APUSH Ch. 15
Reconstruction, southern african american officeholders
underrepresented the total number of blacks living in the South
In 1868, President Andrew Johnson, impeachment
violated the Tenure of Office Act; offered political opposition to Radical Republicans; dismissed Edwin Stanton from office
Black sharecropping
was a very common occupation of former slaves; worked their own plots of land and paid their landlords either a fixed rent or a share of their crop, had the sense of working on their own land
Congressional passage of the enforcement acts in 1870-1871
was aimed at reducing white repression of blacks in the South; aka Ku Klux Klan Acts which prohibited states from discriminating against voters on the basis of race and gave the federal government power to supersede the state courts and prosecute violations of the law and the president could use military to protect civil rights and to suspend the right of habeas corpus when violations of the rights seemed egregious
The Panic of 1873
was the nation's worst economic depression to that time; WORSE THAN ANY OTHER EARLIER ECONOMIC CRISIS; depression lasted 4 yrs. began w/ fail of leading investment banking firm, Jay Cooke & Co. invested too much in postwar RR building debtors wanted to redeem fed. war bonds w/ greenbacks, increasing amt. of $$$ in circulation grant wanted sound currency based on gold reserves $356mil paper currency still circulating from Civil War 1873-treasury issued more January 1, 1879- Specie Resumption Act: greenbacks redeemed by govt. & replaced w/ certificates pegged to price of gold
At the end of the civil war, number of slaves in the united states
4 million; 200,000 soldiers for union 38,000 died
Republican planned for reconstruction
Radicals sought a range of punishments for white southerners; conservatives: south accept abolition of slavery radicals: thaddeus stevens & charles sumner, civil and military leaders of the confederacy be punished, southern whites be disenfranchised, legal rights of former slaves be protected, property of wealthy whites who aided the confederacy be taken away and distributed among freedmen, some wanted freedmen's suffrage moderates:uncommitted republicans, rejected the goals of the radicals but supported extracting at least some concessions from the south on african american rights
National support for reconstruction was undermined by **
all of the above; intimidation/violence by secret societies (KKK & Knights of the White Camellia) and the panic of 1873 and Social Darwinism (individuals failed bc weak/unfit)
Secretary of War William Belknap, Vice President Schuyler Colfax, Treasury Secretary Benjamin Bristow
all scandals during the grant administration except grant
B. Wells
black journalist devoted her writing to attacking the crime of lynching
In 1865, southern whites "freedom" **
both A and B; ability to control their own destinies without interference from the north or federal government
Reconstruction, per capita income for Southerners**
both a and b; white: decrease 35% black: increase 46%
In his 1895 "Atlanta Compromise" speech, Booker T Washington
called for tacit acceptance of the emerging system of racial segregation
The wade-davis bill
called for the disenfranchisement of leading Confederates; July 1864- president appoints a provisional governor for each conquered state, when majority of white males of the state pledged their allegiance to the union, the governor could summon a state constitutional convention with delegates elected by those who swear they never bore arms against the US; new state constitutions abolished slavery, disenfranchised confederate civil and military leaders, and repudiate debts accumulated by the state govt.'s during the war, then congress could readmit a state to the union, left the states with the option of political rights for blacks; congress passed it, lincoln disposed of it which enraged radical leaders
In the 1890s, voting percentages in the south
decreased for whites and blacks
In the 1860's, black codes
designed to give whites control over freedmen; 1865/1866- designed to give whites substantial control over former slaves; authorized local officials to apprehend unemployed blacks, fine for vagrancy, & hire to private employers to satisfy the fine; forbade blacks to own of lease farms or to take any jobs other than plantation workers or domestic servants
The tenure of office act
designed to limit President Andrew Johnson's authority; forbade the president to remove civil officials including members of his own cabinet without the consent of the senate (protected secretary of war edwin m. stanton)
Reconstruction, the southern school system
did not allow blacks to be teachers, eventually reached forty percent of all black children; outside groups provided education (freedmen's bureau, north private philanthropic programs, northern women, black southerners); then large networks of schools for former slaves (4000 schools 9000 teachers [half of them black] & 200000 [12% of school age freedmen population] students by 1870); 1870's = public school systems 50% white children + 40% black children; black academies offered advanced education which eventually became black colleges/universities (Fisk, Atlanta, Morehouse) southern education ALREADY segregated, efforts to integrate black and whites = Civil Rights Act of 1875
The freedmen's bureau
distributed food to millions of Southern blacks; march 1865- agency of army directed by general Oliver o. Howard; distributed food, established schools by missionaries and teachers from the north, settled land for their own all to ex-slaves and poor whites
Reconstruction, there was dramatic improvements in the south
education; in the area of educating African Americans and white southerners with scant learning
In the south, the crop-lien system
encouraged the planting of cash crops
In 1868, Ulysses S Grant
entered the White House with no political experience; accepted republican nomination; no political experience, clumsy; cabinet ill-equipped except for secretary of state Hamilton FIsh; used spoils system; alienated the northerners; possible corruption in his administration; in his reelection the liberal republicans opposed this "Grantism" and elected Horace Greeley and the democrats elected Greeley as well but Grant still won (286 vs 66 electoral votes & 56% popular total)
Booker T Washington
favored industrial over classical education
The thirteenth and fourteenth amendments
gave citizenship rights to all people born in the United States; 13th- abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime 14th- 1st constitutional definition of citizenship: born in USA & naturalized = a citizen & entitled to privileges & immunities of the constitution (equal protection of state & nat. govt. laws); no other requirements for citizenship; penalties (reduce representation in congress & in electoral college) distributed to any state that denied suffrage to any adult male; prohibited former members of congress/fed. officials who aided the confed. from holding any state/fed. office unless 2/3 of congress voted to pardon them; tennessee ratified & was admit to the union
During the Grant Administration, the United States acquired
