Reconstruction Flashcards
Civil War causes?
- long standing sectional differences
- differences over the issue of slavery
- Qs not fully resolved when USA constitution was ratified in 1789
Number of Slaves
- statistics
1860 - 4 million
1 in 4 families owned slaves
50% of slaves lived on plantations
Effects of the War:
- Most striking immediate effect was? + statistics
- loss of life on a scale the country had never imagined and destruction
- Union - 360,000 dead
- Confederate - 258,000 dead
- Total: 618,000
What was the economic expense of the war?
- Union $2.3 billion
- Confederate $1 billion
Economically how did the North end up during 1860s in compassion to the south?
- North increasing in prosperity; total wealth increased by 50% during 1960s
- Compared to impoverished south
How did the war effect both sides politically?
- Although union preserved still deep divisions and uncertainty with what to do with defeated states
Emancipation of how many slaves?
- 3.5 million
What were the arguments for slaves in terms of conditions of slaves?
- Early Twentieth Century Ulrich Phillips a southern historian argues slaves content with conditions –> reasonable relationship between slaves and owners
- flogging rare, few brutal owners
- well fed, clothed and housed
- no major slave revolts
What were the arguments against slaves in terms of conditions of slaves?
- 1950s Kenneth Stampp claimed slavery harsh and slaves not treated well by owners
- Slaves could be sold, punished by branding or flogging, sexually exploited and killed
- generally worked longer than free Americans
- hated slavery no attempt to escape –> too difficult
Reconstruction under Lincoln
President for what period ?
- 1860 -1865
What were Lincolns aims?
- Deal with south
- Deal with ex slaves
- reconstruction policy
What policies did Lincoln introduce? + when
- April 1864, 10 Percent Plan
- 1864 - The Thirteenth Amendment - freed slaves - approved 1965
- 1865 - Freedmen’s Bureau
What was the 10 percent plan?
What did the Radical Republicans do in response?
- introduced in 1864
- Rebel states would be admitted if 10% of their electorate agreed to an oath of future allegiance with the USA
- Radical Republicans dissatisfied introduced Wade-Davis bill - June 1865 - increased 10% to 50% - was vetoed
What did the 13th Amendment do ?
introduced 1864 - freed slaves - approved in 1865
What did the Freedman’s bureau do ?
When was Lincoln assassinated?
- Introduced in 1865 for one year to help former slaves
- established schools
- helped with employment
- 14th April Lincoln is assassinated
What period was Johnson president?
- 1865-1868
What were Johnson’s aims?
- Restore southern states ASAP
- NO WISH to help former slaves
What bill was introduced under Johnson?
What did it do?
How did Johnson respond to it?
- Civil Rights Bill, 1866
- Gave minimum rights to blacks
- Johnson vetoed but congress overturned this which required 2/3
What was the Fourteenth Amendment?
- Was to ensure that the Civil Rights Bill couldn’t be changed
- Rejected by all ex-confederate states apart from Tennessee - failed to get 75%
What three policies did the Radical Republicans introduce partially due to the veto of the 14th Amendment?
- Military Reconstruction Bill 1867
- The Command of the Army Act
- Tenure of Office Act
What did the Military Reconstruction Bill do?
- 1867
- Imposed military rule on the south - Tennessee
- To get back in the union southern states had to accept the 14 Amendment, elect national conventions and accept black suffrage
What did the Command of the Army Act do?
- reduced Johnson military power
What did the Tenure of Office Act do?
- Prevent Johnson from removing a host of office holders to protect the Secretary of State Edwin M. Stanton
Describe the impeachment of Johnson
Why?
Result?
- Johnson ignored the tenure of office act and dismissed Stanton
- Republicans decide to impeach Johnson
- Process took place in 1868
- Two month trial, 35 senates voted against him
- they were one short
- His credibility and effectiveness was destroyed
When was Grant president?
1869 - 1877
What were Grants aims?
Firm treatment of the south
What was the new system of government in the south under grant?
