Big Question: How Effective Was Reconstruction?
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Big Question: How effective was Reconstruction? 1) What was Presidential Reconstruction? (Presidential Reconstruction, Lincoln’s Plan, Second Inaugural, Johnson’s Plan) Lincoln had been thinking of how to reconstruct the nation for much of the war and was determined to be fair with the South. In his mind, the South never legally left the Union. As early as 1863, he presented his plan which required 10% of state voters to pledge loyalty to the Union and accept the emancipation of slavery. He laid out his basic viewpoint in the conclusion of his Second Inaugural Address. Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865 With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. Lincoln was assassinated on April 15, 1865 and was not around to implement his policies. He was replaced by Andrew Johnson, a southerner from Tennessee who was added to the ticket in 1864 for political reasons without much thought given to his ability to actually lead. Johnson adopted the same 10% plan, but did not possess any of Lincoln’s political skills or power. By the end of 1865, most of the southern states had adopted the terms set by under Presidential Reconstruction. 2) What was the impact of the 13th Amendment? (13th Amendment, Sharecropping, Black Codes, Freedmen’s Bureau) Despite the president playing no formal role in the amendment process, President Lincoln used all of his political powers to push the amendment through Congress in the winter of 1864/65. It was passed on January 31, 1865 and ratified by the states in December of 1865 after Lincoln’s death. Amendment XIII (13) Section 1: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Despite the formal abolition of slavery, the South continued to limit African American rights through sharecropping arrangements and the passage of Black Codes. Sharecropping contracts were agreements where former slaves would work on plantations and “share” their crop with the owner in exchange for housing and tools. The contracts were often complicated and any disputes where usually won by the plantation owner. It resulted in most newly freed slaves (and many poor whites) working in conditions similar to slavery as poor tenant farmers after emancipation. Sharecropping Contract: January 1, 1867 . the said Cooper Hughs Freedman with his wife and one other woman, and the said Charles Roberts with his wife Hannah and one boy are to work on said farm and to cultivate forty acres in corn and twenty acres in cotton, to assist in putting the fences on said farm in good order and to keep them so and to do all other work on said farm necessary to be done to keep the same in good order and to raise a good crop and to be under the control and directions of said IG Bailey and to receive for their said services one half of the cotton and one third of the corn and fodder raised by them on said farm in said year 1867 … In addition to sharecropping, southern states passed the Black Codes. Mississippi Black Codes, 1865 Section 6. All contracts for labor made with freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes for a longer period than one month shall be in writing, and a duplicate, attested and read to said freedman, free negro or mulatto by a beat, city or county officer, or two disinterested white persons of the county in which the labor is to performed, of which each party shall have one: and said contracts shall be taken and held as entire contracts, and if the laborer shall quit the service of the employer before the expiration of his term of service, without good cause, he shall forfeit his wages for that year up to the time of quitting. Section 7. Every civil officer shall, and every person may, arrest and carry back to his or her legal employer any freedman, free negro, or mulatto who shall have quit the service of his or her employer before the expiration of his or her term of service without good cause; and said officer and person shall be entitled to receive for arresting and carrying back every deserting employee aforesaid the sum of five dollars, and ten cents per mile from the place of arrest to the place of delivery; and the same shall be paid by the employer, and held as a set off for so much against the wages of said deserting employee: Another outcome of emancipation was the Freedmen’s Bureau. It was the first federal welfare agency and its greatest success was setting up thousands of schools to teach hundreds of thousands of African Americans to read and write. It did not provide land to newly freed slaves as many hoped it would. The establishment of sharecropping, the Black Codes, and limited ability of the Freedmen’s Bureau to reshape the South led many in Congress to question what the war had actually achieved. 3) What was Congressional Reconstruction? (Congressional/Radical Reconstruction, Military Reconstruction, Impeachment of Johnson) Many in Congress were disappointed in the leniency shown towards the South under Presidential Reconstruction and the continued struggles of freed African Americans. This group of Congressmen became known as the Radical Republicans and instituted the era of Congressional or Radical Reconstruction. Their goals were to reform the South and protect the rights of African Americans. President Johnson vetoed several of the bills passed by the Radical Republicans, but Congress overrode his vetoes (first time in US history). One law passed by the Radicals was the Military Reconstruction Act of 1867. It divided the South into five military districts under the control of Union General. States could rejoin the Union when they ratified the 14th Amendment. President Johnson vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode it. Tired of Johnson’s resistance, Congress would impeach the president in 1867 for “high crimes and misdemeanors” most notably violating the Tenure of Office Act. The law prohibited the President from removing Cabinet officials without Senate approval. Johnson fired his adversary and Radical Republican, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. He was not removed from office by one vote, but his dispute with Congress was essentially over and Congress had won. The efforts of the Radical Republicans reasserted the power of Congress after Lincoln’s term in office. 4) What was the impact of the 14th and 15th Amendments? (14th Amendment, 15th Amendment, African American suffrage) Congress passed the 14th Amendment in 1866 and it was ratified by the states in 1868. Amendment XIV (14) Section 1.: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. There was debate about if the 14th Amendment clearly granted African Americans the right to vote. Radical Republicans continued to push for African American rights. The 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870. Amendment XV (15) Section 1: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. While the Army was in the South to offer protection, African Americans were able to vote electing Hiram Revels from Mississippi as the first black senator (1870) and Joseph Rainey from South Carolina as the first black representative (1870). The white South was furious with African Americans voting and working in government. 5) Why did Reconstruction conclude in 1877? (southern resistance to Reconstruction, KKK, Election of 1876, Compromise of 1877) Despite the best efforts of Radical Republicans, the white South never accepted any of the changes to southern life. Southerners began to fight back in a variety of ways. The most notorious response was the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan. Testimony of Maria Carter, a black woman, to Congress on KKK activity, 1871 Question. What did they do at your house? Answer. They were at the other door, and they said, “Kindle a light.” My husband went to kindle a light, and they busted both doors open and ran in—two in one door and two in the other. I heard the others coming on behind them, jumping over the fence in the yard. One put his gun down to him and said, “Is this John Walthall?” They had been hunting him a long time. They had gone to my brother-in-law’s hunting him, and had whipped one of my sisters-in-law powerfully and two more men on account of him. They said they were going to kill him when they got hold of him. They asked my husband if he was John Walthall. He was so scared he could not say anything. I said, “No.” I never got up at all. They asked where he was, and we told them he was up to the next house, they jerked my husband up and said that he had to go up there.