Chapter 16- Reconstruction (1863-1877)

When the southern states passed the black codes, how did the U.S. Congress respond? (441-444)

Congress challenged Johnson's executive power; Republican senator Lyman Trumball declared the president's policy meant ex-slaves would "be tyrannized over, abused, and virtually re-enslaved without some legislation by the nation for his protection"; designed by affirming African American's rights to "full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property as is enjoyed by white citizens"

carpetbaggers (448)

Southerners' pejorative term for northern migrants who sought opportunity in the South after the Civil War; northern migrants formed an important part of the southern Republican party

To what extent did Lincoln's plan for reconstruction reflect the concerns of newly freed slaves? (435-439)

reconstruction plan had goal of shortening the war and ending slavery; "is willing that the negro should be free but seeks nothing else for him"

Why and how did the federal government retreat from defending African Americans' civil rights in the 1870s?

As part of a Compromise of 1877, Republican President Rutherford B. Hayes agreed with Southern Democrats to remove Federal troops from the southern states as a way to win the election; at the same time, many white Northerners were tired of wasting resources on protecting freed slaves in the South and felt that the Federal government should respect state rights.

Why was distributing plantation land to former slaves such a controversial policy? Why did Congress reject redistribution as a general policy?

Ex-slaves believed that they deserved a right to the plantation land because of the amount of time they worked without being compensated. President Johnson talked tough about punishing rebels but eventually returned plantation land to their southern owners; many racists believed blacks were inferior to white. Congress rejected redistribution as a general policy because many believed freedom was all that was owed to ex-slaves, not land.

After emancipation, how did ex-slaves exercise their new freedoms, and how did white Southerners attempt to limit them?

Ex-slaves found ways to educate their children, they searched for kin who had been sold away, established churches, and worked for wages; White Southerners adopted black codes, requiring them to pay high annual taxes, poor black children had to work for planter "guardians"

How did the identification of the Republican party with Reconstruction policy affects the party's political fortunes in the 1870s?

It gave rise to a species of voter known as "yellow dog Democrats." As in "I'd vote for a yellow dog if ran on the Democratic ticker." These conservative southern democrats came to dominate the party in the 20th century (except in the Roosevelt era) until Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, When it became clear the Democratic Party was serious about civil rights, the southerners abandoned the Democratic Party and found a happy home in the Republican Party.

In what ways did the attitudes and actions of President Johnson increase northern resolve to reconstruct the South and the South's resolve to resist reconstruction?

Johnson's policy: stressed reconciliation between the Union and Confederacy, including rapid restoration of civil government in the South, and the pardoning of most ex-rebels; differed from Lincoln in that he only required the states' citizens to renounce the right of succession, deny the legality of the Confederate war debts, and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment; delegate across south who gathered to draw up new state constitutions balked at the mild terms and thought they would shape reconstruction. Effect of the South: President's lack of sympathy for blacks led him to instruct military and government officials to return to pardoned ex-Confederates all confiscated and abandoned land, even if it was in the hands of freedmen; president's attitude toward rights of newly freed people led state governments across the south to adopt black codes to keep freedmen and women subordinate to whites. Effect on the North: in response to President Johnson's inaction on behalf of freed people, moderate Republicans produced two bills that strengthened federal protection for former slaves: Freedmen's Bureau bill (extended life of Freedmen's Bureau established by previous Congress), and Civil Rights Act of 1866 (nullified black codes).

How did politics and economic concerns shape the reconstruction in the South? (448-455)

Lincoln's plan was to offer full pardon, restoring property (except slaves) and political rights to most rebels who renounced succession and accepted emancipation 10% of a states' voting population had to take an oath of allegiance, organize a state government, then be readmitted into the Union slave labor was replaced by wage labor; ex-slaves signed contracts

White women, abolitionists, and blacks all had hopes for a brighter future that were in some ways dashed during the turmoil of reconstruction. What specific goals of these groups slipped away? What political allies abandoned their causes, and why?

