I. Hale County, Alabama: From Slavery to Freedom in a Black Belt Community
a.
II. The Politics of Reconstruction
a. The Civil War was bloodiest war in American history (600,000 soldiers died). It began as way to preserve Union but evolved into a struggle for African American freedom, resulting in the death of slavery in the United States and the unification of the states under a stronger central government.
b. The Defeated South
i. South destroyed after defeat: towns ruined, slavery (means of labor in cotton fields) lost, destroyed cotton fields, depressed economy
ii. Defeat aroused hatred within Southerners, whom were "robbed of their slave property"
iii. Racism became one of the main forces in the South during Reconstruction
c. Abraham Lincoln's Plan
i. Lincoln wanted to respect private property (excluding slaves) and did not want to impose harsh punishments on the South for rebellion
1. Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction of Dec. 1863: Southerners (except Confederate military leaders) had to swear an oath of allegiance to the US and its laws (including the Emancipation Proclamation) in order to be pardoned and offered restoration of property
2. Ten Percent Plan: When 10 percent of a state's population took this oath, Lincoln would recognize the formation of a new state government in that state
ii. Radical Republicans, such as Benjamin Wade and Henry Davis) favored the abolition of slavery at the beginning of the war, but later advocated harsh treatment of the defeated South
1. Lincoln vetoed the Wade-Davis Bill, which required 50 percent of a seceding state's white male citizens to take the loyalty oath before the state could form its constitution, and it also guaranteed equality before the law for former slaves
iii. Sherman's Special Field Order 15 of 1865 set aside 400,000 acres of abandoned Southern land for forty-acre grants to freedmen
iv. The Republican Party prevented the development of a land distribution system, but supported other methods to aid the freed slaves
1. In 1865, Congress established the Freedmen's Bureau to provide social, educational, and economic services to emancipated slaves or white Unionists, which lasted seven years
v. Lincoln's plans seemed to favor quick restoration of the South and limited federal intervention, but his policies were cut short after his assassination, when he was replaced with Andrew Johnson
d. Andrew Johnson and Presidential Reconstruction
i. Johnson was a Democrat and former slaveholder from a poor southern background who supported yeomen farmers and hated southern aristocrats
ii. He remained loyal to the Union throughout the war and held planter elite responsible for southern rebellion and defeat
iii. He was appointed as military governor of Tennessee in 1862 and nominated as vice president by the Republicans in the 1864 election
iv. Immediately after taking office, he appeared to side with the Radical Republicans by talking of indicting Confederate officials for treason and confiscating their property
v. Saw Reconstruction as power of the executive--not legislative--branch
vi. However, since he blamed individual planters and elite for secession rather than entire states, he proposed mild terms for reentry to the Union
1. He followed Lincoln's policy for pardoning Southerners (excluding some Confederate officials and wealthy landowners)
2. These men could apply for presidential pardons and Johnson pardoned 90% of those who applied
3. December 1865: Johnson declared "restoration" of the Union complete by allowing ten of eleven Confederate states to reenter the Union
vii. Johnson was committed to white supremacy; he opposed political rights for the freedmen and determined
e. The Radical Republican Vision
i. Radical Republicans (example: George Julian) promoted equal political rights and economic opportunity as well as a powerful national government
ii. Wanted federal government to control the reformation of Southern society
iii. Radicals wanted to grant freedmen civil rights and suffrage and give them land confiscated from wealthy Southerners
iv. Radicals opposed the "black codes" passed in South Carolina to deny many rights of citizenship to free African Americans
1. Southerners could not accept full freedom of African Americans
2. Moderate Republicans joined Radicals in the belief that old Confederates were in power in the South and the black codes and racial violence required increase protection for African Americans
v. Republicans established the Joint Committee on Reconstruction
vi. 1866: Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment to define African Americans as citizens and the Civil Rights Act that bestowed full citizenship on African Americans, overturning the 1857 Dred Scott decision and black codes
1. African Americans acquired "full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property as is enjoyed by white citizens"
vii. Congress also expanded the Freedmen's Bureau to build schools and prosecute those depriving blacks of their civil rights
viii. Johnson vetoed these two measures; Republicans in Congress overrode his veto
ix. November 1866: Republicans gained control of the House, Senate, and northern states
x. Conflict between president and Congress: Johnson's "restoration" orCongressional Reconstruction?
