Abraham Lincoln 16th President of the US

• American Politician and Lawyer who served as the 16th President. • Was assassinated in April 1865 by John Wilkes Booth. • Led the United States through its Civil War. • Paved the way to abolition of slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation

• Issued September 22, 1862 • Effective date-January 1, 1863

• “All persons held as slaves in the rebellious states are and henceforward shall be free”

• Between 3 and 4 million black people were liberated in the ten Southern states still unoccupied by the Union. Johnson’s Lenient Reconstruction Plan

• Amnesty to all Southerners except leaders of the rebellion and those owning more than $20,000 of property, if they swore an oath of loyalty to the Union and the Constitution. • Each State must: call a State convention; repeal their secession ordinance; ratify the 13th Amendment and cancel the Confederate war debt.

• Johnson did not favor giving black men the right to vote. The Civil War Ends

• April 12, 1861 – May 9, 1865. • Started because due to uncompromising difference between slave states and free states. • Seven slave states in the South seceded and formed a new nation. • Approximately 620,000 soldiers died. • Approximately 180,000 free and run away slaves came forward to volunteer in the Union Army. Reconstruction 1863- 1877 The 13th Amendment

• Abolished and Involuntary servitude, except as punishment • Passed in Congress January 31, 1865 • Ratified December 6, 1865 14th Amendment

• Ratified in 1868 – Five Sections • Sec. 1-Defines citizens as all persons born or naturalized in the US; • Sec. 2-New formula of determining representation; replacing 3/5 of a person. • Sec. 3-No former military holder or office holder who fought against US, could thereafter go to Congress, unless 2/3 of Congress voted to seat the person; • Sec. 4-Validates the debt of the US and denies compensation to former slaveholders for the loss of their slaves; • Sec. 5- Gives Congress power to make laws to enforce the Amendment 15th Amendment

• Ratified February 3, 1870 • Prior to passage of the 15th Amendment, eligibility to vote was determined by the individual state not the federal government. • By 1890 most of the former Confederate States had passed laws designed to prevent blacks from voting. Literacy tests kept many blacks from voting. Illiterate whites could vote, if their grandfathers had previously been allowed to vote, if they owned property, or were of “good character”. The Freedmen’s Bureau

• Established as a temporary agency March 3, 1865 to help newly freed blacks to function as free persons. • The Bureau attempted to address labor relations, education, landownership, medical care, food distribution, family reunification, and legal issues

• Given additional authority and more permanent status July 16, 1866

• Disbanded by Congress 1872 BLACK CODES LAWS

• A body of laws, statues, and rules enacted by southern states immediately after the Civil War to regain control over the freed slaves, maintain white supremacy and ensure the continued supply of cheap labor. • Mississippi and South Carolina were the first two southern states to pass legislation. The South’s Response • The Southern State legislatures pursuant to Johnson’s call came into session. Many pre-war leaders were still in office. They were concerned that former slaves would not work unless forced to do so, and they feared an economy without a labor force and a huge number of people who would either plunder or live on charity.

• Black Codes were developed by the states to “manage” the problem of the newly freed blacks. Mississippi was the first state to do so, followed by South Carolina in 1865. In Mississippi blacks were required to sign a 1 year labor contract and to work the full contract or be forcibly returned to the job. SC forbade blacks from working in any occupation other than agriculture unless the black person paid an exorbitant fee.

• Black codes varied from state to state North Carolina’s Response

• Johnson appoints a provisional governor, Holden • Holden calls for the state convention to be held on October 2, 1865 • Blacks not permitted to participate in convention, hold their own September 29, 1865* • Convention occurs (no blacks present) • Election takes place in November. A new governor, General Assembly and Congressional representatives are elected. • General Assembly ratifies the 13th Amendment on December 4, 1865 • Black Code adopted in March 1866 *Convention of the Freedmen of NC- September 29, 1865 • This group of about 100 men, some free before the war, others newly freed and some from the North met and asked the State Convention for three constitutional guarantees: • 1. The Right to Vote • 2. The right to testify in court • 3. The right to serve on a jury • All requests were ignored North Carolina Black Code

• Black people have all rights that free blacks had before Civil War, but not citizenship or suffrage • Negro defined as anyone with a little black blood • Black people have the right to bring lawsuits, but may only testify in cases involving a black person, unless the white person consents to the testimony • Black apprentices must receive the same treatment as a white apprentice. • Blacks who cohabited as husband and wife, shall be deemed so, but must go to the Clerk of Court to acknowledge their marital state, or be guilty of a misdemeanor. • Blacks may enter into contracts to buy or sell property, but contract must be in writing, signed by the parties and witnessed by a white person who is able to read and write. • Marriage between blacks and whites is prohibited. • Black person convicted of assault on a white woman with intent to rape shall be put to death • Except as above, the criminal laws affecting whites shall also apply to blacks Congress responds to the States

• Radical Republicans in Congress were infuriated by the Southern response so in December 1865 refused to seat the newly elected members of the House of Representatives and the Senate from the South. They believed that the newly freed blacks were entitled to the same constitutional rights and protections that whites had. • April 1866 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 establishing the right of citizenship to all persons born in the US without regard to prior servitude. This was a precursor to the 14th Amendment. • Between Dec. 1865 and May 1866 the Republicans attempted to hammer out a plan that would permit the freedmen to be full citizens with all rights and privileges; have them count as whole persons, not 3/5; determine how members of Congress were to be apportioned based on population. If the plan was accepted by Southern states, then their newly elected delegates would be seated. • Early in 1866 Congress also extended the life of the Freedmen’s Bureau and increased its authority.

