Chapter 4: The Civil War and Reconstruction Era: 18511880

1
Chapter 4 The Civil War and Reconstruction Era
1851-1880
2
1. Causes of the Civil War

• 1. In the 1850s, growing numbers of Americans
  were convinced that the north and south were
  moving in different directions economically. Each
  side saw the other as a threat to the American
  way of life.
• 2. Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Toms
  Cabin, in 1851 helped to convince northerners
  that slavery was immoral. (Sad tale of a man and
  wife who passively accepts his unequal status and
  the brutal treatment he receives) Simon Legere
  brutalizes his wife and eventually beats Tom to
  death with a whip.
• 3. Southerners thought that northern capitalists
  exploited their workers in factories and claimed
  they took better care of their slaves.
• 4. The material differences between the north and
  south grew. The north became more urban, 2 1/2
  times more population. North had 9 of the 10
  largest cities in the U.S. They had railroads.
• 5. The compromise of 1850-again states wanted in
  as free or slave in different areas but the
  south. (1) California, (2) New Mexico, Utah. (3)
  Abolished slavery in Washington D.C. (4) but
  required all citizens to return all slave who
  escaped- Fugitive Slave Act
• 6. Two party system fell apart-new
  parties-Reform established because the democrats
  and republicans were not doing enough, and
  Nationalism people born here received better
  treatment than immigrants.

3

• 7. Kansas-Nebraska Act-1854- abolished all other
  policies and allowed states to choose for
  themselves. More free states entered the union.
• 8. The Republican Party gained support by the end
  of the decade campaigning while promising an end
  to slavery and restricting immigration.
• 9. Between 1856-1860 several demonstrations for
  or against slavery turned violent. Bleeding
  Kansas
• 10. Dred Scot Decision- the Supreme Court ruled
  for slavery when they said that the Constitution
  protected the rights of slave owners to take
  enslaved people from anywhere in the US
• 11. Senatorial candidate from Illinois began
  campaigning with great influences on the issues
  of slavery - Abraham Lincoln.
• 12. 1860- Abraham Lincoln won the election
  carrying no southern states and
• almost all northern states.
• 13. Secession - one after another of the southern
  states left the Union after an anti-slavery
  President was elected.
• 14. Fort Sumter in South Carolina became a symbol
  of federal authority (the govt.) so it was
  attached by Southern forces and this was the
  final challenge that brought on the Civil War
  (1861-1865).

4
2.) THE CIVIL WAR 1861-1865

• In the first two years of the war, Union armies
  tried to capture the Confederate capital but were
  driven back by the Southern soldiers and more
  skilled generals.
• Union forces - did manage to succeed in
  blockading the coasts and seizing control of the
  great union valleys and mid western states
  (Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi River
  Valley
• Battle of Manassas - 1st major battle of the war
  July 1861 - also known as the First Battle of
  Bull Run. (South called it Bull Run after a River
  and North the name of a town).
• Southern general - Stonewall Jackson proved
  victorious

5
3.) War of Attrition

• - south could have won if they continued with
  this policy.
• This meant that a weaker army would attack
  continuously until they wore the other side down
  avoiding all direct confrontations.

6
4.) Anaconda Plan

• The north found out about the plan and ridiculed
  it calling it the anaconda plan and thus
  comparing the south to snakes. They claimed it
  wasnt fair in battles, but they later started
  using it.
• Examples General George McClellan fought for
  the Union on the Potomac and Ulysses S. Grant
  along the Mississippi. Both were master
  organizers and leaders.

7
5.) The South

• They had trouble establishing a strong army
  because they couldnt get each states militia to
  unite.

8
6.) The North

• President Lincoln limited the rights of the
  citizens in the north during the war.
• 1.) Some slaves had not taken their freedom so
  they were then taken under the contraband rule.
  This meant that they were taken and their freedom
  was forced upon them. Without their labor this
  weakened the southern economy.
• 2.) Writ of habeas corpus was suspended -
  anyone could be held in prison without due
  process.
• 3.) The freedom of the press was restricted
• 4.) Greenbacks were issued- new money, later
  worthless, these were promissory notes to people
  that they would get paid for services and
  supplies that were confiscated.
• President Lincoln also enlarged the purpose of
  the war from just saving the union to abolishing
  slavery as well. On Jan. 1. 1863, he issued the
  Emancipation proclamation of 1863 declaring all
  enslaved people free. Because of this many more
  African Americans left their masters and many
  joined the northern armies.

9
8.) Battle of Shiloh

• In this Battle Grant let the South think they
  would retreat, but he attacked again in the early
  hours of the next morning. 13,000 union men died
  and 10,000 confederate soldiers were killed. At
  the sight of this battle field, the soil is still
  red from the blood of the soldiers.

10
9.)Battle of Antietam

• This was the bloodiest day of the war in one day.
  6,000 killed, and 17,000 wounded. With the
  appointment of Robert E. Lee as leader of the
  Confederate forces in 1862, the war became a
  stalemate and no longer did anyone appear to be
  in the lead.

