- tension between South and North
- African Americans <- could not earn legal protections or the material resources; no equality yet
· but created new institutions
[The Problems of Peacemaking]
- 1865: Abraham Lincoln couldn’t negotiate a treaty with Confederate (because it has no legal rights), couldn’t simply readmit them into the Union
(The Aftermath of War and Emancipation)
· South: complete destruction
· Southern whites: lost their slaves (properties) and worthless Confederate bonds and currency
o more than 258,000 soldiers died, many came home wounded, no home, starvation
· Southern blacks: no properties, no houses
(Competing Notions of Freedom)
· mixed definition of freedom
· blacks: required gov. to take the lands away from whites and redistribute to blacks / legal equality
o black desire for independence -> separated out from white institution such as church and created their own (church, school, society, etc.)
· whites: ability to control their own destinies w/out interference from North or fed. gov. …regional autonomy, white supremacy
· Fed. troops remained in South (military rule) to preserve order and protect freed men
· March 1865: Freedmen’s Bureau (directed by General Oliver O. Howard) – originally planned for one year, lacked funding, the problem was too big
o distributed food
o established school (missionaries and teachers sent by Freedmen’s Aid Societies and other private & church groups in North)
o unofficially proposed to grant lands to blacks
(Plans for Reconstruction)
· Republicans, main hands for reconstruction, divided into two sides:
· Conservatives: South accept abolition, readmit the seceded states
· Radicals: (led by Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of Penn. and Senator Charles Sumner of MA) harsher treatment to South – disenfranchising Southern whites, protecting black civil rights, confiscating white properties who aided Confederate, distributing lands among the freedmen
· Moderates: rejected Radicals but supported some concessions from the South on black rights
· Lincoln: favored lenient Reconstruction policy, believed that Southern Unionists (mostly former Whigs) could be the loyal branch in the South
o 1863 Dec.: Reconstruction Plan (Ten Percent Plan)
§ pardon anyone except confederate high officials as long as they accept the abolition of slavery
§ when 10% of total voters had taken the oaths, it can set up a state gov.
o extending suffrage to African Americans with education, property, or had served in Union
o 1864: Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee - reestablished loyal gov. under the Lincoln plan
· July 1864: Radicals, refused to meet reps. from above three states, proposed Wade-Davis Bill
o called president to appoint a provisional governor for each conquered state
o when the majority of the white males pledged their allegiance to the Union, the governor could summon a state constitutional convention, voted by ppl who never armed up against U.S. (aka, never served in Confederate army)
o abolish slavery
o disenfranchise Confederate civil and military leaders
o repudiate debts gained by state gov. during the war
o -> after all this, the state then can be readmitted
§ ambiguous political rights for blacks
o => Lincoln pocket vetoed it in late 1864
(The Death of Lincoln)
· assassination of Lincoln: April 14, 1865, Ford’s Theater, John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln on the head
· wounded Secretary of State William Seward, attempted to kill VP Andrew Johnson
· North’s tension to South (developed that South is up with a conspiracy, threatening North)
(Johnson and “Restoration”)
· 1864: Moderates and Conservatives followed Andrew Johnson of Tennessee
o a Democrat until he joined Union
· “presidential Restoration” – Ten Percent Plan + Wade-Davis Bill
o for a state to reapply for Union, must revoke its ordinance of secession, abolish slavery, ratify the 13th amendment, repudiate Confederate and state war debts
· end of 1865: all the seceded states formed new gov.
· Radicals: did not recognize Johnson gov., because North want harsher restriction for South
o delegates of Southern convention angered North by their reluctance toward abolition and civil rights for blacks
o North defied South Confederate leaders in Congress, such as Alexander Stephens of Georgia (VP_Confederate)
[Radical Reconstruction]
- Congress refused to seat the rep. from restored states
- created a new Joint Committee on Reconstruction to frame a policy of its own
(The Black Codes)
· 1865-1866: Black codes passed in South
o authorized local officials to arrest unemployed blacks, fine them for vagrancy, and hire them out to private employers
o forbade blacks to own or lease farms, take other jobs than plantation workers or domestic servants
· Congress respond:
o extended the power of Freedmen’s Bureau
o April 1866: first Civil Rights Act, declared blacks = citizens of the United States, gave fed. gov. to intervene in state affairs for protecting the citizens
· Johnson vetoed both <- Congress overrode him
(The Fourteenth Amendment)
· April 1866: the Joint Committee on Reconstruction proposed 14th Amendment to the Constitution – everyone born in the United States + everyone naturalized = automatically a citizen / given all the “privileges and immunities” guaranteed by the Constitution + equal protection of the laws
o imposed penalties on states that denied suffrage to any adult male inhabitants
o prohibited former ppl aided Confederate to hold any state/federal office, unless 2/3 Congress voted to pardon them
