APUSH: Give Me Liberty Chapter 15 Notes (Reconstruction) (1865-1877)

How did the Reconstruction Amendments change the conception of freedom?

In pre-Civil war america, the federal government, particularly a large federal government with concentrated national power, was seen as the greatest threat to freedom. This is reflected in the Bill of Rights, which linked civil liberties to the autonomy of the states. Many of the pre-Reconstruction amendments are introduced with the phrase "Congress shall make no law," thus highlighting the notion that a concentrated national power posed the greatest threat to freedom. In post-Civil War America, however, the Reconstruction amendments assumed that rights required national power to enforce them. Rather than a threat to liberty, the federal government, in Charles Sumner's words, had become "the custodian of freedom."

The 8-7 Committee was blatantly unfair. How did Hayes secure election without an uprising from the Democrats in the South?

In what is know as the Bargain of 1877, Haye's representatives agreed to recognize Democratic control fo the entire South and to avoid further intervention in local affairs. They also pledged that Hayes would place a southerner in the cabinet position of postmaster general (David M. Key of Tennessee) and that he would work for federal aid to the Texas and Pacific railroad, a transcontinental line projected to follow a southern Route. For their part, Democrats promised not to dispute Haye's right to office and to respect the civil and political rights of blacks.

What was Sherman's Special Field Order 15?

Issued on January, 1865, this special order is where the phrase "40 Acres and a Mule" came from, because the order confiscated 400,000 acres of land along the Atlantic coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida and divided it into parcels of not more than 40 acres on which were to be settled approximately 18,000 formerly enslaved families. "The orders had little concrete effect because President Andrew Johnson issued a proclamation that returned the lands to southern owners who took a loyalty oath." As part of this order, Sherman also offered black families broken-down mules that the army could no longer use.

Besides this fact on card 82, what is another interesting fact about the 14th Amendment.

It introduced the notion of equality for the first time into the Constitution. The word "equality" does not exist in the original Constitution.

After the passing of the Civil Rights Bill, what did Congress proceed to do?

It proceeded to adopt its own plan of Reconstruction.

How did the Bargain of 1877 affect Reconstruction?

It was sort of like the final blow to Reconstruction, because now that Hayes had pledged to stop intervening in Southern local affairs, the Southern Democrats had much more freedom to infringe on the rights of African-Americans.

What did the 14th Amendment do?

It, "placed in the Constitution the principle of birthright citizenship, except for Native Americans subject to tribal authority, and empowered the federal government to protect the rights of all Americans." "The amendment prohibited the states from abridging the 'privileges or immunities' of citizens or denying any person of the 'equal protection of the laws.'

What was Johnson's view of the Tenure of Office Act, and how did he treat it?

Johnson considered the act an unconstitutional restriction of his authority. In February 1868, he dismissed Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, an ally of the Radicals. The House of Representatives responded by approving articles of impeachment--that is, it presented charges against Johnson to the Senate, which had to decide whether to remove him from office.

When was the Fourteenth Amendment passed through Congress?

June, 1866. It was ratified by the states two years later.

How many years after the end of slavery did the United Stages grant former slaves the right to vote?

Just two years. Few people anticipated this, and this was a result of the struggle between President Andrew Johnson and Congress over Reconstruction. "the struggle resulted in profound changes in the nature of citizenship, the structure of constitutional authority, in the meaning of American freedom."

What were Black Codes?

Laws passed from 1865 to 1866 in southern states to restrict the rights of former slaves; to nullify the codes, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment.

True or False ;Among former slaves, the passage of the Reconstruction Act inspired an outburst of political organization.

True

True or False: "Few groups of rebels in history have been treated more leniently than the defeated Confederates."

True

True or False: After the Civil War, many former slaves tried to find their family members who had been separated from them when they were sold to other plantations.

True

True or False: Almost all blacks during Reconstruction were Republican.

True

True or False: Former slaves ideas of freedom, like those of rural people throughout the world, were directly related to landownership.

True

True or False: It is important to remember that the Reconstruction amendments did not only prohibit against discriminating against blacks in the South. It prohibited against discriminating on race, whether that meant you were black, Irish, German, etc .

True

True or False: Johnson vetoed both of Trumbull's bills.

True

What was the result of the governments of Radical Reconstructoin?

"A complex pattern of disappointment and accomplishment." Although many strides had been made in granting equal access and rights to African-Americans, "a revitalized southern economy failed to materialize, and most African-Americans remained locked in poverty." Despite this, "a biracial democratic government, a thing unknown in American history, for the first time functioned effectively in many parts of the South."

What was the problem with race relations in the South as it related to land ownership?

"All that was required to harmonize race relations in the South was fair wages, good working conditions, and the opportunity to improve the laborer's situation in life." But, going back to the idea that landownership was a core tenet of freedom, "blacks wanted land of their own, not jobs on plantations."

Why was the Fifteenth Amendment significant?

"Although the Fifteenth Amendment left the door open to suffrage restrictions not explicitly based on race--literary tests, property qualifications, and poll taxes--and did not extend the right to vote to women, it marked the culmination of four decades of abolitionist agitation."

Give the glossary definition of impeachment.

"Bringing charges against a public official; for example, the House of Representatives can impeach a president for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors" by majority vote, and after the trial the Senate can remove the president by a vote of two-thirds.

How important was the 14th Amendment?

"By writing into the Constitution the principle that equality before the law regardless of race is a fundamental right of all American citizens, the amendment made the most important change in that document since the adoption of the Bill of Rights."

What was the view of Radical Republicans on feminists and supporters of women's suffrage.

"Even RAdical Republicans insisted that Reconstruction was the 'Negro's hour.'"