f. Congressional Reconstruction and the Impeachment Crisis
i. Republicans took control of Reconstruction in 1867 by passing the FirstReconstruction Act, which divided the South into five military districts subject to martial law
ii. Southern states were required to hold new constitutional conventions, guarantee universal manhood suffrage, and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment before they would be readmitted to the Union
iii. Invalidated the new governments established under Johnson and limited Johnson's executive power
1. The Tenure of Office Act stipulated that any officeholder appointed by the president with the Senate's advice and consent could not be removed until the Senate had approved a successor (protecting Republican congressional leaders such as Edwin Stanton who implemented Congressional Reconstruction)
iv. However, when Congress adjourned in 1867, Johnson suspended Stanton and appointed Ulysses Grant as secretary of war; he replaced several radicals
v. 1868: Senate overruled Stanton's suspension; Stanton resumed his position
vi. Johnson tried to remove Stanton again, but the Rep. in the House of Reps. impeached the president on the basis of violating the Tenure of Office Act
1. Real reasons for wanting Johnson impeached: Johnson's political views and his opposition to the Reconstruction Acts
2. During his Senate trial, Johnson agreed to abide by Reconstruction Acts and the Senate voted one shy of the two-thirds necessary for removal from office
3. Johnson's narrow acquittal established the precedent that only criminal actions by a president--not political disagreements--warranted removal from office
g. The Election of 1868
i. AL, AR, FL, LA, NC, SC, and TN were readmitted to the Union; GA, MS, TX, VA still waiting readmission
ii. Republican Ulysses Grant vs. Democrat Horatio Seymour (who wanted to reverse Congressional Reconstruction; foe of emancipation and supporter of states' rights)
iii. State referendums calling for black suffrage failed in eight northern states between 1865 and 1868, succeeding in only Iowa and Minnesota
iv. Ku Klux Klan, founded as TN social club in 1866, terrorized black and white Republicans in LA, AR, GA, and SC to keep them from voting
1. This worked only in LA and GA, but lost northern votes for the Democrats
v. Grant won the election, receiving a remarkable 500,000 votes from African Americans
vi. Republicans also retained control of Congress
vii. February 1869 (ratified in 1870): Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment that guaranteed the right of American men to vote, regardless of race
viii. MS, TX, and VA ratified the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments before readmission in 1870; their readmission completed Reconstruction
h. Woman Suffrage and Reconstruction
i. Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments inspired/frustrated women's rights activists
ii. During the war, many women worked through the National Women's Loyal League and the US Sanitary Commission
iii. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were two leaders of the antislavery and feminist movements
iv. Stanton, Anthony, and Lucy Stone founded the American Equal Rights Association in 1866 to remove gender and race related restrictions on voting
v. Radical wing (Stanton and Anthony) opposed the Fifteenth Amendment, arguing it would establish an "aristocracy of sex"
vi. Woman suffragists split into the moderate American Woman Suffrage Association and the more radical all-female National Woman Suffrage Association
1. AWSA included Lucy Stone, Ward Howe, Henry Blackwell; focused on achieving women's suffrage on state level, while maintaining ties with Republican party and supported the Fifteenth Amendment; sought support of men
2. NWSA supported more rights than suffrage, including those discussed in the Declaration of Sentiments of the Seneca Falls convention in 1848
III. The Meaning of Freedom
a. Former slaves struggled to establish economic, political, and cultural autonomy
b. They built on the family and the church to lay expand the African American community
c. Moving About
i. Many freed slaves left home to test their freedom, wanting to separate themselves from former owners, and moved to predominantly black communities in the cities
ii. Many who left soon returned to the general vicinity because they cherished familial ties and friendships
d. The African American Family
i. Strengthened family ties; some African Americans reunited with their families
ii. Some searches were unsuccessful or disappointing though
iii. African Americans began to follow white gender roles: men asserted their male authority, voted, and received higher wages, while women devoted more time to domestic chores and child rearing
e. African American Churches and Schools
i. Blacks pooled resources (money, labor, housing, supplies, etc.) to establish their own churches and schools
ii. Church became social and religious institution that defined the black community
1. Methodist and Baptist churches were the most prominent
iii. More than 90% of the South's adult black population was illiterate in 1860
iv. Access to education = freedom
v. Freemen's Bureau gave educational aid to the South by providing resources and some teachers
vi. FB and the American Missionary Association (AMA) assisted in the founding of black colleges and the training of teachers
f. Land and Labor after Slavery
i. Whites tried to restrict the employment of former slaves
1. South Carolina legislation in 1865 required costly permits for African Americans in certain trades
ii. Most African Americans hoped to become self-sufficient farmers and believed they were entitled to land
1. Sought economic opportunity and land promised independence
2. Colored Convention in Montgomery, AL in 1867: wanted to confiscate land from wealthy planters
iii. Johnson directed General Howard of the FB to evict freed people who squatted on confiscated and abandoned lands in LA, GA, VA, and SC
iv. Sharecropping - labor system that evolved during and after Reconstruction whereby landowners furnished laborers with a house, farm animals, and tools in exchange for a share of the laborers' crop - became common
1. Compromise between planters and former slaves that broke up plantations into family-sized plots
2. Beneficial for landowners and African Americans