· Radicals: offered to readmit any states ratified the 14th Amendment
o Delaware and Kentucky refused
· New Orleans and other Southern cities: bloody race riots -> strengthened Republicans
o Republicans grew strong enough to override President’s opposition
(The Congressional Plan)
· Radicals passed three Reconstruction bills early in 1867 <- overrode Johnson’s vetoes of all of them
o Tennessee readmitted
· Congress rejected the Lincoln-Johnson governments -> combined those states five military districts – a military commander governed each district, and had orders for qualified voters (all b/w adults who did not participate in Confederate activities) -> would vote for new states constitution (had to include black suffrage) -> elect state governments, and Congress had to approve a state’s constitution, and 14th Amendment must be included -> then readmitted to the Union after enough states had done so (1868)
· 1868: 7/10 fulfilled these conditions -> readmitted to the Union
· additional requirement: ratification of 15th Amendment (universal suffrage)
o ratification by the states completed in 1870
· to stop Johnson from interfering: passed two laws 1867
o Tenure of Office Act: forbade president to remove civil officials, including the members of his own cabinet, w/out Senate’s consent
§ to protect Secretary of War (Edwin M. Stanton – cooperating with the Radicals)
o Command of the Army Act: forbade president from issuing military orders, except through the commanding general of the army (General Grant)
· Court: Ex parte Milligan (1866) – military tribunals were unconstitutional
o <- Radicals proposed several bills requiring 2/3 of the justices to:
§ support any decision overruling a law of Congress
§ deny the Court jurisdiction in Reconstruction-matters
§ reduce the number of juries
§ even abolish it
o next two years: Court refused to accept any jurisdiction involving Reconstruction
(The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson)
· Johnson = admin. of Reconstruction programs <- Radicals believed that he was the impediment to their plans
· 1867: Radicals wanted to move Johnson out of his office
o Johnson dismissed Secretary of War Stanton
o -> impeached the president
· 1868 April – May: impeachment trial
o 7 Republicans changed their mind -> turned to Democrat
o 35:19 votes <- 1 short for 2/3 majority
§ Radicals later dropped impeachment charge
[The South in Reconstruction]
- huge impact on South
(The Reconstruction Governments)
· “scalawags” = Southern white Republicans, former Whigs, generally poor
· “carpetbaggers” = white men from the North, war veterans, coming to South for $
· many Republicans in the South = black
o no previous political experience -> built their own institution
· built independent communities / institutions
· African Americans: 1) delegates during the new constitutional conventions; 2) hold public offices
o but overall, blacks serving in offices = low percentages
· corruption, financial extravagance, etc.
(Education)
· Southern education <- by Freedmen’s Bureau, Northern private philanthropic organizations, Northern female teachers
· South whites felt the education will give the black “false notions of equality”
· schools for blacks - by 1870: 4,000 schools with 9,000 teachers (half=black), 200,000 students
· 1870: building comprehensive public school system -> 1876: more than ½ of white children and 40% black children attending schools
o all schools = racially segregated
· black colleges & universities
(Landownership and Tenancy)
· Freedmen’s Bureau: landownership reform in the South <- failed
o 1865 June: 10,000 black families on their own lands (abandoned plantations in areas occupied by the Union armies)
o owners coming back -> demanding for land return
§ President Johnson supported them
o gov. gave back the confiscated lands back to whites
· white landownership: 80% (before the war) -> 67% (end of Reconstruction)
o some lost their land due to unpaid debt / increased taxes
o others left to move to more fertile areas
· black landownership: 0% -> 20%
· most blacks had no lands -> worked for others
o black agricultural laborers (25% of the total) worked for wages
o most became tenants (working for their own lands)
o some rent the lands together (“sharecropping”)
· tenantry benefited landlords
o no need to purchase slaves
o physical well-being of their workers
(Incomes and Credit)
· remarkable economic progress for African Americans in the South
o 1857 -> 1879: per capita income rose 46%
o able to work less (1/3 less than the time before the Civil War)
o women and children <- did not work in the fields
· black income increasing, total South agricultural output decreasing
o black still stayed in poverty
· crop-lien (credit) system
o lacked stable credit system -> depended on local merchant -> local stores had to competition…charged ridiculously high interest rate
o crop taken to the merchant as “credit”
o many lost their credits during bad years -> became landless and poorer
§ Southern farmers became almost wholly dependent on cash crops -> soil exhaustion -> bad economy overall in South
(The African-American Family in Freedom)
· family unification => wandered through the South looking for family members
· many slave couples had their legal marriages
· black family structure:
o females and children = resting in houses, women to domestic tasks, but some engaged in income-producing activities such as:
§ domestic servant, laundry, helping husbands
§ => ½ of black women (over 16-yr-old) working
[The Grant Administration]
