chapter 11-reconstruction notes part 1

7/31/2019 Chapter 11-Reconstruction Notes Part 1

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Reconstruction Era

Four Major Post-War Questions

1) How would the South, physically devastated by

war and socially revolutionized by emancipation, be

rebuilt? 2) How would the liberated blacks fare as free men

and women?

3) How would the Southern states be reintegrated

into the Union?

4) Who would direct the process of Reconstruction-

the Southern states, the president, or Congress?


2/22

Southern Economic Issues

Financial Industry-

Banks and business houses had locked their

doors, ruined by runaway inflation

Worthless Confederate money

No credit was available

Returned to bartering system for goods

(Household Economy)


3/22

Southern Economic Issues Industry-

Factories were smokeless, silent, dismantled

Widespread destruction of farm buildings and

machinery

Transportation-

Network of railroads had broken down

completely

Widespread destruction of roads and bridges


4/22

Southern Economic Issues Agriculture-

The economic lifeblood of the South was almost

hopelessly crippled

Fields were weed-filled and unplanted

Slave-labor system had collapsed

Seed was scarce

Livestock had been killed or driven off byplundering Yankee soldiers


5/22

Southern Economic Issues Planter Aristocrats-

Charred and gutted mansions

Lost investments

$2 billion in slaves alone

Worthless land


6/22

The Freedmen

Emancipation of the slaves took effect haltinglyand unevenly in different parts of the conqueredConfederacy

Many blacks found themselves emancipated andthen re-enslaved

Slave owners resorted to violence as well aslegal means to keep blacks in a state of

involuntary servitude Slaves themselves resisted the liberating Union

soldiers because of their loyalty to their masters


7/22

The Freedmen Once emancipation became permanent,

Freedmen

Took on new last names and demanded that whites

use Mr. or Mrs. when addressing them Threw off the rags of slavery and sought silks, satins,

and other finery

Took to the roads to test their freedom and to search

for long-lost spouses, parents, and children

Formalized their slave marriages which helped to

strengthen African-American families


8/22

The Freedmen Once emancipation became permanent,

Freedmen

Left the plantations and migrated to large cities andcreated pockets of African-American settlement

10 largest Southern cities doubled in black population between1865 and 1870

Migrated as a group (25,000) to Kansas aka- Exodusters

Started their own churches with their own ministers Formed the bedrock of black community life

Gave rise to other benevolent, fraternal, and mutual aid societies

Learned to read and write (sought education)


9/22

The Freedmens Bureau

Emancipation unleashed millions of former

slaves who were overwhelmingly unskilled,

unlettered, without property or money, and

with little knowledge of how to survive asfree people

March, 1865- Congress created the

Freedmens Bureauto help cope with thisproblem


10/22

The Freedmens Bureau Purpose-To provide aid and support to

freedmen and dispossessed whites

Activities-

Distributed food and clothing

Helped freedmen who returned to theplantations to get pay and guaranteed rights

Provided education opportunities


11/22

The Freedmens Bureau Headed By-Oliver O. Howard

Greatest Success-Educating the freedmen Freedmen made this aspect successful because they wanted to close

the gap between themselves and the whites in the area of education

and for the purpose of reading the Bible

Freedmen saw education as their ticket to freedom

Northern church and charitable groups participated in aidingfreedmen to obtain an education

American Missionary Association played a role in helping establishblack colleges

Freedmens Bureau established Howard University as well as 4,000lower level schools

Southern states eventually established public school systems


12/22

The Freedmens Bureau Failures-

No Congressional support (funds)

Programs only lasted a year or two because they ran

out of money Forty-acre plots of land that belonged to

Confederates were promised to the Freedmen, butwere never received

Local admin and planters expelled blacks from towns Ended up back on the plantations as field laborers

President Johnson tried multiple times to destroythe Bureau and it expired in 1872


13/22

Andrew Johnson

1864-Lincolns Union Party needed to attract supportfrom the War Democrats and other pro-Southernelements, and Johnson, a Democrat, was their ideal man

Johnson was a staunch champion of states rights and theConstitution, but when he took the presidency he becamea misfit A Southerner who did not understand the North

A Tennessean who had earned the distrust of the South

A Democrat who had never been accepted by the Republicans

A president who had not been elected to the office The wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong

time!!!


14/22

Presidential Reconstruction

1863- Lincoln initiated his10% Plan aka-Proclamation of Amnesty and

Reconstruction

Lincoln sought to reunite the country in apeaceful way

Amnesty- a general pardon granted by a ruler orgovernment to a large group of persons guilty ofa political offense

10% of those Southerners who voted in theelection of 1860 pledge an oath of loyalty to theUnion


15/22

Congress Responds

1864- Congress initiates theWade-Davis Bill

Much harsher than Lincolns arrangement for

Reconstruction

50% of a states voters would take an oath of

allegiance

Demanded stronger safeguards for emancipation

than Lincolns as the price of readmission to theUnion


16/22


Lincoln promptly pocket-vetoed the Wade-Davis bill by refusing to sign it after Congresshad adjourned for the year

Republicans in Congress were outraged Refused to readmit Louisiana in 1864 based upon

Lincolns 10% plan

Congress had taken a different tact than Lincolnby suggesting that the states who secededforfeited all their rights and could only bereadmitted as conquered provinces


17/22

Presidential Reconstruction Towards the end of the war the Republicans

became split over the issue of Reconstruction

Moderates-(majority) agreed with Lincoln that

the seceded states should be restored to theUnion as simply and swiftly as reasonableonCongresss terms, not the presidents

Radicals-believed that the South should atone

more painfully for its sins Wanted the Souths social structure to be uprooted,

the planters punished, and the newly emancipatedblacks protected by federal power


18/22

Presidential Reconstruction Radicals were secretly pleased with the

assassination of President Lincoln

Believed that Johnson shared their dislike for the

planter aristocrats in the South Johnson supported Lincolns 10% plan

Quickly recognized several Confederate states asbeing readmitted under such a plan

May, 1865- Johnson issued his ownreconstruction plan


19/22


Johnsons Plan for Reconstruction

Disfranchised certain leading Confederates

Particularly those with taxable property worth more

than $20,000

Called for special state conventions which were

required to repeal the ordinances of secession,

repudiate all Confederate debts, and ratify the

slave-freeing 13th amendment

States that adhered to his plan would be swiftly

readmitted to the Union


20/22

The Black Codes

Newly readmitted states enacted a series of laws aimeddirectly at the Freedmen designed to regulate the affairsof the emancipated blacks Aimed to ensure a stable and subservient labor force

Exacted extreme penalties on blacks who jumped their laborcontracts

No voting rights / no jury duty

Orphaned children became apprentices to their former slaveowners

Freedmen signed one-year labor contracts that tied them to

particular plantations and owners Freedmen were only able to hold farming or servant jobs

Could only leave plantation with permission from theirmasters


21/22

Sharecroppers

Freedmen lacked capital, skills, and resourcesand thus ended up assharecroppers

White landowners broke up estates into

small units and set up a freed black family oneach unit

Families were provided with land, housing,seeds, tools, and animals

Families could keep part of what they grew astheir pay

Anywhere from 10% to 50% of the crops produced


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Sharecroppers Freedmen liked this situation because it gave

them independence and motive to work hard

Thoughnatural disasters and drought caused

serious problems resulting in the freedmen not beingable to feed their families

White businessmen got wealthy off of freedmen

who borrowed against the next years crops

Resulted in a vicious cycle of debt that reduced

the sharecroppers to virtual peonage

chapter 11-reconstruction notes part 1

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