Unit VI 1861-1877 Part 7. Black Culture Many Freed Blacks established their own churches,...
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Transcript of Unit VI 1861-1877 Part 7. Black Culture Many Freed Blacks established their own churches,...
Black Culture
Many Freed Blacks established their own churches, institutions
Many searched for lost families and hooked up
Emulated the White Middle ClassBlack men did not want their wives or
children working in the fields…did not want their wives working at all
BUT ½ of all Black women (16 and up) worked for wages
Election of 1868
Republican: Grant (war hero) 214 Democrats: Seymour 80 Open defense of White
Supremacy Wanted an end to
Reconstruction
The KKK formed in 1866
Nathan Bedford Forrest Terrorized Blacks AND White
Southern Republicans
Killed 3 members of the SC legislature and 1 congressman from Arkansas
Grant
No political experience Believed the President’s job was to
back congress Much corruption in his government: Gave his friends important
appointment They betrayed his trust Only decent appointment: Sec. of
State: Hamilton Fish
Grant Scandals
Credit Moblier: French-owned construction co. bought shares of Union Pacific stock and bilked the Union Pacific AND federal gov’t out of millions.
Tried to avoid Congressional investigation by giving certain members of congress stock
Investigation anyway: Biggest crook…The VP: Schyler Colfax!
Grant Scandals
Whiskey Ring: Sec of the Treasury, Ben Briston discovered that whiskey distillers filed false tax reports with the help of government workers who were paid off
Babcock (Grant’s private secretary) was the biggest crook here
Grant Scandals
The Indian Ring: Secretary of War (Belknap accepted bribes to retain Indian posts
Helen Hunt Jackson: A Century of Dishonor
The Republicans
Stalwarts v Liberals People in the North were getting tired of
Reconstruction and Republicans knew it
Stalwarts: (used to be conservatives): Committed to the economic interests of the North (Tariff, etc) Took focus away from the Freedman and the Reconstruction)
Liberals: Old Radicals now claim to be opposed to the Spoils System, Opposed to corruption…
Grant
Fell under the spell of the Stalwarts BUT DID respond to the Liberals
Grant supported a Civil Service Commission (1871) to look into a civil service based on merit…nothing came of it (fear of too much democracy, Irish, Chinese scoring high on tests and getting government jobs!)
Election of 1872
Republicans: Grant 286 Liberals (Republicans) deserted the
party and nominated Horace Greeley
Democrats: Horace Greeley 66
NOTE: Many Southern Republicans left the party to join the Democratic Party due to the split
The Economy
Panic of 1873 began with the failure of an investment company (had invested too heavily in RR building)
Grant unwittingly played a role
Depression lasted for 4 years
Debtors wanted inflation
Debtors wanted to inflate with greenbacks
Inflation would reduce the VALUE of one’s debt
Would increase the amount of $ in circulation
BUT
Grant and Stalwarts favored sound money based on the value of gold
Would favor creditors Would keep the value of the debt
high
The Greenbacks
Still $356 million in greenbacks in circulation from the war
Remember…their value had fluctuated according to Union victories
Had little real value after the war so debtors tried to use it to pay off debts
Creditors would not accept the greenbacks as payment
Knox v Lee
The Court ruled that the Greenbacks WERE legal tender
The Stalwarts (Republicans) in congress represented businessmen, bankers, etc.
They will put a stop to the Greenbacks
The Specie Resumption Act 1875
Said that after January 1, 1879, Greenbacks would be taken out of circulation and replaced with gold certificates whose value was firmly pegged to the value of gold
The above would keep the value of the debt high and it favored creditors….hurt debtors…especially farmers
The Greenback Party
Was a third party that will show up in the next three elections
Never had wide-spread support But kept the issue alive
Foreign Affairs
Seward’s Folly 1867: Seward bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million (for all of the snow and ice anyone could ever want!
A better deal than Louisiana Purchase
Alaska…2 cents an acre LP…3 cents an acre
Alaska
Was valuable for animal pelts, mineral resources, gold found in 1898, oil found later, naval and later air bases
The Alabama Claims
With Seward…The Johnson-Clarndon Convention….Brits agreed to pay damages BUT congress did not approve the treaty because they wanted the Brits to apologize too!