- 1868: yearned for a strong & stable figure -> General Ulysses S. Grant
(The Soldier President)
· Grant chose Republican nomination
o Republican Reconstruction policies were more popular in the North
· Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour of NY (former governor)
· Grant won narrowly <- had no political experiences
o Hamilton Fish = secretary of state
o other members of the cabinet = incapable
o relied on established party leaders / spoils system
o alienated many Northerners who were against Radical Republican policies <- continued to support it
· Liberal Republicans opposed such “Grantism”
o 1872: to prevent Grant reelection, nominated their own candidate – Horace Greeley (editor / publisher of NY Tribune)
· Democrats named Greeley as well
· => Grant reelected
(The Grant Scandals)
· 1872 political Scandal: Credit Mobilier (French-owned) helped to build Union Pacific Railroad -> using its powers as stockholders, signed a lot of contracts to their own construction company; to prevent investigation, director gave the stocks to key members of Congress
o during the investigation, found out that Grant’s VP – Schuyler Colfax – accepted the bribe too
· Benjamin H. Bristow (Grant’s 3rd Treasury Secretary) discovered some officials making black money out from “whiskey ring” by filing false reports
o investigation revealed that William W. Belknap (secretary of war) had accepted bribes to make an Indian-post trader to stay in his office (Indian Ring)
· other various scandals -> gov. trashing up with garbages
(The Greenback Question)
· Panic of 1873
o caused by failure over banking firms’ investment
§ Jay Cooke and Company
o invested too much in postwar railroad building
· Debtors asked the fed. gov. to redeem for war bonds with greenbacks -> if did so, inflation
o Grant wanted “sound” currency (currency backed by species) <- favoring interests of banks and other creditors
· during the Civil War, $356 issues & still in circulation
o 1873: in response to the panic, issues even more
· 1875: Republicans passed “Specie Resumption Act” – after Jan. 1st, 1879, greenbacks would be redeemed by the gov. & replaced with new certificates (based on gold value)
o satisfied creditors (debts would be repaid in currency with certain value)
o worried debtors ($ is not easily expanded)
· 1875: “greenbackers” formed their own political organization -> the National Greenback Party
o failed to gain widespread support
(Republican Diplomacy)
· foreign affairs <- due to secretaries of state: William H. Seward and Hamilton Fish
· William H. Seward bought Russian offer to buy Alaska for $7.2 million
o critics called it “Seward’s Folly”
· 1867 – Seward annexed Hawaii
· Hamilton Fish: America claimed that Britain had violated neutrality laws during the Civil War through Alabama ships
o asked Britain for compensation <- Alabama Claims
· 1871: Fish forged the Treaty of Washington <- provided for international arbitration
[The Abandonment of Reconstruction]
- interests on reconstruction falling
- Democrats coming into offices during Grant
- SC, Louisiana, and Florida -> had to wait until 1877 for end of the reconstruction (when fed. troops lefts)
(The Southern States “Redeemed”)
· states with white majority <- Republican power
· by 1872 – Southern whites regained suffrage
· states with black majority / black=white equal weight <- whites used violence to intimate the blacks
· secret societies: 1) Ku Klux Klan; 2) Knights of the White Camellia
o use terrorism to frighten / physically bar blakcs from voting
· paramilitary organizations: the Red Shirts and White Leagues
o armed themselves to block blacks from election
o worked to force all whites to join Democrat
· economic pressure
o some planters refused to rent land to Republican blacks
o storekeepers refused to extend them credits
o employers refused to give them jobs
· Republican Congress respond: Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871 (known as Ku Klux Klan Acts): prohibited states from discriminating against voters based on races, gave fed. gov. to prosecute crimes by citizens under federal law; authorized the president to use federal troops to protect civil rights
o Grant used in 1871 in SC
o => discouraged KKK activities, declined in 1872
(Waning Northern Commitment)
· state gov. adopted 15th amendment in 1870 -> many began turning to cooperate with Democrats
o North: Charles Sumner and Horace Greeley - calling themselves “Liberals,” denouncing “black-and-carpetbag” movement
o South: white Republicans turned to Democratic Party
· Panic of 1873 -> discouraged the support for Reconstruction
· 1874: Democrats won majority in House of Representatives
o first time since 1861
· Grant reduced the use of military force
(The Compromise of 1877)
· Grant wanted to run again in 1876 <- seeing Democratic successes and scandals, Republicans did not approve
o -> nominated Ruhterford B. Hayes (Ohio, champion of civil service reform)
· Democrat nominated Samuel J. Tilden (reform NY governor), known for fighting against Tweed Ring of NY City’s Tammany Hall
· Disputed Election: Tilden won more popular votes, but Louisiana, SC, Florida, and Oregon (20 votes) in doubt
o didn’t know what to do with disputed cases -> House (Democrat) or Senate (Republican)?
o late Jan. 1877 -> created a special electoral commission (5 senators, 5 reps. and 5 justices of the Supreme Court)
§ 7 Repub. – 7 Demo. – 1 independent (David Davis)
ú David Davis resigned after elected to Illinois to Senate <- replaced by Republican
§ 8 Repub. – 7 Demo.
