
Republican Legislature in S
success + failures
SUCCESS
- universal male suffrage
- property rights for women
- infrastructure
- established state institutions – hospitals, asylums, etc.
–> paid for through tax systems + selling bonds
FAILURES
- wasteful splendid
- corruption, bribes
- politicians took advantage of their power
AAs in freedom: religious influence
- independent black churches
- -> negro Baptist
- -> African-American Episcopal churches
-Black ministers = leaders in AA community
AAs in freedom: EDU + migration
Black colleges: Howard, Atlanta, Fisk, Morehouse
Established during reconstruction to prepare black ministers and teachers
Many migrated away from S –> frontier states: Kansas
Civil rights act of 1875: EDU
Tried to mandate school integration + desegregation
BUT REMOVED B4 PASSD
AA society
- Women perform domestic work, less field labor
- poverty + economic necessity = many black women do income producing activity for wages
END OF RECONST
- Half of all black women work for wages
- unlike white working women, most black working women = married
Crop lien system
System of credit:
- farmers = no steady cash flow = rely on credit from merchants to buy supplies
- no competition = high interest rates
- -> formers gave lien – claim on crops
EFFECTS
-Black, white landowners who gained land = lost bc DEBT
(AAs did not own much land to begin!!)
- DEBT as formers experienced bad years for crops
- -> farmers dependent on cash crops, ESP COTTON = only possibility to escape debt
-lack of diversity of crops = DECLINE in agricultural economy
Sharecropping
-landlord provided seed + farm supplies in return for share of harvest (cash crop cotton)
~ servitude:
Sharecropping dependent on land owners/debt to local merchants
- after pay lords, no crop left to sell
- “fence laws”= prevent raising livestock = decline in living self-sufficient
Spoils system
-political parties give public office to its supporters
Crédit Mobilier
stocks to members of Congress to avoid investigation of the profits they were making
Profits coming from federal government costing millions
Whiskey ring
Officials helps distillers cheat out of taxes
All please corruptions show that Grant was loyal to diss honest men = tarnished his presidency
Election of 1872
Liberal Republicans + Democrats = nominated Horace Greeley
BUT REG REPUBS chose Grant
GRANT WON BC “waving the bloody shirt”
~ landslide~
Panic of 1873
- N laborers jobless + homeless
- failures of investment bank (ex) invested too heavily on post war railroad buildings
- debtors in farms
–> greenback paper money created = not supported by gold
- 1784 Grant decides to side with those wanting money supply back to gold
- vetoes a bill calling for release of additional greenbacks
–> helps bankers + creditors, not debtors
Force Acts
1870 & 1871
-Federal authority (military) to stop Ku Klux Klan violence + protect civil rights of citizens in S
First time fed gov. Claimed power to prosecute crimes by individuals
-suspended habeas corpus when violations were atrocious
By 1872 clan violence down
Amnesty act 1872
- northerners put hatred of confederacy behind
- removed last restrictions on X confederates – except for top leaders
** allowed southern conservatives to vote for Democrats = we take control of state gov
Democratic rise
1874
Congressional elections of 1874 = democrats won majority in house
First time since 1861!
Grant used army to maintain Republican control in three states
Election of 1876
By 1876 = fed troops left only in three states: SC, FL, LA
democrats returned to power in all X Confed state except the three
REPUBS want distance from corruption = Rutherford B Hayes
DEMOCS
Samuel J Tilden
- Popular votes = Tilden won
BUT
3 states disputed… needed ONE more electoral vote - Electoral commission gave disputed votes to HAYES
Dems threatened to filibuster!!!
Compromise of 1877
- results of election of 1876: HAYES (Repub) gets all electoral votes
- -> Dems threaten to filibuster
- Dens allow Hayes as president if
1. Ends fed support for Repubs in S (withdraw troops)
2. Support building of S transcontinental railroad (grow Dem businesses)
“redeemers”
1877 (Final withdrawal of troops): White Democrats = power
“Redeemer”/”Bourbons” members of powerful elite – mostly new class of merchants, industrialists
-movement to pay off prewar + reconstruction debits destroyed by mid 1880s
Industrialization + new south
- tobacco processing industry grow
- Iron + steel industry grow in lower south
- dramatic increase in real Road development 1886
BUT South only regaining: average income in S lower than N
-Women = factory/textile workers
AAs in New South
Rise of black middle class
- self-improvement
- Edu
Birth of Jim Crow
Trials
1896
•Plessy v Ferguson
separate accommodations did NOT deprive blacks of equal rights if accommodations = equal
1899
•Cummings v County Board of Edu
Laws for separate schools valid even if no comparable schools for blacks existed
Jim Crow
-got around 15th amendment thru
poll tax/property requirement
OR literacy test
Jim Crow laws segregated areas of southern life = violence
