Reconstruction

M16_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH16.qxd 8/11/10 3:12 AM Page 444 Chapter Outline An Appeal to the American People (1871) When a dark and fearful strife White Southerners and the Ghosts of the Confederacy, 1865 Raged around the nation’s life, And the traitor plunged his steel More Than Freedom: African-American Where your quivering hearts could feel, Aspirations in 1865 When your cause did need a friend, Education We were faithful to the end. “Forty Acres and a Mule” Migration to Cities With your soldiers, side by side, Faith and Freedom Helped we turn the battle’s tide, Till o’er ocean, stream and shore, Federal Reconstruction, 1865–1870 Presidential Reconstruction, 1865–1867 Wave the rebel flag no more, Congressional Reconstruction, 1867–1870 And above the rescued sod Southern Republican Governments Praises rose to freedom’s God. 1867–1870 But to-day the traitor stands Counter-Reconstruction, 1870–1874 With crimson on his hands, The Uses of Violence Scowling ‘neath his brow of hate, Northern Indifference On our weak and desolate, Liberal Republicans and the Election With the blood-rust on the knife of 1872 Aimed at the nation’s life. Economic Transformation Asking you to weakly yield Redemption, 1874–1877 All we won upon the field, The Democrats’Violent Resurgence To ignore, on land and flood, The Weak Federal Response All the offerings of our blood, The Election of 1876 and the Compromise of 1877 And to write above our slain The Memory of Reconstruction “They have fought and died in vain.” Modest Gains Source: Maryemma Graham, ed., Complete Poems of Frances E. W. Harper (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 81–83. Conclusion Hear the Audio Hear the audio files for Chapter 16 at www.myhistorylab.com 1865–1877 Reconstruction M16_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH16.qxd 8/11/10 3:13 AM Page 445 “A Hunger to Learn.”This 1863 watercolor by Henry L. Stephens depicts an elderly African American, probably a former slave, learning to read. The newspaper’s headline states,“Presidential Proclamation, Slavery.” Learning transcended age among freed blacks in the South. M16_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH16.qxd 8/11/10 3:13 AM Page 446 446 Chapter 16 Reconstruction 1865–1877 Read the Document at www.myhistorylab.com Personal Journeys Online ■ Adelbert Ames, Letter from the Republican Gover- nor of Mississippi, 1875. Letter to his wife express- ■ N. J. Bell, Southern Railroad Man, 1865. A railroad ing frustration at the violence against black voters conductor recalls the aftermath of the Civil War and in his state and his hope for federal intervention. its impact on a white family in Wilmington, NC. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, the author Frances Harper’s personal journey was more reward- of this poem, pleaded with northerners not to abandon ing. She was born into a free black family in Maryland, a African Americans in their quest for full equality. She ap- slave state, in 1825. Orphaned at the age of three and raised pealed both to their sense of fairness – that African Ameri- by her aunt and uncle, she attended a noted school for free cans had fought side-by-side and laid down their lives for the blacks in Baltimore. By the time she was twenty-five, she Union cause – and to their self-interest that winning the war, had become the first woman professor at a seminary in and the sacrifices that entailed, would not be betrayed by los- Ohio which later became Wilberforce University. In 1853, ing the peace. Harper moved to Philadelphia where she worked in the At the time – 1871 – Reconstruction was under full as- Underground Railroad and became one of the few black sault in the South by white paramilitary groups associated women lecturers on abolition. In 1860, she married Fenton with the Democratic Party. Though violence against the Harper, and had a daughter with him. When he died in freedmen and their aspirations had been persistent since the 1864, she took her daughter and resumed lecturing becom- end of the Civil War, the growing political power of blacks in ing one of the first women of color to travel throughout the the South after 1867 provoked more organized and violent South in the days after emancipation, helping to educate assaults on blacks and some of their white colleagues. The former slaves. Harper related many of her experiences in federal government attempted to quell these disturbances newspaper columns. Her journalistic skills served as a with troops and legislation, but these measures were largely model for another young black woman journalist, Ida B. ineffective.While a majority of northern whites had opposed Wells. slavery, a majority also opposed racial equality. Revulsion Although she arrived in the South with considerable against immigrant-dominated political machines in north- hope, Harper left after five frustrating years. Violence ern cities and concerns about the growing militancy of or- against African Americans and their white allies had ganized labor enabled northern whites to accept the views of escalated and threatened to reduce the former slaves to a southern whites that African-American