· Hayes elected
o compromise between Repub. and Demo. over disputed election:
§ appointing at least one Southerner to the Hayes cabinet
§ control of fed. patronage in their areas
§ generous internal improvements
§ federal aid for Texas and Pacific Railroad
§ withdrawal of the remaining fed. troops from the South
· Hayes inaugurated
o withdrew the troops and allowed white Democrats take over the remaining southern state gov.
o <- charged that he’s paying off the South ‘election conspiracy’
o couldn’t easily mollify the critics
· wanted to “new Republican” organizations in the South to support black rights
o resent…politically impossible to continue Reconstruction
· Democratic South shaping
(The Legacy of Reconstruction)
· Reconstruction’s goal: improvements of blacks (redistribution of income / limited redistribution of landownership) <- African Americans’ self-help
· reconstruction for Southern white elites: soon restored back to their own institutions, restored its traditional ruling class to power
· limitations of reconstruction – failed to resolve racial injustice
· 14th and 15th amendment -> basis for a “Second Reconstruction”
[The New South]
- Compromise of 1877 -> failed to develop a stable and permanent Republican Party in the South
- South: Democratic Party
(The “Redeemers”)
· white South supported -> “home rule”
o in reality - political power in the region restricted than before the Civil War
o fell under oligarchy – “Redeemers” / “Bourbons”
· some places, ante- and post- Civil War ruling class structure stayed the same
o Alabama: old planters in place
· new ruling class emerging – merchants, industrialists, railroad developers, and financiers
o former planters, northern immigrants <- social mobility
· “Redeemers” = social conservatism + economic development
· “Bourbon” – lowered taxes, reduced spending, diminished state services, reduced supports for public school
(Industrialization and the “New South”)
· many white Southern leaders in post-Reconstruction era – hoped for industrial economy
· “New South” – seldom challenged white supremacy, but promoted the virtues of thrift, industry, and progress
· Southern industry expanded
o textile manufacturing <- Southern planters didn’t have to ship the supplies to North
§ due to: 1) cheap labor, 2) abundance of water power, 3) low taxes, 4) supportive & conservative gov.
o tobacco industry
o iron/steel industry – (lower South) Birmingham, Alabama
· Railroad development 1880 – 1890
o number nearly doubled
o width of the track age enlarged (same as North)
o transportation convenience
· southern manufactured doubled but still = 10% of the total
· per capita income increased 21% but still = 40% of the North -> 1860, = 60% of the North
· most capital coming from North
· industry worker force: beginning = women (Civil War killed many men)
o ½ of Northern workers’ wages, 12 hr/day
§ this encouraged Northern industrialists to come South
o strict rules, suppressed protest/union organization
o company sold goods to the workers at inflated prices
o issued credit at exorbitant rates
o eliminated competition <- price naturally became expensive
· industries = no works for blacks
· tobacco, iron, lumber = provided some employment for blacks
o mill towns = black and white cultures in contact
§ made leaders to protect white supremacy
(Tenants and Sharecroppers)
· impoverished state of agriculture -> 1870s and 1880s
o tenantry (33% -> 70%) and debt peonage
o no diversification (only focused on few cash crops)
o absentee ownership of fertile lands
(African Americans and the New South)
· some blacks emerging to middle class
o property, established small businesses, entered professions
· expanded education system
· Booker T. Washington (founder/president of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama)
o born in slavery, later acquired an education at Virginia’s Hampton Institute
o urged blacks to self-improve
§ attend school, learn skills, establish a solid footing in agriculture and the trades
§ refine their speech, elegant dressing, adopt habits of thrift and personal hygiene
o goal: adopt to middleclass & win support from the whites
o Atlanta Compromise (1895, Georgia, speech) – blacks should forgo for political rights and self-improvements, for equality, challenge any whites who wanted to discourage African Americans from gaining education/economic wealth
§ -> message to whites: blacks would oppose the system of segregation
(The Birth of Jim Crow)
· white southerners did not accept the idea of racial equality -> after fed. supports gone in 1877, many began discriminating against blacks
o 1883 14th amendment cases: did not restrict private organizations or individuals from racial discrimination (only restricted the state gov. from doing so)
· Court ruling for separation of the races
o Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – Louisiana law required segregated seating on railroads, and court ruled that as long as accommodations were equal, segregation is okay
o Cumming v. County Board of Education (1899) – communities could establish schools for whites only, even if there’s no comparable schools for blacks
· white Southerners tried to strop African Americans from voting
o some states, disenfranchisement had begun asa Reconstruction ended
o some states black still votes
§ whites felt they can control over black electorate, used it as an instrument to continue support for Republican
o 1890s: disenfranchisement became more rigid
§ white farmers demand complete black disenfranchisement (fear that Bourbons would use black votes)
§ white elites feared that poor whites and blacks would collude and unite politically
o states passed voting-qualification test
§ black voting rates dropped by 62%, whites by 26%
· “Jim Crow Laws” – racial segregation
o stripped blacks of many social/economic/political gains
· white violence against blacks increased
o lynching – 187/year, 80% from South
§ attempt to control black through terrors and intimidation
· 1892 Ida B. Wells – black journalist, launched international anti-lynching movement
o published emotional articles about lynching of three of her friends in Memphis, Tennessee
o attracted support from whites in both the North and South (mostly white women)
o goal: pass federal anti-lynching laws – punish those who have lunched
· shared white supremacy diluted class animosities between poorer whites and the Bourbon oligarchies
o economic policies played secondary role to race in southern politics
- African Americans <- could not earn legal protections or the material resources; no equality yet
· but created new institutions
[The Problems of Peacemaking]
- 1865: Abraham Lincoln couldn’t negotiate a treaty with Confederate (because it has no legal rights), couldn’t simply readmit them into the Union
(The Aftermath of War and Emancipation)
· South: complete destruction
· Southern whites: lost their slaves (properties) and worthless Confederate bonds and currency
o more than 258,000 soldiers died, many came home wounded, no home, starvation
· Southern blacks: no properties, no houses
(Competing Notions of Freedom)
· mixed definition of freedom
· blacks: required gov. to take the lands away from whites and redistribute to blacks / legal equality
o black desire for independence -> separated out from white institution such as church and created their own (church, school, society, etc.)