11
10.) Gettysburg

• In the summer of 1863, the tides turned. Robert
  E. Lee led the southern forces into Pennsylvania
  and attacked the Union army in Gettysburg. Lees
  attempt to capture the city failed after three
  days of horrible slaughter. It ended on July 4,
  1863 with 29,000 southern losses and 23,000
  northern soldiers killed or missing.

12
11.) Vicksburg

• Meanwhile, Grant was leading his forces into
  Vicksburg Mississippi. He attacked both
  civilians as well as soldiers. The civilians
  were being attacked because they were helping the
  southern soldiers and hiding them out. After a
  succession of raids that lasted 20 days, both he
  and General Tecumseh Sherman could neither one of
  them capture the city and a truce was called.

13
12.) The End is near

• The south really lost the spirit to fight after
  the slaughter at Gettysburg. The North continued
  to pound on the weaker yet persistent south until
  they surrendered in 1864. In 1865, Congress
  passed the 13th amendment disallowing slavery of
  any kind forever (Feb.) In April 1865, the war
  was officially declared over. In all 360,000
  Union and 258,000 Confederate soldiers died.
  Only two other wars had more casualties than
  that.

14
13.) Lincoln Assassinated

• Five days later, President Lincoln was shot by
  John Wilkes Booth in the head at the Ford
  Theater. He lived for two days. Booth was part
  of a group of southern conspirators who planned
  to kill all federal government officials. He was
  caught a few days later in a barn and severely
  beaten and tortured. He also died a few days
  later of wounds he received. Other conspirators
  were caught and hung.

15
14.) Reconstruction 1865-1876

• Reconstruction divided the country. Northern
  cities flourished with productivity as chimneys
  on factories poured forth flames. In the South,
  chimneys were all that remained of factories and
  burned out homes. The South needed to be put
  back together. The South was bankrupt.
• Farms had been burned to the ground. Some slaves
  had run off, while others stayed but refused to
  work.

16
15.) Slaves

• Nearly 4 million slaves had been set free. First
  they celebrated and experienced joy, but they
  quickly realized they were still dependent on
  their former owners for food and shelter. At
  first they tested their freedom by leaving the
  plantations for a few hours a day. Some left
  completely to find towns that had jobs, schools
  and churches. In the first few months some went
  to find relatives sold to other families. They
  began to assert their independence by choosing
  surnames like Lincoln, Washington, and Grant.
  Others chose the names of their former masters
  and remained loyal and worked for wages. Some
  were even forced to stay and beaten severely if
  the farm or home had suffered at all during the
  war. The biggest symbol of freedom was acquiring
  their own land and building their own homes.
  Some slaves whose masters never returned divided
  up the land into parcels and built their own
  homes. Those who had fought in the war were
  given 40 acres and a mule in South Carolina,
  Georgia, and Mississippi.

Booker T Washington
17
16.) White South Response

• Rich and poor alike had to wait in read lines
  until their land was restored to them. Their
  homes, cattle, and slaves had all been taken away
  from them. They worried what would become of the
  South without slave labor. They would now have
  to do things they had never done before -
  housework. They especially found it hard to deal
  with the attitudes of former slaves. They
  claimed their former slaves were becoming uppity
  and were puttin' on airs. Slaves no longer
  addressed white folk with titles, and they moved
  around freely. The souths attitude of
  superiority is what created the racism we still
  see in the south.

Had to do all the work themselves.
18
17.) The Black Codes

• In an attempt to reestablish the old
  relationships, Southern states imposed the black
  codes in the year after the Civil War. This was
  a set of laws restricting their freedom. It
  allowed blacks to marry, sue and be sued, testify
  in court and hold property. But it also
  contained more restrictions than gave rights. It
  forbade interracial marriages. It forbade the
  right to bear arms. It forbade them the right to
  be in the city or town limits after dark. It
  forbade them to use the same public
  transportation as whites. And, it forbade them
  to congregate in large groups. It also enacted a
  vagrancy law.
• If a black man was not gainfully employed he
  could be jailed and fined. They forced to work
  off his fine by working on someones farm. It
  did all this because whites feared that blacks
  would now try to seek revenge.

19
18.) National Reconstruction

• Most ex-Confederates received pardons and their
  land was returned to them by President Andrew
  Johnson. He granted amnesty to all of them
  except for a handful of the extremely wealthy.
  They did, however, have to take an oath of
  allegiance to the union and promise to uphold the
  constitution. Each state had to promise to
  uphold the thirteenth amendment and elect new
  officials in order to be readmitted to the Union.
  They also had to promise to void secession in
  their state constitution. The South complied,
  but most reelected their old officials including
  ones that had yet to be pardoned. They also made
  no effort to establish black suffrage or allow
  for black civil rights.
• Many Northerners felt the president was being too
  lenient on the South. The president even vetoed
  a civil rights bill for blacks that Congress
  wanted passed. Congress went against Johnson and
  established a Joint Committee to investigate
  conditions in the South.