guam; Alaska from Russia for $7.2mil & Midway Islands west of Hawaii
Jim Crow Laws
imposed a system of state-supported segregation
In 1865, Southern blacks, "freedom"
independence from white control, acquiring the legal rights to live as did whites, land reform, both independence from white control, and land reform; an end to slavery and to all the injustices and humiliation they associated with it; acquisition of rights and protections that would allow them to live as free men and women in the same way white people did
In the final days of the civil war, president Abraham lincoln, opinion on the confederacy
insisted that the Confederacy had no legal right to exist; lincoln couldn't negotiate a treaty with the confederacy because the confederate government had no legal right to exist
The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln
involved a larger conspiracy to kill other members of the administration; april 14, 1865- president + wife went to play at fords theater in DC, sat in presidential booth, John Wilkes Booth came up from the rear and shot lincoln in the head, carried unconscious to house across the street & died the next morning; caused hysteria; booth believed to be in a conspiracy, secretary of state Seward was wounded same night of assassination; booth found in VA april 26 and shot to death in a burning barn; 8 ppl in conspiracy, 4 hanged
The Alabama claims
involved complaints by the United States against England; America demands that England pays for the damages their vessels caused; ended w/ agreement called Treaty of Washington: provided for international arbitration & Britain expressed regret for the escape of the Alabama from England
Congressional reconstruction, failure
might have been more effective if the federal government had better enforced the laws designed to assist blacks; failed because weak/erroneous leaders; solutions against conservative obstacles embedded so deeply in nation that cannot be removed; veneration of the constitution; profound respect for private property and free enterprise; belief that whites were superior to blacks
Reconstruction, most "carpetbaggers" were
northern white veterans who moved to the South; white men from the north who served as republican leaders in the south (penniless adventurers who arrived with all their possessions in a carpet bag; many were well educated people of middle class origin as doctors lawyers and teachers who looked at the south as a new frontier
President Andrew Johnson's plan
offered amnesty to southerners who pledged their loyalty to the United States; summer of 1865- offered amnesty to southerners who took oath of allegiance; president appointed a provisional governor who invited qualified voters to elect delegates to a constitutional convention; required a majority of votes; to readmit, a state had to: revoke its ordinance of secession, abolish slavery, ratify the 13th amendment, repudiate the confederate and state war debts; each state had to elect a state government and send representatives to congress
Reconstruction, land ownership in the south
ownership by whites declined while ownership by blacks increased; effort failed, but 10,000 black families settled on own land but then eventually returned the land to the original white owners; in whites shifted from 80% owned land to 67% (lost bc debts/increased taxes/wanted more fertile land); in blacks shifted from 0% to 20+%; blacks acquired through hard work/luck, relied on assistance by whites or Freedman's bank which failed
Southern "redeemers"
political power was very often restricted and conservative; AKA bourbons, a powerful and conservative oligarchy
In the 1890's, pressure in the south to restrict black voting rights came from
poor white farmers, wealthy Southerners & advocates of Jim Crow
As president, rutherford b hayes
promised to serve only one term; planned to withdraw federal troops and let white democrats take over the state governments; kept stern rectitude
Advocates of the "New South"
promoted Southern industry and railroad development
As a result of the Supreme Court's ruling in Ex Parte Milligan, radical republicans
proposed abolishing the Court; proposed several bills that require 2/3 of the justices to support any decision overruling a law of congress, deny the court jurisdiction in reconstruction cases, reduce the membership to 3, & even abolish it
The supreme court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that
racial segregation was legal if whites and blacks had equal "accommodations
After the civil war, most poor rural Southerners credit
relied on credit from country stores
In 1867, Congressional plans for reconstruction
required new state governments in the South to give voting rights to black males; state legislatures ratify the thirteenth amendment
The "redeemed" governments of the south
saw an end to occupation by federal troops; democrats took back the 7 of 11 former confederate states
In the south, during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, manufacturing
saw its share of national manufacturing doubled
The elections of 1876
saw the candidate with the most popular votes fail to get elected; Republican Rutherford B. Hayes vs. Democrat Samuel J. Tilden; democrats won, but then Hayes somehow became president 8-7
During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, southern agriculture
saw the great majority of farmers live under the tenant system
Reconstruction, "scalawags"
southern white republicans; former whigs who never felt comfortable as democrats or farmers that hoped of an end of their economic isolation (thought republicans would better serve their economic interests
At the conclusion of President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial
spared conviction by one vote
The fifteenth amendment dealt with the issue of
suffrage; suffrage (forbade the states and the fed. govt. to deny suffrage to any citizen on account of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude")
President Abraham Lincoln's "ten percent" plan
the number of white voters required to take loyalty oaths before setting up a state government; when 10% of white southerners pledged loyalty to the government and accepted the elimination of slavery, they could set up a state government; lincoln extended suffrage to educated, property holding, union army fighting african americans; Louisiana, Arkansas & Tennessee admitted; radicals thought this was too mild
After the civil war, most southern black women
took wage-earning jobs; labor began to resemble the white woman's: cooking, cleaning, gardening, sewing, raising children, attending to the needs of their husbands, ceasing working in the fields; impoverished women worked as domestic servants, took in laundry, or helped in the field for a wage; 1/2 of all black women over 16 worked for a wage; black female income-earners were married
Reconstruction, the black labor force in the south
worked significantly fewer hours than had been the case during slavery; worked about 1/3 fewer hours during the reconstruction than slaves had been compelled to work under a slavery, brought the working schedule of blacks into line of the white farmers
