1. CHAPTER 15 Reconstruction 1865–1877
James A. Henretta
Eric Hinderaker
Rebecca Edwards
Robert O. Self
America’s History Eighth Edition America: A Concise History Sixth Edition
CHAPTER 15
Reconstruction
1865–1877
Copyright © 2014 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

2. 1. What is the event taking place in this image
1. What is the event taking place in this image? (Answer: The image depicts a celebration that took place in Baltimore, Maryland, in May 1870 to mark the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which forbade the states from denying citizens the right to vote on the grounds of race, color, or “previous condition of servitude.”)
2. Who are the figures depicted at the top of the image between the American flags? Why are they presented there? (Answer: The figures are three African American leaders—Martin Robison Delany, the first African American commissioned field officer in the U.S. Army; Frederick Douglass, a famed abolitionist and best-known African American leader of the day; and Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate. The three are placed there to recognize their accomplishments, but also to celebrate the major roles they played in bringing an end to slavery and ratifying the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution.)
3. What does the image tell us about the extent to which Reconstruction changed the lives of African Americans by 1870? What does it reveal about what African Americans expected in the future? (Answer: Participants in the parade include African Americans in military uniforms, in suits and top hats, and in fancy dresses, revealing that at least some had gained access to jobs that paid wages sufficient to acquire such things. The image also includes many whites who also appear to be celebrating the amendment’s passage, illustrating that it was not just a black celebration, but an American one. These images suggest that African Americans hoped that they would continue to advance toward full inclusion in American society and the ability to pursue their own version of the American dream. It suggests that there was still great optimism about Reconstruction in 1870.)

3. I. The Struggle for National Reconstruction
A. Presidential Approaches: From Lincoln to Johnson 1. Lincoln 2. Johnson
I. The Struggle for National Reconstruction
A. Presidential Approaches: From Lincoln to Johnson
1. Lincoln – Had no guidance from the Constitution for what to do if a state rebels; offered a Ten Percent Plan (restoration to Union when 10 percent of the state’s voters had sworn loyalty); Confederate states rejected this plan, and Congress proposed Wade-Davis Bill (required loyalty of a majority of adult white men, no rebels in government, and permanent disenfranchisement of CSA leaders); Lincoln pocket-vetoed Wade-Davis; his assassination plunged the nation into political uncertainty.
2. Johnson – Was a self-styled “common man” from Tennessee; was loyal to the Union during the war; offered amnesty to all Southerners who swore allegiance except CSA leaders; provisional governors for South and asked for ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment; Republicans disliked Johnson and called him a traitor to the Union; enacted Black Codes in the South (imposed penalties against unemployed blacks, and set up efforts to take black children from parents and apprentice them to former slave holders); eased restrictions on ex-Confederates who wanted reenter politics.

4. I. The Struggle for National Reconstruction
B. Congress Versus the President 1. Freedmen’s Bureau 2. Radical Republicans and the Fourteenth Amendment
The Struggle for National Reconstruction
B. Congress Versus the President
1. Freedmen’s Bureau – Antiblack violence increased in the South under Johnson; in March 1865, Freedmen’s Bureau had been established by Congress to assist former slaves and was given direct funding in early 1866; Civil Rights Act of 1866 declared formerly enslaved people to be citizens and granted them equal protection and rights of contract, with full access to courts; bills were vetoed by Johnson; Congress overrode vetoes and passed both; violence increased further.
2. Radical Republicans and the Fourteenth Amendment – Stated that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” were citizens; 1866 congressional elections gave Republicans a 3-to-1 majority; Radical Republicans were led by Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA).

5. I. The Struggle for National Reconstruction
C. Radical Reconstruction 1. The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson 2. Election of 1868 and the Fifteenth Amendment
I. The Struggle for National Reconstruction
C. Radical Reconstruction
1. The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson – Radicals passed strict stipulations for reentry to the Union; in August 1867, Johnson suspended Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a Radical, and replaced him with Ulysses Grant; Grant publicly criticized Johnson’s decisions and resigned so Stanton could resume position; political crisis within the administration ended with Stanton barricading himself in his office; the House introduced articles of impeachment against the president; after an eleven-week trial in the Senate, the vote for impeachment failed by one vote.
2. Election of 1868 and the Fifteenth Amendment – Grant was viewed as a war hero and a political hero for his dislike of Johnson’s policies; wanted reconciliation between the states and won easily; Republicans produced the Fifteenth Amendment: federal government and states could not deny citizens voting rights on the basis of race, color, or “previous condition of servitude”; did not outlaw poll taxes or literacy tests (used in northern and western states to keep immigrants and poor from the polls). 5

