Don’t Forget!
AP Book Talk Dec. 10 and 11--you must summarize the book, answer questions and ask questions. Seminar topics must relate to U.S. History prior to 1900.
This will be an optional food day!
Post Civil War Reconstruction
1865-1877Began before the end of the war with the
occupation of Northern troops in defeated Southern states
Test Essay
• Reconstruction was a paradox of successes and failures. Comment with specific examples.
(AP might ask it this way: To what extent did Reconstruction illustrate a juxtaposition of success and failure?)
Reconstruction
• Program implemented by the federal government between 1865 and 1877 to repair the damage to the South caused by the Civil War and to restore the southern states to the Union.
• Consider that American forces have been in Iraq and Afghanistan for Reconstruction just as American forces occupied Germany and Japan after WWII and still occupy South Korea.
• Former Secretary of State Colin Powell stated that the rebuilding of Iraq is like shopping in Pottery Barn: “You break it; you buy it.”
• “The winner cleans up.” (Calabrese house rule)
Reconstruction Terms
1. Reconstruction2. Freedmen*3. Radical Republicans4. Oath of Allegiance5. Freedmen’s Bureau6. Carpetbaggers7. Scalawags8. Impeachment*9. Suffrage*10. Black codes11. Pardon12. Infrastructure*
13. Sharecropping*14. Tenant farming15. Ku Klux Klan*16. 13th Amendment*17. 14th Amendment*18. 15th Amendment*19. Jim Crow*20. Solid South*21. Martial law*22. Segregation*23. De jure*24. De facto*
Post-War Reconstruction of the South
Atlanta in Ruins
Reconstruction—see film clip
• Look for positive aspects of postwar Civil War Reconstruction
• Look for negative aspects of postwar Reconstruction
Point of Views in Reconstruction• Northern army• Northern politician• Southern army• Southern politician• Southern unionist• Southern secessionist• Freedman—former slave• Free Northern African American• Northern press• Southern press• Former slave owner• White southern small farmer who never had slaves• Southern women
The Political Extremes
---------------------------------------------------------Far Left Moderates Far RightRadicals
Reactionaries Lincoln
Radical KKKRepublicans
Lincoln’s Vision
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
(From Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865)
Lincoln as Congressman and President
Are You Easily Discouraged?
• Business failed 1831• Defeated for legislature,
1832• 2nd business failed, 1834• Sweetheart died, 1835• Nervous breakdown,1836• Defeated in local election• Defeated for election to
Congress, 1843• Defeated again, 1846• Defeated again, 1848
• Defeated in election to Senate, 1855
• Defeated in Election as Vice-president, 1856
• Defeated in election to Senate, 1858
• Experienced death of two sons before they reached adulthood
• Finally elected president in 1860 by half of country and other half seceded to form its own country in a bloody rebellion lasting four years
Last Photograph of President Lincoln
The Death of the President• Background on Abe and Mary• Mary’s bad press vs. hospital work • Ford’s Theater• Our American Cousin• Booth background• Prior attempts and boarding house plans• April 14, 1865• “Sic Semper Tyrannus”• Dr. Samuel Mudd• Mary Surratt• “Now he belongs to the ages.” • Mrs. Lincoln and son
Mary Todd Lincoln
“Does this dress make me look fat?”
Weird Coincidences
• Lincoln’s depression—death of sons & marriage• Lincoln’s son and Wilkes’ brother• Lincoln’s dream• His secretary• Mary’s interests in occult• Conspiracy theories• Funeral and burial• Connections to Kennedy assassination
Ford’s Theatre
Assassination of Lincoln
A Family of Actors
Dr. Mudd: Conspirator?
Surratt Boarding House
The “Conspirators” were Hanged
Books
• Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
• Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• The Lincoln Conspiracy by Balsiger and Sellier
• Booth’s Daughter
Types of Reconstruction
• Southern Political
• Presidential—Johnson’s efforts to fulfill Lincoln’s vision
• Congressional—dominated by Radical Republicans
Views of Reconstruction
• Lincoln had a moderate view• Johnson tried to fulfill Lincoln’s moderate view
but was distrusted by Northerners, Southerners, Democrats and Republicans
• The Radical Republicans had a radical view• The Southern Democrats had a
conservative/reactionary view• Most of the country just wanted to clean up the
South and get the military out asap
President Andrew Johnson
Radical Republicans
Thaddeus Stevens Charles Sumner
Emancipation
Which is worse: freedom or slavery?
