The Reconstruction Era Turning Points The Reconstruction Era

“The First Vote” Harper’s Weekly, 1870

Warm Up: 3 Plans of Reconstruction Abraham Lincoln’s Andrew Johnson’s Radical Republicans

Achievements of Radical Reconstruction Freedman’s Bureau Act (by veto override) Increased literacy Reconnected families Freedman’s Bank 14th Amendment (1868) 15th Amendment (1870) Civil Rights Act, 1866 (by veto override) African Americans are citizens Reconstruction Acts, 1867 Civil Rights Act, 1875 tried to promote integration, but allowed segregation in churches, cemeteries and schools

Reconstruction: African Americans in the South Limiting Freedom Intimidation at elections by Ku Klux Klan B/w 1868-1876, white violence towards freedmen at every election in Louisiana & Mississippi Sharecropping –tenant farming Crop-lien System –borrowing w/high interest based on potential harvest Debtor Peonage –unpaid labor to pay off debt (usually based on false arrest) Black Codes: Southern states immediately pass laws limiting black freedom Ensure white land owners labor Limit black power in politics Enforced segregation Banned gun ownership for blacks interracial marriage blacks from testifying against whites in court

Factors that ended Reconstruction Long term Causes White Southerners readiness to engage in violence & intimidation Mississippi ‘Rifle Clubs’ of 1870s Redeemers (Democrats) take over Unwillingness of Federal government to repel these actions President Grant refuses to send more federal troops to regulate any elections b/c the state government was ‘not under direct threat of insurrection’ Fed involvement in the South will lose moderate Republican support in the North (especially Ohio & NY) Thomas Nast cartoons indicate losing support for Reconstruction

Continued… Economic depression –Panic of 1873 Set up by 1869 ‘Gold Crisis’ -prices collapse 1873 largest private bank in U.S. goes under –credit dries up Fragmentation of Republican Party Stalwarts (pro-patronage) vs. half-breeds (pro-civil service) Many Radical Republicans retire/die Moderates have to compete with Democrat strongholds in urban centers Actions of the Supreme Court Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) “citizenship in the Union (the U.S.) not the same as citizenship within a state” –first case to examine 14th Amendment Born or naturalized vs. residency

Immediate causes Hayes vs. Tilden Election of 1876 leading to the Compromise of 1877 House of Representatives decided the election Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) wins at the price of: Three states are ‘redeemed’ End support of Republican govts in these states Federal troops removed from the South Reconstruction & all of its policies end

Migrating to find Freedom Exodusters (1878-79) 1st major migration of African American after the Civil War Nearly 40,000 freedmen Migrated along the Mississippi River to Kansas, Oklahoma & Colorado in 1879 Motivated to leave the South due to Black Codes & KKK & White League terror Led by Henry Adams & Benjamin Singleton