Chapter 17: Reconstruction

AP United States HistoryWest Blocton High School

Mr. Logan Greene

Chapter Objectives• Why did Southerner’s remember the Civil Was as a Lost

Cause?• What were African-American aspirations in 1865?• How did Presidential Reconstruction differ from

Congressional Reconstruction?• What role did the Ku Klux Klan play in Counter-

Reconstruction?• What were the effects of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and

the Compromise of 1877?• Why and how did Reconstruction end, and what were its

failed promises?

“The Lost Cause”• Many issues faced the country at the end of the

Civil War:– A destroyed South had to be rebuilt– How to integrate millions of now free slaves– How to reintegrate seceded states– How to run the national government with the death of

President Lincoln

“The Lost Cause”• As southerners returned home they found destroyed

country sides, burned homes, and desolation• A large group of southerners (especially the upper classes)

refused to accept the victory of the North and created the idea of the “Lost Cause”

• This entailed not allowing the defeat of the Civil War to die and also lifted Robert E. Lee to a level of divinity

• In the years after the North forgot about the war but the South refused to let it go

African-Americans• Most former slaves did not foresee immediate

equality; they had two main goals– To be independent– To own their own land

• However, they needed help and protection from sympathetic whites to accomplish these goals

Freedmen’s Bureau• The federal government set up the Freedmen’s

Bureau to help former slaves in their new lives• The Bureau aimed to provide social, economic, and

educational services for the newly freed slaves as well as poor whites

• As well, the government gave the bureau the authority to rent and sale 40 acre plots of land

• The “Lost Cause” southerners saw the bureau as an invasion force and an attack on their sovereignty

Schools• The vast majority of teachers for Freedmen’s

Bureau schools were young single women from the North

• These schools relied on help from Black churches to survive but had difficulty from protests of white southerners who had issues with “Negro” improvement

“40 Acres and a Mule”• As the war ended freedmen hoped and white men

feared that the federal government would make land grants to former slaves

• This was somewhat confirmed by General William Sherman’s field order of 1865 granting abandoned East Coast land to former slaves in 40 Acre parcels

• By 1866 the federal government passed the Southern Homestead Act granting land legally to former slaves

“40 Acres and a Mule”• Land ownership did not equal financial

independence or success• Many of the former slaves had to sell their land to

whites and agree to work for them• Although the Freedmen’s Bureau monitored these

agreements at first they quickly turned to virtual slavery as sharecropping took hold

Migration• Many freed slaves could not handle the racially

charged climate of the post war south and moved north, hoping to find work in northern cities. As well many blacks moved in mass to the growing cities of the South

• Blacks took mainly low paying unskilled working jobs and set up numerous areas of low income housing

Faith• In the post war South both blacks and whites found

answers in religion• Whites transformed the “Lost Cause” into divine

mandate and made Lee into a Saint• Blacks used their emancipation as a modern day

relation of an exodus from bondage and the beginning of a new life

• Black churches grew at amazing rates and became the center for Black communities

Federal Reconstruction• There was no precedent on how to readmit a state

to the Union and with Lincoln dead their was not strong leader to point the way

• The Republican party had split between Conservative Republicans who favored Lincoln’s idea of a quick and easy reunion and the Radical Republicans who wished to punish the South

• The President, Andrew Johnson was much to weak to lead the nation through the issues

Federal Reconstruction• Johnson presented his plan at the end of the war

while Congress was in recess– Pardons to Southerners who pledged allegiance to the

US– Restore property rights– Nothing about protecting freed slaves

• The plan was enacted quickly as southern states acted quickly to elect new legislatures

Federal Reconstruction• Southern states quickly enacted new laws

restricting the freedmen known as “black codes”• Johnson did nothing about this turn of events• The Republican dominated congress returned in

December ready to take on Johnson and control the south

Federal Reconstruction• Congress fought with the President over how states

would rejoin the Union and whether or not to protect freedmen

• In addition to the 13th Amendment banning slavery the 14th Amendment was passed in 1866 guaranteeing equal rights to all male citizens