South:
- under military rule
- corrupt and inefficient
Made up of:
- ‘carpetbaggers’ - new officials and northerners - had most power and military support
- helped by ‘scalywags’ - southern poor whites
- Formed republican coalition with freedmen
What was the Fifteenth Amendment and introduced under who?
Grant
- In 1869 introduced stated that ‘the right to vote should not be denied on account of race, colour or previous conditions of servitude’
In Grants first term what scandal was there?
- Describe it
- The Whiskey ring scandal of 1875 involved a network of distillers and distributors who conspired to defraud the government of millions in liquor tax revenue
- Grants private secretary was indicated in scandal but was later acquitted with help from the president
Grants performance in election?
Following this what scandal occurred in Grants first term?
- In 1872 Grant won over 55% of popular vote
- First term, group of speculators attempted to influence the government and manipulate the gold market
- they failed and this resulted in financial panic
- his reputation suffered because he was associated with two of the speculators
When was the Hayes compromise?
1877
What was the Hayes compromise?
1877
- 1876 presidential election
- Republican candidate - Rutherford Hayes
- Democrat candidate - Samuel Tilden
- Tilden won popular vote + Hayes won electoral vote
- resulted in long complex + controversial process
- Secret deal between largely northern-based democrats and emerging democratic party of the south
- Hayes as president if he agreed to withdraw troops from the south + departure of carpetbaggers
- brought an end to reconstruction
Effects of Reconstruction
How successful was reconstruction politically in south?
- Democratic Party, who ensured white supremacy, controlled the south
- Carpetbagger influence exaggerated
- Radical Reconstruction was over before it began
Political effects of reconstruction on white southerners and states?
- Adverse effects on white southerners:
- Temporary lost control of southern states
- 1865 fall in political influence of the south in USA
- many states under democratic control in the south
What were the positive economic effects of reconstruction?
- Developed into a true industrial power
- 1867 - 1873 south benefited from general US prosperity and from increasing cotton prices
- Railroads rebuilt + textile manufacturing expanded
What were the negative economic effects of reconstruction? In south
- South remained an economically depressed region with considerable poverty
- 1870 the average white southerner’s income had fallen to 2/5 of a northerners income
Positive effects of reconstruction on AA concerning the vote?
- In South Carolina and Mississippi AA were a majority of the electorate
- As a result, 2 black Senators and 20 black Representatives were elected to Congress and a large N. of AA were elected to state legislatures
Negative effects of reconstruction on AA concerning the vote?
- African Americans wielded very little influence in Southern states
- AA were a minority in many states
- The Republican party often put forward white candidates hoping to attract more white voters
Describe land distribution during reconstruction
- Little or no land given to ex-slaves
- 1865 Johnson ordered all land confiscated by the Union returned to those Southerners who had been pardoned
Positive effects of reconstruction in relation to employment for AA?
- 1870s - most became sharecroppers
- white landowners provided the land, seeds and tools and black tenants provided the labour
- fall in cotton prices - early 1870s - resulted in economic hardship for many sharecroppers
Negative effects of reconstruction on the social position of African Americans?
- Failed to guarantee AA civil rights –> treated as second class citizens
- In late 19th Century every state introduced segregation including ‘Jim Crow Laws’
- Separate schools, drinking fountains, toilets etc
- ‘separate but equal’ - far from truth
Positive effects of reconstruction in social position of African Americans?
- Black institutions, similar to those of WA meant increase in No. of opportunities to lead and manage
- A small but increasing No. of AA men became doctors lawyers and teachers
- there were schools although inferior
- A no. of African Americans favoured segregation
Ku Klux Klan set up when?
- 1866
Describe Ku Klux Klan activities and effects of AA?
- Set up in 1866; peak terrorist activities in 1869-71
- African Americans faced intimidation and violence from white racists in south
- Terrorised African Americans into not voting through beatings and lynchings
- Hard/impossible to convict them –> AA afraid to testify and if Klansman on jury impossible to convict