· whites: ability to control their own destinies w/out interference from North or fed. gov. …regional autonomy, white supremacy
· Fed. troops remained in South (military rule) to preserve order and protect freed men
· March 1865: Freedmen’s Bureau (directed by General Oliver O. Howard) – originally planned for one year, lacked funding, the problem was too big
o distributed food
o established school (missionaries and teachers sent by Freedmen’s Aid Societies and other private & church groups in North)
o unofficially proposed to grant lands to blacks
(Plans for Reconstruction)
· Republicans, main hands for reconstruction, divided into two sides:
· Conservatives: South accept abolition, readmit the seceded states
· Radicals: (led by Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of Penn. and Senator Charles Sumner of MA) harsher treatment to South – disenfranchising Southern whites, protecting black civil rights, confiscating white properties who aided Confederate, distributing lands among the freedmen
· Moderates: rejected Radicals but supported some concessions from the South on black rights
· Lincoln: favored lenient Reconstruction policy, believed that Southern Unionists (mostly former Whigs) could be the loyal branch in the South
o 1863 Dec.: Reconstruction Plan (Ten Percent Plan)
§ pardon anyone except confederate high officials as long as they accept the abolition of slavery
§ when 10% of total voters had taken the oaths, it can set up a state gov.
o extending suffrage to African Americans with education, property, or had served in Union
o 1864: Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee - reestablished loyal gov. under the Lincoln plan
· July 1864: Radicals, refused to meet reps. from above three states, proposed Wade-Davis Bill
o called president to appoint a provisional governor for each conquered state
o when the majority of the white males pledged their allegiance to the Union, the governor could summon a state constitutional convention, voted by ppl who never armed up against U.S. (aka, never served in Confederate army)
o abolish slavery
o disenfranchise Confederate civil and military leaders
o repudiate debts gained by state gov. during the war
o -> after all this, the state then can be readmitted
§ ambiguous political rights for blacks
o => Lincoln pocket vetoed it in late 1864
(The Death of Lincoln)
· assassination of Lincoln: April 14, 1865, Ford’s Theater, John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln on the head
· wounded Secretary of State William Seward, attempted to kill VP Andrew Johnson
· North’s tension to South (developed that South is up with a conspiracy, threatening North)
(Johnson and “Restoration”)
· 1864: Moderates and Conservatives followed Andrew Johnson of Tennessee
o a Democrat until he joined Union
· “presidential Restoration” – Ten Percent Plan + Wade-Davis Bill
o for a state to reapply for Union, must revoke its ordinance of secession, abolish slavery, ratify the 13th amendment, repudiate Confederate and state war debts
· end of 1865: all the seceded states formed new gov.
· Radicals: did not recognize Johnson gov., because North want harsher restriction for South
o delegates of Southern convention angered North by their reluctance toward abolition and civil rights for blacks
o North defied South Confederate leaders in Congress, such as Alexander Stephens of Georgia (VP_Confederate)
[Radical Reconstruction]
- Congress refused to seat the rep. from restored states
- created a new Joint Committee on Reconstruction to frame a policy of its own
(The Black Codes)
· 1865-1866: Black codes passed in South
o authorized local officials to arrest unemployed blacks, fine them for vagrancy, and hire them out to private employers
o forbade blacks to own or lease farms, take other jobs than plantation workers or domestic servants
· Congress respond:
o extended the power of Freedmen’s Bureau
o April 1866: first Civil Rights Act, declared blacks = citizens of the United States, gave fed. gov. to intervene in state affairs for protecting the citizens
· Johnson vetoed both <- Congress overrode him
(The Fourteenth Amendment)
· April 1866: the Joint Committee on Reconstruction proposed 14th Amendment to the Constitution – everyone born in the United States + everyone naturalized = automatically a citizen / given all the “privileges and immunities” guaranteed by the Constitution + equal protection of the laws
o imposed penalties on states that denied suffrage to any adult male inhabitants
o prohibited former ppl aided Confederate to hold any state/federal office, unless 2/3 Congress voted to pardon them
· Radicals: offered to readmit any states ratified the 14th Amendment
o Delaware and Kentucky refused
· New Orleans and other Southern cities: bloody race riots -> strengthened Republicans
o Republicans grew strong enough to override President’s opposition
(The Congressional Plan)
· Radicals passed three Reconstruction bills early in 1867 <- overrode Johnson’s vetoes of all of them
o Tennessee readmitted