presence in politics permanent category of second-class citizenship. Her poem was “unnatural”and harmful to good government. A consen- was one of her last attempts to reach a northern public sus emerged in the North to allow southern whites a free already grown weary of the periodic racial disturbances in hand in dealing with their political problems. Harper’s ap- the South. Harper spent the rest of her life writing novels peal, therefore, fell on deaf ears. The nation’s journey toward and poetry, and working for the causes of temperance, and a more just society took a major detour in the decade after racial and women’s rights. She died in Philadelphia in the Civil War. 1911. M16_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH16.qxd 8/11/10 12:44 PM Page 447 Reconstruction 1865–1877 Chapter 16 447 KEY TOPICS KEY ◆ How did Southerners remember the war? CHRONOLOGY ◆ How did it shape their response to Reconstruction? 1861 Tsar Alexander II frees the serfs of Russia. ◆ What were African Americans’ hopes for 1863 Lincoln proposes his Ten Percent Plan. Reconstruction? 1864 Congress proposes the Wade-Davis Bill. 1865 Sherman issues Field Order No. 15. ◆ How did Presidential Reconstruction dif- Freedmen’s Bureau is established. fer from Congressional Reconstruction? Andrew Johnson succeeds to the presidency, ◆ What role did violence play in Counter- unveils his Reconstruction plan. Reconstruction? Massachusetts desegregates all public facilities. Black citizens in several southern cities organize ◆ Why did the federal government aban- Union Leagues. don African Americans after 1872? Former Confederate states begin to pass black codes. ◆ How and why did Reconstruction end? 1866 Congress passes Southern Homestead Act, Civil Rights Act of 1866. Ku Klux Klan is founded. The position of African Americans in American soci- Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ety was one of the two great issues of the Reconstruction passed (ratified in 1868). era. The other great issue was how and under what terms to 1867 Congress passes Military Reconstruction Acts, readmit the former Confederate states. The formation of a Tenure of Office Act. national consensus on freedom and reunification began 1868 President Johnson is impeached and tried in the with the demands and hopes of three broad groups. One Senate for defying the Tenure of Office Act. was the Republican Party, which controlled the federal Republican Ulysses S. Grant is elected president. government. Most Republicans were unwilling to accept 1869 Fifteenth Amendment passed (ratified 1870). the seceding states back in the Union without an expres- 1870 Congress passes Enforcement Act. sion of loyalty and a commitment to protect the rights of Republican regimes topple in North Carolina freedmen. A second group, the more than 4 million former and Georgia. slaves, demanded voting rights, access to education, and 1871 Congress passes Ku Klux Klan Act. the opportunity to seek economic self-sufficiency. Few 1872 Freedmen’s Bureau closes down. black northerners yet enjoyed all these benefits, and few Liberal Republicans emerge as a separate party. white southerners could conceive of former slaves possess- Ulysses S. Grant is reelected. ing them. The third group, white southerners, hoped to 1873 Severe depression begins. restore their shatteredlives, fortunes, and dignity. In their Colfax Massacre occurs. vision of a renewed South, black people remained sub- U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the servient, and the federal government stopped interfering in Slaughterhouse cases weakens the intent of southern affairs. the Fourteenth Amendment. Between 1865 and 1867, under President Andrew Texas falls to the Democrats in the fall elections. Johnson’s Reconstruction plan, white southerners pretty 1874 White Leaguers attempt a coup against the much had their way with the former slaves and with their Republican government of New Orleans. own state governments. Congressional action between Democrats win off-year elections across the 1867 and 1870 attempted to balance black rights and home South amid widespread fraud and violence. rule, with mixed results. After 1870, white southerners 1875 Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1875. gradually regained control of their states and localities, 1876 Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. often through violence and intimidation, denying black Cruikshank nullifies Enforcement Act of 1870. southerners their political gains while Republicans in Outcome of the presidential election between Washington and white northerners lost interest in Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat policing their former enemies. Samuel J. Tilden is contested. By the time the last federal troops left the South in 1877, 1877 Compromise of 1877 makes Hayes president the white southerners had prevailed. The Confederate and ends Reconstruction. states had returned to the Union with all of their rights and M16_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH16.qxd 8/11/10 3:13 AM Page 448 448 Chapter 16 Reconstruction 1865–1877 many of their leaders restored.

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