Radical Reconstruction, 1867-77

Question 1

Why were there great North/South tensions when Congress met in December 1865?

Answer 1

• Many Northerners were dissatisfied with ‘Reconstruction Confederate style’
• Southern white supremacist violence disgusted Northern white opinion, and Congress feared a violent black backlash

Question 2

Why were many Northern states dissatisfied with ‘Reconstruction Confederate style’?

Answer 2

1) Still felt bitterness toward the South
2) Reports from the Freedmen’s Bureau officials, army officers and former slaves all suggested that the supremacy of the traditional white elite had been restored under Presidential Reconstruction

Question 3

What did most Northern Republicans believe about freed slaves?

Answer 3

• That they should have some rights - some were keen for the Southern black population to have the vote
• Knew that they would opt for the party of Abraham Lincoln

Question 4

What happened in the 1865 elections?

Answer 4

• Democrats remained the dominant party in the South - that amongst the newly elected Southern congressmen were the Vice President of the Confederacy, 58 Confederate congressmen, and four Confederate generals

Question 5

How did the Republicans react to Democrats power and influence in the South, in Congress, in 1865?

Answer 5

• The Republican majority refused to let these members of the Confederate elite take their seats
• The Republican Congress also refused to recognise the new state governments in the South, because they too were dominated by the same elite

Question 6

Which two bills caused particularly bitter clashes between congressional Republicans on the one hand, and President Johnson and the Democrats on the other?

Answer 6

1 - Aimed to extend the life of the Freedmen’s Bureau, set up by Congress in 1865 to help ex-slaves
2 - Aimed to give blacks civil rights

Johnson exercised his veto on both bills - but Congress overruled him and both bills became Acts in 1866

Question 7

What did the 1866 Civil Rights Act state?

Answer 7

That all people born in the US automatically acquired citizenship and recognition was given to the federal government’s right to intervene in state affairs to protect citizens’ rights.

Question 8

How did the Republican-controlled Congress attempt to reinforce the 1866 Civil Rights Act, in June 1866?

Answer 8

By incorporating its provisions within the 14th Amendment.

Question 9

What did the 14th Amendment do?

Answer 9

• Struck down the Black Codes and guaranteed all citizens equality before the law
• Confirmed that the federal government could intervene if a state tried to deny citizenship rights to any citizen
• Banned most of the old Confederate elite from holding office

Question 10

What did (and does) the pass of a constitutional amendment require?

Answer 10

75% of the states’ approval.

Question 11

How did the old Confederate states react to the 14th Amendment?

Answer 11

All of the (apart from Tennessee) rejected it.

Question 12

Why were Northerns totally exasperated by the South in 1866?

Answer 12

• The rejection of the 14th Amendment seemed to confirm that the Southern states did not recognise that they had been defeated
• Northern public opinion was alienated when white groups attacked black people during race riots in Southern cities such as Memphis and New Orleans in summer 1866
• Secret organisations such as the Ku Klux Klan had been set up to terrorise black people

Question 13

What was the Military Reconstruction Act (1867)?

Answer 13

Passed by the Republican-dominated Congress, after the 1866 mid-terms, over Johnson’s veto.
- Outlined terms for readmission to represent former-Confederate states

Question 14

What did the Military Reconstruction Act (1867) state?

Answer 14

• Apart from Tennessee, no Southern state had a legal government
• The South couldn’t send representatives to Congress unless Congress agreed
• The ex-confederate states should be governed by military commanders - each state divided into 5 districts
• In order to return to the Union, Southern states had to draw up new constitutions that would allow black males to vote, ratify the 14th Amendment, and disqualify Confederate office holders from political participation

Question 15

What did the Military Reconstruction Act give the federal government?

Answer 15

• The tools to impose Congressional Reconstruction (or Radical Reconstruction) in the South, where it aroused great white hostility

Question 16

What did Johnson think of the Military Reconstruction Act?

Answer 16

Johnson thought it have the Southern black population too much power and feared it would ‘Africanise’ the South.

Question 17

What did the Military Reconstruction Act not do?

Answer 17

• It didn’t create any federal agencies to protect black rights, give economic aid to the freed slaves, or disenfranchise Southern whites - despite this, generations of Southerns and even many Northerners were adamant that the Reconstruction era was a disaster for white people

Question 18

Who won the Presidential election in 1868? Why was this significant?

Answer 18

Ulysses S. Grant won a narrow victory that owed much to Southern black voters - Grant supported Radical Reconstruction.

Question 19

Why did the Republicans introduce the 15th Amendment in 1869?

Answer 19

• They sought to ensure the black vote in the South

Question 20

Why was the 15th amendment revolutionary?

Answer 20

Only 8 Northern states allowed black voting.

Question 21

What didn’t the 15th Amendment do?

Answer 21

• Guarantee men’s right to vote

- Forbid states to introduce literacy, property and educational tests for would-be voters.