Describe the Urban South after the Civil War

"Even as the rural South stagnated economically, southern cities experienced remarkable growth after the Civil War." The growth and expansion of railroads contributed to this urban growth by allowing Southern merchants in cities to trade directly with the North, bypassing coastal cities that had traditionally monopolized southern commerce. A new Southern, urban middle class of mercants, railroad promoters, and bankers grew out of this in postwar South.

What did the Civil Rights Bill of 1866 do?

"It defined all persons born in the United States as citizens and spelled out rights they were to enjoy without regard to race. Equality before the law was central to the measure." This effectively overturned Black Codes. Free labor values were essential to this bill as well. The bill contained, in the words of Trumbull, the "fundamental rights belonging to every man as a free man." The bill made no mention of the right to vote for blacks. *These fundamental rights were along the lines of free labor views: the right to own property, the right to compete in the marketplace, hold a job, sign a contract, testify in court to protect your economic rights. In other words, the Civil Rights Bill was also an attempt to empower the former slaves to compete as equal participants in the economic marketplace. *The Civil Rights Bill overturned the Black Codes and stated that laws have to apply equally to black and white people. In other words, you can't have one set of laws for blacks and one set of laws for whites. You can't say that black people have to do this but white people don't have to. *"In constitutional terms, the Civil Rights Bill represented the first attempt to give concrete meaning to the Thirteenth amendment, which had abolished slavery to define in law the essence of freedom." *In summary, the Civil Rights Bill passed into law these basic principles: birth-right citizenship, and equal rights before the law for all citizens of the United States.

In summary, what was Johnson's view of Reconstruction

"Johnson basically felt that Reconstruction should be in the hands of white people. Blacks should just go back to work on the plantations and not seek to take part in the public sphere."

What were Johnson's political views?

"Johnson identified himself as teh champion of his states' honest yeomen' and a foe of the larger planters." He was alos a strong defender of the Union, and even after his state seceded, he still remained at his post in Washington, D.C. In 1864, Republicans nominated him for vice president as a symbol of the party's hope of extending its organization into the South. After all, Johnson was a Southern man, and his views were a bit more in line with those of Southern Democrats than Lincoln's.

Reason 3 for Overthrow of Reconstruction: What was the most fundamental and basic reason for opposition to Reconstruction?

"Most white southerners could not accept the idea of former slaves voting, holding office, and enjoying equality before the law." Opponents to Reconstruction, "launched a campaign of violence in an effort to end Republican rule."

In the words of Eric Foner (video), what was the overall goal of Reconstruction, and idd it suceed?

"Reconstruction did not succeed, at least certainly not in its broad aims. The aim was to create a functioning, interracial democracy in the South. Its aim was to entrench the notion of equal rights, equal civil rights, equal political rights for blacks in the society. It didn't work. Those rights were eventually taken away and for a long time they were violated. On the other hand, Reconstruction created a window of opportunity in which many forms of progress took place. Blacks were able to create their own institutions, churches, schools, and families. Many of them did acquire land eventually. Although another failure of Reconstruction was that the large majority of blacks were left in a status of economic poverty and dependence on whites. So Reconstruction lays the groundwork, you might say, for future struggle. You know, the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s is called, sometimes, the Second Reconstruction. It built upon the aspirations, the tactis, the legal doctrines of the first Reconstruction. But it took a full century for the country to again try to live up to those ideals."

What was the state of Reconstruction by the mid-1870s?

"Reconstruction was clearly on the defensive. Democrats had already regained control of states with substantial white voting majorities such as Tennessee, North Carolina, and texas."

What were the Radicals views on states rights and an expanded federal government?

"The Radicals fully embraced the expanded powers of the federal government born during the Civil War. Traditions of federalism and states' rights, they insisted, must not obstruct a sweeping national effort to protect the rights of all Americans."

Why were was the Republican North deeply unhappy with Presidential Reconstruction?

"The conduct of the southern governments elected under his [Reconstruction] program turned most of the Republican North against the president. By and large, white voters returned prominent Confederates and members of the old elites to power. [For example, Alexander Stephens, the former Confederate vice president, was elected U.S. senator from Georgia]. Reports of violence directed against former slaves and northern visitors in the South further alarmed Republicans."

Many moderate Republicans were pushed toward being Radicals during 1866 and 1867. Why si this?

"The intransigence of Johnson and the bulk of the white South."

Why was having black officeholders so important?

"The presence of black officeholders and their white allies made a real difference in southern life, ensuring that blacks accused of crimes would be tried before juries of their peers and enforcing fairness in such aspects of local government as road repair, tax assessment, and poor relief."

How did Congress respond to Johnson's vetoes?

"The vetoes made a breach between the president and nearly the entire Republican Party inevitable. Congress failed by a single vote to muster the 2/3 majority necessary to override the veto of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill (although later in 1866, it did extend the Bureau's life to 1870). But in April 1866, the Civil Rights Bill became the first major law in American history to be passed over a presidential veto.

What were some examples of the restrictions that the Black Codes place on African-Americans?

"These laws granted blacks certain rights, such as legalized marriage, ownership of property, and limited access to the courts. But they denied them the rights to testify against whites to serve on juries or in state militias, or to vote. And in response to planters' demands that the freedpeople be required to work on the plantations, the Black Codes declared that those who failed to sign yearly labor contracts could be arrested and hired out to white landowners. Some states limited the occupations open to blacks and barred them from acquiring land, and others provided that judges could assign black children to work for their former owners without the consent of parents." As can be seen from these slave codes, the death of slavery did not automatically mean the birth of freedom.

Why was the language of the 14th amendment broad?

"This broad language opened the door for future Congresses and the federal courts to breathe meaning into the guarantee of legal equality."

What was "waving the bloody shirt"?