· Congress rejected the Lincoln-Johnson governments -> combined those states five military districts – a military commander governed each district, and had orders for qualified voters (all b/w adults who did not participate in Confederate activities) -> would vote for new states constitution (had to include black suffrage) -> elect state governments, and Congress had to approve a state’s constitution, and 14th Amendment must be included -> then readmitted to the Union after enough states had done so (1868)
· 1868: 7/10 fulfilled these conditions -> readmitted to the Union
· additional requirement: ratification of 15th Amendment (universal suffrage)
o ratification by the states completed in 1870
· to stop Johnson from interfering: passed two laws 1867
o Tenure of Office Act: forbade president to remove civil officials, including the members of his own cabinet, w/out Senate’s consent
§ to protect Secretary of War (Edwin M. Stanton – cooperating with the Radicals)
o Command of the Army Act: forbade president from issuing military orders, except through the commanding general of the army (General Grant)
· Court: Ex parte Milligan (1866) – military tribunals were unconstitutional
o <- Radicals proposed several bills requiring 2/3 of the justices to:
§ support any decision overruling a law of Congress
§ deny the Court jurisdiction in Reconstruction-matters
§ reduce the number of juries
§ even abolish it
o next two years: Court refused to accept any jurisdiction involving Reconstruction
(The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson)
· Johnson = admin. of Reconstruction programs <- Radicals believed that he was the impediment to their plans
· 1867: Radicals wanted to move Johnson out of his office
o Johnson dismissed Secretary of War Stanton
o -> impeached the president
· 1868 April – May: impeachment trial
o 7 Republicans changed their mind -> turned to Democrat
o 35:19 votes <- 1 short for 2/3 majority
§ Radicals later dropped impeachment charge
[The South in Reconstruction]
- huge impact on South
(The Reconstruction Governments)
· “scalawags” = Southern white Republicans, former Whigs, generally poor
· “carpetbaggers” = white men from the North, war veterans, coming to South for $
· many Republicans in the South = black
o no previous political experience -> built their own institution
· built independent communities / institutions
· African Americans: 1) delegates during the new constitutional conventions; 2) hold public offices
o but overall, blacks serving in offices = low percentages
· corruption, financial extravagance, etc.
(Education)
· Southern education <- by Freedmen’s Bureau, Northern private philanthropic organizations, Northern female teachers
· South whites felt the education will give the black “false notions of equality”
· schools for blacks - by 1870: 4,000 schools with 9,000 teachers (half=black), 200,000 students
· 1870: building comprehensive public school system -> 1876: more than ½ of white children and 40% black children attending schools
o all schools = racially segregated
· black colleges & universities
(Landownership and Tenancy)
· Freedmen’s Bureau: landownership reform in the South <- failed
o 1865 June: 10,000 black families on their own lands (abandoned plantations in areas occupied by the Union armies)
o owners coming back -> demanding for land return
§ President Johnson supported them
o gov. gave back the confiscated lands back to whites
· white landownership: 80% (before the war) -> 67% (end of Reconstruction)
o some lost their land due to unpaid debt / increased taxes
o others left to move to more fertile areas
· black landownership: 0% -> 20%
· most blacks had no lands -> worked for others
o black agricultural laborers (25% of the total) worked for wages
o most became tenants (working for their own lands)
o some rent the lands together (“sharecropping”)
· tenantry benefited landlords
o no need to purchase slaves
o physical well-being of their workers
(Incomes and Credit)
· remarkable economic progress for African Americans in the South
o 1857 -> 1879: per capita income rose 46%
o able to work less (1/3 less than the time before the Civil War)
o women and children <- did not work in the fields
· black income increasing, total South agricultural output decreasing
o black still stayed in poverty
· crop-lien (credit) system
o lacked stable credit system -> depended on local merchant -> local stores had to competition…charged ridiculously high interest rate
o crop taken to the merchant as “credit”
o many lost their credits during bad years -> became landless and poorer
§ Southern farmers became almost wholly dependent on cash crops -> soil exhaustion -> bad economy overall in South
(The African-American Family in Freedom)
· family unification => wandered through the South looking for family members
· many slave couples had their legal marriages
· black family structure:
o females and children = resting in houses, women to domestic tasks, but some engaged in income-producing activities such as:
§ domestic servant, laundry, helping husbands
§ => ½ of black women (over 16-yr-old) working
[The Grant Administration]
- 1868: yearned for a strong & stable figure -> General Ulysses S. Grant
(The Soldier President)
· Grant chose Republican nomination
o Republican Reconstruction policies were more popular in the North
· Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour of NY (former governor)