3. Dominated southern agricultural economy and African American life (nearly 75% of black Southerners were sharecroppers)
4. By 1880, 80% of land in MS, AL, GA was divided into family-sized farms
g. The Origins of African American Politics
i. African Americans aimed for political inclusion rather than separation
ii. Increased political involvement in 1865-1867: blacks gathered to promote civil rights and suffrage
iii. First Reconstruction Act in 1867 encouraged more political activity
1. AL, FL, LA, MS, and SC had black electoral majorities
2. Four-fifths of the registered black voters cast ballots in the state constitutional conventions in 1867 and 1868
iv. Union League - Republican Party organizations in northern cities that became an important organizing device among freedmen in southern cities after 1865
1. Brought together African Americans, soldiers, and FB agents to demand suffrage and end discrimination
v. Politics was the only field where black and white Southerners might engage each other on an equal basis
IV. Southern Politics and Society
a. Political structure of the South fragile over the next decade
b. Federal troops required to protect Republicans from violent opposition in the South
c. Republicans had control of south for most of Reconstruction, but by 1877, Democrats had regained political control of all the former Confederate states
d. Southern Republicans
i. African Americans, which only outnumbered whites in three southern states
ii. White Northerners (“carpetbaggers”) wanted to reform the South by introducing free labor, free public schools, developing resources
1. Most were veterans of the Union army, agents of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and businessmen who invested in cotton and other enterprises
2. Tended to be well educated middle-class citizens
3. Small percentage of population, but large role in southern politics
iii. Native Southern whites termed “scalawags” who were mainly small landowning farmers and well-off merchants and planters
1. Saw the Republican Party as the best chance to regain political influence
2. Wanted modernization and economic expansion
3. Sought relief from debt and wartime devastation
iv. Moderate Republicans who favored white control of the party, economic investment, and economic development outnumbered the radical Republicans who focused on African American civil liberties
e. Reconstructing the States: A Mixed Record
i. With many old Confederate leaders barred from political participation, Republicans dominated the ten southern constitutional conventions of 1867-69
ii. Most conventions produced constitutions that expanded democracy
1. Guaranteed political and civil rights of African Americans
2. Abolished property qualifications for officeholding and jury service
3. Created state-funded public education
4. Established orphanages, penitentiaries, asylums
iii. Republicans had to balance reform and attempts to gain Southern acceptance
1. Clear motion towards equal rights and against discrimination, but moderate action
2. African Americans demanded desegregation of railroad cars, theaters, etc. but moderate white Republicans feared that such laws would alienate potential white supporters
3. Even if these civil rights laws were passed, they were difficult to enforce
iv. Segregation was the norm in public school systems, but African Americans were more interesting in having educational and employment opportunities than integrated education
v. Republicans failed to grant land to African Americans
vi. Republicans raised taxes on land, attempting to weaken the plantation system and promote black ownership
1. Government seized land for nonpayment of taxes, but this was ineffective in promoting black land ownership
vii. Promoted capitalist development (factories, large cities, diversified agriculture)
1. Encouraged railroad construction
a. Southern railroad system increased 40 percent (3,000 miles) between 1868 and 1972
2. Difficult to attract significant amounts of northern and European capital investments
3. Also opened doors to corruption and bribery of public officials
4. Failure of railroads and failure to modernize the economy in the South eroded public confidence in the Republicans
f. White Resistance and "Redemption"
i. Democrats did not acknowledge Republicans' right to participate in southern politics
ii. Republicans were split between those who wanted to gain white acceptance in the South and those who emphasized consolidating the party under the protection of the military
iii. KKK was powerful in southern states, acting like a guerilla military force in the service of the Dem. Party, planter class, and white supremacists
1. Planters sometimes employed KKK to harass
iv. October 1870: bands of white people drove 150 African Americans from their homes and murdered 13 white and black Republican activists
v. March 1871: three blacks arrested in Meridian, MS for "incendiary" speeches
1. At their trial, KKK killed two defendants and the Republican judge, which lead to rioting in which thirty African Americans were murdered
vi. The bloodiest episode of Reconstruction-era violence occurred in Colfax, LA on Easter Sunday 1873 when 100 African Americans were killed after they failed to hole a besieged courthouse during a contested election
vii. In 1870 and 1871, Congress passed Enforcement Acts designed to counterattack racial terrorism because, they claimed, interference with voting was a federal offense
1. Federal supervision of voting
2. Authorized president to send army and to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in districts declared to be in a state of insurrection
3. Ku Klux Klan Act of April 1871 made the violent infringement of civil and political rights a federal crime
a. Attorney General Akerman prosecuted several Klansmen in NC and MS
b. In October 1871, President grant sent federal troops to SC to break up KKK and restore law and order
4. Civil Rights Act of 1875 outlawed discrimination in public places such as railroads and theaters
a. More assertion of principle than federal intervention
viii. Northern Republicans became less inclined to intervene in the South, eventually abandoning freedmen and their southern allies
ix. Democrats gained majority in the House in 1874 and a few northern states fell to the Democrats
x. Republicans were blamed for the fiscal crisis caused by excessive government spending (mainly on schools, roads, orphanages, etc.)
