chapter 15 reading guide AZUSH

How did Ulysses S. Grant's political accomplishments compare with his military ability

Grant had no political experience and his performance was clumsy and ineffectual from the start. His Secretary of State was the only good member of his cabinet because most were ill equipped for their tasks.

How did the policies of the "Redeemer" governments compare with those of the Reconstruction-era administrations

The Redeemer regimes were even more awash in waste and fraud. All new Democratic regimes lowered taxes, reduced spending and drastically diminished state services-including many of the most important accomplishments of Reconstruction. One state after another reduced support for public school systems.

Describe the composition of the industrial work force in the South. What was life in a mill town like

A high percentage of factory workers were women because the war destroyed the male populous. Factories also hired entire families, many of whom were moving into towns from failed farms. Workdays were often 12 hours and wages were at much lower than the northern wages, almost ½. Managers of the factories rigorously suppressed attempts at protest or union organization. Company stores sold goods to worker at inflated prices and issued credit at exorbitant rates. These conditions, at the time, created a strong sense of community and solidarity among workers. In textile industries, there were no opportunities for blacks and in tobacco, iron and lumber factories, if they employed them, they would do the most menial and lowest-paid positions. Also some workers were basically free because they were convicted criminals.

What special problems did the freedmen face immediately after the war?What efforts were made to help them

A lot of them had nowhere to go. Almost none of them owned any land or property and the only possessions they had were the clothes they wore. They differed with each other on freedom. Some wanted a redistribution of land because they worked on the land before, not the master. All of them wanted to get away from white control so they created their own black communities. The federal government kept troops in the South after the war to preserve order and protect the freedmen. The Freedmen's Bureau distributed food to millions of former slaves. It established schools staffed by missionaries and teachers who had been sent to the South y the Freemen's Aid Societies. It made efforts to settle blacks on lands of their own. The Bureau initially only had one year to operate which was not enough time.

Describe the rise of the black middle-class

Although inferior to the white middle-class, it was still an elevation in society. They were slaves or their offspring who managed to acquire property, build small businesses or enter professions. Most middle-class blacks were doctors, lawyers, nurses or teachers serving African American communities. Education was the vital to the future of their people and with the help of northern missionary societies, they expanded the network of black colleges and institutes.

Why did Northern Republicans begin to take less interest in Reconstruction and the cause of the freedmen after about 1870

As early as the 15th amendment, some northern reformers convinced themselves that their long campaign on behalf of black people was now over-that with the vote, African Americans ought to be able to take care of themselves. The Panic of 1873 lowered support for Reconstruction. "Social Darwinism" was created and it further weakened commitment to the Reconstruction program. State and local governments also found themselves short on funds and rushed to cut back on social services which meant the end of almost all services to the former slaves in the South.

What were the differences among the conservative, radical, and moderate factions of the Republican Party during Reconstruction

Conservatives insisted that the South accept the abolition of slavery, but nothing else. Radicals urged that the civil and military leaders of the Confederacy be punished, that large numbers of Southern whites be disenfranchised, that legal rights to former slaves be protected and that the property of wealthy white Southerners who had aided the Confederacy to be confiscated and distributed among the freedmen. Moderates rejected the punitive goals of the Radicals but supported the extracting at least some concession form the South on African American rights.

People in what financial condition were most likely to favor expansion of the currency supply with greenbacks?What sparked interest in greenbacks

Debtors pressured the government to redeem federal war bonds with greenbacks which would increase the amount of money in circulation. They wanted the money to expand and that couldn't happen when the gold-based money supply could not expand easily.

What changes in Southern education began to emerge during Reconstruction?Who pushed for these changes

Education was becoming reformed and better, mainly from outside groups-from the Freedmen's Bureau, from Northern private philanthropic organizations, form many Northern women, black and white, who traveled the South to teach in freedmen's schools and form black Southerners themselves. There were large networks of schools for former slaves. And improved schooling efforts were launched in the 1870s. By 1876, more than half of all the white children and about 40% if all black children were attending schools in the South. There were also prominent black colleges starting to appear. However, there was already segregation in the schools because efforts to integrate schools were a dismal failure.