Northerners: as nation slipped into economic depression (1873), northern racial prejudices led to a general abandonment of Reconstruction that was furthered by U.S. Supreme Court's weakening of the federal government's ability to protect black Southerners under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Blacks: by early 1870s, Republican party had lost its principal spokesmen for African American rights either to death or defeat at the polls; Supreme Court weakened federal government's ability to protect black Southerners under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments; Democrats polarized political parties around racial issues, exploited the severe economic plight of small white farmers, even turned to terrorism; Fifteenth Amendment did not guarantee that black men would not be disenfranchised by means other than racial discrimination. White women/abolitionists: frustrated that many abolitionists abandoned the demand for women suffrage in favor of securing the vote for black men, advocates of women's voting rights severed the early feminist movement from its abolitionist roots.

scalawag (448)

a derogatory term that Southerners applied to southern white Republicans, who were seen as traitors to the South; most were yeoman farmers

Why did northern support for reconstruction collapse? (456-461)

by a series of events; America went through a severe depression in 1873; 1000s of businesses filed for bankruptcy, widespread unemployment, slowdown in railroad and factory building (northerners more concerned about their well-being); Democrats became the majority party in the House of Representatives; Hayes removes remaining troops from the south in accordance with the Compromise of 1877 (Democrats would not block inauguration)

Military Reconstruction Act (446)

congressional act of March 1867 that initiated military rule of the South; congressional reconstruction divided the ten unreconstructed Confederate states into five military districts, each under the direction of a Union general; it also established the procedure by which unreconstructed states could reenter the Union

Fourteenth Amendment (444)

constitutional amendment passed in 1866 that made all native-born or naturalized persons U.S. citizens and prohibited states from abridging the rights of national citizens; the amendment hoped to provide guarantee of equality before the law for black citizens

Fifteenth Amendment (447)

constitutional amendment passed in February 1869 prohibiting states from depriving any citizen of the right to vote because of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude"; it extended black suffrage nationwide; women suffrage advocates were disappointed the amendment failed to extend voting rights to women

Freedman's Bureau (437)

government organization created in March 1865 to distribute food and clothing to destitute Southerners and to ease the transition of slaves to free persons; early efforts by the Freedman's Bureau to distribute land to the newly freed blacks were later overturned by President Johnson

Why did Congress impeach President Andrew Johnson? (444-447)

he sabotaged Congress's will and encouraged southern whites to resist; issued many pardons, waged war against Freedman's Bureau, replaced Union general eager to enforce Congress's Reconstruction Acts with conservative officers eager to defeat them; subverted congressional reconstruction to protect southern whites from horrors of "Negro" domination; removal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton despite Senate disapproval (open defiance of law = impeachable defense)

Compromise of 1877 (460)

informal agreement in which Democrats agreed not to block Hayes's inauguration and to deal fairly with freedmen, and Hayes vowed not to use the army to uphold the remaining Republican regimes in the South and to provide the South with substantial federal subsidies for railroads; Compromise brought the Reconstruction era to an end

sharecropping (451)

labor system that emerged in the South during reconstruction; under this system, planters divided their plantations into small farms that freedmen rented, paying with a share of each year's crop; gave blacks some freedom, but they remained dependent on white landlords and country merchants

black codes (441)

laws passed by state governments in the South in 1865 that sough to keep ex-slaves subordinate to whites; at the core of the black codes lay the desire to force freedom back to the plantations

Civil Rights Act of 1866 (444)

legislation passed by Congress in 1866 that nullified the black codes and affirmed that black Americans should have equal benefits of the law; this expansion of black rights and federal authority from President Johnson, which Congress later overrode

Redeemers (458)

name taken by southern Democrats who harnessed white rage in order to overthrow Republican role and black political power and thus, they believed, save southern civilization

Ku Klux Klan (448)

secret society that first thwarted black freedom after the Civil War as a paramilitary organization supporting Democrats; it was reborn in 1915 to fight against perceived threats posed by blacks, immigrants, radicals, feminists, Catholics, and Jews; the new Klan spread well beyond the South in the 1920s