xi. Democrats "redeemed" VA and TN in 1869, NC in 1870, GA in 1871, TX in 1873, AL and AR in 1874, MS in 1876, and LA in 1877
xii. African Americans faced obstacles to voting and social services
xiii. Supreme Court rulings constrained federal protection of African American civil rights
xiv. Slaughterhouse cases of 1873 - rulings in which the Supreme Court contradicted the intent of the Fourteenth Amendment by decreeing that most citizenship rights remained under state, not federal, control
xv. Decisions that curtailed federal protection of black civil rights
1. United States v. Reese (1876) and United States v. Cruikshank (1876) - Court restricted congressional power to enforce the KKK Act
2. Court ruled that the Fifteenth Amendment didn't guarantee a citizen's right to vote, so states found loopholes to disfranchise blacks by passing laws restricting voter eligibility through poll taxes and property requirements
3. 1883 Civil Rights Cases decision: Court declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional, stating that the Fourteenth Amendment allowed Congress to outlaw discrimination by states, but not by private individuals
xvi. Supreme Court decisions marked the end of federal attempts to protect black rights until the next century
g. White Yeomen, White Merchants, and "King Cotton"
i. South declined into the country's poorest agricultural region after failed Republican attempts to modernize the South
ii. Southern economy vulnerable due to its dependence on the price of cotton
iii. After the Civil War, "King Cotton" expanded; small white farmers switched from subsistence farming to growing cotton
iv. Local merchants and planters were the sole sources of credit; they granted loans and supplies to sharecroppers, owners, and farmers in exchange for a lien or claim on the year's cotton crop
v. "Crop lien" system as main form of credit forced the expansion of cotton
vi. Railroads, commercial fertilizers, and new land cultivation were key to this transformation
vii. Demand for cotton brought high prices through the end of the war to the late 1860s, but soon expanded production depressed prices
1. Competing Indian and Egyptian cotton also led to a decline in cotton prices
2. Cycle of low cotton prices, debt, and dwindling food crops
3. Local merchants benefited from this cotton cycle by providing goods and credit to local farmers
viii. Elite ideals rested on the belief that womanhood and manhood rested on moral character and individual choice
V. Reconstructing the North
a. Lincoln claimed that the northern system of “free labor” was superior over slavery
b. Argued that laborers hire and train other people in a continuous cycle
c. However, the spread of factory system, growth of corporation, and extension of capitalist enterprises resulted in the development of a large unskilled workforce consigned to wage labor
d. Grim reality of class conflicts: society was more hierarchical than equal, causing strikes
e. 1877: end of Reconstruction Era; North had undergone reconstruction as well
f. The Age of Capital
i. After end of Civil War, the North continued its industrial boom
1. By 1873, industrial production grew 75 percent since 1865
ii. North: number of nonagricultural workers surpassed farmers
iii. 3 million immigrants arrived in America between 1860-1880
iv. Federal government funded the transcontinental railroad
1. Largest subsidy in American history
2. Pacific Railway Act of 1862 gave Union Pacific and Central Pacific rights to land extending from Nebraska to Sacramento, CA
v. Union Pacific hired gangs of Irish Americans and African Americans to lay track heading west from Omaha, NB
vi. Central Pacific hired Chinese laborers (90% of workforce) to push eastward from Sacramento
1. Burlingame Treaty (1863) gave Chinese the right to emigrate to the US
vii. After completion of the trans. railroad in Utah in 1869 , anti-Chinese sentiment built up in the US
1. 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act suspended Chinese immigration for 10 years
viii. Southern Pacific – San Francisco to Los Angeles to AZ and NM to New Orleans
ix. Railroad corporations became America’s first big business
1. Railroad executives: Vanderbilt, Gould, Huntington, Hill were wealthy
x. Railroad commissioners received large sums and land grants from government subsidies; they also resorted to corruption/scandals
xi. Scandal: Credit Mobilier construction company was created to divert funds for the building of the Union Pacific Railroad; several prominent Republicans received stock in the company in exchange for political favors
1. Discovered in 1872, ruining VP Colfax
xii. Boom in industries extracting minerals and processing natural resources