How did the typical agricultural credit systems in the postwar South affect farmers—especially poor ones

Few traditional institutions of credit in the South (mainly banks) returned after the war. A new system of credit emerged centered around local country stores, owned by planters or independent merchants. Blacks and whites, landowners and tenants-all depended on these stores for such necessities as food, clothing, seed and farm implements. And since farmers did not have the same steady cash flow as other works, customers usually had to rely on credit from these merchants in order to purchase what they needed. Most local stores had no competition, so they were able to set interest rates as high as 50% or 60%. Farmers had to give their merchants a claim on their crops as collateral for the loans. Farmers who suffered a few bad years in a row could become trapped in a cycle of debt which they could never escape. Bad effects: some former slaves who had acquired land lost it and some whites did as well; southern farmers became almost wholly dependent on cotton because only such marketable commodities seemed to offer any possibility of escape from debt.

How did freedom affect black family life

Former slaves rushed to have marriages and black families resisted living in the former slave's quarters and moved instead to small cabins scattered widely across the countryside. In black families, women ceased working in the fields and instead many women restricted themselves to tasks like cooking, cleaning, gardening, sewing, raising children and attending to the needs of their husbands. Some black husbands refused to allow their wives to work as servants in white's homes, when they needed to in order to make money.

What was President Rutherford B. Hayes's objective in the South?Did he succeed

He wanted to withdraw federal troops and let white Democrats take over the state governments. He wanted to build up a new Republican organization in the South drawn from Whiggish conservative white groups and committed to some modest acceptance of African American rights. But all such efforts fail

In what particular products was industrialization in the South most advanced?What factors attracted industrial capital to the region after the war

Industry found its way into the South through leaders that saw the promise in it and some Northern entrepreneurs came down to start industry, mainly because of the abundance of water power, the ready supply of cheap labor, the low taxes and the accommodating conservative governments. There were major advancements in textile manufacturing, tobacco-processing industry, iron and steel industry and railroad development.

What were the key provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment?What happened to it in 1866

It declared what a citizen of the United States was: everyone born in the United States and everyone naturalized was automatically a citizen and had full rights in both state and national governments. There could be no other requirements for citizenship. The amendment also penalized states that denied suffrage to any adult male inhabitants. It also prohibited former members of Congress or other former federal officials who had aided the Confederacy from holding any state or federal office unless two-thirds of Congress voted to pardon them. In the elections of 1866, the Senate became 42 Republicans to 11 Democrats; in the House, 143 Republicans to 49 Democrats and most Republicans were radicals and the South was hardly represented in Congress.

Why was the presidential election of 1876 disputed?How was the controversy resolved by the "Compromise of 1877"

It was Hayes vs. Tilden. It was disputed because Tilden was winning, but then disputed returns from Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida and Oregon, whose total electoral vote was 20, threw the election in doubt. Tilden was one short of the majority, but Hayes could still win if he got all 20. Since the Constitution had no way to determine the validity of dispute returns, it went to Congress (Republicans in the Senate and Democrats in the House) and it was divided there as to whether the Senate or House should take care of it. The Compromise of 1877, if Hayes got elected: The troops in the South would been withdrawn, the appointment of at least one Southerner to the Hayes cabinet, control of federal patronage in their areas, generous internal improvements, and federal aid for the Texas and Pacific Railroad.

Describe Andrew Johnson's approach to Reconstruction. How did his political background and his personality shape it

Johnson was an intemperate and tactless man, filled with resentments and insecurities. He was also openly hostile to the freed slaves and unwilling to support any plans that guaranteed them civil equality of enfranchisement. Like Lincoln, he offered amnesty to those Southerners who would take an oath of allegiance. Johnson's plan was mainly like the Wade-Davis Bill. Although he helped white southerners to return to their land, he did little in support of the former slaves. Although the freedmen had been given their liberty, holding on to it proved difficult and many freedmen who returned to work for white planters found themselves almost like slaves again and Johnson offered no help. Radical Republicans vowed not to recognize the Johnson governments.

