The American Civil War, RECONSTRUCTION

?
  • Created by: Bambi101
  • Created on: 18-03-18 21:29

What was the 14th Amendment?

  • Confederate debt declared null and void. 
  • Emancipation made every slave five-fifths of a person.
  • Promoted voting rights of black men. 
  • A counter to the Black Codes. 
  • Introduced by Repbunlicans in Congress (Trumball and Bingham). 
  • Doesn't come from the president. 
  • Passed Jan 1866. 
  • Needs 2/3rds majority in Congress and 3/4 states to ratify it. 
  • REACTION- Wendell argued 'a fatal and total surrender'. Could have been more radical.
  • 3 states gave it 0 votes. 
  • Tennessee was the only one to ratify it. 
  • Johnson argued that it undermined states rights- 'I stand on the constitution', Swing around the circle campaign. 
  • Females were not mentioned- Susan Anthony and Elizabeth Cady. 
  • It was only passed because states had no other choice. 
1 of 25

What was the situation for the Blacks in the South

  • Reconstruction allowed former slaves to explore freedom.
  • 1864 federal courts accepted black testimony and the 13th Amendment won ratification.
  • Conneticut, Minnesota and Wisconsin rejected black suffrage 1865.
2 of 25

What was Johnson's Reconstruction plan?

  • Many expected his policies to be harsh. 
  • May 1865 Johnson's advisors split on the question of voting rights for freedmen in the South. 
  • Every Southern voter required to swear an oath of loyalty to gain amnesty. 
  • Johnson believed in white supremacy, wanted Southern support so declared Reconstruction complete. 
3 of 25

What was the Congressional Reconstruction plan?

  • Union maintained the idea that the Southern states had committed legal sucicide. 
  • Johnson and Democrats refused to cooperate with conservative or moderate Republicans. 
  • 1865 Republican Congressmen still reluctant to break with president. 
4 of 25

What was Congress struggles for a compromise?

  • Republicans thoguht a compromise had been reached with working with Johnson.
  • Johnson needed to agree in an extension of the life of the Freedmen's Bureau. 
  • Bill force the Southern courts to practice equality, Johnson destroyed this compromise, vetoing both bills. 
  • All hope of working with the president was dead. 
  • 14th Amendment was Congress' alternative to Johnson's program of Reconstruction. 
5 of 25

What was the South's reaction to the 14th Amendmen

  • Johnson did his best to block the Amedment. 
  • Tennessee was the only state not to reject it. 
  • Johnson organised National Union Convention- audience rejected his views. 
  • 1866 election, massive victory for Confederates. 
6 of 25

What was the Reconstruction Act of 1867?

  • Called for return to military authority in South. 
  • 5 new military districts were establsihed. Guaranteed freedmen the right to vote. 
  • Each Southern state was required to ratify 14th Amendment and constitution had to be submitted to Congress for approval. 
  • Limited Johnson's power over army. 
  • Passed Tenure of Office Act- senate power to interfere with changes in presidents cabinet. 
  • Johnson retaliated- tried to remove secretary of war, Stanton. 
7 of 25

Why were there impeachment trials?

  • Twice before impeachment had been considered. 
  • Johnson's trial lasted more than 3 months led by Stevens and Butler. 
  • Prosecution fell one short of the 2/3rd majority. 
  • Johnson politically weakened. 
8 of 25

What was the 15th Amendment?

  • Didn't gurantee the right to vote. 
  • Left states free to restrict suffrage on other grounds. 
  • Four uncooperative southern states proved necessary to impose even this language on parts of North. 
9 of 25

What were the Reconstruction politics in the South

  • Resistance of white southerners, unwilling to accept black freedom. 
  • Planter's had control over black children- apprenticeship. 
  • White's boycotted the polls. 
  • New southern Republican party came to power- 265/1,000 blacks. 
  • conventions broadened women's rights in property holding and divorce. 
10 of 25

What triumphs did the Republican Governments have?

  • Ranks of state legislators in 1868 included black southerners. 
  • Blacks believed in principle of universal suffrage and Christian goal of reconciliation. 
  • Within a few years, Republicans reduced to embarrassment of making futile appeals to whites ignroing claims of strongest supporters- blacks. 
11 of 25

What happened with industrialisation?

  • Confeds saw how beneficial industry was to the North during the war. 
  • Loans/subsidies and expemtions from taxation periods up to 10 years lured new industries into region. 
  • 1860-80 number of manufactoring establishments in South nearly doubled. 
12 of 25

What other Republican policies were there?

