Reconstruction

Freedom What does it mean? Access to equal rights Access to land, education, political participation

“placing us where we could reap the fruit of our own labor, and take care of ourselves…to have land, and turn it and till it by our own labor.” - Black Leader & Baptist Minister

Education Fisk University, TN Hampton Institute, VA Howard University, D.C. Howard University

Politics Role of Black ministers 250 African Americans hold office during Reconstruction “Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot.” - Frederick Douglass

Politics of Reconstruction Freedman’s Bureau, 1865 Andrew Johnson Pardoning of southerners “Black Codes”

Congressional Reconstruction 14th Amendment, 1866 Tenure of Office Act, 1867 Impeachment of Johnson 15th Amendment, 1870

Election of 1868 Ulysses S. Grant, Republican “waving the bloody shirt” Horatio Seymour, Democrat appealed openly to racism denounced reconstruction & black suffrage

Reconstruction, The South 1/5th of the South’s adult male population died Slow economic revival Decline in value of property Confederate bonds worthless Physical Labor

Reconstruction, The South Meaning of freedom Task system Sharecropping

Reconstruction, Politics Hiram Revels, 1870 Scalawags Carpetbaggers

Reconstruction, Violence Escalated after passing of 14th & 15th amendments Blacks attacked for behavior Ku Klux Klan, 1866 Reconstructive governments overthrown

Civil Rights Act, 1875 Final act of reconstruction Outlawed racial discrimination in places of public accommodation Declared unconstitutional in 1883

Reconstruction Why did reconstruction end? Decline of Radical Republicans Nothing left to accomplish Resurgent racism 1873 Depression Compromise of 1877

Election of 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes, Republican Samuel Tilden, Democrat Election hinged on 4 States Oregon, South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida Electoral Commission 7 Republicans, 7 Democrats, 1 Independent Independent replace by a Republican Election goes to Hayes, potential Civil War

Compromise of 1877 Hayes elected President Withdraw of federal troops in the South Award aid to southern landholders

Compromise of 1877, Consequences Republican governments of the south are toppled South becomes Democrat and remains so until 1968 Alliance between Conservative Republicans and Conservative Democrats Jim Crow

Reconstruction Key terms: Howard University, Freedman’s Bureau, Andrew Johnson, “black codes”, 14th amendment, 15th amendment, Task System, sharecropping, Hiram Revels, Scalawags, Carpetbaggers, Compromise of 1877