Understanding the South

Home Work Review

13th Amendment

14th Amendment

15th Amendment

-Freed slaves!

-All persons born in US were to be considered citizens and have equal protection under the law.

- no citizen can be denied the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Reconstruction Acts of 1867Reconstruction Acts of 1867 Military Reconstruction Act

1. Put the South under military rule. 5 different districts each governed by a different Northern General.

2. Ordered Southern states to elect NEW officials and create new constitutions

3. Req. all states to qualify black

Men to vote

4. Temporarily barred those who

Supported Confederacy

5. Required South to grant equal

Rights to all.

6. Southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment

Images from “Harpers Weekly”May 1866 – October 1874

Complete the following questions in your binder for each of the following images.

• Title of the Image – and the date.1. Identify the 2 key pieces of information from the

Note.2. Identify the most important portion of the

image.3. What is surprising or interesting in this image.

Reconstruction and How It Works

In this and other cartoons, Thomas Nast uses the Memphis and New Orleans riots as symbols of the sustained and egregious violence against blacks committed by Southern whites. The scene of the slavery auction and the lashing underlines the continuity between the pre-war and post-war South. The artist intends to generate opposition to President Andrew Johnson’s lenient Reconstruction plan and, by implication, to build support for the Radical Reconstruction objectives of Congressional Republicans.

Nast applies a Shakespeare motif, as he often did, to cast Johnson as the evil Iago plotting against the heroic and innocent Otello, the Moor (African). Once again, Nast portrays the central black character as a wounded Union veteran who is being denied his just and earned place in the American polity. The artist reminds viewers of the president’s past promises, vetoes of Reconstruction legislation, and pardons of former Confederates.

In the bottom-center picture, Johnson-the-snake-charmer is joined by his top cabinet officials (l-r), Secretary of State William Henry Seward, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. (Johnson’s later attempt to oust Stanton for working behind the scenes with Congressional Radicals would lead to the president’s impeachment.) The bottom side-panels contrast the situation in New Orleans during the Civil War and during the Johnson administration. On the left (1862), a humbled Confederate soldier must bow to Union General Benjamin Butler; on the right (1866), General Philip Sheridan is forced to submit to the same former Rebel.

September 1, 1866, Thomas Nast

While the Reconstruction effort faced an opposition in the South characterized by intimidation and violence, a political backlash against those policies developed in the North. Many Northern white Americans became wary of the continued use of the military to enforce a political agenda. Concerns about national priorities were exacerbated when an economic depression began in 1873-74, provoking much of the Northern electorate to insist that the government concentrate on economic affairs. Adding to the Northern white reaction against the federal Southern policy was the conventional wisdom that the Reconstruction governments had become corrupt. Those sentiments combined in the fall 1874 elections to allow the Democratic party to win control of Congress for the first time since before the Civil War.

In fact, there had been corruption in the Reconstruction governments. Most historians, however, have concluded that it was no worse, and often not as bad, as the corruption in other state governments at that time or in the past. Yet, the commonly-held belief that Reconstruction governments were especially corrupt would continue well into the twentieth century. Much of the blame for the alleged malfeasance was placed unfairly on black office-holders. The South Carolina legislature was particularly targeted as a symbol of corruption because it was the only state legislature in which blacks held a majority of the seats.

For years, Thomas Nast had used his artistic talents in Harper’s Weekly to generate sympathy for the plight of black Americans and support for black civil rights. This illustration, though, demonstrates that he was not immune from accepting the standard line on Reconstruction corruption or from using racial stereotypes to make his point. The imagined scene takes place in the South Carolina legislature. The corresponding text in Harper’s Weekly contains a fictional and stereotyped exchange between black legislators. The newspaper notes, however, that the corruption was probably no worse than other instances of political graft.

Colored Rule in a Reconstructed (?) State

March 14, 1874 – Thomas Nast

Electioneering At The South

July 25, 1868The illustration upon Page 468 is one of the most significant possible. It shows the newly-enfranchised citizens of the United States engaged in the discussion of political questions upon which they are to vote; and however crude the arguments of the orator may be, they can not be more so than those which may be heard every evening in the clubs of the "superior race" in the city of New York. The scene is wholly characteristic. The eager attention of the listeners, and the evidently glib tongue of the speaker, reveal that remarkable

adaptability and readiness so observable in the colored race. They take naturally to peaceful and lawful forms; they are naturally eloquent; and instead of scoffing loftily at them as incompetent, their white brethren will find it necessary to bestir themselves, or the "incompetent" class will be the better educated and more successful. Does any man seriously doubt whether it is better for this vast population to be sinking deeper and deeper in ignorance and servility, or rising into general intelligence and self-respect? They can not be pariahs; they can not be peons; they must be slaves or citizens. The policy of enslaving them has produced such results as we have seen; and we are now to see that liberty is truly conservative, and that honesty is the best policy.

