Reconstruction: 1865-1877

• The chapter focuses on the Reconstruction era from 1865-1877.
• It addresses the pursuit of freedom by former slaves and slaveholders post-Civil War.
• It also looks at the sources, goals, and competing visions for Reconstruction, along with its social and political effects in the South.
• Finally, it considers the main factors in the North and South that led to the overthrow of Reconstruction.

The Beginning

• January 12, 1865: Black community leaders met with General Sherman and Secretary of War Stanton in Savannah, Georgia to discuss freedom.
• Garrison Frazier: A Baptist minister, who defined slavery as being subjected to another's labor by irresistible power, not consent while defining freedom as the ability to reap the benefits of one's own labor with land ownership.

Reconstruction

• It literally means "rebuilding the shattered nation."
• It involved redefining American freedom and citizenship for black Americans.
• Laws and the Constitution were rewritten to guarantee African-Americans recognition as citizens and equality before the law, for the first time in the nation's history.
• Black men were granted the right to vote, leading to interracial democracy in the South.
• Black schools, churches, and other institutions flourished, which laid the foundation for the modern African-American community.

Sherman's Response

• Special Field Order 15 was issued, which set aside land for black families as a result of Sherman's meeting
• It allocated forty-acre plots of land on the Sea Islands and along the South Carolina and Georgia coasts.
• The order also included broken-down mules for the families to use, and became know as the phrase "forty acres and a mule".
• By June, around 40,000 freed slaves settled on "Sherman land", which raised hopes for economic independence along with emancipation.

Defining Freedom

• Post Civil War, freedom becomes a central question.
• James A. Garfield questioned if freedom was merely "not being chained," or if it included equal civil rights, voting rights, and property ownership for former slaves.
• Freedom became a contested concept during Reconstruction.

Blacks and the Meaning of Freedom

• Black people's understanding of freedom was shaped by their experiences as slaves and observing free society.
• Freedom meant escaping the injustices of slavery such as lashings, family separation, lack of education, and sexual exploitation.
• It also meant having the same rights and opportunities as American citizens.
• Henry Adams said, "If I cannot do like a white man, I am not free”.

Demonstrating Freedom

• Blacks openly held mass meetings and religious services without white supervision.
• They acquired dogs, guns, and liquor which were previously prohibited.
• Former slaves left plantations to seek better jobs, family members, or simply to experience personal liberty.
• Many moved to Southern towns and cities seeking greater freedom.

Black Families

• Slavery was dead, and institutions like the black family, churches, schools, and secret slave churches were strengthened, expanded, and free from white supervision.
• Families were central to the post-emancipation black community, and former slaves sought to reunite with separated loved ones.
• Freedom altered family relationships as emancipation increased the power of black men and promoted separate "spheres" for men and women.
• Black women withdrew from field labor and domestic service, preferring to focus on their families.
• Men considered it honorable for their wives to remain at home however, poverty eventually forced many black women to work for wages.

Black Churches and Schools

• Blacks abandoned white-controlled religious institutions to establish their own churches.
• By the end of Reconstruction, independent black churches rose, particularly Methodists and Baptists redefining the religious landscape of the South.
• The church became a crucial independent institution for the black community which served as a place for worship, schools, social events, and political gatherings.
• Black ministers became important political figures with around 250 holding public office during Reconstruction.
• Desire for education grew, driven by the need to read the Bible, prepare for the economy, and participate in politics.
• Northern missionary societies, the Freedmen's Bureau, and groups of ex-slaves established schools, but education also took place outside the classroom.
• Reconstruction led to the creation of the nation's first black colleges, including Fisk University, Hampton Institute, and Howard University.

Political Freedom for African Americans

• Claiming the right to vote became central to former slaves' desire for empowerment and equality.
• Frederick Douglass stated that "Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot.".
• Free blacks and emancipated slaves demanded the right to vote through conventions, parades, and petition drives.

Southern Whites

• Most white southerners were dismayed by military defeat and emancipation.
• The loss of life affected southern families.
• Economic revival was slow and painful because work animals, farm buildings, and machinery had been destroyed en masse.

Post War

• Southern planters narrowly defined black freedom struggling to accept emancipation.
• Political hierarchy and mastery still remained.
• A Kentucky newspaper summarized the white Southern stance: the former slave was "free, but free only to labor.".

Free Labor Vision

• The victorious Republican North aimed to implement its own vision of freedom.
• The principle of free labor was strengthened by the Union's triumph as a definition of the good society.
• Emancipated blacks, with the same opportunities as northern workers, would labor more productively but the South would become like the North, complete with schools, small towns, and independent farmers.

Economic Autonomy

• Sherman sought economic autonomy for the freed population
• The goal was to provide land for self-sufficiency, but the actions were soon rolled back

The Freedmen's Bureau

• The Freedmen's Bureau, established by Congress in 1865, was directed by O.O. Howard that sought to establish a free labor system.
• The Bureau was responsible for establishing schools, aiding the poor, settling disputes, and securing equal treatment in courts, but its goal was difficult to fulfill.
• The Bureau coordinated and helped finance black education, with nearly 3,000 schools and over 150,000 pupils by 1869.
• It also managed hospitals and provided medical care to both black and white southerners.