20
19.) The Joint Committee

• A joint committee was formed and they found that
  many race riots were occurring in the cities.
  So, Congress proposed, and ratified the 14th
  amendment which did four things all people were
  guaranteed equal protection under the law.
• Due process denied confederates the right to
  hold office.
• Refused to take on the confederate sates debts,
  and denied their claims for compensation of lost
  property. Congress also passed a bill restricting
  the powers of the President. It made the
  legislative stronger then the executive branch.
  It established a military presence in the south
  to protect the civil rights of blacks.

21
20.) Abuse of Power/ Impeachment

• President Andrew Johnson attempted to veto
  congress. He also tried to fire high ranking
  officials.
• Congress rushed impeachment resolutions in an
  attempt to get rid of Johnson. The Supreme Court
  ruled that Johnson had not committed a crime
  despite having questionable judgment. The vote
  was 35 to 19, just short of the 2/3 majority
  needed. Only Nixon and Clinton have gone through
  this process.

Impeachment of President
Johnson
22
21.) A New President

• Ulysses S. Grant won the election of 1868 and
  with him black people were able to finally gain
  suffrage when he imposed the 15th amendment.
  This made it illegal to prevent or deny voting
  privileges on account of race, color, or previous
  condition of servitude.

23
22.) Homestead Act of 1866

• Another plan for reconstruction gave land to
  blacks who applied by Jan. 1, 1867. Most could
  not apply because they were already under
  contract. Only 4,000 applied and 20 of this
  group actually received land.

24
23.) Women and Reconstruction

• Women received a slap in the face in the wording
  of the 14th and 15th Amendment. They had been
  campaigning for the vote for two decades, but had
  put this aside during the war to gather nearly
  400,000 signatures to get the 13th Amendment
  passed. Therefore, they were shocked to see for
  the first time the word Male in the constitution
  when referring to citizens rights in the 14th and
  15th Amendments.

25
24.) Freedmen's Bureau

• They issued emergency rations of food and
  clothing. They provided shelter for the
  homeless. They established medical care and
  hospital facilities. They helped in the search
  for lost family members. They arranged legal
  marriages. They ensured fair trials. They
  provided education. It was also an employment
  agency. Helped settled former slaves on
  abandoned farm land. Helped former slaves
  acquire tools, seed and draft animals. Arranged
  contracts with white land owners (in this they
  just re-enslaved them because some workers of the
  Bureau were crooked Union officers.) Other
  workers of the Bureau were idealistic young new
  Englanders.

26
25.) The Economy

• The South remained in the hands of the few
  wealthy (about 60). Most ex-slaves were still
  treated harshly. They worked in gangs and
  received meager wages and allotment of bacon and
  meal. They would have preferred their own plots
  of land to this semi-servitude. Some freedmen
  became sharecroppers by leasing land to work.
  The owner would supply all materials and took
  half the harvest. The profits were used to pay
  debts of goods bought on credit at the landlords
  store at a high rate of interest. Only 2 to 5
  of sharecroppers ever came out ahead and could
  eventually buy their own land. There were white
  sharecroppers as well.

27
26.) Republican Rule

• Many people headed south during the war seeking
  investment opportunities. They were labeled
  carpetbaggers. Republicans also tried to reform
  many southern institutions. These institutions
  included schools, asylums, prisons, and care of
  the handicapped. Because there was such a strong
  republican and military presence in the South
  during the reconstruction era, a secret
  organization developed Known as the Ku Klux Clan.
  

28
27.) Ku Klux Klan

• It began as a group of democrats that decided to
  use secrecy, masks, intimidation and force
  against black and white Republicans to drive them
  out of power. They led campaigns of terror to
  prevent people from voting. They would come
  dressed in white and flog, torture, and hang
  people. They burned homes and barns to scare
  people as symbols of white authority and power.
  In North Carolina and Mississippi in 1870, the
  Klan had people so scared that in 1870 only 1/3
  of the population that voted two years earlier
  turned out to vote in the next election.
  Congress and President Grant did not ignore the
  violence in the South. The Ku Klux Klan Acts
  were passed. It declared that secret
  organizations that used disguises and coercion to
  deprive others of equality were illegal. It did
  little, however, to stop the Klans reign of
  terror at election time.

29
28.) Problems Continue

• All white juries were reluctant to find their
  fellow citizens guilty of crimes against blacks.
  Northerners were getting tired of ending the
  troubles in the South and just wanted to go back
  to their lives in the North.

30
29.) Election of 1876

• With the election of 1876 came the end of
  reconstruction. President Hayes (most voter
  turnout), a republican, won, although the voting
  procedure was suspect. It almost led to another
  outbreak of war so a compromise was reached. The
  north promised to build a railroad all the way to
  New Orleans, to take out the militia present in
  the South that was enforcing the 14th and 15th
  Amendments for not protesting the election. The
  South returned to Normal and a long period of
  inactivity when it came to civil rights for
  blacks that lasted until the 1950s.