  • African-American voters never went beyond equality before the law. 
  • Black leaders did not push for revolutionary economic or social change. 
  • 1870s, segregation becoming more common. 
  • New Orleans and Mobile few places were A-A fought for civil rights/intergration. 
  • 16 Blacks won seats in Congress before Reconstruction was over. 
  • 18 served in high office. 
  • White hostility to Congressional recontrsuction began to dominate. 
13 of 25

What were the failures of Reconstruction?

  • Failure was social and Economic.
  • Failed to alter South's social structure. 
  • Dependant on white landowners.
  • Whenever the North lost interest Reconstruction would collapse. 
14 of 25

What is the social and economic meaning of freedom

  • Black southerners entered into new life hopeful.
  • Cruel slaveholders saw former property walk off en masse. 
  • Freedmen continued to seek fair employment throughout Reconstruction. 
  • 1/3rd changed employers at end of the crop year. 
15 of 25

What education was available for African-Americans

  • Blacks of all ages hungered for education. 
  • Desire to escape slavery's ignorance, paid tuition- $1- 1.50 per month. 
  • 600,000 African American's in elementary school 1877. 
  • American Missionary Association founded 7 colleges 1866-69. 
16 of 25

What were Black Churches?

  • Blacks could build own institutions as they saw fit. 
  • Secret Churches of slavery came into open. 
  • Started renting the land they worked. 
  • Northerners and officials of FB favoured contracts between owners and laborers. 
  • Failure of Confederate banks left South with shortage of credit facilities. 
17 of 25

What was the sharecropping system?

  • Farmers kept part of their crop and gave rest to ladnowner while living on his property. 
  • Republican laws gave laborers first legal calim on the crop. 
  • Eased landowner's problems with cash and credit. 
  • Owners and merchants frequently underpaid or overcharged- manipulated records. 
18 of 25

Why were the South dependant on Cotton?

  • Temporary loss of markets reduced per capita income. 
  • Cotton prices declined, 1820-1860 5% per year- 1866-95 1.3%. 
  • Landowners required sharecroppers to grow prime cash crop. 
19 of 25

Why was did Reconstruction fall?

  • Antagonism between Unionists and rebels strong 1868. 
  • Grant ( Republican) defeated Seymour (NY Democrat)
  • Democrats vigorously denounced Reconstruction.
  • Grant not an enthusiastic advocate of Reconstruction. 
  • 1870-71, KKK forced Congress pass 2 Emancipation Acts and anti-Klan laws. 
  • Federal prosecutors used law selectively. 
20 of 25

Why did the Liberal Republicans Revolt?

  • Disenchanted with Reconstruction. 
  • Horace Greely president. 
  • United- Distaste for federal intervention in South. Let market forces. 
  • Reflected growing dissastisfaction with Grant's administration. 
  • Grant defended some of the culprits. 
21 of 25

What was the Amnesty Act?

  • 1872, pardoned msot of remaining rebels left.
  • 500 barred from political officeholding. 
  • Civil Rights Act 1875 guaranteed black people equal accommodations in public. 
  • Democrats regained power in South quickly. 
  • Industrialisation and immigration surged. 
  • Debt fell $2.3billion 1866- $587 million 1893. 
  • 3 million new immigrants. 
  • Panic in 1873 ushered 5 years continuing economic contraction. 
  • 3 million out of work. 
22 of 25

What was Greenbacks and Sound Money?

  • Greenbacks (Civil War money) in circulation could expand money supply and raise prices. 
  • 1872, Democratic farmers and debtors urged such a policy. 
  • Congress voted for increase in number of greenbacks 1874. Grant vetoed this law. 
  • Law limited inflationary impact of greenbacks and aided creditors.
  • By altering Courts jurisdiction, Congress protected Reconstruction policy and avoided confrontation. 
23 of 25

What was the Supreme Court Devisions on Reconstruc

  • Slaughter-House cases, court made restrictive reading of 14th Amendment more explicit. 
  • Campell argued 14th Amenment revolutionised the constitutional system by bringing individual rights under federal protection. 
  • 1876 court weakened Reconstruction-era by emasculating enforcement clause. 
  • Justices ruled 14th Amendment did not empower federal governments to act against whites who were oppressing blacks. 
24 of 25

What happened at the 1868 election?

  • Grant- War hero and Seymour. 
  • Seymour called NY draft rioters 'my friends'. 
  • Grant only ever voted once for Buchanan. 
  • Grant won 26 states, 214 electoral college, 52.7% and 3 million votes.
  • Seymour won 8 states, 80 electoral college, 47.3% and 2.7 million votes. 
  • Democrats slogan was 'This is a white man's country let white men rule'. 
  • Blight argued 'most white supremacist election in all of American History'. 
  • James Hinds, Republican for Arkansas. Votes for Grant and murdered in 1868. 
25 of 25

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar History resources:

See all History resources »See all America - 19th and 20th century resources »