1 Chapter 17 - Reconstruction

2 “Decorating the Graves of Rebel Soldiers,”“Decorating the Graves of Rebel Soldiers,” Harper’s Weekly, August 17, After the Civil War, both Southerners and Northerners created public mourning ceremonies honoring fallen soldiers. Women led the memorial movement in the South that, by establishing cemeteries and erecting monuments, offered the first cultural expression of the Confederate tradition. This engraving depicts citizens of Richmond, Virginia, decorating thousands of Confederate graves with flowers at the Hollywood Memorial Cemetery on the James River. A local women’s group raised enough funds to transfer over 16,000 Confederate dead from northern cemeteries for reburial in Richmond.

3 The Defeated South The South’s economy lay in ruinsResented its conquered status Resented the changed status of African Americans White racism would challenge, and ultimately defeat, Reconstruction

4 Lincoln's Reconstruction PlanSwift return to the Union: Protect private property Opposing harsh punishments Amnesty for swearing allegiance Return for 10 percent of the voters pledging allegiance Lincoln’s pocket veto for Wade-Davis Bill Redistribution of land

5 Abraham Lincoln's Plan Freedman's BureauAid former slaves in transition Lincoln's assassination threw all of these plans into doubt

6 Andrew Johnson & Presidential ReconstructionWar Democrat from Tennessee Blamed individuals, not the entire South for secession Granted amnesty to most Confederates Pardoned wealthy landholders and members of the political elite

7 Andrew Johnson and Presidential ReconstructionBy December: "restoration" was virtually complete. Outraged Radicals refused to seat Congressmen

8 MAP 17.1 Reconstruction of the South, 1866–77Dates for the readmission of former Confederate states to the Union and the return of Democrats to power varied according to the specific political situations in those states.

9 Congressional Reconstruction & the Impeachment Crisis1867: First Reconstruction Act enfranchised blacks divided South into 5 military districts Secretary of War Edwin Stanton crisis Violating Tenure of Office Act The House impeachment, Senate fails to convict Precedent: Only criminal acts by president warranted removal from office

10 The Election of 1868 1868: 7 of 11 ex-Confederate states back in the Union Republicans nominee: Ulysses Grant, a war hero Democratic nominee former New York Governor Horatio Seymour The Republicans attacked Democrats' loyalties

11 The Election of 1868 Democrats exploited & terror in the South to keep Republicans from voting Grant wins 26 of 34 states overwhelming majority of black votes Republican majorities in Congress proposed the Fifteenth Amendment to guarantee black voting rights

12 The Election of 1868 The remaining unreconstructed states (Mississippi, Texas, Georgia, and Virginia) had to ratify both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to be admitted to the Union All seceded states back in the Union by 1870 13, 14 & 15 Amendments known as the “Civil War Amendments”

13 Moving About Many freedmen sought new lives in predominantly black areas, even cities No longer had to show deference to whites Attempted to reunite with lost family members Education By 1869 over 3,000 Freedman's Bureau schools 150,000 students Black colleges also created

14 Land Labor After SlaverySharecropping & tenant farming Represented a compromise between planter and former slave Set their own hours and tasks (self-sufficient) Families labored together

15 “The First Vote,” “The First Vote,” Harper’s Weekly, November 16, 1867, reflected the optimism felt by much of the northern public as former slaves began to vote for the first time. The caption noted that freedmen went to the ballot box “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.”

16 Southern Politics and SocietyMost northerners were satisfied with a Reconstruction that brought the South back into the Union with a viable Republican Party Needed active Federal support to protect the African-American voters upon which it depended. Paramilitary groups like the Ku Klux Klan used terror to destroy the Reconstruction governments and intimidate their supporters.

17 White Resistance and "Redemption”Congress passed several laws to crack down on the Klan The Civil Rights Act of 1875 outlawed racial discrimination in public places Northern Republicans abandoned the freed people and their white allies Conservative Democrats (Redeemers) won control of southern states

18 The Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan emerged as a potent political and social force during Reconstruction, terrorizing freed people and their white allies. An 1868 Klan warning threatens Louisiana governor Henry C. Warmoth with death. Warmoth, an Illinois-born “carpetbagger,” was the state’s first Republican governor. Two Alabama Klansmen, photographed in 1868, wear white hoods to hide their identities.

19 White Resistance and "Redemption”Between 1873 and 1883, the Supreme Court weakened enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and overturned convictions of Klan members African Americans would be left legally unprotected until well into the twentieth century

20 The Depression of 1873 1872 – Grant reelected, defeats Horace GreeleyIn 1873, a financial panic triggered the longest depression in American history. Prices fell, unemployment rose, and many people sank deeply in debt. Government officials rejected appeals for relief. Clashes between labor and capital

21 The Electoral Crisis of 1876As the election of 1876 approached, new scandals in the Grant administration hurt the Republicans Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden of New York, a former prosecutor Democrats combined attacks on Reconstruction with attacks on corruption

22 The Electoral Crisis of 1876The Republican nominee, Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, promised to clean up corruption Tilden won popular vote, both sides claimed Electoral College victory Electoral commission awarded disputed votes to Hayes

23 1876 Electoral Map

24 The Electoral Crisis of 1876Hayes deal Money for southern internal improvements and noninterference in southern affairs Federal troops removed from South Republican governments in the South collapsed, Reconstruction abandoned

25 Reconstruction, 1863–1877 The Radicals' idealist program of freedom and equality collapsed by 1877 The Reconstruction amendments remained unenforced until a "second Reconstruction" in the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s-60s

26 Reconstruction, 1863–1877 The efforts of the Grant years to support freedmen's rights gave way to indifference under Hayes as Americans shifted their focus to economic development and the growing tensions between capitalists and workers The "southern question" receded from the national attention