What were the objectives and provisions of Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction?How did the Radical Republicans respond to it

Lincoln favored the Moderates and Conservatives. He believed that a lenient Reconstruction policy would encourage Southern unionists and other former Whigs to join the Republican Party and would thus prevent the readmission of the South from strengthening the Democrats. More immediately, the Southern unionists could become the nucleus of new, loyal state governments in the South. His 10% Plan was that other than high officials of the Confederacy those that accepted the elimination of slavery and loyalty to the government, would be cared for. Whenever 10% of the number of voters in 1860 took the oath in any state, those loyal voters could set up a state government. Lincoln also wanted to extend suffrage to African Americans who were educated, owned property, and had served in the Union army. Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee reestablished loyal governments. The radicals were astonished and persuaded Congress to deny seats to representatives from the 3 reconstructed states and refused to count the electoral vote of those states in the election of 1864. They then passed the Wade-Davis Bill (See Wade-Davis Bill).

Compare white and black expectations for Reconstruction with the actual results. Why were most black hopes dashed?What black gains were actually made

Reconstruction was largely a failure because in those years, the United States abandoned its first serious effort to resolve the nation's oldest and deepest social problem-race. It didn't achieve as much because of the people who directed it, as well attempts to produce solutions ran up against conservative obstacles so deeply embedded in the nation's life that they could not be dislodged. The African Americans did get 2 amendments that would mainly help them in the future.

What three groups constituted the Republican Party in the South during Reconstruction

Scalawags, Carpetbaggers and Freedmen.

What episodes led to the Liberal Republican break over "Grantism" and later to the second-term scandals

Some Republicans suspected that there was also corruption in the Grant administration itself. They thought this because he used the spoils system even more blatantly than most of its predecessors; alienated the many Northerners who were growing disillusioned with Radical Reconstruction policies, which the president continued to support. By the end of his first term the Liberal Republicans opposed his administration. The scandals in his second term had to do with the Credit Mobilier construction company which had helped build the Union Pacific Railroad. The heads of the company had used their positions as Union Pacific stockholders to steer large fraudulent contracts to their construction company, thus bilking the Union Pacific of millions. To prevent investigations, the directors had given their stock to key members of Congress. Congress then launched an investigation later which revealed that some highly placed Republicans had accepted some of the stock. Also Grant's third Treasury had discovered that some of his officials had a group of distillers cheating the government out of taxes by filing false reports. Also, the Secretary of War had accepted bribes to retain an Indian-post trader in office.

Explain the basic provisions of the congressional plan of Reconstruction of 1867 and tell how it was implemented. What were the implications of waiting so long after the war to get a comprehensive plan in place

Tennessee was readmitted. Congress divided the Lincoln-Johnson governments into 5 military districts. A military commander governed each district and had orders to register qualified voters (all adult lack males and those white males who had not participated in the rebellion. Once registered, voters would elect conventions to prepare new state constitutions which had to include provisions for black suffrage. Once the constitutions were ratified, they could elect state governments. Congress had to approve a state's constitution and the state legislature had to ratify the 14th amendment. Once that happened, and once enough states ratified the amendment to make it part of the Constitution, then the former Confederate states could be restored to the Union. Congress later added the requirement of ratifying the 15th amendment which forbade the states and the federal government to deny suffrage to any citizen on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

Describe the Black Codes and the congressional reaction to them. How did President Johnson respond to Congress

The Codes gave whites substantial control over former slaves. The codes authorized local officials to apprehend unemployed African Americans, fine them for vagrancy and hire them out to private employers to satisfy the fine. Some codes forbade slaves to own or lease farms or to take any jobs other than as plantation workers or domestic servants. Congress had two bills: one to extend the life of the Freedmen's Bureau and the first Civil Rights Acts, which declared African Americans to be citizens of the United States. Johnson vetoed both bills, but Congress overrode him on each.