"Waving the bloody shirt" and "bloody shirt campaign" were pejorative phrases, used during American election campaigns in the 19th century, to deride opposing politicians who made emotional calls to avenge the blood of soldiers that died in the Civil War. The phrases were most often used against Republicans, who were accused of using the memory of the Civil War to their political advantage. Democrats were not above using memories of the Civil War in such a manner as well, especially while campaigning in the South.

What things did the Reconstruction governments accomplish?

*First state-supported public schools in the South, which, although generally segregated by race, served both black and whit echidlren. *New civil rights legislation was passed which made it illegal for railroads, hotels, and other institutions to discriminate on teh basis of race. *Protected agricultural laborers and sharecropped by passing laws to ensure that agricultural laborers and sharecroppers had the first claim on harvested crops, rather than merchants to whom the landowner owed money. *South carolina created a staet Lnad Comission, which by 1876 had settled 14,000 black families and a few poor whites on farms of their own.

Give two reasons for why Andrew Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Bill.

1. He was deeply racist and did not approve of the principle of black equality. In securing the rights of African-Americans, Johnson said Congress was discriminating "against the white race." 2. He was a strong believer in states' rights, and he did not think Congress had a right to tell the states how to deal with individual citizens within the states. If a state wanted to discriminate between black and white citizens, that was up to them. It wasn't Congress' job to tell them how to do that.

What were the Reconstruction Amendments?

13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. In very condensed form, the 13th abolished slavery. The 14th established the principle of equal citizenship. The 15th prohibited the restriction of voting based on race.

What is the glossary definition of the Reconstruction Act?

1867 law that established temporary military governments in ten Confederate states--excepting Tennessee--and required that the states ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and permit freedmen to vote.

What was the Tenure of Office Act?

1867 law that required the president to obtain Senate approval to remove any official whose appointment had also required Senate approval; President Andrew Johnson's violation of the law by firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton led to Johnson's impeachment.

By what year had all the former Confederate states been admitted into the Union?

1870. By this time, nearly all the South was under Republican control.

What were the Radical Republicans?

A group within the Republican Party in the 1850s and 1860s that advocated strong resistance to the expansion of slavery, opposition to the compromise of the South in the secession crisis of 1860-1861, emancipation and arming of black soldiers during the Civil War, and equal civil and political rights for blacks during Reconstruction.

What was the task system?

A system of labor in the South where workers were assigned daily tasks and, when they had completed them, they were done with the responsibilities of that day. This type of system was prominent in the "rice kingdom" of South Carolina and Georgia.

When did the Klan die out?

After many attempts at subduing the Klan (In 1871, President Grant dispatched federal marshalls, backed up by troops in some areas, to arrest hundreds of accused Klansmen), the Klan went out of existence around 1872. Thus, in 1872, for the first time since before the Civil War, peace reigned in most of the former Confederacy. Note that the Klan would be revived again to combat the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

What common conviction did Radical Republicans (known as Radicals) share?

Although they did differ on many issues, they all were convicted that Union victory created a golden opportunity to institutionalize the principle of equal rights for all, regardless of race.

Why did freedmen also think that the right to vote was so important to freedom?

America is a democracy, and at the time of Emancipation, all white male citizens had the power to vote. In the United States, if you are denied the right to vote, you are stigmatized as being outside the boundary of freedom. This is not true in places where the right to vote is much more restricted for everybody, like where you have to own a significant amount of property to vote.

Who were the Liberal Republicans?

An influential group of Republicans who in 1872, alienated by corruption within the Grant administration and believing that the growth of federal power during and after the war needed to be curtailed, former their own party. This party included prominent politicians such as Lyman Trumbull (who had proposed the Civil Rights Bill). They nominated Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, for president.

How many African-Americans occupied public offices during Reconstruction?

Approximately 2,000. This represented a fundamental shift of power in the South and a radical departure in American government. Some were elected only to the local level, whereas others were Representatives and two (Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce) were even Senators. The majority of these were former slaves.

How did southern planters seek to define freedom?

As they struggled to accept the reality of emancipation, many, according to one source from 1865, "seem wholly unable to comprehend that freedom from the negro means the same thing as freedom for them. They readily admit that the government has made him [blacks] freed, but appear to believe that they have the right to exercise the same old control." To southern leaders, freedom still meant hierarchy and master; it was a privilege not a right, a carefully defined legal status rather than an open-ended entitlement. Many whites in the South thought that freedom, "implied neither economic autonomy nor civil and political equality."

Why did sharecropping give planters a stable labor force?

Because freedmen often had very little profit (the land owner took a good part, usually 1/3 to a 1/2 of the produced crop), these sharecroppers had very little economic or social mobility, and thus they really could not move around.

Why did freedmen in the South think land was so important to freedom?

Because in the agricultural context of the South, land meant independent and autonomy from white control. If emancipation had been situation in an industrial and urban context, this desire for land probably would not have been as prominent. Instead, one might have seen a desire for well-paying, respectable jobs.

Why did the women's rights organization split?

Because some feminists , such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, opposed the 15th Amendment because it did nothing to enfranchise women. Some denounced their former abolitionist allies and moved to sever the women's rights movement from its earlier moorings in the antislavery tradition. Additionally, they sometimes appealed to racial and ethnic prejudices, arguing that native-born white women deserved the vote more than non-whites and immigrants. On the other hand, other abolitionist feminists, like Abby Kelley and Lucy Stone, insisted that, despite their limitations, the Reconstruction amendments were a step in the right direction and should be supported. Divide: This debate resulted in a split in the movement and the creation in 1869 of two hostile women's rights organizations--the National Woman Suffrage Association, led by Stanton, and the American Woman Suffrage Association, with Lucy Stone as president. They would not reunite until 1890."

What was the motivation for violence in the Reconstructoin era?

