Reconstruction

1865-1876

Wartime Reconstruction  Lincoln’s primary aim was the restoration of

national unity 

speedy, forgiving reconciliation

 Congress sought white loyalty & black rights

“The Rail Splitter at Work Repairing the Union”

“To Bind Up the Nation’s Wounds”  Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address  

blazed with Biblical imagery looked ahead to peace

 Lincoln offered full pardons to rebels who

renounced 

10% plan for states

Lincoln Delivering 2nd Inaugural Speech

Black Quest for Autonomy  After the war blacks

sought:   

freedom of travel restoration of families independent worship

Presidential Reconstruction

Assassination  Lincoln killed by John Wilkes Booth 

15 April 1865

 Vice-President Andrew Johnson became

President

Johnson & Reconciliation  Andrew Johnson (Pro)   

poor, uneducated parents self-made wealth; former tailor & slaveowner only Southern Senator who remained loyal to the union

 Andrew Johnson (Con)   

states’ rights defended slavery; racist bitter & hateful toward aristocrats

Andrew Johnson

Southern Resistance & Black Codes

Southern states resisted, Johnson backed off  Black Codes      

discriminatory laws to keep blacks subordinate to whites banned from gun ownership corporal punishment for gestures & language banned from jury duty not allowed to vote tax on non-farm labor

Radical Reconstruction

Military Reconstruction Act, 1867  US Army occupation of South      

Union general in charge of 5 districts black voter registration excluded Confederates new conventions & state constitutions with black suffrage but fell short of land reform Johnson vetoed, Congress overrode

Freedmen’s Bureau Agent

Impeaching a President  AJ responsible for enforcing law     

but, he sabotaged Congress & encouraged white belligerence & resistance issued pardons to Confederates fought the Freedmen’s Bureau replaced Union generals sought to protect Southern whites

Congress attempts to tie AJ’s hands  required all Army orders to pass through Gen.

Grant  Tenure of Office Act, 1867  

Senate approval of removal of any official appointment with Senate approval Senate trying to protect Sec. of War Stanton (who supported Reconstruction)

“crazy, or only drunk?”  AJ suspended Stanton, August 1867  Senate refused to consent 

AJ fired him anyway

Impeachment  House impeached AJ  Senate acquitted him 

1 vote shy of 2/3 needed

The Struggle in the South

Freedmen, Yankees, & Yeomen

Southern Republicans, 1867  African-Americans  “Carpetbaggers”  Northern migrants  restless, educated, young men looking for opportunity  “Scalawags”  Unionist, Southern, yeoman farmers who resented planters  Blacks & whites joined together to pursue

political change

Depiction of a Carpetbagger

Ku Klux Klan  formed 1866 by Nathan Bedford Forrest  began as social club for CSA veterans  became anti-Republican paramilitary org.  KKK used violence to defeat Reconstruction

& restore white supremacy

Nathan Bedford Forrest

The Birth of a Nation

Republican Rule

Reconstruction constitutions  reduced aristocratic privilege & increased

democratic equality   

universal male suffrage abolished property qualifications for holding office more elective offices

 expanded general welfare  

prison reform care for orphans, insane, deaf, mute, debtors

Constitutions fell short:  no land reform  only 6% of Southern Congressmen were

black  not all ex-Rebels banned

“The First Colored Senator & Representatives”

Republican Achievements in the South  public education for

blacks & whites (though segregated)  civil rights laws  improved transportation  economic development: railroads

White landlords, black sharecroppers  After the war, planters used binding wage

contracts to restore system of work gangs, white overseers, field labor for women & children, clustered cabins, minimal personal freedom, corporal punishment  freedmen’s dream of land ownership never came true

Sharecroppers

Sharecropping  planters divided land into 25 acre farms,

rented by freedmen for ½ of annual crop  blacks gained more freedom, but still dependent on landlord  planters resumed production, but lost old supervision  by 1870—white sharecroppers

Reconstruction Collapses

Grant & Corruption  U. S. Grant elected in 1868 despite KKK

murdering hundreds of Southern Republicans  Grant knew US was weary of Reconstruction 

disassociated from Southern Republicans

 Grant grew tentative, unsure, bewildered  surrounded by “fumbling kinfolk & old cronies” as advisors  administration tainted by corruption, economic depression  Reconstruction ended

U.S. Grant writing Memoirs, 1885

Northern Resolve Withers  Reasons for North’s abandonment of

reconstruction  

racial prejudice Supreme Court weakened federal government’s ability to protect blacks

White Supremacy Triumphs  black freedom=white rage  

Southern Democrats promised to replace “bayonet rule” with “home rule” swore to save South from “Negro rule”

Southern Democratic strategy:  polarize parties by color  

called Democratic party that of the “proud Caucasian race” blamed farm problems on Republican financial policy

 terrorize black voters  

“night riders” murdered blacks and scalawags yeoman farmers defected to Democratic party

Election & Compromise, 1876  Presidential election that threatened another

civil war 

Rutherford B. Hayes 



Republican Governor of Ohio

Samuel Tilden 

Democrat Governor of New York

Rutherford B. Hayes

Samuel Tilden

1876 Presidential Election

 Tilden won popular vote, but one vote shy in

Electoral College  

disputed votes in FL, SC, LA Republicans stuffed boxes, but Democrats had terrorized Republican voters

Compromise of 1877  Deadlocked Congress created commission of

15  Compromise of 1877    

Republicans gained presidency Democrats got home rule & free hand in racial matters At least one Democrat appointed to Cabinet Construction of transcontinental railroad through the South

Conclusion

A revolution half-accomplished  Reconstruction=most profound upheaval in

US history  world of masters & slaves gave way to landlords & sharecroppers  South returned to union, but as “junior partner” 

North’s industrial capitalism ruled the land

 “2nd Reconstruction” occurred 100 years

later; but only because 1st Reconstruction failed