What changes in land ownership occurred in the South after the Civil War?What pattern of land occupancy characterized most blacks in the postwar South

The Freedmen's Bureau tried to increase landownerships for blacks, but came nowhere near their goals. They did oversee the redistribution of substantial amounts of land to freedmen in a few areas. By 1865, the Bureau had settled nearly 10,000 black families on their own land. By the end of that year, the experiment started to collapse. Southern plantation owners were returning and demanding their land back and Johnson was supporting them. Among whites in the south there as a decline in landownership from 80% to 67% and for blacks it went from almost 0% to 20%. A lot of blacks and a growing amount of whites had no land and these people worked for others in one form or another. Many African American agricultural laborers simply worked for wages. Most, however, became tenants of white landowners-working their own plots of land and paying their landlords either a fixed rent or a share of their crop.

How do the facts of political life in the Reconstruction states compare to the oft-stated white charges of corruption, black domination, and misrule

The South claimed there was negro rule, when there really was no such thing. No black man was ever elected governor of a Southern state and African Americans never controlled any of the state legislatures. In the South, the percentage of black officeholders was far lower than the percentage of blacks in the population. There was corruption when officeholders in many states enriched themselves through graft and other illicit activities and state debt soared. The corruption in the South, however, was hardly unique to Reconstruction and it was as rampant in the Northern states because of a rapid economic expansion of government services

What economic advances did the freedmen make?How did the economic status of blacks compare with that of the average white Southerner

The per capita income of Southern blacks rose 46% between 1857 and 1879 and the per capita income of Southern whites declined 35%. While the black share of profits was increasing, the total profits of Southern agriculture were declining. While African Americans were earning greater return on each hour of labor than they had under slavery, they were working fewer hours.

What political implications did the readmission of the Southern states pose for the political parties, especially the Republicans

The previous Republican victories were because of the division in the Democratic party and later the removal of the South from Congress. Both parties' leaders believed that readmitting the South would reunite the Democrats and weaken the Republicans and it would also put the nationalistic economic legislation passed in jeopardy.

Describe the typical pattern of Southern agriculture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. What problems confronted most farmers?What groups were most notably affected

The region was still largely agrarian and still relied on a few cash crops. During Reconstruction 1/3 or more of the framers in the South were tenants; by 1900, the figure rose to 70%. The crop-lien system was the main reason why and it was because farmers borrowed money against their future crops and often fell deeper and deeper into debt. Blacks and most whites had no money and had to pay their landlords in their annual crop (sharecropping). They would be provided with land, a crude house, a few tools, seed and sometimes a mule and by the end of the year, they would have almost nothing to sell on their own.

What were the typical socioeconomic and political characteristics of the "Redeemers" (Bourbons)

There were a few places where the older planter elite retained much of its former power and continued largely to dominate the state for decades. In most areas, however, the Redeemers were merchants, industrialists, railroad developers and financiers. Some were former planters, some were northern immigrants, some were ambitious, upwardly mobile white southern from the region's lower social tiers.

What measures did the Radical Republicans take to keep President Johnson and the Supreme Court from interfering with their plans?What ultimately happened to Johnson's influence

They passed the Tenure of Office Act which forbade the president to remove civil officials, without the consent of the Senate. This was to protect Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who was cooperating with the Radicals. The Command of the Army Act, prohibited the president from issuing military orders except through the commanding general of the army, who could not be relieved or assigned elsewhere without the consent of the Senate. After Ex parte Milligan, Radicals in Congress proposed several bills that would require 2/3 f the justices to support any decision overruling a law of Congress, would deny the Court jurisdiction in Reconstruction cases, would reduce its membership to three and would even abolish it. The Court did not accept jurisdiction in any cases involving Reconstruction for the next 2 years even though the bills were never passed. At this point Johnson had long since ceased to be a serious obstacle to the passage of Radical legislation, but he was impeached and tried anyway, but was not removed from office.

What tactics did white Southern Democrats use to restrict or control black suffrage

They used intimidation and violence to undermine the Reconstruction regimes. Secret societies- the KKK, the knights of the White Camellia and others-used terrorism to frighten or physically bar backs from voting or otherwise exercising citizenship.

.What effects did the Civil War have on the economy and social system of the South

Towns had been gutted, plantations burned, fields neglected, bridges and railroads destroyed. Southerners stripped of their slaves and the capital they had invested in the now-worthless Confederate bonds and currency and had almost no personal property. A lot of white males died. Southerners began to praise Lee, Jackson and Davis as almost religious figures.