· Grant won narrowly <- had no political experiences
o Hamilton Fish = secretary of state
o other members of the cabinet = incapable
o relied on established party leaders / spoils system
o alienated many Northerners who were against Radical Republican policies <- continued to support it
· Liberal Republicans opposed such “Grantism”
o 1872: to prevent Grant reelection, nominated their own candidate – Horace Greeley (editor / publisher of NY Tribune)
· Democrats named Greeley as well
· => Grant reelected
(The Grant Scandals)
· 1872 political Scandal: Credit Mobilier (French-owned) helped to build Union Pacific Railroad -> using its powers as stockholders, signed a lot of contracts to their own construction company; to prevent investigation, director gave the stocks to key members of Congress
o during the investigation, found out that Grant’s VP – Schuyler Colfax – accepted the bribe too
· Benjamin H. Bristow (Grant’s 3rd Treasury Secretary) discovered some officials making black money out from “whiskey ring” by filing false reports
o investigation revealed that William W. Belknap (secretary of war) had accepted bribes to make an Indian-post trader to stay in his office (Indian Ring)
· other various scandals -> gov. trashing up with garbages
(The Greenback Question)
· Panic of 1873
o caused by failure over banking firms’ investment
§ Jay Cooke and Company
o invested too much in postwar railroad building
· Debtors asked the fed. gov. to redeem for war bonds with greenbacks -> if did so, inflation
o Grant wanted “sound” currency (currency backed by species) <- favoring interests of banks and other creditors
· during the Civil War, $356 issues & still in circulation
o 1873: in response to the panic, issues even more
· 1875: Republicans passed “Specie Resumption Act” – after Jan. 1st, 1879, greenbacks would be redeemed by the gov. & replaced with new certificates (based on gold value)
o satisfied creditors (debts would be repaid in currency with certain value)
o worried debtors ($ is not easily expanded)
· 1875: “greenbackers” formed their own political organization -> the National Greenback Party
o failed to gain widespread support
(Republican Diplomacy)
· foreign affairs <- due to secretaries of state: William H. Seward and Hamilton Fish
· William H. Seward bought Russian offer to buy Alaska for $7.2 million
o critics called it “Seward’s Folly”
· 1867 – Seward annexed Hawaii
· Hamilton Fish: America claimed that Britain had violated neutrality laws during the Civil War through Alabama ships
o asked Britain for compensation <- Alabama Claims
· 1871: Fish forged the Treaty of Washington <- provided for international arbitration
[The Abandonment of Reconstruction]
- interests on reconstruction falling
- Democrats coming into offices during Grant
- SC, Louisiana, and Florida -> had to wait until 1877 for end of the reconstruction (when fed. troops lefts)
(The Southern States “Redeemed”)
· states with white majority <- Republican power
· by 1872 – Southern whites regained suffrage
· states with black majority / black=white equal weight <- whites used violence to intimate the blacks
· secret societies: 1) Ku Klux Klan; 2) Knights of the White Camellia
o use terrorism to frighten / physically bar blakcs from voting
· paramilitary organizations: the Red Shirts and White Leagues
o armed themselves to block blacks from election
o worked to force all whites to join Democrat
· economic pressure
o some planters refused to rent land to Republican blacks
o storekeepers refused to extend them credits
o employers refused to give them jobs
· Republican Congress respond: Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871 (known as Ku Klux Klan Acts): prohibited states from discriminating against voters based on races, gave fed. gov. to prosecute crimes by citizens under federal law; authorized the president to use federal troops to protect civil rights
o Grant used in 1871 in SC
o => discouraged KKK activities, declined in 1872
(Waning Northern Commitment)
· state gov. adopted 15th amendment in 1870 -> many began turning to cooperate with Democrats
o North: Charles Sumner and Horace Greeley - calling themselves “Liberals,” denouncing “black-and-carpetbag” movement
o South: white Republicans turned to Democratic Party
· Panic of 1873 -> discouraged the support for Reconstruction
· 1874: Democrats won majority in House of Representatives
o first time since 1861
· Grant reduced the use of military force
(The Compromise of 1877)
· Grant wanted to run again in 1876 <- seeing Democratic successes and scandals, Republicans did not approve
o -> nominated Ruhterford B. Hayes (Ohio, champion of civil service reform)
· Democrat nominated Samuel J. Tilden (reform NY governor), known for fighting against Tweed Ring of NY City’s Tammany Hall
· Disputed Election: Tilden won more popular votes, but Louisiana, SC, Florida, and Oregon (20 votes) in doubt
o didn’t know what to do with disputed cases -> House (Democrat) or Senate (Republican)?
o late Jan. 1877 -> created a special electoral commission (5 senators, 5 reps. and 5 justices of the Supreme Court)
§ 7 Repub. – 7 Demo. – 1 independent (David Davis)
ú David Davis resigned after elected to Illinois to Senate <- replaced by Republican
§ 8 Repub. – 7 Demo.
