Civil War and Reconstruction

Southern society: conservative, traditional, slavery, honor ► Most southerners were farmers. ► A slave-owning planter minority dominated southern society.

Prom night in Kentucky 2004: What does this have to do with the Civil War?

“King Cotton” : Cotton is king in the south ► Cotton Gin: Eli Whitney ► A person could clean much more cotton than by hand. ► Increased demand for slaves as more cotton could be grown and processed

The Cotton Belt: causing slave owners to move westward

Causes of the Civil War: sectional tensions lead to war ► 3/5 Compromise ► Missouri Compromise (1820) ► Nullification ► Compromise of 1850 ► Kansas - Nebraska Act (1854) ► Dred Scott decision (1857) ► Election of 1860

Three – fifths compromise

Missouri Compromise (1820)

Nullification ► Nullification is a constitutional theory that gives an individual state the right to declare null and void any law passed by the United States Congress

The Dred Scott Case (1857) ► Taken by his master into free territory ► Supreme Court decision outrages northerners

Supreme Court decision increases sectional tension between north and south ► “We think... [that Negroes]... are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word “citizens” in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. On the contrary, they were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings, who had been subjugated by the dominant race, and, whether emancipated or not, yet remained subject to their authority, and had no rights or privileges but such as those who held the power and the Government might choose to grant them.”

The Dred Scott ruling: Why would this make it harder for the north and south to compromise over the issue of slavery? ► Ruled that because Scott was a slave, he was not a citizen and could not sue. ► Congress had no power to regulate slavery in the territories ► Free states could not prevent slavery from Spreading into free areas

Election of 1860

Immediate Cause of War: John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry ► Convicted of murder and hanged.

THE WAR THAT TURNED “BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER” ► LINCOLN’S MAIN OBJECTIVE WAS TO SAVE THE UNION, NOT END SLAVERY. ► NORTH SEEMED TO HAVE MORE ADVANTAGES BUT LINCOLN HAD PROBLEMS WITH HIS GENERALS, SO THE NORTH DID BADLY AT FIRST.

What this war was really about ► The North said this was a war to “save the union.” ► The South said the war was about “states rights.” ► The Civil war was really about SLAVERY

CIVIL WAR ► President Lincoln was elected to two terms as President: 1860 – – –Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater –Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater. South Carolina was the first state to secede South Carolina was the first state to secede

Union (North) Confederacy (South) United States Confederate States of America “Dixie”

Two Countries, Two Presidents Abraham Lincoln Jefferson Davis

Lincoln’s generals did not want to fight! McClellan is replaced by Burnside

Southern (Confederate) General Robert E. Lee

Sherman and Grant: Believers in Total War

Total war = destroy civilian areas

Making a run for the union lines

WAR IS HELL: ANDERSONVILLE PRISON

GETTYSBURG: The Turning Point: 50,000 KILLED, INJURED OR MISSING ► TURNING POINT IN WAR IN UNION’S (NORTH) FAVOR ► Started with Confederates looking for shoes!

Lincoln at Gettysburg: November 1863

1862: Emancipation Proclamation

Lee surrenders to Grant: Appomattox Courthouse April 1865

Lincoln is assassinated and unable to implement his Reconstruction Plan, which was fairly lenient toward the former Confederate states

Reconstruction: 1865 – 1877: How can this nation be put back together? ► Who will rule in the south? ► Who will rule in the federal government? ► What will be the conditions that African-Americans will live under?

What are some issues that would need to be dealt with after the Civil War? ► People with no homes ► Angry white men stripped of “honor” ► Economy and how will people eat? ► Angry black people- no homes, etc ► South is poor and not very industrialized

Problems after the Civil War ► How to help the former slaves ► How to bring back Confederate states into the union ► How to rebuild the south ► How to deal with the fact that Lincoln, Johnson and Congress all had different ideas for Reconstruction.

The “failure” of Reconstruction ► By the end of the 19 th century (1800’s) many African –Americans will find themselves in similar conditions to what they experienced before the Civil War ► A few will be able to move into the middle class. ► Some historians will argue that the Reconstruction years helped lay the foundation for later success in civil rights

THERE WAS A GROWING BLACK MIDDLE CLASS DURING THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

However, many African –Americans find themselves in circumstances as bad and sometimes worse than slavery= sharecropping

Thomas Nast cartoon: Worse than Slavery

JIM CROW LAWS: LEGALIZED SEGREGATION

FREDERICK DOUGLAS WAS WIDELY REGARDED AS THE LEADER AND SPOKESMAN FOR THE BLACK COMMUNITY UNTIL HIS DEATH IN BOOKER T. WASHINGTON ASSUMED DOUGLAS’S ROLE BUT WAS CHALLENGED BY W.E.B. DuBOIS. THE TWO HAD DIFFERING IDEAS ON HOW BLACK AMERICANS SHOULD DEAL WITH THE RACISM AND LACK OF OPPORTUNITY.

AFRO-AMERICAN LEADERS BOOKER T. WASHINGTON W.E.B. DuBOIS

What accounted for this failure?: That is our topic!