8. I. The Struggle for National Reconstruction
D. Woman Suffrage Denied 1. The movement splits 2. National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA)
I. The Struggle for National Reconstruction
D. Woman Suffrage Denied
1. The movement splits – Frustration felt within the women’s movement when black men were granted suffrage; northern men opposed suffrage for women; Equal Rights Association convention revealed some of the women’s frustration (ex: Elizabeth Cady Stanton).
2. National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) – Women’s rights supporters split over the issue of black male suffrage; Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe organized American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) to support Republicans’ efforts for black men; Stanton and Susan B. Anthony created NWSA to advocate for a suffrage amendment for women; legal challenges to the Constitution ruled that while women were citizens, they could still be denied suffrage by their states; Wyoming Territory granted women voting rights in 1869; fears were dispelled that women would “unsex” themselves or abandon their families if they were allowed to vote. Women’s suffrage could no longer be dismissed; it had become a serious issue for national debate.

10. II. The Meaning of Freedom
A. The Quest for Land 1. Freed Slaves and Northerners: Conflicting Goals 2. Wage Labor and Sharecropping
II. The Meaning of Freedom
A. The Quest for Land
1. Freed Slaves and Northerners: Conflicting Goals – Gaps between the goals of freedmen and of politicians; many Northerners believed that wage labor would overtake the South; instead, former slaves wanted land; Republicans did not want to confiscate land, though former slaves felt entitled to it; few states developed opportunities for freedmen to purchase land; most were economically vulnerable to discrimination.
2. Wage Labor and Sharecropping – Many former slaves had to work for former owners; received a wage instead of food, clothing, shelter; extremely low wages meant starvation; some black workers organized; black men wanted to keep black women out of the fields and away from possible sexual harassment by white men; was a sense among former male slaves that they now controlled their wives’ labor; emancipation for black women was limited by familial relations; system of sharecropping arose, in which freedmen worked as renters, exchanging their labor for the use of land, house, tools, and sometimes seed/fertilizer; as cotton prices declined in the 1870s, more and more sharecroppers fell into permanent debt, which became a pretext for forced labor, or peonage; industrialization did not replace agriculture in the South.

11. 1. Describe the central action of this image
1. Describe the central action of this image. (Answer: Three generations of an African American family look at the photographer as a white man arrives in a horse-drawn cart.)
2. Consider the positive and negative attributes of sharecropping. (Answer: For freedmen, this system provided an opportunity to work land, in hopes of turning a profit, but without the social controls that slavery had created and enforced [the foreman, the restrictions on marriage, fears of being sold away from family members]; inability of freedmen to afford their own land left their families at the constant mercy of the landlord and the strength of the cotton harvest.)
3. What does the presence of a white man in this image indicate about sharecropping in the post-Civil War South? (Answer: Sharecropping, like slavery, was a relationship between land owners and laborers in the South that contributed to further disharmony between the races; an inherently unequal relationship between he who owned the land and those who worked it; the law was always on the side of the white landlord.)

14. II. The Meaning of Freedom
B. Republican Governments in the South 1. Rejoining the Union 2. Scalawags and carpetbaggers
II. The Meaning of Freedom
Republican Governments in the South
1. Rejoining the Union – All southern states rejoined the Union between 1868 and 1871; Republican governments included African Americans, not accepted by the ex-Confederates; twentieth-century historians viewed these governments as corrupt and ignorant (racist notions of 19th-century observers); today’s historians contend that they were progressive, eyeing reform in education, family law, social services, commerce, and transportation. In the late 1860s, the southern Republican Party included whites and blacks; Union League was a secret organization to pressure Congress for freedmen’s causes; Freedmen’s Bureau played key role in creating colleges for African Americans (Fisk, Tougaloo, and the Hampton Institute).
2. Scalawags and carpetbaggers – Ex-CSA men viewed the southern Republican Party as illegitimate in the South; referred to southern whites who supported Reconstruction as “scalawags”; denounced northern whites as “carpetbaggers,” self-seeking interlopers who moved to the South with belongings in cheap suitcases called carpetbags; many who came to the South did so for economic opportunity. Southerners who supported the Republican Party wanted to get rid of the planter-elite aristocracy that had ruled the states before the Civil War; African Americans recruited former slaves to be part of the political system. Many blacks were elected to office throughout the South with plans to abolish the Black Codes and corporal punishment; establish humane prisons, hospitals and asylums; and dramatically increase public education. 14

15. II. The Meaning of Freedom
C. Building Black Communities 1. Churches 2. “Race uplift”
II. The Meaning of Freedom
C. Building Black Communities
1. Churches – Aided by northern missionaries and teachers, independent black churches grew quickly; became center of black life in the South; joined black congregations in the North to create National Baptist Convention and African Methodist Episcopal Church; operated as schools and meeting halls; black ministers were leaders of their communities.
2. “Race uplift” – Teachers and charity leaders desired to build businesses and institutions to serve black Americans; some wanted integration; others wanted all-black schools/churches; Sen. Sumner (R-MA) argued for desegregation of public transportation, hotels, and churches in 1870; opponents feared that shared public spaces would lead to race mixing and intermarriage; Civil Rights Act of 1875 required “full and equal” access to jury service, transportation, and public accommodations, irrespective of race.