Before 1867, violence had mostly been racially motivated, assaulting blacks for refusing to give way to whites on city sidewalks, etc. After 1867, however, the time when Radical Reconstruction started, "violence was far more pervasive and more directly motivated by politics. In wide areas of the South, secret societies sprang up with the aim of preventing blacks from voting nad destroying the organization of the Republican party by assassinating local leaders and public officials."

What was the period of Radical Reconstruction?

Beginning after Congress adopted the Reconstruction Act, this period lasted until 1877.

What was Andrew Johnson's background?

Born into poverty in North Carolina. As a youth, worked as a tailor's apprentice, but he later moved to Tennessee, where he achieved success through politics and rose from the local level to serving in the state legislature, Congress, and for two terms as governor of Tennessee.

Who were the two most prominent Radical Republicans in Congress?

Charles Sumner (the same guy who was caned in 1856 by Preston Brooks, a proslavery Democrat from South Carolina) , a senator from Massachusetts, and Thaddeus Stevens, a lawyer and iron manufacturer who represented Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives. Before the civil war, these two men had been outspoken critics of slavery and defenders of black rights.

What type of labor was predominant in southern Louisiana?

Closely supervised wage labor.

Where did the lboodiest act of violence during Reconstruction take place?

Colfax, Louisiana in 1873, where armed whites assaulted the town with a small cannon. Scores of former slaves were murdered, including fifty members of a black militia unit after they had surrendered.

How was this disputed election resolved?

Congress, which for some reason was unable to resolve the impasse on its own and decide the election results, Congress in January 1877 appointed a fifteen-member Electoral Commission, composed of senators, representatives, and Supreme Court justices. There was an 8-7 majority of Republicans over Democrats on this committee. Because of this, this committee decided by an 8-7 margin that Hayes had carried the disputed southern states and had been elected president.

What was the Fifteenth Amendment?

Constitutional amendment ratified in 1870 (though passed in February, 1869) which prohibited states from discriminating in voting privileges on the basis of race. This amendment was obviously bitterly opposed by Democrats.

What was crop lien?

Credit extended by merchants to tenants based on their future crops; under this system, high interest rates and the uncertainties of farming often led to inescapable debts.

What is the glossary definition of the Bargain of 1877?

Deal made by a Republican and Democratic special congressional commission to resolve the disputed presidential election of 1876; Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, who had lost the popular vote, was declared the winner in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from involvement in politics in the South, marking the end of Reconstruction.

What were the different view on the 14th Amendment?

Democrats were very opposed. Only 4 out of 175 Republicans in Congress were opposed. Radical Republicans, such as Thaddeus Stevens, expressed their disappointment that the amendment did not guarantee black suffrage, but they still voted for it.

What was the Freedmen's Bureau supposed to do?

Directed by O.O. Howard, it was supposed to, "establish schools, provide aid to the poor and aged, settle disputes between whites and blacks and among the freedpeople, and secure for former slaves and white Unionists equal treatment before the courts." This was an extremely daunting task, especially for 19th century America. Even Sherman expressed his doubt when he wrote to Sherman saying, "I fear you have Hercules' task." The Bureau lasted from 1865 to 1870 and, at its peak, it had under 1,000 agents in the entire South. The Bureau did achieve some improvement in some areas, notably in education and health care. Despite advancements in education and health care, "in economic relations, the Bureau's activities proved far more problematic."

What were the results of the crop lien system?

Due to very high interest rates, the falling price of cotton, and the unpredictability of farming, "many farmers found themselves still in debt after marketing their portion of the crop at year's end." Small farmers continued in this cycle of planting cotton to obtain new loans. Many farmers who had once been independent, yeoman farmers were forced to become sharecroppers.

What was the Reconstruction Act?

Enacted by Congress in March 1867, again over Johnson's veto, this act temporarily divided the South into five military districts and called for the creation of new state governments, with black men given the right to vote. These new state governments were designed to replace the racist governments with white interests that had been established under Presidential Reconstruction and which the Republicans so hated (see previous cards).

Who was Robert Smalls

Famous and celebrated black leader of Civil War-Reconstruction era, hijacked Confederate ship and surrendered it to the Union, later elected into U.S. Congress

Why was the "Free Labor Vision" of the North naturally antagonistic to the view of freedom in the South?

First of all, look at the Southern view of freedom on previous cards, and you can see why. Also, planters sought to establish a labor system as close to slavery as possible.

What were freedmen?

Former enslaved persons who were freed after the Civil War.

Name the similarities and differences between the white and black conceptions of freedom.

Former slaves' definition of freedom, in its individual elements, often resembled that of white Americans--self ownership, family stability, religious liberty, political participation, and economic autonomy. "But these elements combined to form a vision very much their own. For whites, freedom, no matter how defined, was a given, a birthright to be defended. For African-Americans, it was an open-ended process, a transformation of every aspect of their lives and of the society and culture that had sustained slavery in the first place."

What was the result of the Election fo 1872

Greely suffered a devastating defeat by Grant with a margin of more than 700,000 popular votes. Not only was African-American suffrage helping Republican political support in elections like the party had hoped, but voter turnout for Greeley had been bad, because, although Democratic leaders endorsed Greely as their candidate, many rank-and-file Democrats were unable to bring themselves to vote for Greeley. Greeley had spent much of his career denouncing the Democratic Party.

What was the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)?

Group organized in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866 to terrorize former slaves who voted and held political offices during Reconstruction; a revived organization in the 1910s and 1920s that stressed white, Anglo-Saxon, fundamental Protestant supremacy; revived a third time to fight the civil rights movement of the 1950s and the 1960s in the South. The Klan was a territorist organization. The Klan assaulted and intimidated both black and white Republican leaders.

What did Thaddeus Stevens want to do?