EVERYTHING POINTS TO A DEMOCRATIC VICTORY THIS FALL October 31, 1874

This cartoon reflects the altered state of Southern politics in which the attempt by black men to vote had become a life-threatening risk. The scene is a dramatic contrast with Alfred Waud’s 1867 illustration, "The First Vote." The corresponding text by journalist Eugene Lawrence, who wrote feature stories on the South for Harper’s Weekly, details some examples of political violence during the retreat from Reconstruction.

THE FIRST VOTENovember 16, 1867

Every one of the several Southern States which have voted under the reconstruction acts of Congress have been carried by the white and colored loyalists. Louisiana, Virginia, Alabama, and now Georgia, have declared by large majorities of Union men in favor of Conventions to remodel the State Constitutions on the basis of equal rights to all, and in each and all of them positive and decided Unionists of both colors have been chosen to assist in this labor of remodeling the State laws.

The good sense and discretion, and above all the modesty, which the freedmen have displayed in the exercise, for the first time, of the great privilege which has been bestowed upon them, and the vast power which accompanies the privilege, have been most noticeable. Admiration of their commendable conduct has suggested the admirable engraving which we give on the first page of this issue. The freedmen are represented marching to the ballot-box to deposit their first vote, not with expressions of exultation or of defiance of their old masters and present opponents depicted on their countenances, but looking serious and solemn and determined.  The picture is one which should interest every colored loyalist in the country.

Gathering The Dead And WoundedMay 10, 1873

The 1872 state election results in Louisiana were disputed between the regular Republicans and a coalition of Liberal Republicans and Democrats, with each side inaugurating their own governor and legislature. A federal district judge ruled that the regular Republicans were the victors, so newly-reelected President Ulysses S. Grant sent federal troops to ensure compliance with the judicial decree.

Many whites in Louisiana refused to accept that decision. They established a shadow government and usedparamilitary units known as the White League to intimidate and attack blacks and white Republicans.

The worst incident of violence was the Colfax Massacre of April 13, 1873. The fighting left two white men and 70 black men dead, with half of the latter killed after they surrendered. Federal officials arrested and indicted over 100 white men. They were later freed, however, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the basis for their prosecution (part of the 1870 enforcement act) was unconstitutional.

Scenes In MemphisMay 26, 1866During the riot - Burning a Freedmen's School-HouseDuring the riot - shooting down negroes on the morning of May 2, 1866 “There was in Memphis, on the first two days of May, an excitement unequaled since the close of the war. The origin of the disturbance between the whites and negroes of that city was highly discreditable to the colored soldiers, and the riotous proceedings which followed were a disgrace to civilization. For the riot the lower class of white citizens were as responsible as were the soldiers of the Third United States Colored Infantry for the original difficulty.  This regiment, whose reputation has been a bad one, had been mustered out, since which they had frequented whisky-shops in the southern part of the city, and had been guilty of excesses and disorderly conduct.  On the evening of May 1 some drunken members of the regiment were on South Street, talking noisily, when in an insolent manner they were ordered by two policemen to cease their noise and disperse. Words ensued, followed by blows, throwing of missiles, and firing of revolvers.”Historians tell of a somewhat different origin to the Memphis riot than the one stated in Harper’s Weekly. During the Civil War, the black population in Memphis had quadrupled, and racial tensions were high. The riot was sparked on May 1, 1866, when the hacks of a black man and a white man collided. As a group of black veterans tried to intervene to stop the arrest of the black man, a crowd of whites gathered at the scene. Fighting broke out, then escalated into three days of racially-motivated violence, primarily pitting the police (mainly Irish-Americans) against black residents.

In the end, 46 blacks and two whites were killed, five black women were raped, and hundreds of black homes, schools, and churches were broken into or destroyed by arson. Along with the New Orleans riot three months later, the Memphis riot helped undermine the viability and support of President Andrew Johnson’s lenient Reconstruction program.

