Reconstruction and its effects

374 CHAPTER 12

USA WORLD

After the Civil War, Charleston, South Carolina, and other Southern cities lay in ruins.

1 8 6 41 8 6 4 1 8 6 81 8 6 8

Austro- Prussian War is fought.

1866

Andrew Johnson becomes president after Lincoln’s assassination.

1865 President

Johnson presses for moderate Recon- struction policies.

1866 U.S. buys

Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million.

1867 Ulysses S.

Grant is elected president. 1868

Congress impeaches President Johnson.

1868

Mohandas K. Gandhi is born in India.

1869

Confederacy surrenders at Appomattox.

1865

Reconstruction and Its Effects 375

I N T E R A C TI N T E R A C T W I T H H I S T O R YW I T H H I S T O R Y

The year is 1865, and at last the Civil War is over. The South’s primary labor system, slavery, has been abolished. About 4.5 million African Americans now have their freedom but lack money, property, education, and opportunity. Southern states are beginning the process of readmission to the Union, but the effects of war continue to be felt throughout the South. Rail lines are unusable. Farms, plantations, and factories lie in ruins.

What goals should the government set to reconstruct the South? Examine the Issues

• How can Northern resources help the South?

• In what ways can the South rebuild its economy?

• What can the government do to assist African Americans?

Visit the Chapter 12 links for more information about Reconstruction and Its Effects.

IRESEARCH LINKS CLASSZONE.COM

1 8 7 21 8 7 2 1 8 7 61 8 7 6

President Grant is reelected. 1872

Horace Greeley runs for president as a Liberal Republican.

1872

U.S. and Great Britain sign Treaty of Washington.

1871

Unification of Italy is completed.

1870 Kaiser

Wilhelm I unifies Germany.

1871

Rutherford B. Hayes is inaugurated. 1877

British declare Gold Coast of Africa a colony.

1874 France’s National Assembly votes to continue the Third Republic.

1875

Hayes-Tilden presidential election results in deadlock.

1876

Federal troops withdraw from the South. 1877

376 CHAPTER 12

Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

One American's Story

The Politics of Reconstruction

WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

As a young man, Andrew Johnson—who succeeded Abraham Lincoln as presi- dent—entered politics in Tennessee. He won several important offices, including those of congressman, governor, and U.S. senator.

After secession, Johnson was the only senator from a Confederate state to remain loyal to the Union. A former slave-owner, by 1863 Johnson supported abolition. He hated wealthy Southern planters, whom he held responsible for dragging poor whites into the war. Early in 1865, he endorsed harsh punishment for the rebellion’s leaders.

A PERSONAL VOICE ANDREW JOHNSON “ The time has arrived when the American people should under- stand what crime is, and that it should be punished, and its penal- ties enforced and inflicted. . . . Treason must be made odious . . . traitors must be punished and impoverished . . . their social power must be destroyed. I say, as to the leaders, punishment. I say leniency, conciliation, and amnesty to the thousands whom they have misled and deceived.”

—quoted in Reconstruction: The Ending of the Civil War

On becoming president, Johnson faced not only the issue of whether to punish or pardon former Confederates but also a larger problem: how to bring the defeated Confederate states back into the Union.

Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction Reconstruction was the period during which the United States began to rebuild after the Civil War, lasting from 1865 to 1877. The term also refers to the process the federal government used to readmit the Confederate states. Complicating the process was the fact that Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Congress had differing ideas on how Reconstruction should be handled.

•Andrew Johnson •Reconstruction •Radical Republicans

•Thaddeus Stevens

•Wade-Davis Bill

•Freedmen’s Bureau

•black codes •Fourteenth Amendment

•impeach •Fifteenth Amendment

Congress opposed Lincoln’s and Johnson’s plans for Reconstruction and instead implemented its own plan to rebuild the South.

Reconstruction was an important step in African Americans’ struggle for civil rights.

!

Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States

A

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A Summarizing

What was President Lincoln’s planned approach to Reconstruction?

LINCOLN’S TEN-PERCENT PLAN Lincoln, before his death, had made it clear that he favored a lenient Reconstruction policy. Lincoln believed that secession was constitutionally impossible and therefore that the Confederate states had never left the Union. He contended that it was individuals, not states, who had rebelled and that the Constitution gave the president the power to par- don individuals. Lincoln wished to make the South’s return to the Union as quick and easy as possible.

In December 1863, President Lincoln announced his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, also known as the Ten-Percent Plan. The government would pardon all Confederates—except high-ranking Confederate officials and those accused of crimes against prisoners of war—who would swear allegiance to the Union. After ten percent of those on the 1860 voting lists took this oath of allegiance, a Confederate state could form a new state government and gain representation in Congress.

Under Lincoln’s terms, four states—Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia—moved toward readmission to the Union. However, Lincoln’s moderate Reconstruction plan angered a minority of Republicans in Congress, known as Radical Republicans. Led by Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts and Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, the Radicals wanted to destroy the political power of former slaveholders. Most of all, they wanted African Americans to be given full citizenship and the right to vote. In 1865, the idea of African-American suffrage was truly radical; no other country that had abolished slavery had given former slaves the vote.

RADICAL REACTION In July 1864, the Radicals respond- ed to the Ten-Percent Plan by passing the Wade-Davis Bill, which proposed that Congress, not the president, be responsible for Reconstruction. It also declared that for a state government to be formed, a majority—not just ten percent—of those eligible to vote in 1860 would have to take a solemn oath to support the Constitution.

