5-1.1 Aims of Reconstruction Southern African Americans aim for Reconstruction was different from that of Southern whites and often from that of the United States Congress. African Americans The aims, or goals of Reconstruction varied for different groups of Americans. wanted to reunite their families and communities; establish a network of churches and Abraham Lincoln’s aim was to preserve the Union and end the Civil War as quickly as other groups; stake a claim to equal citizenship, which included access to land and possible. He promised an easy Reconstruction in order to persuade southern states to education; and carve out as much independence as possible in their working lives. surrender. Lincoln promised that if 10% of the people of a state would pledge their loyalty to the United States of America and ratify the thirteenth amendment to abolished slavery, they could form a new state government, elect representatives to Congress, and fully participate in the Union again. Lincoln was assassinated soon after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse. His assassination did not immediately change the course of Reconstruction. However, Reconstruction policy did change within a year. It is a common assumption that Lincoln’s easy Reconstruction policy would have continued if he had lived. However, Lincoln was determined to protect the rights of the freed slaves and his policy may have become stricter as southerners disobeyed the purpose of the thirteenth amendment. When Vice President Andrew Johnson became president, he continued Lincoln’s basic policy. However, Johnson’s aim was also to humiliate the southern elite. He required southerners who owned large amounts of property to ask for a presidential pardon. Johnson wanted the elite southerners to recognize his power, but he granted pardons easily when they did. While Congress was not in session, Johnson allowed southern states to form new state governments. Once they were defeated, the aim of many southerners was returning their lives to normal as soon as possible. Many did not want their society to change politically, socially, or economically. They wanted to continue extravagant lifestyles. They were willing to recognize the end of slavery, but were not willing to grant rights to the freedmen. Southern states passed laws known as Black Codes that replaced the slave codes and kept the freedmen in positions of social, political, and economic inferiority. Southerners used violence and threats to intimidate their former slaves. Southerners also elected former Confederates to Congress. Do you think things changed much in the South during this time? The aim of the United States Congress for Reconstruction was different from that of Southerners or the President. They wanted to guarantee that the Civil War had not been fought for nothing and that the freed slaves would truly be free. They refused to allow the former Confederates elected as senators and representatives by the southern states to take their seats in Congress. They passed a bill extending the Freedman’s Bureau so that it could continue to protect the rights of the freedman against the Black Codes. President Johnson vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode the veto. Congress also passed the fourteenth amendment, which recognized the citizenship of African Americans, and recognized the rights of all citizens to “due process of law” and “equal protection of the laws.” Southern states refused to ratify the amendment and President Johnson campaigned against the fourteenth amendment in the Congressional elections of 1866.

Because the violence against freedmen had been described in the Northern newspapers, voters elected Republicans to Congress who promised to protect the outcome of the war and the freedom of the freedmen. This Republican Congress then established a new Congressional Reconstruction policy calling for military occupation of the southern states. Southern states were required to write new constitutions that would recognize the fourteenth amendment and the rights of African American citizens. This Congressional Reconstruction Policy has been called Radical Reconstruction. This was a term that was used by southern critics to discredit Congressional Reconstruction by labeling it radical or excessive.

5-1.2 Amendments~ Freed Citizens Vote (sing to the tune of “Three Blind Mice”) The initial reaction of freedmen to emancipation ranged from exhilaration to fear! The aim of African Americans during Reconstruction was to reunite with Three Reconstruction amendments were designed to end slavery, allow all their families and enjoy the freedom that had been denied to them for so long Americans to coexist, and protect the rights of the newly freed slaves. The thirteenth under slavery. Many left their plantations, but most soon returned to the land that amendment freed the slaves everywhere in the United States. It is a common they knew and wanted to work. It is a common misconception that many misconception that the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves. The only slaves freedmen immediately migrated to the North and the West. African Americans did freed by President Lincoln’s proclamation were slaves that were in territories still not migrate in large numbers from the South until the late 1800s and early 1900s. controlled by the Confederacy. The Confederate government did not recognize Instead, they married and established strong communities in the South. African the right of the President of the United States to free its slaves. The Union Army freed Americans formed their own churches where they could worship freely. Many the slaves in the territories that it conquered. This amendment recognized the rights African Americans sought an education in the freedom schools that had been of all Americans as promised in the Declaration of Independence. So, during established. Some established businesses. They voted and held elective offices Reconstruction, the rights of African Americans were protected by the government. during Reconstruction.

