Reconstruction

Chapter 18 Reconstruction

• 1865-1877 • Federal gov’t helped rebuild southern society and gov’t Lincoln’s Reconstruction

• He wanted to treat the South with respect • Wanted to pardon all Confederate officials • Allowed Confederate states to send representatives to Congress • Set up Freedman’s Bureau to help former slaves • Set up schools, hospitals, gave out food, clothes, fuel Reconstruction under Andrew Johnson

• Continued Lincoln’s ideas and plans President Johnson’s failure

• Did not force the Southern states to aid former slaves gain equality • His main concern was getting the Southern states readmitted to the Union as fast as possible Black Codes

• Limited freedoms of former slaves • Ex: Forbid African Americans to meet in unsupervised groups or carry guns • Ex: African Americans had to have written proof of employment and if not, they could be arrested or put in jail Civil Rights Act of 1866

• Passed by Congress • Guaranteed that all people born in the USA (except Native Americans) were citizens and guaranteed their equal rights no matter of race • Was vetoed by President Johnson but Congress over rid his veto 14th Amendment

• Equal rights amendment • Proposed in 1866 • Did not address African American voting rights but states that did not allow them to vote would lose representation in Congress • Johnson (too much power with Congress) and all but one southern state did not support it Radical Reconstruction

• Started in 1867 • Gave more power to Congress during Reconstruction • Divided the south into 5 military districts • Southern states had to approve new state constitutions that allowed all adult males (even African Americans) the right to vote and ratify the 14th amendment to be able to join back into the USA (all did it by 1870)

Impeachment

• Congress tried to impeach (accuse him of improper conduct) Johnson over him firing the Secretary of War • Johnson was acquitted by 1 vote 40 acres and a mule

• General Sherman had an idea to split up land (40 acres) in south and give it to the freed slaves • Sherman also had extra mules that he would give to them as well Contract System

• Former slaves worked on farms and plantations picking cotton but getting paid for it Sharecropping

• Farmers rent land on credit • Landowner provided tools and seed • Landowner received some of the crops as payment • Problems: • Farmers bought supplies at inflated prices • Landowners only wanted to grow cash crops like cotton and not food • Most farmers had little or no land or cash of their own after paying the landowner Ku Klux Klan

• Formed in 1866 • Goal was to restore Democratic control of the gov’t and keep former slaves from any freedom or power • Klansmen went after anyone who supported the former slaves even if they were white • Led after the Civil War by Nathan Bedford Forrest 1868 Election

• US Grant elected president-Republican Party • Grant was supported by 500,000 former slaves who voted for him 15th amendment

• Passed in 1870 • Protected the voting rights of former slaves Grant goes war against KKK

• 1871, Congress passed an anti-Klan law • Thousands of Klansmen were imprisoned • Helped to weaken the Klan in the South Panic of 1873

• Banks all over US closed in fear of losing money, the stock market collapsed • Economic depression set in • By 1875, 18,000 companies closed and half million workers were unemployed Compromise of 1877

• Election of 1876 was very close and a deal was made to make Republican Rutherford B Hayes president in exchange for: • 1. removal of federal troops from South • 2. gov’t would give land grants and loans for railroad expansion in South and West • 3. southern officials would receive grants to rebuild the south • 4. Hayes had to appoint a Democrat to his cabinet • 5. Democrats promised to respect African American rights