He desired to confiscate the land of disloyal planters and divide it among former slaves and northern migrants to the South. This plan to make "small independent landholders" out of former slaves proved to be even too radical for some of Stevens' Radical colleagues. Although Congress had offered free land to settlers in the West in the Homestead Act of 1862, this land had belonged to the government. "Most congressmen believed too deeply in the sanctity of property rights to be willing to take land from one group of owners and distribute it to the others." Stevens's proposal failed to pass.

Why was Johnson an unsuitable president for carrying out Reconstruction.

He was stubborn, intolerant of criticism, and unable to compromise. He lacked Lincoln's political skills and keen sense of public opinion. Johnson insisted that since secession was illegal, the southern states had never actually left the Union or surrendered the right to govern their own affairs. He was deeply racist. Johnson thought that African-Americans had no role to play in Reconstruction.

Give some examples of direct action that African-Americans during Reconstruction to "remedy long-standing grievances"

Hundreds took part in sit-ins that integrated horse-drawn public streetcars in cities across the South. Plantation workers organized strikes for higher wages. Speakers, male and female, fanned out across the South. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and James D. Lynch were two prominent African-American orators.

What was The Agitator?

Magazine used by activist women to push for reform of marriage laws, changes in inheritance laws, and giving women the right to vote. It was edited by Mary Livermore.

How did the results of the election of 1868 affect the motivation for passing of the Fifteenth Amendment.

Many Republicans found the margin of victory in the election of 1868 to be uncomfortably slim, and they wondered, "How much more political support would we get if black people could vote?" This was the drive for the Fifteenth Amendment, the third and final Reconstruction amendment to the Constitution.

How did the Civil War affect whites in the South?

Most obviously, they no longer had slaves. Additionally, nearly 260,000 men died for the Confederacy--more than one-fifth of the South's adult male white population. "The wholesale destruction of work animals, farm buildings, and machinery ensured that economic revival would be slow and painful."

Side Note: What was the Burlingame Treaty?

Negotiated by Anson Burlingame, This treaty with China was ratified in 1868. It encouraged Chinese immigration to the United States at a time when cheap labor was in demand for U.S. railroad construction. It doubled the annual influx of Chinese immigrants between 1868 and 1882. The treaty was reversed in 1882 by the Chinese Exclusion Act. This treaty reflected the "new spirit of racial inclusiveness"

Did the 14th Amendment explicitly grant suffrage to blacks?

No. Remember, the moderate Republicans were wary that black suffrage would be unsupported at that time.

Who were carpetbaggers?

Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War. Southerners used this derogatory name towards them, implying that the Northerners had packed all their belongings in a suitcase (carpetbag) and left their homes in order to reap the spoils of office in the South. "Some carpetbaggers were undoubtedly corrupt adventurers. The large majority, however, were former Union soldiers who decided to remain in the South when the war ended, before there was any prospect of going into politics."

How much of the white population participated in the Klan during Reconstruction.

Oftentimes, a fair amount of teh white population. For example, in York Country, south Carolina, where nearly the entire white male population joined the Klan (and women participated by sewing the robes and hoods Klansmen wore as disguises), the organization committed eleven murders and hundreds of whippings.

How was America's first black governor?

Pinckney B.S. Pinchback of Louisiana. He served briefly during the winter of 1872-1873.

How did the civil war affect planter families?

Planters lost their savings, which were invested into Confederate bonds, lost their slaves, and some actually had to put in their own physical labor to survive.

Redeemers

Post-Civil War Democratic leaders who supposedly saved the South from Yankee domination and preserved the primarily rural economy. Redeemers claimed to have, "'redeemed' the white South from corruption, misgovernment, and northern and black control."

What was the Freedmen's Bureau?

Reconstruction agency established in March, 1865 by Congress to protect the legal rights of former slaves and to assist with their education, jobs, health care, and landowning. It feel to this Bureau to attempt to establish a working free labor system, where freedmen might have economic autonomy and access to land. This meant, however, engaging in a conflict with plantation owners, who desperately wanted to hold on to their land.

Instead of land distribution, what did the Reconstruction governments attach their hopes for southern economic growth and opportunity for blacks and poor whites alike on?

Regional Economic development. The new, Republican state governments established railroads, which would aid the establishment of more factories, cities, and diversified agriculture. These railroads were financed by every Southern state, and northern manufacturers were also lured into investing in this railroad construction through tax reduction and other incentives. *This program had mixed resulsts. Economic development in general remained weak. Not many northern investors supported Reconstruction South, because there were abundant opportunities in the West.

Who was Lyman Trumbull?

Senator of Illinois who, in early 1866, proposed two bills, reflecting the moderates' belief that Johnson's policy required modification.

What were the Enforcement Acts

Since the new southern Republican governments were unable to suppress the Klan themselves, they appealed to the Washington for help. The Enforcement Acts were three laws passed in 1870 and 1871 that tried to eliminate the KKK by outlawing it and other such terrorist societies; the laws allowed the president to deploy the army for that purpose. These acts were another example of federal government being the "custodian of freedom"

Since, "virtually all Republicans considered Johnson a failure as president," why was he not convicted?

Some moderates disliked Benjamin F. Wade, a Radical who, as temporary president of the Senate, would become president if Johnson were removed. Others feared that conviction would damage the constitutional separation of powers between Congress and the executive. Additionally, Johnson's lawyers assured moderate Republicans that, if acquitted, he would stop interfering with Reconstruction policy.

By the eleciton of 1876, what Southern states remained under Republican control?

South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana.

Scalawags

Southern white Republicans--some former Unionists--who supported Reconstruction governments. Former Confederates considered these men, "traitors to their race and region."

What was the period of Presidential Reconstruction?