The fourteenth amendment reversed the Dred Scott decision, a court case African Americans also tried to get land, however, for the most part, this that said that no African American, whether slave or free, could be an American was unsuccessful. General Sherman encouraged distribution of ‘forty acres and a citizen, and recognized the citizenship of African Americans. The amendment also mule’ to African American war refugees and some land was distributed during and recognized the rights of all citizens to “due process of law” and “equal protection shortly after the Civil War. The federal government returned most land that had of the laws.” The amendment affected African Americans in all parts of the United been taken from Confederates to white landowners because the government States, not just in the South. Southern states refused to ratify the amendment and so respected the rights of whites. Most freedmen had no money to purchase land and Congressional Reconstruction was imposed. The fourteenth amendment also little opportunity to work for wages since there was little currency available in the included requirements for lessening the political power of states that did not South. Because of this, freedmen made agreements with white landowners to trade recognize the rights of citizens to vote. However, this was not effective and led to their work for land in an arrangement known as sharecropping. In exchange for the the passage of the fifteenth amendment. right to work the land that belonged to whites, African Americans and poor landless whites would be given a share of the crop they grew. Although African Americans The fifteenth amendment declared that a male citizen’s right to vote could suffered from violence and intimidation, they carved out as much independence not be interfered with based on “race, creed or previous condition of servitude.” as possible in their own lives. Southern states were required to write new constitutions that allowed African Americans to vote. Southern critics claimed that the only reason Congress passed The Freedman’s Bureau was established by Congress prior to the end of the this amendment was to protect the power of the Republican Party. Certainly this Civil War. Although the Bureau was never well staffed or funded, it was the first line reason played a part in the passage of the fifteenth amendment, however, as a of assistance to all people in the South in need, especially the destitute freedmen. result of the amendment; African Americans were able to vote and hold political The Freedman’s Bureau provided food, clothing, medical care, education, and office and were also elected to state legislatures and congressional delegations some protection from the unfriendly environment in the South. The Bureau helped during the Reconstruction period. many freedmen find jobs. However, African Americans were not able to achieve economic independence because the great majority of African Americans did not Although the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments were receive their own land to farm. Instead the Freedman’s Bureau helped African designed to protect the rights of African Americans, they were only effective as Americans establish the sharecropping relationship with the plantation owners. The long as the Republicans had control of state governments or federal troops were most important contribution of the Freedman’s Bureau, was the establishment of able to protect African American’s social and political rights. No requirements were over one thousand schools throughout the South. passed to guarantee that African Americans would be able to own land. Most Southerners refused to sell land to African Americans, even if the former slaves had the money to purchase it. So the economic rights and independence of freedmen were limited, even during Reconstruction. Once Reconstruction ended, things likely got worse. There were no protections in place for the rights of African Americans. Although African Americans had constitutional rights because of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, these were often violated by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.

5-1.3 Subversive Groups During the Reconstruction period several prejudiced groups developed in African Americans looked at freedom differently than most Northerners order to intimidate the freedmen. The most infamous of these was the Ku Klux Klan and Southerners. To them freedom meant they could literally leave the plantation (KKK). Originally the KKK was a social organization of ex-Confederate soldiers, but it and do whatever they wanted to do. Most sought every opportunity to rebuild soon grew into a terrorist group. The goal of the KKK was to use violence, family connections and provide the basic necessities of life for their families. Most intimidation, and voter schemes to keep African Americans from using their rights Northerners and Southerners were interested in reestablishing businesses that under the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments. They wanted whites to guaranteed high productivity at little cost to the investor. Because freedmen were regain control of state governments. Public lynching became a common way of often denied the opportunity to own land and African Americans preferred not to intimidating African Americans who did not ‘know their place.’ Although the be under the direct control of the whites, they were willing to enter into federal government made some efforts to control the KKK and other groups who sharecropping agreements. They moved away from the Big House to the plot of practiced racial discrimination and intimidation, by 1876 these groups had land they worked. They refused to work in work gangs or have their wives and achieved their purpose. children work the fields from sun up to sun down as they had been forced to do under slavery. They gained some measure of independence although they The election of 1876 was so riddled with fraud that the electoral votes in remained economically dependent on the land owners for land and credit. Many three states were called into question. The election was decided by the House of looked for opportunities to attend school and to worship as they pleased. They Representatives. Democrats agreed to support the election of the Republican voted and elected African Americans and white Republicans who supported their candidate in exchange for the removal of all federal troops from the South. This interests to political offices. Compromise of 1877 resulted in the end of Reconstruction and African Americans felt abandoned by the federal government. Democrats then won control of the For poor whites, the Reconstruction period allowed some to have a political southern state governments. The constitutional rights gained by the “Civil War” voice for the first time. Because they cooperated with the Republican government amendments (13-15) were then violated by terrorist groups like the KKK which in the South, they were called ‘scalawags’ by the Southern elite and remained in a included working class whites as well as businessmen, lawyers, judges, and position of social inferiority. Some poor whites entered into sharecropping or tenant politicians at this time. Although African Americans protested their quick exclusion farming relationships with landowners. Like African American sharecroppers, they from public life; violence, intimidation, and lynching by terrorist groups silenced were economically dependent on the land owner for land and credit. These poor most protests. Southern state governments began passing laws to limit the rights of farmers needed cash advances on crops in order to feed their families while they African Americans guaranteed by the fifteenth amendment and some felt that they waited for the harvest. Often the harvest did not cover the debt or the farmer were back where they started. needed to borrow again the next year in order to care for his family. This kept the sharecropper in a condition of constant debt and poverty and kept him from improving his economic situation.