16. 1. Describe this painting. Who are the young men and women it depicts
1. Describe this painting. Who are the young men and women it depicts? (Answer: Group of well-dressed young people, some seated, some standing, in a vine-covered portico with a landscape view through arched openings. They are a cappella singers from Fisk University who traveled and performed to raise funds for the school.)
2. What does this image tell us about how black college students in the 1870s aimed to assimilate into white society? What does it suggest about how middle-class black culture resisted assimilation? (Answer: With the exception of skin color, these black college students could just as easily be white college students. They are wearing the clothes that white students would have worn, sitting in a lovely portico overlooking the mountains. They appear to be completely assimilated into white culture. Although it is not clear from the image itself, the Fisk Jubilee Singers performed black spirituals and folk songs, however, and not pieces from the white musical canon. In this way, they continued to identify strongly with black culture and to celebrate that culture on their tour through white America and Europe.)

17. III. The Undoing of Reconstruction
A. The Republicans Unravel 1. The Depression of The Disillusioned Liberals
III. The Undoing of Reconstruction
A. The Republicans Unravel
1. The Depression of 1873 – Global economic crisis triggered in part by Northern Pacific Railroad declaring bankruptcy; crop prices fell, iron manufacturing fell 50 percent, half of railroads were bankrupt, and construction of new railways stopped; Republican policies in the South became too expensive (ex: Freedmen’s Bureau); northern and foreign investors no longer had the money to ensure success of reforms; corruption in industries was increasing; failure of Freeman’s Savings and Trust Company (est. 1865), had worked to help former slaves, new churches, and charities in the South; risky investments and the depression led to the bank’s failure.
2. The Disillusioned Liberals – Revolt emerged within Republican Party; led by “classical liberals” who advocated free trade, smaller government, and limited voting rights; formed the Liberal Republican Party in 1872; the second Grant administration had numerous financial scandals, including Crédit Mobilier, a sham corporation set up by Union Pacific Railroad shareholders to profit on grants from the federal government.

18. III. The Undoing of Reconstruction
B. Counterrevolution in the South 1. “Redemption” and Nathan Bedford Forrest 2. Ku Klux Klan 3. Enforcement laws
III. The Undoing of Reconstruction
B. Counterrevolution in South
1. “Redemption” and Nathan Bedford Forrest – Efforts by ex-Confederates to take back the South from the Republican Party intensified amidst economic crisis; terror campaign in which black politicians and white supporters were hanged, beaten to death, and shot; Forrest was a decorated Confederate general; born poor, he became a big-time slave trader who gained wealth through cotton industry; was known for participating in the slaughter of black Union troops at Fort Pillow, TN.
2. Ku Klux Klan – Organization of ex-Confederates who joined together in 1866; led by Forrest in Tennessee to target Republicans in the state; tied to the Democratic Party; campaign of murder and terror throughout the South.
3. Enforcement laws – Congress passed laws to control the spread of violence; U.S. troops occupied part of South Carolina to stop outbreak of violence; Republican Party began to suffer political losses in the South as fear and violence increased.

19. III. The Undoing of Reconstruction
C. Reconstruction Rolled Back 1. The Supreme Court Rejects Equal Rights 2. The Political Crisis of 1877
III. The Undoing of Reconstruction
C. Reconstruction Rolled Back
1. The Supreme Court Rejects Equal Rights – Slaughter-House Cases (1873): Court diminished the power of the Fourteenth Amendment by arguing that it offered only a few federal protections; civil rights violations were viewed as state issues, not within the federal government’s jurisdiction; 1883 Court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
2. The Political Crisis of 1877 – Gov. Rutherford Hayes (R-OH) versus Gov. Samuel Tilden (D-NY); Tilden called for “home rule” for the South; Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana were only states still ruled by Reconstruction governments; Tilden led popular vote, Democratic Party fraud claimed, Republicans called the three states as electoral victories for Hayes; Democrats claimed victory in the three states for Tilden; Congress had to debate two sets of electoral votes for the three states; commission appointed, 8 Republicans 7 Democrats; commission gave Hayes the presidency. Hayes offered federal money for education, economic growth, internal improvements in the South. Hayes ordered Union troops out of the South; Reconstruction ended.
3. Pacification of the South – Secret talks agreed to a “pacification of the South”; Hayes had publicly indicated his desire to offer federal money for education, economic growth, and internal improvement; Hayes ordered Union troops out of the South; Reconstruction ended.