xiii. National Mineral Act of 1886 - mining companies received millions of acres of free public land
xiv. By the late 1870s, Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company controlled 90% of nation's oil-refining capacity
g. Liberal Republicans and the Election of 1872
i. Republicans increasingly favored the interests of business rather than the rights of freedom or "free labor"
ii. State Republicans organized more around federal patronage
iii. Democrats corrupt as well: in 1871, Democratic Party boss William Tweed and the "Tweed Ring" stole tens of millions of dollars from the NYC treasury
iv. Liberal Republicans emphasized the doctrines of classic economics (supply and demand, free trade, defense of property rights, and individualism)
1. Called for limited government and now opposed federal intervention in the South
2. Argued that corruption came from excessive interference in the economy
v. Suspicious of expanding democracy--especially universal suffrage
vi. Wanted politics to be left for "the best men" - educated and elite
vii. Liberal Republicans nominated Horace Greeley for 1872 pres. election
viii. Grant won, carrying every northern state
ix. Election follower trend of federal abandonment of African American citizenship rights
x. Lib. Rep. ideals defined growing conservativeness in North, attracting middle-class people and businessmen
1. Retreat from racial justice, hostility toward trade unions, suspicion of immigrants and working-class power, competitive individualism, opposition to federal intervention in economy
h. The Depression of 1873
i. Post war boom ends in 1873 triggering a deep economic depression
1. From commercial overexpansion of railroad investment
ii. Banks and brokerage houses caved, New York stock exchange suspended operations
iii. Half railroads deflated bonds, 100 banks folded, 18,000 businesses shut their doors from 1876 to 1878
iv. Factories close, unemployment rate reaches 15%
1. One fourth of New York City workers were unemployed
v. Calls to government to create more jobs through public works were rejected
vi. People were angry at large corporations that showed great economic power
vii. Political organizations like Chicago’s Citizens Associations united businesses for fiscal conservation and defense of property rights
i. The Electoral Crisis of 1876
i. Democrats believe that they would win the next election because of the depression
ii. Republican party was weakened by scandals
iii. 1875 conspiracy
1. Distillers and U.S. revenue agents to cheat government out of millions in tax revenues
2. Indictment against 200 members of “Whiskey Ring” were acquitted because of Grants intervention
iv. Democrats exposed Republicans low standard of honesty
v. 1871 “Tweed Ring” “Canal Right”
vi. Issue of corruption was linked to Republican party
vii. Republican Nominee: Rutherford B. Hayes- governor of Ohio; lawyer in Cincinnati; defended runaway slaves; General in Union army; supported an efficient civil service system, to vigorously prosecute officials who betrayed the public trust, and to introduce a system of free universal education
viii. Democrat Nominee: Samuel Tilden- charged with disloyalty during the war, income tax evasion, and close relations with powerful railroad interests
ix. Tilden received 250,000 more popular votes than Hayes but Republicans refused to concede victory
x. Uncontested electoral votes, Tilden: 184 (one short of majority to win); Hayes: 164
1. 20 disputed voted from Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon
2. Southern states returned two sets of electoral votes
3. Oregon: Hayes carried but Democratic governor replaced a disputed Republican elector with a democrat
xi. January 1877, Congress moved to settle the deadlock
xii. Electoral Commission established
1. Five senators, five representatives, and five Supreme Court justices
a. Eight Republican and seven democrats
2. Voted along party lines
xiii. Democrats angry and threatened a filibuster to block Hayes’ inauguration
xiv. Compromise in February, more money for southern internal improvements, to appoint a southerner to cabinets, and pursue a policy of noninterference in southern affairs
xv. Hayes removed the federal troops in LA and SC
1. Democrats took power of these states
xvi. ‘Home Rule’ (noninterference) meant abandonment of freed people, radicals, carpetbaggers, and scalawags and nullified the 14th and 15th Amendments and the Civil rights act of 1866
xvii. Compromise of 1877- the congressional settling of the 1876 election that installed Republican Hayes in the White House and gave Democrats control of all state governments in the South
AP Questions:
1. B
2. E
3. A
4. B
5. D
6. C
7. E
8. B
9. E
10. D
11. C
12. A
13. B
14. B