Southern Economic Problems
The Northern Occupation
Martial Law
Freedmen’s Bureau
Carpetbaggers and Scalawags
Military Districts
Southern Legislation
Before Civil War: Slave Codes• Movements restricted• Assembly restricted• Education restricted• Jobs restricted• Housing restricted• Laws restricted• Religious worship restricted• Citizenship denied• Voting denied
Soon After Civil War: Black Codes
• Movements restricted• Assembly restricted • Education restricted• Jobs restricted • Housing restricted• Laws restricted• Religious worship restricted• Citizenship denied• Voting denied
Impeachment of Johnson
“The political death of the bogus Caesar”
Suffrage
Post-War Congress
The Klan
Thomas Nast
• Cartoonist known for controversial topics
Sharecropping
From plantations to sharecropping
“Exodusters”
U.S. Grant
Election of Rutherford B. Hayes
• Compromise of 1877
• Called “Rutherfraud”by political opponents
“African American history…
is filled with many cruel ironies. Following the Civil War, thousands of skilled Black tradesmen were forced to abandon finely honed skills to become servants. During slavery, many Blacks worked at crafts and became masters. Entire families of slaves were engaged in highly skilled trades, one generation after another. Beyond farm labor, male Blacks were trained as ironworkers, carpenters, wheelwrights, coopers, tanners, shoemakers and bakers.
“As for female slaves, they were capable of more than household chores. Many were skilled at sewing, spinning, weaving, dressmaking, potter, nursing, and midwifery. Upon emancipation, Black artisans became a threat to White workers.
“When freed Black tradesmen…
were thrown into competition with White workers, there was often open social conflict. White workers, in both the South and north, reacted violently. They wouldn’t permit one of their own to be displaced by a Black worker, regardless of how skilled he might be. Despite their newfound freedom, few employers risked hiring skilled Blacks, regardless of how cheap they’d work, for fear of reprisals by White workers.
African-American historian E. F. Frazier found that at the end of the Civil War there were approximately 100,000 skilled Black tradesmen in the South as compared with 20,000 Whites. Between 1865 and 1890 the number of Black artisans dwindled to only a handful. That such a large reservoir of talent was permitted to dry up confirms the ignorance and inutility of racial prejudice (36-37).”
Johnson, Nelson. Boardwalk Empire. Medford, New Jersey: Plexus Publishing, Inc., 2002.
Jim Crow Laws—1877-1964
Segregation—What kind is illustrated in the photo?
De Facto--North De Jure--South
The new segregation?
Conclusions: Freedmen and The Vote
From 1877 to 1965, what might keep African Americans from voting at the polls in Southern states?
1. intimidation by the KKK2. literacy test3. poll tax4. grandfather clause (did Grandpa vote? If not, neither can you!)
Voting…
• When Southern African Americans did vote (often protected by the Freedmen’s Bureau and carpetbaggers), they would vote Republican in homage to the efforts of Lincoln and the Radical Republicans.
• After many migrated northward and westward, they would vote either party. By the 1920’s and 1930s, many gave their loyalty to the Democratic Party due to Civil Rights and other progressive legislation.
Terms to Know• Reconstruction• Freedmen• Freedmen’s Bureau• Martial law• Radical Republicans• Infrastructure• Pardon• Oath of allegiance• Suffrage• Carpetbaggers• Scalawags• Ku Klux Klan
• 13th Amendment• 14th Amendment• 15th Amendment• Sharecropping• Tenant farming• impeachment• Black codes • Jim Crow• Segregation• De facto• De jure• Solid South
Open-Ended Essay
Prompt: To what extent did Reconstruction illustrate a juxtaposition of failure and success?
Write your thesis with your two main topics (or categories). Plan your essay with an outline or chart. Include as many details as possible for full credit.