Some Northerners moved to the South during Reconstruction. Southerners accused these Northerners of taking advantage of the South, devastated by the 5-1.4 Effects of Reconstruction on Different Groups war, and called them “carpetbaggers.” This mocking name suggested that they The end of slavery, not Reconstruction policy, changed society in the were opportunists who had packed all of their belongings in a carpetbag and South. The southern elite wanted to quickly rebuild the business of cotton come south to “line their own pockets.” However, the historical record shows that production and thus retain their social standings and regain political control. They most of the Northern migrants came as missionaries and businesspersons to help replaced the Slave Codes with the Black Codes; these laws were designed to keep educate the freedmen and rebuild the economy of the South. the African American majority in a position of dependency. Their purpose was to keep the whites in control. As a result of losing their enslaved work force and a lack The movement from farms to factories did not occur during Reconstruction, of cash to hire free workers, Southern plantation owners were forced to find another but rather during the last two decades of the 1800s, after Reconstruction had way to work their land. They entered into sharecropping relationships with ended. Businesspeople began to build textile factories in the Upcountry and later in freedmen. the Midlands and Low country. As prices for cotton fell due to worldwide overproduction and decreased demand, the success of farming decreased Because state taxes were raised in order to provide for schools and other significantly. Cotton depleted the soil and the boll weevil destroyed cotton crops public services, some land owners, who were unable to pay the taxes and lost their and forced more farmers from the land. Textile factories attracted white workers land. However, the impact of these taxes was exaggerated by those Southerners from the farms. However, most jobs at the mills were still denied to African American who opposed the Reconstruction governments. Most landowners continued to own workers. their land and be the social elite of the South. They had economic control over the sharecroppers and they regained political control as a result of the end of Reconstruction. Despite their complaining, the southern elite were doing quite well during this time in history.

Weeks 1-3 ~ ELA/SS Unit 1 Reconstruction

 See Aiken County ELA pacing guides for standards to be Tiers 2 and 3 vocabulary based on the attached content taught using these topics. Incorporate other texts related to area notes. Adjust for individual needs and add these topics to teach standards in small group setting. additional words as necessary.  Add additional weekly vocabulary using affixes and roots Proper Nouns based on Aiken County Affix list. Abraham Lincoln Robert E. Lee Confederates Freedman’s Bureau Congressional Reconstruction Radical Reconstruction Southern African Americans Emancipation Proclamation Dred Scott decision Ku Klux Klan Compromise of 1877 Civil Rights Act of 1964 Great Migration Plessy v. Ferguson

Vocabulary

Aim Exhilaration Fraud Ratify Migrated Exaggerated Thirteenth amendment Sought Investor Abolish Refugees Scalawags Assassinated Sharecropping Inferiority Pardon Intimidation Debt

Elite Economic Poverty Freedmen Prejudice Carpetbaggers Black codes Lynching Dependency Bill Discrimination Cumulative Fourteenth amendment Grandfather Campaign clause

Amendment Recognize Fifteenth amendment

A Divided Family Nation, A A

The The

(South)

(North)

The Union The

Confederates