Reconstructing and Expanding America

1
Reconstructing and Expanding America

• Reconstruction and Its Aftermath
• 1865-1877

2
Focus Question

• Who were the southern politicians who claimed
  that the states were not morally bound by postwar
  constitutional amendments and so could restrict
  the rights of the freed slaves.
• A- Carpetbaggers
• B- Radicals
• C- Scalawags
• D- Redeemers

3
Background

• Reconstruction of America following the Civil
  War was extremely difficult for Southerners
  whereas the Northerners where able to rebuild and
  begin The new America. The North and the South
  could not agree upon major issues such as race,
  government, politics, and what role women would
  play in society before the war occurred, and not
  much had changed after the war ended. The Civil
  War carried vast consequences for the nations
  future.
• During reconstruction former slaves and many
  small white farmers became trapped in a new
  system of economic exploitation known as
  sharecropping in exchange for land, a cabin, and
  supplies. High interest rates charged for goods
  bought on credit transformed sharecropping into a
  system of economic dependency and poverty.

4
War Goals

• South War Goals were to become a independent and
  sovereign Country.
• North War Goals were to bring the 13 states that
  succeeded back into the Union.

5
Effects felt by the North South

• The South lost 2/3 of their shipping industry,
  railroads, and 1/3 of all livestock. People were
  heavily in debt, courts were not functional. 20
  of the militaries aged men were killed, 8
  decline in the black population. The south who
  were the leaders of the cotton industry had found
  itself in despair. The southern society was
  greatly disrupted.
• The North society began to boom. The steel and
  textile industry was producing twice as much as
  the South. The North had a greater death toll
  than the South despite those lost, the North
  population began to grow and flourish.
• Southern blacks were free
• Southern whites went through class conflicts.
• Southerners paid others to fight in the war on
  their behalf
• Southerners had argued that blacks were inferior.

6
Presidential Reconstruction1863

• President Lincoln indicates his post war policy
  whereby rebel states regain their legal standing
  when 10 of its voters swear allegiance to the
  Union and accept the end to slavery. This was
  Lincolns way of a quick, non-punitive
  presidential reconstruction.

7
President Lincolns Death

• 1865 President Lincoln is assassin. Lincoln did
  not have a plan for reconstruction after his
  death, so when he dies all his plans for American
  dies with him.

8
President Johnson1865

• President Johnson did not share the views of
  Lincoln. Johnson plan was to remove all rights of
  blacks, including voting. President Johnson was
  extremely racist, didnt like the North or
  Plantation owners. The confederate states
  received full rights under the Johnson plan. The
  North became extremely concerned with Johnsons
  plan. The North began a radical reconstruction.
  Johnson was led by a group of southern redeemers
  who felt that the states were not bound by
  postwar constitutional amendments and so could
  restrict the rights of the freed slaves.

9
The Emancipation Proclamation1863

• The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 freed
  African Americans in rebel states, and after the
  Civil War, the 13th Amendment emancipated all
  U.S. slaves wherever they were. As a result, the
  mass of southern blacks now faced the difficulty
  Northern blacks had confronted --- that of a free
  people surrounded by many hostile whites.
• After the Civil War, with the protection of the
  13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the
  constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1866,
  African Americans enjoyed a period when they were
  allowed to vote, actively participate in
  political process, acquire the land of former
  owners, seek their own employment, and use public
  accommodations.

10
Unraveling Reconstruction1865

• KKK- Pulaski Tennessee
• Started out as a social fraternity
• 1866-1867 becomes extremely violent
• Nathan Bedford Forrest reorganized the KKK to a
  military form.
• 1871 Congress held hearings on the Klan and
  passed a tough anti-Klan law modeled after a
  North Carolina statute.
• 1870s white southerners had retaken control of
  most Southern state government and didnt need
  the Klan as much as before.
• White Southern Democrats won elections easily,
  and passed laws taking away many rights that
  blacks had won during Reconstruction.

11
Freedmens Bureau1865

• Program that congress set up to assist newly
  freed African- Americans by providing food,
  medical care, and help with resettlement. The
  Freedmens Bureau most notable task was the
  development of over 1000 schools which trained
  African Americans with an adequate education. The
  Bureau ran out of funds shortly after and was
  unable to prevent the emergence of Black Codes.
  The Bureau was terminated in 1872.

12
Results of Reconstruction

• The result was a system of segregation which was
  the law of the land for more than 80 years. This
  system was called separate but equal, which was
  half true- everything was separate, but nothing
  was equal.

13
The End of Part I

• Topics to be discussed later in Part II.
• 1. Civil Rights Movement
• 2. The role the North played after Johnsons
  reconstruction plan
• 3. Grant Administration
• 4. 1876 Election corruption Hayes (VS) Tilden