President Johnson vetoed these acts, but Congress overrode the veto NC Election of 1866

• NC’s Governor and legislature did not support adoption of 14th Amendment.

Other Southern states did not either. Congressional Reconstruction

• Congress tired of President Johnson’s reluctance to push the South to reform • Congress passed 1st Reconstruction Act-March 2, 1867. It divided the South into military districts (martial law); required each State to call constitutional conventions elected by universal suffrage (all men over 21); and to ratify the 14th amendment.

• 627,000 white men registered (North Carolina-106,721) • Blacks were a majority in five states North Carolina Responds

• The newly registered voters elected 120 delegates to the NC Constitutional Convention. • 107 delegates were Republican; 18 were Carpetbaggers (from the North) and 13 or 15 were black men • Constitutional Convention met from January to March 1868 • Election occurred April 1868 • 16 black men were elected to the State House and 3 to the State Senate, new constitution(many whites called it the “black & tan” constitution) was adopted and the 14th Amendment was ratified. • The new constitution provided for free public education; and permitted all males over the age of 21 to vote if they had lived in the State for 1 year and the precinct for 30 days. • NC was finally readmitted to the Union in 1868 North Carolina • Republicans held power in NC from 1868 to 1870, but the Conservatives/Democrats (former Confederates) continued to press for a return to the old regime.

• Missionaries came from the North to help the freedmen, so did people looking for economic opportunity (carpetbaggers). The Union League was an organization mobilized to prompt black men to register to vote and to vote Republican. The League began in NY during the War. Most black voters were members of a Union League and registered Republicans.

• The KKK spread here from its birthplace in Tennessee and began to intimidate both blacks and whites who were supportive of the new structure. The Klan managed to suppress the Republican vote in 1870 and the General Assembly impeached Republican Governor Holden in 1871. He was the first governor in the United States to be impeached and removed from office.

• Democrats won the 1872 election. Threats and intimidation kept many blacks and others from the polls. The Democratic controlled legislature held a constitutional convention in 1875 and amended the constitution to require separate schools for black and white students. • Democrats also won the 1876 election Black Elected Officials

• Despite the changing tide, 30 black men served in the General Assembly between 1870 and 1876. One, John Adams Hyman served in Congress from the 2nd Congressional District. • Hyman was born a slave in Warrenton, sold to Alabama and returned to NC in 1865. He participated in the Constitutional Convention of 1868 and served in the NC Senate from 1868-1874. Elected to Congress 1875-1877. • Three other black men were elected to Congress from the 2nd Congressional District: James E. O’Hara 1883- 1887; Henry P. Cheatham 1889-1893 and George Henry White 1897-1901. O’Hara and White also served in the State legislature before their elections to Congress. O’Hara was also Chair of the Craven County Commission Cheatham was Register of Deeds in Vance County before his election to Congress and after his service, he was Superintendent at Oxford Orphanage. Life for the Freedmen

• While black men gained the vote and some even served in elected office, the average black person knew only farming or domestic work. • Sharecropping grew as the predominant way most blacks and poor whites made a living by the 1870s. Poor whites resented the black competition, thus leading to the growth of organizations like the KKK. • Educational institutions were established, both public schools and colleges for the benefit of the freedmen. Reconstruction Ends- 1877

• In the presidential election of 1876 the two candidates were Samuel Tilden, the Democrat and Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican. Tilden won the popular vote and 184 electoral votes. Hayes had only 165. 185 electoral votes were needed to win. • 20 additional electoral votes were disputed. • A compromise was reached giving Hayes all 20 of the disputed votes in return for his agreement to end Reconstruction in the South by removing the Federal troops. • “Redeemer" Democrats controlled many Southern state legislatures, including NC, so, they began to disenfranchise black voters. Era of Jim Crow

• The Civil Rights Act of 1875 barred any person from depriving citizens of any race of equal treatment in public accommodations, public transportation and the right to serve on a jury. This was the last civil rights act for nearly a century. • The Supreme Court declared the 1875 Civil Rights Act unconstitutional in 1883. • By 1890 most Southern states mandated separate schools, water fountains, hotels, transportation, libraries, etc. • Homer Plessy challenged the Louisiana law. The US Supreme Court ruled against him. “Separate but Equal” was the law of the land, 1896. Separate but Equal: The Law of the Land

• Racially segregated but ostensibly ensuring equal opportunities to all races. • The courts challenged earlier civil rights legislation and handed down a series of decisions that permitted states to segregate people of color. • Plessy v Ferguson in 1896, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that racially separate facilities, if equal, did not violate the Constitution. • The court claimed Segregation was not discrimination. NC 1890-1904

• Democrats continued to win elections. During the 1890’s blacks and some whites united their political efforts. They called themselves Fusionists. The Fusionists were able to regain the General Assembly in 1894 and the Governor’s office in 1898 • Democrats ran on a “White Supremacy and disenfranchisement” platform in 1898 and succeeded in re-taking the Legislature and the Governorship. • 1898 Wilmington Race Riot- 2 days after election of Fusionists city gov’t, whites took over the city, ran elected officials out of town and killed other blacks. Wilmington became a majority white town after this event. • 1900 Democrats amended the state constitution: lengthened time in residence before registering to vote; added literacy requirement and a poll tax. • By 1904 virtually all black voters were eliminated and would be so until the 1960’s.