Starting in May 1865 and ending in 1867, this was Johnson's attempt at Reconstruction, and it was a failure. *Johnson offered a pardon (Which restored political and property rights, except for slaves) to nearly all white southerners who took an oath of allegiance to the Union. *He individually pardoned most Confederate leaders and wealthy planters. *Johnson also appointed provisional governors and ordered them to call state conventions, elected by whites alone, that would establish loyal governments in the South. These governments had a very free hand in managing local affairs.

United States v. Cruikshank

Supreme Court ruling of 1876 that overturned the convictions of some of those responsible for the Colfax Massacre, ruling that the Enforcement Act applied oterm-149nly to violations of black rights by states, not individuals

What were some derogatory stereotypes that white plantation owners shared towards freedmen?

That former slaves were, "supposedly lazy, were lacking in ambition, thought that freedom meant an absence of labor," and were mentally inferior.

What was the Republican North view of freedom?

The "Free Labor Vision." "In a the free labor vision of a reconstructed South, emancipated blacks, enjoying the same opportunities for advancement as northern workers, would labor more productively than they had as slaves." The Free Labor Vision entailed giving economic autonomy and access to land to blacks. The South would eventually resemble a "free society" just as the North, but it would take much struggle and effort.

What was the choice the 14th Amendment offered the South?

The 14th Amendment provided that if a state denied the vote to any group of men, that state's representation in Congress would be reduced. Also, the 14th Amendment threatened to increase southern political power, since now all blacks, not merely three-fifths as in the case of slaves, would be counted in determining a states's representation. Thus, the choice was, "allow black men to vote and keep their state's full representation in the House of Representatives, or limit the vote to whites and sacrifice part of their political power."

Review: What was the Sea Islands Experiment?

The 1861 pre-Reconstruction social experiment that involved converting slave plantations into places where former slaves could work for wages or own land. Former slaves also received education and access to improved shelter and food.

Where was sharecropping predominate?

The Cotton Belt and much of the Tobacco Belt of Virginia and North Carolina.

One of the reasons the Liberal Republican party was formed was because they felt "alienated by corruption within the Grant administration." What corruption exactly was occuring?

The Liberals', "claimed that corrupt politicians had come to power in the North by manipulating the votes of immigrants and working-men, while men of talent and education like themselves had been pushed aside."

What motivated the North's turn against Johnson's Presidential Reconstruction?

The North was not motivated by a desire to "punish" the white South, bur rather motivated by the inability of the South's political leaders to accept the reality of emancipation.

What occured in 1873 that also weakened northern support for Reconstruction?

The Panic of 1873 (Which triggered a several year economic depression known as the Long Depression). "Distracted by economic problems, Republicans were in no mood to devote further attention to the South. Additionally, the depression death the South a severe blow and further weakened the prospect that Republicans could revitalize the region's economy. As a result of this further lack of confidence in Republicans when it came to improving the South's economic situation, Democrats made substantial gains throughout the nation in the elections of 1874. After the election of 1874, the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, making the first time this occurred since the Civil War.

What was Northern response to the Black Codes?

The Republican North was outraged by them, and the Black Codes arguably aroused the most opposition to Johnson's Reconstruction policy. The Black Codes were in complete violation with free labor principles.

Who were the candidates of the Election of 1876?

The Republicans nominated Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio. The Democrats nominated Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York.

Reason 1 for Overthrow of Reconstruction: Who opposed the new, Republican state governments in the South?

The South's traditional leaders--planters, merchants, and Democratic politicians. "They denounced them as corrupt, inefficient, and examples of 'black supremacy.'" It is important to note that some corruption did exist in the new state governments of Reconstruction, but it was confined to no race, region or party.

What was the result of Johnson's impeachment trial?

The final tally in Senate was 35-19 to convict Johnson, one vote short of the two-thirds necessary to remove him. Seven Republicans joined the Democrats in voting to acquit the president.

What were Trumbull's two bills?

The first extended the life of the Freedmen's Bureau, which has originally been established for only one year. The second was the Civil Rights Bill of 1866, described below.

What was the Civil Rights Act of 1875?

The last piece of Reconstruction legislation (before the new, Democratic majority in the House of Representatives met) which outlawed racial discrimination in places of public accommodation such as hotels and theaters. Many parts of it were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1883.

Who well was the Bargain of 1877 adhered too?

The postmaster general part and the stopping of intervention in local Southern affairs was adhered too. "But the Texas and Pacific never did get its land grant. Of far more significance, the triumphant southern Democrats failed to live up to their pledge to recognize blacks as equal citizens."

What was Reconstruction?

The rebuilding of the United States after it had been shattered in the Civil War.

Because land redistribution failed (mostly because of Andrew Johnson opposing it), what happened in its stead?

The vast majority of rural freedpeople remained poor and without property during Reconstruction. "They had no alternative but to work on white-owned plantations, often for their former owners." They often worked in unskilled labor, men out in the fields and women as cooks and maids. Because their wages remained too low to allow for any accumulation, many freedmen had very little social and economic mobility, and they were unable to move to find jobs elsewhere or buy land to establish an independent farm. They were essentially stuck.

In the absence of slave labor, what did plantation owners attempt to do?

They attempted to bring in foreign labor from China. This did not work well, however, because the federal government opposed this, and thus the Chinese remained only a tiny proportion of the southern workforce.

What did whites in states such as Mississippi and South Carolina do in order to reinstate Democratic control of their states?

They intimidated African-Americans with acts of violence. Alos, on election day, "armed Democrats destroyed ballot boxes and drove former slaves from the polls." This resulted in the Democrats regaining control of the legislature nad governorship in 1875 in Mississippi and in 1876 in South Carolina. IN the words of one planter in South Carolina in 1876, Democrats intended to carry the election, even "if we have to wade in blood knee-deep."

