Chapter 9, Section 4 Reconstruction

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Chapter 9, Section 4 Reconstruction
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Plans for Reconstruction

• The Main Idea
• Northern leaders had different ideas for dealing
  with the many issues and challenges of restoring
  the southern states to the Union.
• Reading Focus (Put these in your interactive
  Notebook)
• What challenges faced the South after the Civil
  War?
• What actions did Union leaders take during
  wartime to reconstruct the nation after the wars
  end?
• How did Lincolns assassination affect the nation?

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The South after the War

• Property losses
• The value of farms and plantations declined
  steeply and suffered from neglect and loss of
  workers.
• The Souths transportation network was in very
  poor shape.
• Challenges for African Americans
• Had gained freedom, but had no money and little
  if any education. The poor economy made job
  prospects bleak.
• They wanted educational and economic
  opportunities.
• How to treat the South
• Many legal and political questions regarding the
  South needed to be answered.

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Wartime Reconstruction
The Freedmens Bureau was created in March 1865
to help southern refugees and freed slaves.
Northerners disagreed over how to treat the
South, but as he stated in his inaugural address,
Lincoln hoped to treat the South with malice
toward none and charity toward all.
New roles for African Americans were tested. In
territories under Union control, freed slaves
were hired to work on plantations for pay, or
were allowed to rent and farm the land. 40-acre
plots in South Carolina and Georgia coastal lands
were given away. In Louisiana, freedmen signed
contracts to work for a year for wages. Some
planters deducted basic items from the wages, and
little money was left over.
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Reconstruction Plans

• Lincolns Plan
• The Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction,
  December 1863, gave forgiveness to those who
  pledged Union loyalty and support for
  emancipation.
• When 10 percent of voters had taken the oath, a
  new state government could be organized. The new
  government was required to ban slavery.
• This plan for readmission was known as the Ten
  Percent Plan.

• Opposition
• Lincolns plan sparked debate in Congress.
• Some thought only power to re-admit belonged to
  Congress others thought the South never
  officially left the Union.
• Thaddeus Stevens felt majority rule was being
  discarded.
• Congress refused to allow members from the states
  readmitted under Lincolns plan to be seated.

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Watch the brief video about Lincolns
Assassination

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v6qAeFjCscRY

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Lincolns Assassination

• The president did not live long enough to test
  his wartime popularity against Congress for
  control of Reconstruction plans.

Popular president

• Lincoln was shot at Fords Theater on April 14,
  1865, and died the next morning.
• John Wilkes Booth was part of a conspiracy, and
  others were supposed to kill Vice President
  Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William
  Seward.

John Wilkes Booth

• A grief stricken nation mourned Lincolns death.
• White southerners were concerned. Lincolns death
  meant a change in Reconstruction plans and a new
  president. Some disliked Andrew Johnson and felt
  he was a traitor.

Concern and grief
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Reconstruction under President Johnson

• Johnsons attitude
• Deep-rooted prejudice continued. African
  Americans had rights, but those rights did not
  include a role in government. Johnson declared,
  White men alone must manage the South.
• Johnson pardoned nearly everyone who applied, and
  prewar leaders were restored to power. Congress
  refused to seat these former Confederates.
• The Black Codes
• Designed to keep freedmen in slavelike
  conditions, Black Codes gave planters a cheap
  labor supply. The laws varied by state, but they
  allowed freedmen certain rights, such as the
  right to marry and to own property. The series of
  laws kept freedmen dependent on the plantation
  for their existence.
• Keeping a way of life
• Local sheriffs and Civil War veterans supported
  and enforced these laws. White citizens formed
  private groups, supposedly to keep order in the
  South. The Ku Klux Klan formed in 1866 and soon
  began terrorizing African Americans and whites
  who were loyal to the Union. Violence against
  blacks was rarely prosecuted.

