Consolidating a Triumphant Union

1
Consolidating a Triumphant Union

• 1865-1877
• (Chapter 15)

2
The United States in 1865

• At the end of the war, Lincolns official
  position was that the South had never left the
  Union
• Lincolns opponents argued that by declaring war,
  the Confederacy had broken their Constitutional
  ties and reverted to a territory status
• The North was stronger than ever, the South lay
  in ruins

3
Hopes Among the Freed people

• Blacks tested their new freedom gradually
• Most freed slaves made education a priority
• Many left their plantations in search of a family
  member who had been sold
• The primary goal for these freed people was to
  secure jobs and land
• They expected a new economic order and some
  compensation for their years in slavery

4
Rehearsals for Post-War Restoration

• Nov., 1861 Union forces occupy Sea Islands, SC
• Aim was to guide blacks from slave to free
  lives
• Teachers, missionaries as well as investors from
  Boston saw this area as opportunity
• Investors wanted to establish wage labor to grow
  cotton to supply textile mills directly
• Blacks opposed to this and favored barter system
  and subsistence farming
• Union officials in Louisiana forced blacks to
  work in plantations for wages instead of as a
  slave
• Blacks protested by going on strikes, demanding
  higher wages and refusing to work

5
Rehearsals for Post-War Restoration

• Dec. 1863 Lincoln introduces the Ten Percent
  Plan to Congress
• This allowed Confederate states to form new state
  governments if 10 of those who had voted in the
  1860 presidential election, renounced slavery and
  pledged allegiance to the Union
• Congress resents Lincolns effort to control the
  situation and instead passes the Wade-Davis Bill
• This bill required a majority of Southern voters
  to pledge allegiance to the United States
• Lincoln vetoes this Bill but approves the
  creation of the Freedmans Bureau (Mar. 1865)

6
Freedmans Bureau

• Established on Mar. 3rd, 1865
• Also known as the Bureau of Refugees
• It was a federal agency that was formed to aid
  distressed refugees who had been loyal to the
  Union, after the Civil War (blacks as well as
  poor whites)
• It was initiated by Lincoln and was intended to
  last for one year after the end of the Civil War
• The bureau helped set up schools, supervised
  labor contracts, settled domestic disputes and
  legalized marriages that had taken place under
  slavery
• Served as an early employment agency for African
  Americans

7
Presidential Reconstruction 1865-1867

• April, 1865 Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes
  Booth
• Andrew Johnson (VP) takes over as President
• He had his own agenda for Reconstruction in the
  South
• He appeared to support poor, white farmers in
  opposition to rich planters
• Republicans initially support Southern Democrat
  Johnson as enemy of planter class
• Johnson, Republicans split on Reconstruction

8
Presidential Reconstruction 1865-1867

• Poor whites could have the right to vote if they
  met at special state conventions
• The Conventions had to renounce secession,
  repudiate Confederate debt, and ratify the
  Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery
• They also had to elect new state officials and
  members of Congress
• Johnson believed that former slaves had to
  continue their job as field laborers
• He did not support granting voting rights to
  slaves, contrary to Lincolns ideas of granting
  them voting rights

9
Black Codes

• Republicans opposed to Johnsons policies and
  thought they were too lenient
• Southern states used his policies to pass the
  Black Codes
• They were unfair laws aimed at blacks
• Any blacks violating the Black Codes were
  imprisoned or forced into labor
• By these codes
• Blacks that were not working in fields could be
  imprisoned (vagrants)
• No voting rights
• Could not own land
• Could not serve in juries
• Could not carry weapons
• Could not leave jobs unless justified in doing so

10
Inter-Party Political Tensions

• Johnson approves Black Codes
• Republicans vehemently opposed to the codes
• Rift between Johnson and Republicans
• Jan. 1865 Congress approves the Thirteenth
  Amendment which abolished slavery
• 1866 Johnson vetoes two bills
• extension of Freedmens Bureau
• Civil Rights Bill to overturn Black Codes
• Congress overrides both vetoes

11
Inter-Party Political Tensions

• June, 1865 Congress passes the Fourteenth
  Amendment
• Promised perpetual protection of the civil rights
  of black Americans by legally defining them as
  citizens
• Granted suffrage to black males in the South
• Punished states that denied blacks voting rights
• Voided Confederate debts
• Declared former rebels ineligible for federal and
  state office positions
• Johnson vetoes amendment and rift between him and
  Congress widens

12
Carpetbaggers

• This was the term used to describe Northern
  whites who migrated south, after the Civil War,
  to invest in land and become planters
• Derogatory term whites who quickly threw some
  belongings into bags made of carpet scraps, and
  left to go South, to take advantage to of the
  post-war devastation, and confusion
• They employed blacks to work in the cotton fields
  and extended the idea of slavery