What happened to religious life under freed African-Americans?

They often left white-controlled religious institutions to create churches of their own. "On the eve of the Civil War, 42,000 black Methodists worshiped in biracial South Carolina churches; by the end of Reconstruction, only 600 remained." The church would come to play a central role in the black community, housing worship, schools, social events, and political gatherings.

What was the opinion of freed blacks about education during Reconstruction?

They really desired education. This embodied the, "question for individual and community improvement." Many thought that "education was the next best thing to liberty." Why blacks wanted education: "Many reasons--a desire to read the Bible, the need to prepare for the economic marketplace, and the opportunity, which arose in 1867, to take part in politics." Black schools were established by northern missionary societies, the Freedmen's Bureau, and groups of ex-slaves. Blacks of all ages went to these schools.

How did advocates of women's rights respond to Reconstruction?

They saw Reconstruction as the moment to claim suffrage for themselves as well.

From what areas did Radical Republicans tend to come from?

They 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.

What were the results of the Election of 1876.

They were very close. There were a lot of disputed votes in south Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana (The states still under Republican control). Remember, Democrats had been destroying ballot boxes and forcing blacks out from polls.

Reason 2 for Overthrow of Reconstruction: True or False: Many poor whites who had initially supported the Republican Party turned against it when it became clear that their economic situation was not improving.

True

True or False: Radical Republicans, such as Thaddeus Stevens, died in the late 1860s or early 1870s, and they were replaced by politicians, who, although still Republican, were less committed to the ideal of equal rights of blacks.

True

True or False: Republicans, both Moderates and Radicals, joined in refusing to seat the southerners recently elected to Congress.

True

True or False: The Reconstruction Amendments forged a new constitutional relationship between individual Americans and the national government and created a new definition of citizenship.

True

True or False: The Reconstruction amendments transformed the Constitution from a document primarily concerned with federal-state relations and the rights of property into a vehicle through which members of vulnerable minorities could take a claim to freedom and seek protection against misconduct by all levels of government.

True

True or False: The changes created by these three amendments has led this period of Radical Reconstruction to be called the second founding of America.

True

True or False: The failure of land reform produced a deep sense of betrayal that survived among the former slaves and their descendants long after Reconstruction.

True

True or False: The first black colleges were created during Reconstruction, such as Fisk University, Hampton Institute, and Howard University.

True

True or False: Democratic criticism of Reconstruciton found a receptive audience among the Liberal Republicans.

True. "As in the North, they became convinced, the "best men" of the South had been excluded from power while "ignorant" voters controlled politics, producing corruption and misgovernment."

True or False: There was another revival of violence in in 1875 and 1876 in states where Reconstruciton governments still survived.

True. "In contrast to the Klan's activities--conducted at night by disguised men--the violence of 1875 and 1876 took place in broad daylight, as if to underscore Democrats' conviction that they had nothing to fear from Washington. In Mississippi, in 1875, white rifle clubs drilled in public and openly assaulted and murdered Republicans." Unlike before, the Grant administration showed no desire to intervene.

True or False: Because they wanted to attract women to the territory, Wyoming's small legislature extended the right to vote to women.

True. "Wyoming entered the Union in 1890, becoming the first state since New Jersey in the late eighteenth century to allow women to vote. "

True or False: The black family, free blacks' churches and schools, and the secret slave church, were strengthened and expanded after the civil war.

True. After the Civil War, there was no longer white supervision of these meetings, which signiifcantly liberated how these meetings operated.

True or False: "In place of the prewar world of master, slave, and self-sufficient yeoman, the postwar South was peopled by new social classes--landowning employers, black and white sharecroppers, cotton-producing white farmers, wage-earning black laborers, adn urban entrepreneurs."

True. Each of these groups turned to Reconstruction politics in an attempt to share to its own advantage the aftermath of emancipation.

True or False: Both back and white farmers found themselves caught in the sharecropping and crop-lien systems.

True. Every census from 1880 to 1940 counted more white than black sharecroppers. The effects of the sharecropping and crop lien systems can be seen in the fact that many farmers died in debt to merchants.

True or False: The Liberal attack on Reconstruction, which continued after 1872, contributed to a resurgence of racism in the North.

True. For instance, Journalist James S. Pike published in 1874 The Prostrate State, which was a very racist depiction of his visit of South Carolina. Pike stated that the South's problems arose from "Negro government" and "a mass of black barbarism." This revival of racism in the North, particularly in the press, against blacks holding government positions led to weakend northern support for Reconstruction

True or False: Freedmen also very much desired the power to vote.

True. Frederick Douglas said soon after the South's surrender in 1865 that, "Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot." Freedmen often formed conventions, parades, and petition drives to demand the right to vote.

True or False: After the Civil War, family dynamics were altered to some extent. Instead of working out in the fields, many black women made an effort to remain at home, thus fulfilling the 19th-century notion that men and women should inhabit separated "spheres."

True. However, "eventually the dire poverty of the black community would compel a far higher proportion of black women than white women to go to work for wages."

True or False: The Bureau had the power to divide abandoned and confiscated land into forty-acre plots for rental and eventual sale to the former slaves. If true, what happened with this?

True. In the summer of 1865, however, President Andrew Johnson (VP who had succeeded Lincoln), "ordered nearly all land in federal hands returned to its former owners." Conflicts resulted from this, notably South Carolina and Georgia, where the army forcibly evicted blacks who had settled on "Sherman land." To freedmen, land was essential to the meaning of freedom.

True or False: Reconstruction redrew the boundaries of American freedom.

True. It is important to note, however, that htese lines were only redrawn, not eliminated. Although African-Americans gained significantly more rights as a result of Reconstruction, Asians immigrants could not even become citizens well into the 20th century. Because of the 14th Amendment, however, their children automatically did.

