Reconstruction Era: Presidential Reconstruction

Question 1

When did the Emancipation Proclamation take effect?

Answer 1

1st January 1863

Question 2

What was the primary fault of the Emancipation Proclamation?

Answer 2

Did not affect slaves because it abolished slavery in territories under Confederate control, so it could not be enforced. Also did not apply in the Union states.

Question 3

What did the Republican party promise in the 1860 electoral campaign regarding slavery?

Answer 3

Promised to prohibit slavery in the territories. Lincoln defined the war as one to maintain the Union, not to abolish slavery.

Question 4

What did slaves do as Union armies moved south?

Answer 4

Many sought safety with the Union army: walked away from their owners, some became Union soldiers.

Question 5

Who was Frederick Douglass?

Answer 5

An escaped slave and important leader in the abolition movement.

Question 6

What did Northern abolitionists argue about emancipation? What did the government do in response?

Answer 6

It would be meaningless unless the government guaranteed the civil and political rights of former slaves. The government expanded their definition of war to include abolishing slavery, extending citizenship for former slaves, and guaranteeing the equality of all citizens before the law.

Question 7

What were people who held (what was considered at the time) extreme views on abolition called?

Answer 7

Radical Republicans or just Radicals.

Question 8

Who was the leading Radical in the House of Representatives? What was his career background? What did he advocate for?

Answer 8

Thaddeus Stevens - former Pennsylvania lawyer + iron manufacturer. Won election to Congress in 1858 - compelling speaker + advocate for abolition and equal rights for African Americans. Also urged slaves to be freed but also armed to fight the Confederacy.

Question 9

Approx. how many African Americans served in the Union army and navy? What did others do?

Answer 9

Army = 180,000
Navy = few thousand
Others worked as labourers for the army.
NB. most were freedmen.

Question 10

Who was Charles Sumner (of Massachusetts)?

Answer 10

Prominent Radical in the Senate (elected in 1851). Argued for racial integration of Massachusetts schools in 1849 - champion abolitionist.

Question 11

Why did Radicals oppose slavery?

Answer 11

Moral grounds, but also because free labour was more productive. Argument that slaves worked to escape punishment, but freedmen worked for themselves.

Question 12

What did the ‘moderate’ Republicans believe in?

Answer 12

All objected to slavery, but not all were abolitionists. Not all of them wanted to extend full citizenship rights to former slaves. Also wanted to rapidly restore the South to the Union so that the government could focus on improving the economy and developing the West.

Question 13

What was the primary condition for the return of the South to the Union?

Answer 13

Abolition of slavery

Question 14

When was the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction issued?

Answer 14

December 1863

Question 15

What was the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction? What was its purpose? Who was not eligible?

Answer 15

Called the ‘Ten Percent Plan’ - promised a full pardon and restoration of rights to those (Southerners) who swore loyalty to the Union and accepted the abolition of slavery. Once those who had taken the oath amounted to 10% of votes cast by that state in 1860 election, pardoned voters were to write new state constitution that abolished slavery, had to elect state officials and resume self-government. High-ranking Confederate leaders were not eligible.

Question 16

What did Radicals think of the Ten Percent Plan? What was Lincoln’s response?

Answer 16

Thought it was too lenient and tried to enforce more strict standards. Also thought that freed people were unlikely to receive equal treatment from the new state governments. Lincoln blocked them because he thought their plan would slow restoration + lengthen the war.

Question 17

Where were new state governments established under the Ten Percent plan between 1864 and early 1865?

Answer 17

Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee.

Question 18

What was the purpose of the Thirteenth Amendment and when was it passed by Confress?

Answer 18

Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. Passed in January 1865.

Question 19

When was Lincoln assassinated? Who became president?

Answer 19

April 1965

VP Andrew Johnson became president.

Question 20

What was Johnson’s early life like?

Answer 20

Lived in poverty, never attended school. Worked as a tailor in Tennessee. His wife taught him to read and write.

Question 21

What was Johnson’s early political career like?

Answer 21

Democrat: elected to Congress and later governor before winning election to US Senate in 1857. State’s elite (plantation owners) usually opposed him + Johnson resent their wealth and power + blamed them for the Civil War. Only southern senator that rejected the Confederacy. Appointed military governor by Lincoln when Union forces captured Nashville + he dealt harshly with Tennessee secessionists.

Question 22

When was Johnson elected as vice president and why?

Answer 22

1864 - Lincoln wanted to appeal to Democrats + Unionists in border states.

Question 23

What was Johnson’s views/aims on Reconstruction in the South?

Answer 23

Committed to states’ rights and opposed Radicals’ object of a powerful federal government - ‘white men alone can manage the South’. Recommended limited political roles for freedmen. He was self-righteous and uncompromising, and wanted to empower the region’s white middle class and to exclude wealthy planters.

Question 24

Why did Johnson grant full pardon and amnesty to all southern rebels? How did this differ from Lincoln? How did the Fourteenth Amendment affect this?

Answer 24

Wanted a quick restoration of the southern states. Non-discriminatory towards the southern rebels, unlike Lincoln who did not pardon high-ranking officers. 14th: prevented southern rebels from restoring their right to hold office.

Question 25

What did the provisional civilian governors for the southern states do? What did they do that was problematic according to Unionists?

Answer 25

To reconstitute state government and to call constitutional conventions of delegates elected by pardoned voters. Some appointment former Confederates to state and local offices.

Question 26

What did Johnson expect the southern state constitutional conventions to do to rejoin the Union?

Answer 26

Abolish slavery, ratify the 13th amendment, renounce secession and repudiate their state’s war debts. States then had to hold elections and resume their places in the Union. Most complied but all reject black suffrage.

Question 27

When did the southern states all fulfil Johnson’s requirements to rejoin the Union? But why was Johnson disappointed?

Answer 27

April 1866. He was disappointed that many of the new political leaders were rich planters and former Confederate officials.

Question 28

What did white southerners think of Johnson?

Answer 28

Saw him as protector, especially against the Radicals. Liked his support of states’ rights and opposition to federal determination of voting rights - thought they would be able to shape the transition from slavery to freedom.