13
Ku Klux Klan

• 1866 A secret society consisting of white
  supremists was set up called the KKK
• Used terrorism, violence, and lynching of blacks
  to spread terror in the South
• Eventually died out in 1871
• Caused the death and disappearance of hundreds of
  blacks in the South

14
Post-War Labor Problems in the South

• White landowners continue to regard blacks as
  only fit to work in the fields
• Blacks aspire to be their own boss and not work
  under any white
• Freedmans Bureau works as liaison between freed
  people and southern whites
• Free labor system with annual contracts
• Blacks would be employed in exchange for monthly
  wage, a share of the annual crop, or a
  combination of both
• Many blacks, specially women, went about
  legalizing marriage vows and taking care of
  family, both of which they had been denied as
  slaves

15
Post-War Labor Problems in the South

• Many blacks in South Carolina and Georgia want to
  stay where their ancestors had lived and died
• They urge Gen. Sherman to confiscate land owned
  by rebels in this area
• 1865 Gen. Sherman issues Field Order Number 15
• By this, the Sea Islands and coastal region South
  of Charleston, was to be divided into 40 acre
  parcels and issued to freed men and their
  families
• Each family would also receive a mule to help
  them work the fields
• Came to be known as the 40 acres and a mule
  Rule

16
Post-War Labor Problems in the South

• 20,000 former slaves begin cultivating
  Confederate land in response to Shermans ruling
• But at the end of the war, the War Department,
  under pressure from Southern white landowners,
  revoked the 40 acres and a mule rule
• War Dept. provides military support to whites in
  the South until they could re-occupy their land

17
Sharecropping

• This system became very popular in the years
  following the Civil War
• By this system, poor blacks as well as whites,
  could enter into annual contracts with white
  landowners
• In exchange for labor, the white landowner would
  advance crop seed, mules, farm implements, food
  and clothing to the poor workers
• At the end of the year, if the debt was yet
  unpaid, they continued to work in hope of
  re-paying the debtvicious cycle
• Landowner could evict laborers and his families
  if he was displeased with his work

18
Building Free Communities

• After the war, blacks attempt to organize
  themselves into social and political groups to
  benefit their own people
• Divided into two groups according to class
  literate and light-skinned blacks vs. illiterate
  blacks who worked the fields
• Blacks unanimously believed that freedom from
  slavery also should give them full citizenship
  rights, including voting rights, rights to
  education, owning land, holding office etc.

19
Building Free Communities

• Freed people set up self-help organizations and
  committees to raise funds to set up schools for
  blacks and hire teachers
• Money raised with difficulty and at great
  sacrifice of the people
• Extended family ties became stronger among blacks
• Poor but Rich!
• Southern whites angry at attempts of blacks to
  build a community
• Resulted in blacks choosing to segregate
  themselves from whites
• Increased incidents of KKK activities

20
Radical Reconstruction

• Coalition of radical Republicans led by Charles
  Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens push Congress to pass
  Reconstruction Act of 1867
• purpose to purge the South of disloyalty one and
  for all
• former Confederates lost voting rights
• Confederate states would not be re-admitted to
  Union until 14th Amendment was ratified, new
  constitution granting black men voting rights,
  was written
• South (Tennessee exempted) to be divided into
  military districts
• Federal troops stationed in South to protect
  Union leaders and restore political and economic
  order
• Congress passed 2 more acts
• Aim was to get more power than the president

21
Radical Reconstruction

• Tenure of Office Act restricted presidential
  appointment powers in light of Johnsons
  aggressive racism and determination to foil any
  reconstruction process aim was to prevent
  President from firing Sect. of War Edwin Stanton,
  who supported the radical Republicans
• Command of the Army Act required the president
  to seek approval for military orders from Ulysses
  S. Grant, who also supported the Republicans
• Both acts violated Separation of powers doctrine
  of Constitution
• Both Acts caused national crisis
• 1868 Johnson violates Tenure of Office Act and
  fires Stanton to defy Congress
• Congress moves to impeach Johnson

22
The Impeachment Crisis

• South under military rule until black suffrage
  fully secured
• Johnson moves to obstruct Reconstruction
• February, 1868 Congress impeaches Johnson
• Senate refuses to convict Johnson, because they
  are 1 vote short of two-thirds majority, in
  Senate, to do this
• Radical Republicans seen as subversive of
  Constitution, lose public support
• End of political career for Johnson
• Ulysses S. Grant becomes President in Election of
  1868

23
Becoming One, Once Again!

• 1868 Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina,
  Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida meet
  all conditions of Congress and join the Union
  once again
• 1869 Fifteenth Amendment passed granting all
  black men right to vote
• 1870 Mississippi, Virginia, Georgia, and Texas
  re-join the Union
• 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act passed by Congress to
  punish atrocities of KKK members against blacks