True or False: Many freedmen moved to southern towns and cities.

True. It was seemed that "freedom was free-er" in towns and cities rather than in the rural countryside where they had spent years as slaves.

True ro False: Northerners increasingly felt that the South should be able to solve its own problems without constant interference from Washington

True. Northerners thought that, now that blacks were free from slavery, had the right to vote and many other rights, that they would be able to rely on their own resources, not demand further assistance.

True or False: In order to be truly free, freed slaves needed to have economic independence.

True. Often this economic independence was in the form of land. Unfortunately, Johnson did not make much of an effort to give land to freed slaves (instead letting the plantation owners keep it) and this would be one of the disasters of Reconstruction.

True or False: Most Republicans were moderates, not Radicals.

True. Radicals wanted a totally new type of REconstructions, whereas Moderates believed that Johnson's plan was flawed, but they desired to work with the president to modify it. Moderate Republicans were also initially wary about extending suffrage to blacks.

True or False: Many of the advances of Reconstruction would prove temporary, swept away during a campaign of violence in the South and the North's retreat from the ideal of equality.

True. Reconstruction, however, was very important in establishing basic rights for African Americans that could be expanded upon later.

True or False: Before the Civil Rights Bill fo 1866, being born in the United States did not guarantee citizenship.

True. Remember, in the case of the Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court decided that no black person could be a citizen, even if they were born in the U.S. and even if they were free. Before this bill, citizenship was just for white people.

True or False: Many former slaves insisted that, through their unpaid labor, they had acquired a right to the land they had farmed without wages as a slave.

True. Some slaves in 1865 even seized property, insisting that it belonged to them.

True or False: Although the Reconstruction amendments prohibited discrimination based on race, they did not prohibit discrimination based on gender.

True. The 14th Amendment, in fact, introduced the word "male" into the Constitution. The 15th Amendment outlawed discrimination in voting based on race but not gender .

True or False: That the United States was a "white man's government" had been a widespread belief before the Civil War.

True. The Reconstruction amendments changed this.

True or False: When women tried to use the rewritten legal code and Constitution to claim equal rights in the courts, they found the courts unreceptive.

True. The idea of women inhabiting a separate sphere than men was still prominent.

True or False: After the Civil War, African-Americans had much more freedom of movement.

True. They could move around without a pass, and they were not confined on a plantation. However, as black-codes were passed and blacks found themselves in poverty because of failed Reconstruction efforts that had not given them land or resources with which to start a new life, many simply could not move because they were economically tied to a certain job and did not have the funds to look elsewhere for a better job or buy a parcel of land with which to start a farm.

True or False: By 1870, nearly all of the South was under Republican Control (New Southern State Constitutions).

True. This shaped policy in various ways. For instance, the new state constitutions for the Southern states, drafted in 1868 and 1869 by the first public bodies in American history with substantial black representation, marked a considerable improvement over those they replaced. The state constitutions also, "established the region's first state funded systems of free public education and created new penitentiaries, orphan asylums, and homes for the insane." The new constitutions, "guaranteed equality fo civil and political rights and abolished practices of the antebellum era such as whipping as a punishment for crime, property qualifications for officeholding, and imprisonment for debt."

True or False: Freedmen felt that ownership of land, or 40 acres and a mule in the phrase of the day, was essential to guaranteeing their substantive freedom in the aftermath of slavery.

True. Unfortunately, many freedmen were left without any land.

What was sharecropping?

Type of farm tenancy that developed after the Civil War in which landless workers--often former slaves--farmed land in exchange for farm supplies and a share of the crop. This system of labor initially arose as a compromise between blacks' desire for land and planters' demand for labor discipline. Sharecropping became more and more oppressive over time. Initially, most sharecroppers were black, but soon, a fair amount of sharecroppers were white, and by the 1920's, the majority of sharecroppers were white.

Describe the Election of 1868

Ulysses S. Grant, the Union's most prominent military hero, was the Republican candidate. The Democratic candidate was Horatio Seymour, the former governor of New York. Reconstruction was the central issue of this presidential campaign. Horatio Seymour and the Democrats denounced Reconstruction as unconstitutional and condemned black suffrage as a violation of America's political traditions. They appealed openly to racism. Grant won the election of 1969 by a small margin (only by 300,000 of the 6 million votes cast)

How did the Civil War affect the small, white farmer.

Wartime devastation "permanently altered the independent way of life of white yemon, leading to what they considered a loss of freedom." Before Civil War: Yeoman farmers grew food to feed their families and very little cash crops (cotton, tobacco, rice, etc.). After War: Much of their property was destroyed, and there were many crop failures after the war. Farmers, in order to obtain supplies from merchants, were eventually forced to, "take up the growing of cotton and pledge a part of the crop as collateral (property the creditor can seize if a debt is not paid)." This system became known as the crop lien system (see official definition and results below)

What was the problem/question around freedom after the Civil War?

Was freedom just the absence of slavery, or was it more? Did freedom imply other rights, such as equal civil rights, the vote, ownership of property? The debate around the nature of freedom became central to Reconstruction in the South.

What is interesting about the 14th Amendment when compared to previous amendments?

Whereas other amendments in the Bill of Rights were directed at the federal government and making sure the federal government did not step out of bounds, the 14th Amendment was directed at the states. Under this amendment, the states had to recognize the equality before the law of all citizens, what is called equal protection of the law, and due process of law. And states cannot deprive any individual of life, liberty, or property. Other Amendments restricted Congress. the 14th Amendment empowered Congress to oversee and override measures of the state governments that interfered with the basic equal rights of American citizens. Thus, the 14th Amendment marked a fundamental shift in the federal system. It made the national government the protector of the basic rights of citizens, not the state governments.