Reconstruction (1865-1877)

Here are the notes from the sub-day this Friday!

• Dates are markers. Provide context info.
• 1865
  • the end of the Civil War and the death of Lincoln
  • Rebuilding the South economically, socially, and politically
  • Suffrage
  • Military occupation of the South/Re-admission of the States into the Union
• 1877
  • The end of reconstruction
  • The military occupation of the South ends
  • The Election of 1876 elects Rutherford B. Hayes, closely contested by Samuel J. Tilden
  • The contested election went to the electoral college. 20 electoral votes and congressional committee award the election to Hayes in exchange for Hays's promise to end the military occupation of the South. This is called the Compromise of 1877.
  • After 1877, Democrats from the South regain political power. They are called the Redeemers.
• Challenge the Question
  • On January 1, 1863 Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in liberated areas of the Confederacy only. It was only issues by Lincoln after the Battle of Antietam.
  • The focus of the war transcends the preservation of the Union and emerges into the abolition of slavery. Europe is watching
• Lincoln's attitude towards reconstruction
  • He was moderate as opposed to later Radical Republicans.
  • He created the 10% plan. In the seceded states, 10% of citizens had to take the oath of allegiance for a state to become self-governing. This was the pathway to re-admittance
  • Lincoln wanted to re-enfranchise all Southerners who took the oath, except for the major leader of the South ie Jefferson Davis and Robert E Lee.
  • For blacks Lincoln only wanted to enfranchise ex-slave Union Soldiers and those who passed a literacy test.
  • Lincoln's assassination in April of 1865 hardens the Northern attitudes towards reconstruction.
• Post Lincoln's assassination/ Steps in the right direction
  • The Radical Republicans gain influence and an unassailable congressional majority in 1866.
  • Lincoln's policy was intended to be carried forward by his Southern, republican vice president Andrew Johnson (NC/Tennesseean).
  • Johnson succeds in passing the 13th amendment, which abolishes slavery and the 13th becomes the major pre requisite for re-admission of individual states.
  • Johnson and Lincoln's policy was directed to aid the freed slaves with the creation of the Freedman's Bureau.
  • Who the hell is O. O. Howard?? Anyways he creates the Refugee assistance program. It helped with displacement, uniting split families, id in acquiring food, shelter, and land.
  • Immediately after the war, Southerners still held political power and sought to keep newly freed slaves in check.
  • The Black Codes passed in 1865 limits the movements of former slaves and keeps them in the neighborhood.
  • Southerner planters are impoverished postwar because of the worthless confederate currency, freed slaves, and plummeting land prices.
  • The immediate solutions was to plant crops with wage-earning ex-slaves. They promise to share agricultural revenue with former slaves; gets the name sharecropping.
• Radical Reconstruction (1867-1877)
  • In 1866 the Radical Republicans attempt to strengthen the power of the Freedman's Bureau (political/education) and grant full citizenship rights to ex-slaves. Both measures get vetoed by Johnson, which leads to his impeachment.
  • The Radical Republican Congress, empowered by the 1866 elections, impeach Johnson. Although it fails by one vote, it curtails his political power.
  • Radical Reconstruction is led by Thaddeus Stevens (PA, Stuart destroyed property?? idk what Courts was thinking here) and Charles Sumner from Massachusetts.
  • After 1866 they reinforce the Freedman's Bureau and pass
    • the 14th amendment: grants full rights of citizenship to any male born in America under due process of the law
    • and the 15th: gives the vote to Black males
    • The Reconstruction Act of 1867 (there was no explanation here from Courts)