1871 Hamilton Fish…Treaty of Washington…The Brits paid damages AND offered an apology
The End of Reconstruction
The North was getting tired of the South’s and the Freedmen’s problems
North wanted to concentrate on its own problems
Grant continued to protect the republican governments in the South (B & T’s)
1872 The Amnesty Act
Restored the franchise to almost all in the South
SO…White Southerners constituted a majority of the electorate
Where Blacks WERE a majority…lots of violence and intimidation
Terrorist organizations
Were used to keep the Black man from the polls…
KKK, Knights of the White Camilla, Red Shirts, White Leagues…
Policed the polls and ENCOURAGED voters to vote Democratic
The Force Act (1871)aka the KKK Act
Gave the President the power to :
Suspend Habeas Corpus Supervise congressional elections Employ troops to protect the Black
man’s right to vote
Did not do much good
By the time Grant left office
Seven former Confederate States had been Redeemed
Typically, the B & T’s could not maintain power on the state level when federal troops pulled out
Southern state governments fell into the hands of the Redeemers (aka the Bourbons)
Election of 1876
Aka The Compromise of 1877
Republicans were worried about the Democrats making a comeback. All Southern states but South Carolina and Louisiana were redeemed
Were also concerned about the Grant Scandals
Needed a squeaky-clean candidate for 1876
Republicans chose Hayes
Hayes was a proponent of Civil Service Reform…so he might lure Liberals back into the party
A former union army officer Former governor and congressman
(OHIO) Wanted to end Reconstruction…
The Republican party passed over Blaine (Maine) who was Speaker of the House (but shady)
Democrats chose Tilden (NY)
Was a reform Governor of NY Successfully got rid of the Tweed
Ring and put Boss Tweed in jail!
(We will talk about the political machine later)
He really WAS reform-minded
Problems with the Election
20 electoral votes were in question:
One from Oregon! (one of the three electors was disqualified because he held federal office)
19 from Louisiana, SC and Florida: B & T’s still there and sent in one set of returns BUT new Redeemer governments sent in different returns
The vote
Dems: Tilden had 184 electoral votes
Reps: Hayes had 165
If Tilden had one more vote, or if Hayes had all 20….then we would have a winner
Here’s what happened
For the benefit of the American public, Congress established a special electoral commission made up of:
5 Senators 5 members of the House 5 Supreme Court Justices
Of the 10 Members of Congress
5 were Republican 5 were Democrats The Justices: 2 were Republican and
2 were Democrat and one (David Davis) was an independent….
In the meantime
Hayes was meeting with DEMOCRATS behind closed doors
He made lots of promises so he could become the President: Would end Reconstruction Would give Federal Patronage to South and
let THEM control how $ would be spent Would build Texas and Pacific RR through
South A Democrat in the cabinet
Suddenly
David Davis (the independent justice) was disqualified!
He was replaced with a Republican! Hayes got all 20 electoral votes!
Was called “His Fraudulency” Tilden was robbed!
Troops were removed from the South
Within 10 years, traditional ruling class was restored to power
Real social change will begin to occur in the 1950’s and 1960’s with the Civil Rights Movement
New State Governments in the South
Were led by the Redeemers (aka the Bourbons)
Some former planters Some Northerners Merchants, RR developers,
financiers, industrialists
Corrupt
All New Governments
Lowered taxes, cut spending, cut services
Hurt Poor whites as well as Blacks All opposition to the new State
Governments was crushed
Most allowed White Supremacy in the South so that they could push through their own agenda without interference (industrialize in the South)
Southern Industry Expanded
Textile manufacturers moved South from the North:
Closer to raw materials Lower wages (mostly women workers) Lower state taxes Ample water power
Factory workers were women
Women made ½ of the wages of men
Blacks not welcome in the factories Still tied to the land or other outdoor
work: Mining, Tobacco and cotton plantations, lumbering
The Tobacco Processing Industry
The American Tobacco Company in NC
Had a virtual monopoly on tobacco processing
The South was still primarily agrarian
Still cotton although prices were down
Food prices were up Land continued to be exhausted
1/3 or more farmers were tenants By 1900 70% of privately-owned
land was lost to the crop-lien system
New Black Leaders
Booker T. Washington Last half of the 19th Century: THE ATLANTA COMPROMISE:
Advised Black men to educate themselves (in a trade…not in English lit), and to become an integral part of the economy AND to emulate (copy) the habits of the white middle class…be patient and rights would come
W.E.B. DuBois (later)
Beginning of the 20th Century The Niagara Movement: take you
rights now!
1905 with others formed the NAACP
Question for later….was the advice given by Washington and DuBois appropriate to their time periods?
The Supreme Court Undermined all gains of the National
Supremacy Amendments I the 1880’s and 1890’s:
Court ruled that the 14th Amendment only prohibited states from discriminating…not anyone else!
1898 Williams v Mississippi: Court upheld literacy tests at the polls
1896: Plessey v Ferguson: separate but equal OK