The National Colored Convention in Session at Washington, D.C.February 6, 1869Just as black slaves took the initiative to emancipate themselves when circumstances allowed, so free and freed blacks organized politically in order to secure their basic rights and liberties within American society. During the Civil War, in October 1864, a group of free black men met in Syracuse, New York. They passed resolutions endorsing the abolition of slavery, legal equality regardless of color or race, and black manhood suffrage. They also established the National Equal Rights League (NERL) to fight racial barriers in the Union states.Although they faced an uphill battle, members of the NERL and other civil rights activists achieved some success. In 1865 John Rock became the first black lawyer admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court; Illinois repealed its black code; Massachusetts enacted the first law granting equal access to public accommodations; and a few cities desegregated their streetcar service.

states. The conventions demanded equal rights and condemned anti-black violence, but their central concerns, like the NERL, were on gaining equality under the law and voting rights. Southern blacks argued that those goals were in line with traditional American principles, particularly as embodied in the Declaration of Independence.

This illustration is of a session at the National Convention of Colored Men. Their stated purpose was "to inquire into the actual condition" of blacks in America. A committee of twelve called upon President-elect Ulysses S. Grant, offering their support and best wishes and urging him to continue to be vigilant in the fulfillment and administration of equal rights. Grant pledged to them the equal protection of the law.

After the war, this activism spread to the South. In 1865 and 1866, hundreds of delegates attended black conventions in the Southern

One Vote LessAugust 8, 1868

During Reconstruction, basic civil rights for black Americans were enacted into the U.S. Constitution via the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, into federal law through the Civil Rights Acts, and into the constitutions and laws of the former Confederate states and a few Northern ones. Given the prevalent racism in the country, and the resentment of many Southern whites to Reconstruction policies, a political reaction developed across the South. It resulted in the replacement of Republican Reconstruction governments with Democratic "Redeemer" governments. That change was accomplished and sustained in part by intimidation and violence against blacks and their white allies. The vehicle for those strong-arm tactics were paramilitary groups like the Ku Klux Klan, the White League, and the Red Shirts.

Harper’s Weekly would use this cartoon again in 1872, another presidential election year.

The Sunday-night attack - burning negro cabins at the tunnel

Murder of a negro at Mrs. Carter's house

The murder of Powell

The Patenburg MassacreOctober 12, 1872

The Honorable J. J. Wright, recently elected to a seat in the Supreme Court of South Carolina, whose portrait we give on page 149, was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and is now about thirty-one years of age. When he was about six years old his parents removed to Montrose, Susquehanna County, in the same State, where for several years he attended the district school during the winter months, working for the neighboring farmers the rest of the year. Having saved up a small sum of money he entered the Lancasterian University, at Ithaca, in New York State; and after a thorough course of study there returned to the village where his parents resided, and entered the office of a law firm, where he read law for two years, supporting himself by teaching. He subsequently entered the office of Judge Collins, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, with whom he read law for another year. Feeling himself qualified for the legal profession, he now applied for admission to the Bar; but so great was the existing prejudice against colored men that the Committee refused to examine him.

In April, 1865, he was sent by the American Missionary Society to Beaufort, South Carolina, as a teacher and laborer among the freedmen. He remained in Beaufort until after the Civil Rights Bill had passed, when he returned to Montrose, Pennsylvania, and demanded an examination.  The Committee found him qualified, and recommended his admission to the Bar. He was admitted August 13, 1865, being the first and only colored man ever admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania. In April, 1866, he was appointed by General O. O. Howard legal adviser for the freedmen in Beaufort, and acted in that capacity until he was elected to the Constitutional Convention of South Carolina. He was soon afterward elected Senator from the county Beaufort, and acted as such until February 1, 1870, when he was elected to the Supreme Bench of the State, and immediately entered upon the discharge of his duties as Judge.

Hon. J. J. WrightMarch 5, 1870

During Reconstruction, black men were elected to political office for the first time. They served at the local, state, and national level, although at a ratio below that of the black percentage of the population.

In 1870 the Reverend Hiram Revels of Mississippi, a Republican, became the first black person elected to the U.S. Senate. He served for only one year. He then became the first president of Alcorn University, the first land-grant college for black students. In addition to Revels, fifteen black men served in the House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era.

It would be nearly 100 years until the next black, Republican Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, was elected to the U.S. Senate (serving 1967-1979). The first black Democrat and woman elected to the U.S. Senate was Carol Moseley-Braun (serving 1993-1999).

