1. 12.2: Reconstructing Society
Homework: RSG 12.2

2. Election of 1868
Union general U.S. Grant vs. NY Dem. Horatio Seymour
Grant not Radical but …
- supported Congress Recon
- black suffrage
Dems ran white supremacist campaign
- associated selves w/ Johnson and rebels [whoops]
black voters helped Grant win

3. Fifteenth Amendment [1870]
“right of citizens to vote shall not be denied … on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude [slavery]
problem—allowed states to restrict suffrage on other grounds
some Southern states did not enforce 14th and 15th Amend. - “literacy” exams to prevent voting
federal gov’t response – Enforcement Acts of 1870
- criminal offenses for actions against the civil rights
- provided election supervisors
- martial law
problem—not often enforced

4. Conservative Response to Recon
little gov’t support  white supremacists regain control of Southern gov’ts
S [racism] and N Republicans divided on issue of race
S Conservatives against:
- carpetbaggers [greedy, corrupt businessmen from N coming to take advantage of S]
- scalawags [cooperative S supporting civil rights]
opposed taxes to repair S  blamed Republicans

7. 12.2b: Reconstructing Society
Homework: Freedmen’s Work Contract

8. Black Codes
any amount of black blood made one black
Employment requirement
could not gather w/o presence of white person
assumed to be agricultural workers
not to be taught to read or write
public facilities segregated

9. Black Code – Examples in Louisiana
Any negro found drunk, w/in said parish shall pay a fine of five dollars, or in default thereof work five days on the public road, or suffer corporeal punishment as hereinafter provided.
No negro who is not in the military service shall be allowed to carry fire-arms, or any kind of weapons, within the parish, without the special written permission of his employers, approved and indorsed by the nearest and most convenient chief of patrol.
No negro shall be permitted to preach, exhort, or otherwise declaim to congregations of colored people, without a special permission in writing from the president of the police jury.
No negro shall be permitted to rent or keep a house within said parish. Any negro violating this provision shall be immediately ejected and compelled to find an employer; and any person who shall rent, or give the use of any house to any negro, in violation of this section, shall pay a fine of five dollars for each offence.

10. Black Code – Examples in Mississippi
that it shall not be lawful for any freedman, free negro, or mulatto to intermarry with any white person; nor for any white person to intermarry with any freedman, free negro, or mulatto; and any person who shall so intermarry, shall be deemed guilty of felony, and on conviction thereof shall be confined in the State penitentiary for life;
If any freedman, free negro, or mulatto, convicted of any of the misdemeanors provided against in this act, shall fail or refuse for the space of five days, after conviction, to pay the fine and costs imposed, such person shall be hired out by the sheriff or other officer, at public outcry, to any white person who will pay said fine and all costs, and take said convict for the shortest time.
If any white person shall sell, lend, or give to any freedman, free negro, or mulatto any fire-arms, dirk or bowie knife, or ammunition, or any spirituous or intoxicating liquors, such person or persons so offending, upon conviction thereof in the county court of his or her county, shall be fined not exceeding fifty dollars, and may be imprisoned, at the discretion of the court, not exceeding thirty days.

11. Black Code – Examples in South Carolina
"No person of color shall migrate into and reside in this state, unless, within twenty days after his arrival within the same, he shall enter into a bond with two freeholders as sureties"
"Servants shall not be absent from the premises without the permission of the master"
Servants must assist their masters "in the defense of his own person, family, premises, or property"
No person of color could become an artisan, mechanic, or shopkeeper unless he obtained a license from the judge of the district court – a license that could cost $100 or more.

12. Improvements for AA
13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
political offices:
- Hiram Revels first AA Senator [MS] in 1870
- 16 Congressman b/w
- governor of LA
parts of South:
- desegregation
- schools, orphanages, and public relief projects

13. Ku Klux Klan
supremacy groups [paramilitary] aimed at controlling AAs
- violence, intimidation, lynching, rape, pillaging, murder
not only ex-Confederate soldiers and poor whites
- some ministers, merchants
wore hoods, secret meetings, burned crosses

14. “OF COURSE HE WANTS TO VOTE THE DEMOCRATIC TICKET”

18. After a long day of terrorizing African-Americans you want to relax and read your favorite magazine.

23. Election of 1868 Cartoon
3 men represent Democratic party voters
-Southerner
-Lost Cause knife = Civil War
-Jewish Businessman
-money to buy votes
-Irish immigrant
-use violence for votes
Burning African American orphanage and school
Lynched African American
African American Civil War soldier
Trampled American flag
Voting box

24. Economic Obstacles
1870s sharecropping dominant way to earn living
wealthy allowed poor whites and blacks to work land in exchange for share of harvest
- landlord provide food, seed, tools, and shelter
- sharecroppers debt  borrow and pay high fees for basic supplies
- if debt exceeded revenues, sharecropper bound to owner *** resembled slavery
tenant farming  rent land for cash but use own tools
“40 acres and a mule” give freedmen
- land seized in “March to Sea”
- mules not needed by Union Army
- ended after 1 year by Pres. Johnson  all federal land returned to previous owner