Question 22

When were the 14th and 15th Amendments ratified?

Answer 22

14th - 1868

15th - 1870

Question 23

Who dominated the new Southern State governments after Reconstruction?

Answer 23

Southern Republicans.

Question 24

How did the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 transform the southern electorate?

Answer 24

1) Temporarily disenfranchised 15% of potential white voters - had been office-holders under Confederacy
2) Enfranchised 700,000 ex-slaves
3) Black voters outnumbered white voters by almost 100,000

Question 25

Why were black voters Republicans?

Answer 25

• Radical Republicans had long advocated equal rights for black people
• Lincoln was the ‘Great Emancipator’
• Southern whites invariably voted Democrat

Question 26

How were the the results of black voting positive, between 1869 and 77?

Answer 26

• 16 black congressmen and 2 black senators were elected to Congress
• Over 700 black men served in state legislatures
• Most were former slaves
• In Republican-controlled legislatures, black legislators contributed to the passage of laws that increased funding for public education and that required equal access to transportation and public facilities
• Around 1000 black Americans were elected to local posts that gave them considerable power

Question 27

What was a the main drawback of black representation in US legislatures?

Answer 27

• There wasn’t enough of it - the proportion of black officials was far short of the proportion of black voters
• White Republicans were outnumbered by black Republicans, but nevertheless dominated the Southern states during Reconstruction
• No black state governor was elected and no state senate had a black majority

Question 28

Although black representation was highly significant in that it reflected a political revolution, why did black people prove unable to dominate political life in the South?

Answer 28

• They lacked education, organisation and experience
• They were accustomed to white leadership and domination
• They were in the minority in most (South Carolina and Mississippi were exceptions)
• There were divisions within the black community, especially between ex-slaves and the free-born blacks who saw themselves as superior
• Republicans usually put forward white candidates, as they were sure of the black vote
• Most white Republicans considered black people less able to govern than whites
• Southern black leaders were usually moderates who had no desire to exclude ex-Confederates from office

Question 29

Why did Southern Democrats and some early 20th Century historians criticise Republican rule in the South?

Answer 29

• Because they agreed that it was dominated by corrupt black politicians, but black politicians were neither more nor less corrupt than the white contemporaries who still dominated national politics.

Question 30

What was the Civil Rights Act (1875)? What was its impact?

Answer 30

• Passed by an outgoing Republican-controlled Congress, it aimed to prevent discrimination in public places such as railroads, hotels and theatres, although not in schools, cemeteries and churches
• It had little effect on the South - the burden of enforcement was placed upon black litigants, and when in 1883 SCOTUS ruled it unconstitutional, on the ground that civil rights within a state were the responsibility of the state government

Question 31

What did the Supreme Court Civil Rights Act ruling in 1883 indicate?

Answer 31

That the white backlash had triumphed.

Question 32

Who were the key Radical Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives?

Answer 32

Senate - Charles Sumner, Benjamin Wade, Henry Wilson

House - Thaddeus Stevens, George Julian and James Ashley

Question 33

Why were Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner important?

Answer 33

• Stevens had been a central figure in January 1865, ensuring that the House of Representatives voted for the 13th Amendment
• Stevens and Sumner were also advocates of giving black Americans the right to vote

Question 34

What happened in May 1866 in Memphis, Tennessee and July 1866 in New Orleans, Lousiana?

Answer 34

Memphis - White crows attacked black Americans who had fought in the northern army in the Civil War
- 46 people were killed

New Orleans - white people attacked black Americans on their way to a political meeting, leaving 40 people dead

Question 35

What were the 3 important laws passed over Johnsons’s veto in 1867?

Answer 35

• The Military Reconstruction Act
• The Command of the Army Act
• The Tenure of Office Act

Question 36

What did the Command of Army act do?

Answer 36

Required that all orders to the army from Presidential Johnson, as commander-in-chief, had to go through the headquarters of the army, which was under the command of Ulysses S. Grant, a keen supporter of the Republican Party.

Question 37

What did the Tenure of Office Act do?

Answer 37

Required the consent of the Republican-dominated Senate for the presidential to remove any office-holder

Question 38

What did military governments controlling former Confederate states do?

Answer 38

• Their task was the implement the wishes of the federal government and US Congress
• They implemented the changes required by the Freedmen’s Bureau
• They also had the responsibility of protecting ex-slaves, scalawags and carpetbaggers from violence and intimidation by southern white Americans

Question 39

Who were scalawags?

Answer 39

• Southern white people were willing to work with the Reconstruction state governments created by the north

Question 40

Who were carpetbaggers?

Answer 40

• Northern white people who went south to make money and exploit the economic dislocation of the former Confederacy after the Civil War
• They allegedly carried bags made of carpet, which contained their belongings
• They were accused of using newly enfranchised black voters to gain state government contracts
• A Union League was created which encouraged black people to vote for carpetbagger candidates for state elections