Hon. H. R. RevelsFebruary 19, 1870

The Riot In New OrleansAugust 25, 1866

While the Memphis riot was a manifestation of the general hostility that many Southern whites felt toward blacks during the Reconstruction era, the New Orleans riot was related specifically to Reconstruction politics. The reelection of the former Confederate mayor in New Orleans, and other signs of the increasing influence of erstwhile Confederates, led Louisiana Governor James Madison Wells to call a state constitutional convention. He endorsed enfranchising black men, banning former Confederates from voting, and other Radical Republican goals.On July 30, 1866, 25 delegates and 200 black supporters assembled in New Orleans for the constitutional convention. A fight began on the street outside the hall between opponents and supporters of the convention. The arrival of the police, sympathetic to the Confederate cause, only exacerbated the melee. General Philip Sheridan, in charge of the Louisiana military district, was out of the state when the riot occurred. He later described it as "an absolute massacre." During the New Orleans riot, 34 blacks and three white Radicals were killed, and over 100 persons were injured. The New Orleans riot went even further than the Memphis riot in provoking scornful opposition to President Andrew Johnson’s lenient Reconstruction policies.

Murdering Negroes in the rear of the Mechanics' Institute

Platform in mechanics' Instituteafter the riot

Interior of Mechanics' Institute during the riotCarrying off the dead and wounded - inhuman conduct of the police

Worse Than SlaveryOctober 24, 1874

How easily wicked and treasonable organizations may gain the control over the peaceable and the industrious members of society has always been signally apparent at the South. A band of wild and desperate young men, maddened with whisky and torn by demoniac passions, is the governing power in Texas and Alabama, Georgia, and even Kentucky. Masked, armed, and supplied with horses and money by the Democratic candidates for office, they ride over the country at midnight, and perpetrate unheard-of enormities. It is said, and no doubt truly, that not one in a hundred of their fearful deeds is ever told. Their enormous vices and crimes are faintly depicted in the Ku-Klux reports of 1872. Yet before these infamous associations Southern society trembles. They rob, they murder, they whip, they intimidate; yet no man, white or black, dares to denounce them. If a colored man ventures to tell of some frightful assassination which he saw in the dim midnight, he is himself dragged from the prison where he had been placed for safety and slaughtered, as happened recently in Tennessee, with horrible mockeries. If a United States official becomes conspicuous in politics, he is carried into the woods and shot, as at Coushatta. In Alabama and Louisiana the bands of young ruffians patrol the country by day as well as night, shooting down Republican voters.

Visit of the Ku-KluxFebruary 24, 1872The artist, on page 160, pictures an outrage of frequent occurrence in some of the most turbulent districts of the Southern States. The scene is the interior of a Negro cabin, where the little family—fearing no evil—is gathered after the work of the day is over. Suddenly the door is opened, and a member of the Ku-Klux Klan appears, with gun in hand, to take the life of the harmless old man who sits at the fire-place, and whose only "crime" is his color. It is to be hoped that under a rigorous administration of the laws these deeds of violence will soon cease forever.

Freedmen's SchoolsJune 23, 1866

Note: One of the most noticeable features of these schools for

freedmen is the cleanliness and good clothing of a majority of the scholars. Of course there are ragged and rough specimens, but these are not the rule. It is one of the many evidences I have found in Mississippi of the general well-being of the negroes, and their capacity to take care of themselves. These scholars, embracing all ages from the grandma down to the infant, are attentive, and master their tasks without any appearance indicating that the labor is irksome. The lady teachers, with a little tact, do almost any thing with them; and, although all teaching is a wearisome business, I should judge that these people showed the average intelligence displayed in the New York public schools. The Superintendent of the schools, Chaplain Warren, considers that in all that pertains to language they are, perhaps, ahead of white children in quickness of apprehension. How far their capacity for education would carry them is doubtful. That these schools will vastly improve the colored people there is no room for doubt; the evidence is conclusive on that point.  The school-house is a dilapidated affair, and the owner is anxious to get it into his possession again. The location of the school will have to be changed.  The prejudice of the Southern people against the education of the negroes is almost universal.

Noon at the primary school for Freedmen, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Primary school for Freedmen, in charge of Mrs. Green, at Vicksburg, Mississippi

Final Questions

1. Create a Title to this museum experience.2. Which image sticks in your mind the most?3. What about that one image makes it stick in

your mind?4. If you were a Radical Republican in the Senate

would you feel like you were doing your job? 5. After the Reconstruction Act of 1867 is there

anything else you could do to fix the situation?