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Congress Takes Control of Reconstruction
Northerners felt if southern states were allowed
to abuse freedmen, the Norths victory would be
diminished. A New Jersey paper warned, The
reptile spirit of secession is still alive.
Northern concerns
Radical Republicans wanted to reshape southern
society and favored a more thorough program of
Reconstruction. They wanted freed slaves to have
economic opportunities and political equality.
But moderate Republicans still controlled
Congress.
Congress fights back
Moderates did not want a social revolution, but
wanted to help and protect freedmen. They passed
two bills, including a Civil Rights Act.
Johnsons vetoes pushed the moderates to help the
Radical Republicans to take control of
Reconstruction.
Johnson versus Congress
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Radical Reconstruction
Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment, writing
the Civil Rights Act into the constitution and
granting citizenship to all persons born or
naturalized in the United States.
Republicans took control in the election of 1866
after riots in the South discredited Johnsons
views. Radicals now had the votes needed to pass
the Reconstruction Acts.
These laws put the southern states under U.S.
military control and required them to draft new
constitutions. Congress also passed the Tenure of
Office Act in March 1867 to keep Johnson from
using his power as commander in chief to
interfere with Reconstruction.
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• Make the Amendments Foldable and glue into your
  interactive notebook

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Republican Government Brings Change to the South

• Scalawags
• Scalawag was the name given to southerners who
  supported the shift in power to Congress and the
  army.
• Many were farmers who had never owned slaves.
• Some joined the Republicans to prevent the
  planter class from returning to power others
  were southerners ruined by the war still others
  wanted to end the dependence on plantation
  agriculture.

• Carpetbaggers
• The scalawags allied with carpetbaggers,
  northerners who came south to take part in the
  regions political and economic rebirth.
• Scorned as low-class persons who could carry
  their belongings in a carpetbag, many were
  educated and came from a variety of backgrounds.
• Many bought abandoned land cheaply or formed
  partnerships with planters.

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• Make your carpetbagger!

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Republican Government Brings Change to the South

• African Americans in government
• Forming the largest group of Republican voters in
  the South, nearly 700 African Americans served in
  southern state legislatures during
  Reconstruction. They included Hiram Revels, who
  took the Senate seat held by Jefferson Davis
  before the war.
• New state governments
• Brought many changes, including the regions
  first public school systems. The infrastructure
  was repaired, facilities built, and railroads
  added. Facilities were open to all southerners,
  but were usually segregated by race. The Black
  Codes were repealed in every state. The changes
  angered those formerly in control, and some
  freedmen felt more needed to be done to help them
  obtain land.

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Life after Slavery for African Americans
Freedom meant a variety of things, including
reuniting with family and the search for
employment. Some moved west or north, but most
stayed in the South.
Most eagerly sought education and began to
establish their own institutions, including
churches and schools. The churches became centers
of community life.
A wide variety of other organizations were
created, including debate clubs, drama societies,
trade associations, fire companies, and mutual
aid societies. Freedmen were taking the lead to
improve themselves and gain control of their
lives.
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Reconstruction and Land Ownership
Giving away planters land to former slaves was
considered too extreme. Instead, Congress passed
a law setting aside 45 million acres of
government-owned land to provide free farms.
Southern Homestead Act
Under the new sharecropping system the employer
provided the land, tools, seedbasically
everything but the labor. If able, some switched
to tenant farming, renting the land they farmed
from the landowner. Independence was difficult.
New labor system
Southern cities grew rapidly. Atlanta and other
cities became business centers, with textile
mills and other manufacturing ventures being
built. Workers still earned lower wages in the
South, and many were locked in a cycle of debt.
Industrial growth
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Reconstructions Legacy
The 14th and 15th Amendments began permanent
changes across the United States. Former slaves
were now citizens with voting rights.
The New South was becoming industrial, but in
many ways it remained the same. White southerners
deeply resented that the federal government
controlled their states.
For a century after Reconstruction ended, the
South was know as the Solid South, always voting
Democratic. It was not until the 1970s that the
Republican Party was able to gain ground in the
South.
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Reconstruction in North Carolina

• William Woods Holden was governor in North
  Carolina
• He tried to arrest KKK members without trial
• He was impeached as a result of his actions
• He was the first governor in US history to be
  impeached and removed from office.

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Reconstruction in North Carolina

• Sharecropping was the major way that North
  Carolinians made a living
• Generals who fought at Bentonville were Johnston
  and Sherman
• The North Carolina Constitution changed during
  the reconstruction period to allow all men over
  the age of 21 to vote regardless of their race or
  economic status