Lecture Objective

• Understand the impact Reconstruction policies had on former slaves and blacks.

• Understand the impact the death of slavery had on the south.

• Understand the failures and successes of Reconstruction policies.

Decorating the Graves of Rebel Soldiers, Harper’s Weekly (Aug. 17, 1867)

Honoring Fallen Soldiers

I) Southern and Northern women took part in the memorial movement.

Hollywood Memorial Cemetery, Richmond

The Defeated South

I) The south devastated

a) Land damaged in Tennessee, Georgia, S. Carolina

b) Towns and cities in ruins.

II) Social impact

a) Slaves no longer a sign of wealth.

African American family by Timothy O’Sullivan 1862 (Beaufort, S. Carolina)

Lincoln’s Plans

I) Requirements for reconstruction.

a) States had to apply for a pardon.

b) Property return to southerners.

c) South had to abolish slavery.

Special Field Order 15 (Jan. 1865)

I) Why issued by William T. Sherman?

II) Parts of coastal Georgia and S. Carolina were given to former slaves.

a) 40 acres and a loan of mules

III) 40,000 settled in 400,000 acres.

Freedmen’s Bureau (March 1865)

I) The Freedmen’s Bureau provided food,

clothing, fuel, and supervised abandoned land.

a) Legal assistance to blacks.

b) Helped fund schools.

Office of Freedmen’s Bureau, Memphis, Tennessee, Harper’s Weekly, June 2,

1866

Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction (1865-67)

I) Pardon southern states.

b) Southern states took oath of allegiance.

II) Tensions between the Republican party.

The Radical Republican Vision

I) Supported free labor

II) Universal education for whites and blacks.

II) Equal rights for African-Americans.

Civil Rights Bill (1866)

I) Granted full citizenship to blacks.

a) Johnson attempted to vetoed.

II) Republicans and Congress pushed for the 14th Amendment.

I) In June 1866,14th Amendment ratified.

a) Prohibited states from depriving U.S. citizens of life, liberty, or property.

Congressional Reconstruction (1867-1870)

I) Republicans issued admission requirements.

a) The South had to guarantee African American voting rights.

b) Ratified the 13th and 14th Amend.

1) By 1868, seven states had entered the Union.

KKK threat to Louisiana governor, Henry C. Warmoth

15th Amendment

I) The 15th Amendment passed on February of 1869.

a) Suffrage could not be denied based on:

color, race, and previous servitude.

II) Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, and Virginia ratified the 14th and 15th amendments.

15th Amendment illustration

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

I) The American Woman Suffrage Association

II) The National

Woman Suffrage

Association

Former Slaves and Freedom

I) Former slaves tested their freedom.

a) Former slaves on the move

1) Moved to nearby cities or towns.

2) Moved away to look for jobs.

3) Left white communities.

Freedom and its Social Impact

I) Former slaves refused to:

a) Tip their hats

b) Step aside for whites.

c) Reunite with long lost loved ones.

1) Placed ads. in newspapers

2) Freedman’s Bureau helped

3)Questioned people

Freedom and the African American Family

I) By 1870 the two parent household was common.

II) Former slave men were now heads of

households.

African-American Churches

I) Very important to the community.

a) Religious, political and community centers.

II) Community constructed churches

a) Ministers highly respected.

Richmond’s First African Baptist Church

Schools

I) 3,000 schools supervised by the Freedmen’s Bureau.

a) Served over 150,000 students

II) African American teachers

III) Black colleges/universities established

Labor after Emancipation

I) Sharecropping, labor system in the south.

a) Consisted of detailed agreements.

b) Credit and tools advancements for a share of the crop.

African-Americans and Politics

I) In 1865 black demand civil equality.

II) 735,000 black men registered

a) Men voted Republican

Reconstruction Failures

I) Schools segregated

II) Problems with land:

a) No capital to expand

b) No land distribution

Other Measures

I) Civil Rights Act of 1875, no racial discrimination

II) II) The Ku Klux Klan Act passed on April 1871.

a) Federal crime a violent interference with the civil and political rights of blacks.

White Redemption

I) Republican support faded

II) By 1874, Democrats a majority in the House.

Republican Shift

I) Focus on railroad construction, why?

a) To industrialize the South

II) Problems

a) Political corruption

Reconstruction Ends

I) Republicans focus shifted

II) Enough had been done

III) Election crisis of 1876: Tilden (Democrat) and Hayes (Republican)

a) The Compromise of 1877:

1)Presidency to Hayes

2) No interference in south