The Ordeal of Reconstruction

1
Chapter 22

• The Ordeal of Reconstruction

2
Problems

• Rebels tried for treason? Hanged? Pardoned by
  Johnson in late 1968.
• The South was crippled after the war economically
  and politically (loss of slaves as capital, crop
  destruction, infrastructure)
• What do the African-Americans do now? Labor
  contracts, sharecropping, tenant farming, exodus.
• Freedmans Bureau developed in 1865 to help
  African-Americans cope with the transition to
  freedom. Gen Howard although corrupt helped
  educate and clothe many freedmen. Ended in 1872.

3
Johnson

• A tailor by trade of humble beginnings. He was
  elected to Congress from Tenn. with favor from
  the North for not seceding with he South.
• On Lincolns ticket to attract support from the
  War Democrats.
• Johnson agreed with Lincolns reconstruction
  plans including the 10 plan. Reconstruction
  Proclamation disenfranchising wealthy
  confederates, state conventions, ratification of
  the Thirteenth Amendment.

4
The Codes

• Black Codes were laws placed to regulate
  emancipated African-Americans, or to keep a
  subservient class of workers.
• Laws for labor contracts, negro-catchers,
  forbade blacks on juries, barred renting land to
  African-Americans, no suffrage. These laws
  closely resembled slavery.
• Creditors held free Africans captive.

5
Congress vs. Johnson

• Former Confederates elected to Congress
• Freedmens Bureau, Civil Rights Bill, and the
  Fourteenth Amendment.
• Radical Republicans Thaddeus Stevens and Charles
  Sumner. Goal to punish the South and help the
  African-Americans.
• Reconstruction Act 1867 Five military districts
  controlled by Union Generals, readmission
  requirements of ratifying the Fourteenth
  Amendment which gave citizenship for
  African-Americans. Finally, in 1870 the Fifteenth
  Amendment gave the freed slaves the vote.

6
Negatives of Reconstruction

• Political woes of the South
• Scalawags were Southerners who allied with former
  slaves
• Carpetbaggers were sleazy Northerners who wanted
  political power in the South
• African-American politicians
• Graft through the purchase of legislative
  supplies food, champagne, corsets, etc.

7
Ku Klux Klan

• Founded in Tennessee in 1866.
• Created with religious justification to keep
  African-Americans in line through fear.
• Floggings, mutilated, and even murdered.
• Congress passed the Force Acts of 1870 to stamp
  out the lawless night riders.
• Protested 14th and 15th Amendments.

8
Impeachment

• Congress tried to impeach Johnson by creating the
  Tenure of Office Act. Johnson fired Stanton and
  was put on impeachment trial.
• Not-guilty verdict returned from the Senate
• Sec of State Seward buys the Polar Bear Garden
  of Alaska from the Soviets for 7.2 million. Seen
  as a diplomatic move as well.