· Hayes elected
o compromise between Repub. and Demo. over disputed election:
§ appointing at least one Southerner to the Hayes cabinet
§ control of fed. patronage in their areas
§ generous internal improvements
§ federal aid for Texas and Pacific Railroad
§ withdrawal of the remaining fed. troops from the South
· Hayes inaugurated
o withdrew the troops and allowed white Democrats take over the remaining southern state gov.
o <- charged that he’s paying off the South ‘election conspiracy’
o couldn’t easily mollify the critics
· wanted to “new Republican” organizations in the South to support black rights
o resent…politically impossible to continue Reconstruction
· Democratic South shaping
(The Legacy of Reconstruction)
· Reconstruction’s goal: improvements of blacks (redistribution of income / limited redistribution of landownership) <- African Americans’ self-help
· reconstruction for Southern white elites: soon restored back to their own institutions, restored its traditional ruling class to power
· limitations of reconstruction – failed to resolve racial injustice
· 14th and 15th amendment -> basis for a “Second Reconstruction”
[The New South]
- Compromise of 1877 -> failed to develop a stable and permanent Republican Party in the South
- South: Democratic Party
(The “Redeemers”)
· white South supported -> “home rule”
o in reality - political power in the region restricted than before the Civil War
o fell under oligarchy – “Redeemers” / “Bourbons”
· some places, ante- and post- Civil War ruling class structure stayed the same
o Alabama: old planters in place
· new ruling class emerging – merchants, industrialists, railroad developers, and financiers
o former planters, northern immigrants <- social mobility
· “Redeemers” = social conservatism + economic development
· “Bourbon” – lowered taxes, reduced spending, diminished state services, reduced supports for public school
(Industrialization and the “New South”)
· many white Southern leaders in post-Reconstruction era – hoped for industrial economy
· “New South” – seldom challenged white supremacy, but promoted the virtues of thrift, industry, and progress
· Southern industry expanded
o textile manufacturing <- Southern planters didn’t have to ship the supplies to North
§ due to: 1) cheap labor, 2) abundance of water power, 3) low taxes, 4) supportive & conservative gov.
o tobacco industry
o iron/steel industry – (lower South) Birmingham, Alabama
· Railroad development 1880 – 1890
o number nearly doubled
o width of the track age enlarged (same as North)
o transportation convenience
· southern manufactured doubled but still = 10% of the total
· per capita income increased 21% but still = 40% of the North -> 1860, = 60% of the North
· most capital coming from North
· industry worker force: beginning = women (Civil War killed many men)
o ½ of Northern workers’ wages, 12 hr/day
§ this encouraged Northern industrialists to come South
o strict rules, suppressed protest/union organization
o company sold goods to the workers at inflated prices
o issued credit at exorbitant rates
o eliminated competition <- price naturally became expensive
· industries = no works for blacks
· tobacco, iron, lumber = provided some employment for blacks
o mill towns = black and white cultures in contact
§ made leaders to protect white supremacy
(Tenants and Sharecroppers)
· impoverished state of agriculture -> 1870s and 1880s
o tenantry (33% -> 70%) and debt peonage
o no diversification (only focused on few cash crops)
o absentee ownership of fertile lands
(African Americans and the New South)
· some blacks emerging to middle class
o property, established small businesses, entered professions
· expanded education system
· Booker T. Washington (founder/president of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama)
o born in slavery, later acquired an education at Virginia’s Hampton Institute
o urged blacks to self-improve
§ attend school, learn skills, establish a solid footing in agriculture and the trades
§ refine their speech, elegant dressing, adopt habits of thrift and personal hygiene
o goal: adopt to middleclass & win support from the whites
o Atlanta Compromise (1895, Georgia, speech) – blacks should forgo for political rights and self-improvements, for equality, challenge any whites who wanted to discourage African Americans from gaining education/economic wealth
§ -> message to whites: blacks would oppose the system of segregation
(The Birth of Jim Crow)
· white southerners did not accept the idea of racial equality -> after fed. supports gone in 1877, many began discriminating against blacks
o 1883 14th amendment cases: did not restrict private organizations or individuals from racial discrimination (only restricted the state gov. from doing so)
· Court ruling for separation of the races
o Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – Louisiana law required segregated seating on railroads, and court ruled that as long as accommodations were equal, segregation is okay
o Cumming v. County Board of Education (1899) – communities could establish schools for whites only, even if there’s no comparable schools for blacks
· white Southerners tried to strop African Americans from voting
o some states, disenfranchisement had begun asa Reconstruction ended
o some states black still votes
§ whites felt they can control over black electorate, used it as an instrument to continue support for Republican
o 1890s: disenfranchisement became more rigid
§ white farmers demand complete black disenfranchisement (fear that Bourbons would use black votes)
§ white elites feared that poor whites and blacks would collude and unite politically
o states passed voting-qualification test
§ black voting rates dropped by 62%, whites by 26%
· “Jim Crow Laws” – racial segregation
o stripped blacks of many social/economic/political gains
· white violence against blacks increased
o lynching – 187/year, 80% from South
§ attempt to control black through terrors and intimidation
· 1892 Ida B. Wells – black journalist, launched international anti-lynching movement
o published emotional articles about lynching of three of her friends in Memphis, Tennessee
o attracted support from whites in both the North and South (mostly white women)
o goal: pass federal anti-lynching laws – punish those who have lunched
· shared white supremacy diluted class animosities between poorer whites and the Bourbon oligarchies
o economic policies played secondary role to race in southern politics