• Although not enforced properly in the south it did lay the ground work for the civil rights movement of the 1960s

Congressional Reconstruction• Congress’s first shot at taking complete control of

Reconstruction involved overriding a Presidential veto of the Military Reconstruction Act which divided the South into 5 military districts

• Congress had three main goals with their version of Reconstruction– Secure freedmen’s right to vote– Make it likely for the South to be run by Republicans– Make the south accept consequences of defeat

Johnson Loses all Power• The Congress wanted to get rid of Johnson

completely and passed the Tenure of Office Act making it illegal for the President to dismiss officers

• Johnson took the bait and fired a cabinet official• The Congress brought Johnson up on impeachment

charges but he escaped conviction by one vote• However, Johnson was destroyed politically and

former General Ulysses S. Grant easily won the election of 1868

Congressional Reconstruction• After the 1868 election the Republicans had

complete control of the federal government and passed the 15th Amendment guaranteeing a male citizen’s right to vote

• Despite loop holes allowing literacy tests and poll taxes it was a major milestone

• States were now required to endorse the 13th and 14th Amendments, write new constitutions protecting blacks, and establish new governments to rejoin the country

Southern Republican Governments• As Reconstruction governments took hold in the

South they were dominated by Republicans and two types of hated men emerged in the South– Carpetbaggers: Northerners who came to the South to

make money in illegitimate ways– Scalawags: Southerners who supported the North

• Blacks dominated the political scene as so many of the whites were ineligible to participate as they had served in the Confederacy

Counter-Reconstruction• Republicans could not fix brutal racism in the South• Violence began to erupt in Southern states tired of

the “control” of the North• The best known group that concentrated this

violence was the Ku Klux Klan

The KKK• The KKK initiated mainly former Confederate

officers into a group that used fear and intimidation to destroy Republican and freedmen control of the South

• Riding in ghostly white outfits the KKK would kidnap, beat, and sometimes murder white Republican and African-American leaders

• The KKK and other groups brought real evidence to the severe racial undertones plaguing the South

The Failure of the Republicans• Under Grant the Republican party showed itself to

be full of corruption• Grant’s administration was routinely rocked by

scandals of money and patronage• This was not just isolated to Grant’s administration

as republican governments across the country showed mass corruption and issues and gave many people doubts on the sincerity of Republican intentions when it came to economic policy

“Redemption”• Democrats began to reassert their power in the

1874 and 1876 elections as former Confederate officers flanked candidates and intimated Blacks and Republican whites

• The federal government showed little response to these violent incidents as Grant did not want to get embroiled in more contentious political issues

• Congress responded with the Civil Rights Act of 1875 which forbid discrimination in public but it was later overturned in 1883

“Redemption”• The Presidential election of 1876 officially ended

Reconstruction• Democrat Samuel Tilden ran against Republican Rutherford

B. Hayes• The election ended in controversy• A deal was struck to give the election to Hayes in exchange

for an end to Reconstruction and a withdrawal of Federal troops with the Compromise of 1877

• Essentially the South won Reconstruction reentering the Union on its own terms with the 14th and 15th Amendments dead laws in the South

The Failed Reconstruction• Sharecropping became the main failure of

Reconstruction• Blacks and poor whites rented out parcels of land

from planters in exchange for giving part of the harvest to the planter

• However, one bad season would essentially lock the sharecropper into servitude for the rest of their life as they could never payback their rent

Chapter Objectives• Why did Southerner’s remember the Civil Was as a Lost

Cause?• What were African-American aspirations in 1865?• How did Presidential Reconstruction differ from

Congressional Reconstruction?• What role did the Ku Klux Klan play in Counter-

Reconstruction?• What were the effects of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and

the Compromise of 1877?• Why and how did Reconstruction end, and what were its

failed promises?