Land Reform Falls Short

• The Bureau wanted fair wages, good working conditions, and advancement opportunities for all in efforts to promote free labor in the South.
• Blacks desired land ownership, but President Andrew Johnson ordered the return of confiscated land to its former owners in the summer of 1865.
• Blacks felt their condition had not improved from the days of slavery because they lacked land, with one committee declaring "this is not the condition of really free men.".
• Most rural freedpeople remained poor and landless, so Black men were confined to farm work, unskilled labor, and service jobs, while black women worked as cooks and maids.
• Land reform never happened, leaving a deep sense of betrayal, even through the next generations.

Creation of a New South

• New labor systems emerged, including the task system and wage labor, but sharecropping dominated over time.
• Sharecropping became a compromise- each black family rented part of a plantation with the crop being divided between worker and owner.
• Planters were guaranteed a stable, resident labor force, and former slaves could work without white supervision.
• However, their economic opportunities were severely limited by a declining world market for farm products.

The White Farmer Struggle

• The wartime devastation altered the lives of independent white yeomen.
• They started growing cotton and pledged a part of the crop as collateral, but due to high interest rates and falling cotton prices, many farmers remained in debt.
• Some white farmers who owned their land had fallen into dependency as sharecroppers.
• Both black and white farmers were caught in dependency systems.

The Urban South

• Southern cities grew even though the rural South stagnated.
• Railroads to market centres enabled merchants to trade directly with the North, leading to a new urban middle class that turned to Reconstruction politics.

Consequences

• Slavery, and Reconstruction brought changes to the lives of southerners, both black and white and the new world of landowners, tenant farmers, and entrepreneurs emerged
• Debates on land, control of labor, and political power occurred worldwide during the transition from slavery to freedom.
• Enslaved people wanted to carve out independence by withdrawing women and children and wanted to grow their own crops

Chinese

• Plantation were still operating and composed new labor force of indentured servants from India and China
• The US Federal Government opposed slavery, Chinese only tiny proportion of southern workforce.
• Only in the United States were former slaves granted the right to vote and political power two years after slavery.
• All of this was a result of the conflict between President Andrew Johnson and Congress over Reconstruction.

Unfit

• Johnson was, however, unsuited for this responsibility
• He was racist, intolerant and stubborn
• He felt black Americans had no role to play

Johnson's Reconstruction Plan

• Johnson in May 1865 outlined plan in Lincoln's absence.
• He issued a series of proclamations that began the period of Presidential Reconstruction (1865-1867)
• Johnson offered a pardon to white southerners that tool oath of allegiance to the Union
• He excluded Confederate leaders and wealthy planters, but later gave individual pardons
• Ordered a call of State convention elected by whites alone.

Johnson's Program

• Government should abolish slavery, repudiate secession and refuse to pay confederate debt - free hand in managing local affairs.
• New southern governments are largely returned to old elite- whites in power- alarming republicans
• Black Codes also came out

Black Codes

• Black codes were the laws that arose after Southern State governments were established. Some rights, such as marriage and property rights, were recognized but testifying, jury service, and militia service were not.
• Vagrancy was criminalized- people who failed to sign yearly contract agreements could be arrested
• Some states limited occupations available and acquiring land

Union Response

• Johnson’s policies were not out of malice, but lack of acceptance from Southern leaders
• Stewart spoke out on the man made free by US’ constitution

Radical Republicans

• Congress assembled in December 1865, Johnson announced that, with loyal governments functioning in all the southern states, the nation had been reunited. In response, Radical Republicans, who had grown increasingly disenchanted with Johnson during the summer and fall, called for the dissolution of these governments and the establishment of new ones with "rebels" excluded from power and black men guaranteed the right to vote. Radicals tended to represent constituencies in New England and the "burned-over" districts of the rural North that had been home to religious revivalism, abolitionism, and other reform movements. Although they differed on many issues, Radicals shared the conviction that Union victory created a golden opportunity to institutionalize the principle of equal rights for all, regardless of race.

Reconstruction

Federalism and rights of the state was abandoned. Traditions insisted should not object a massive effort to protect the rights of all. Authority by destroying slavery cannot permit pretentions or inequality

Thaddeus Stevens

• Stevens, a lawyer and iron facturer
• Most cherished aim was on taking land from the former slaves
• Whole fabric to reform Southern society

Lyman Trumbull

• The early part of the year 1886
• Said that Johnson Required modification.
• Congressman said that the Civil Rights Bill would be what the house needs now.

Rebuilding

• US citizens have rights without regard to race Equality

Johnson Vetoes the Civil Rights Bills

• Claims that all of this power would centralize the power in the government
• Vetoes and inability to compromise result in an almost divided Republican Party

The Fourteenth Amendment

• Congress proceeded its own plan. It put the principle of birthright citizenship in the constitution
• Federal gives rights to American to a power. Prevent States from abridging privileges or denying equal rights

Compromise and Equality

Did not give blacks right to vote. If a state denied the right to vote, its representation in congress got reduced. Southern leaders must give black men power and keep full rights, or limit it to Sacrifice its political power from that point forward. The amendment has produced tense division between Republicans .radicals want black suffering, all want legal right to all American citizens. Major changes to American history since then

Swing Tour

Made wild acts against congress due to reconstruction

Fourteenth Amendment

18:28, Congress adopted tenure office - not remove people in office without senate approval

Ulysses's Grant

Republicans nominated him and took the win. Called waving the bloody shirt. Black suffer, violates America's political traditions. Subject white women to unbridled lust