24
Campaigns Against Indians

• 1867 and 1868 Treaties signed between Indians
  (Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Plains
  Apache) and U.S. government
• Indians had agreed to allow railroad workers,
  surveyors, and supply caravans into Indian
  territory, in exchange for food and supplies
• Now Indians violated the treaty by attacking
  railroad workers
• 1871 U.S. revokes treaties and embarks on full
  attack of Indians
• 1874 Gold discovered by whites in sacred Sioux
  land, Black Hills, resulting in influx of miners
• Sioux leaders, Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, and
  Sitting Bull, refuse to sell the land to U.S.
• 1876 Custer attacks Sioux and Cheyenne at Little
  Big Horn River
• He is defeated by Indians

25
Central Pacific Railroad

• Owners of CPR wanted to build railroad trestles
  from California to the east
• Aim was to aid easy passage of people
• Acute labor problems
• Irish laborers demanded higher wages and left
  upon news of gold being located nearby
• Solution was to import cheap Chinese labor from
  Guangdong province, China
• Chinese laborers worked under grueling conditions
  to finish railroad
• Many settled in California

26
Post-War Womens Suffrage Movement

• War encourages women to want to participate in
  nations politics
• Women wanted the right to vote because they
  deserved it
• 1866 Equal Rights Association is created by
  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and
  Lucy Stone
• Aim was to link rights of white women with
  African American women

27
Womens Suffrage

• 1867 Kansas rejects a proposal for joint
  suffrage for both blacks and white women
• Many feel it would be better if suffrage was
  granted to blacks first and then approach the
  matter for womens suffrage
• 1869 Women reformers split into 2 groups
• Radical group with Anthony and Stanton denounce
  the 15th Amendment, since it gave suffrage only
  to black men
• They create the National Woman Suffrage
  Association which favored liberalization of
  divorce laws, married womens property rights,
  setting up of colleges and trade schools for
  women, and most importantly, the right to vote

28
Womens Suffrage

• Joined for a brief period of time by Victoria
  Woodhull
• 1872 Anthony is arrested for attempting to vote
  in the presidential election of 1872 and later
  tried and convicted for the crime
• NWSA later joins up with AWSA and focuses mainly
  on voting rights for women
• The second group under Lucy Stone and her
  husband, Henry Blackwell, set up the American
  Woman Suffrage Association, which favored the
  15th Amendment and focused only on the issue of
  voting rights for women, and worked on
  state-by-state campaigns to get suffrage for
  women

29
Workers Organizations

• Many changes in U.S. economy during post-War Era
• Main boost in railroad building, mining and heavy
  industry
• Brought forth managerial class in urban areas
• Negative effect of economic growth debt
• Southern farmers forced to take loans from banks,
  and forced to start growing cotton instead of
  corn or other staple crops
• 1867 National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry
  (the Grange) set up by Oliver Kelly, to form
  cooperatives to market their crops and challenge
  rates that favored big businesses

30
Workers Organizations

• 1869 Knights of Labor formed to unite industrial
  and rural workers, blacks and whites, men and
  women, wage earners and businessmen
• 1873 Economic depression in the country
• Farmers who had huge debts could not pay them
  off as a result many banks closed down
• Many small businesses went out of business
• National Labor Union closed as a result of this
  depression
• 1878 Greenback Labor Party created

31
Political Corruption Decline of Republican
Idealism

• Corruption rampant in post-war time
• Bribes, kick-backs very common
• During this time newspapers received importance
  because they exposed many of the schemes to the
  public
• 1870s A political organization in New York City
  called Tammany Hall was notorious for bribery and
  extortion
• William Boss Tweed was the head of Tammany Hall
  and was tried and convicted for his crimes and
  schemes to milk common people
• 1872 Credit Mobilier scandal exposed by the New
  York Sun where many politicians were involved in
  receiving company stocks in the company

32
Political Corruption Decline of Republican
Idealism

• Presidential Election of 1872 Ulysses S. Grant
  is Republican candidate and Horace Greeley is
  Democratic candidate
• Grant wins election
• 1875 Civil Rights Act is passed granting blacks
  equal access to public accommodation and
  transportation
• Presidential Election of 1876 Both party
  candidates get almost the same number of
  electoral votes, but Rutherford B. Hayes
  (Republican) wins against Democrat Samuel Tilden
  by one vote

33
Conclusion

• Reconstruction process very slow and painful for
  both sides
• Party politics and personal ideology of leaders
  decided the outcome of how things were to be done
• Southern white supremacists gained control of
  local and state governments, and denied blacks of
  basic citizenship rights
• Republicans controlled national economic policy