Lincoln used a pocket veto to kill the Wade-Davis Bill after Congress adjourned. According to the Constitution, a president has ten days to either sign or veto a bill passed by Congress. If the president does neither, the bill will auto- matically become law. When a bill is passed less than ten days before the end of a congressional session, the president can prevent its becoming law by simply ignoring, or “pocketing,” it. The Radicals called Lincoln’s pocket veto an outrage and asserted that Congress had supreme authority over Reconstruction. The stage was set for a presidential-congressional showdown.

Johnson’s Plan Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865 left his successor, the Democrat Andrew Johnson, to deal with the Reconstruction controversy. A staunch Unionist, Johnson had often expressed his intent to deal harshly with Confederate leaders. Most white Southerners therefore considered Johnson a traitor to his region, while Radicals believed that he was one of them. Both were wrong.

KEY PLAYERKEY PLAYER

THADDEUS STEVENS 1792–1868

The Radical Republican leader Thaddeus Stevens had a com- manding physical presence and was famous for his quick wit and sarcasm. One colleague called him “a rude jouster in political and personal war fare.”

Before ser ving in Congress, he had practiced law in Pennsylvania, where he defended runaway slaves. Stevens hated slaver y and in time came to hate white Southerners as well. He declared, “I look upon every man who would permit slaver y . . . as a traitor to liberty and disloyal to God.”

After Stevens died, at his own request he was buried in an inte- grated cemeter y, because he wanted to show in death “the principles which I advocated throughout a long life: Equality of Man before his Creator.”

Reconstruction and Its Effects 377

B

JOHNSON CONTINUES LINCOLN’S POLICIES In May 1865, with Congress in recess, Johnson announced his own plan, Presidential Reconstruction. He declared that each remaining Confederate state—Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas—could be readmitted to the Union if it would meet several conditions. Each state would have to withdraw its secession, swear allegiance to the Union, annul Confederate war debts, and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery.

To the dismay of Thaddeus Stevens and the Radicals, Johnson’s plan differed little from Lincoln’s. The one major difference was that Johnson wished to prevent most high-ranking Confederates and wealthy Southern landowners from taking the oath needed for voting privileges. The Radicals were especially upset that Johnson’s plan, like Lincoln’s, failed to address the needs of former slaves in three areas: land, voting rights, and protection under the law.

If Johnson’s policies angered Radicals, they relieved most white Southerners. Johnson’s support of states’ rights instead of a strong central government reassured the Southern states. Although Johnson supported abolition, he was not in favor of former slaves gaining the right to vote—he pardoned more than 13,000 former Confederates because he believed that “white men alone must manage the South.”

The remaining Confederate states quickly agreed to Johnson’s terms. Within a few months, these states—all except Texas—held conventions to draw up new state constitutions, to set up new state governments, and to elect representatives to Congress. However, some Southern states did not fully comply with the conditions for returning to the Union. For example, Mississippi did not ratify the Thirteenth Amendment.

Despite such instances of noncompliance, in December 1865, the newly elected Southern legislators arrived in Washington to take their seats. Fifty-eight of them had previously sat in the Congress of the Confederacy, six had served in the Confederate cabinet, and four had fought against the United States as Confederate generals. Johnson pardoned them all—a gesture that infuriated the Radicals and made African Americans feel they had been betrayed. In an 1865 edi- torial, an African-American newspaper publisher responded to Johnson’s actions.

A PERSONAL VOICE PHILIP A. BELL “ The war does not appear to us to be ended, nor rebellion suppressed. They have commenced reconstruction on disloyal principles. If rebel soldiers are allowed to mumble through oaths of allegiance, and vote Lee’s officers into important offices, and if Legislatures, elected by such voters, are allowed to define the provisions of the Amnesty Proclamation, then were our conquests vain. . . . Already we see the fruits of this failure on the part of Government to mete out full justice to the loyal blacks, and retribution to the disloyal whites.”

—quoted in Witness for Freedom: African American Voices on Race, Slaver y, and Emancipation

PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION COMES TO A STANDSTILL When the 39th Congress convened in December 1865, the Radical Republican legislators, led by Thaddeus Stevens, disputed Johnson’s claim that Reconstruction was com- plete. Many of them believed that the Southern states were not much different

378 CHAPTER 12

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B Contrasting

How did the views of Presidents Lincoln and Johnson on Reconstruction differ from the views of the Radicals?

Former Confederate officers George Washington Custis Lee, Robert E. Lee, and Walter Taylor, photographed in 1865

!

from the way they had been before the war. As a result, Congress refused to admit the newly elected Southern legislators.

At the same time, moderate Republicans pushed for new laws to remedy weaknesses they saw in Johnson’s plan. In February 1866, Congress voted to continue and enlarge the Freedmen’s Bureau. The bureau, established by Congress in the last month of the war, assisted former slaves and poor whites in the South by distrib- uting clothing and food. In addition, the Freedmen’s Bureau set up more than 40 hospitals, approximately 4,000 schools, 61 industrial institutes, and 74 teacher-training centers.

CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1866 Two months later, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which gave African Americans citizenship and forbade states from passing discriminatory laws—black codes—that severely restricted African Americans’ lives. Mississippi and South Carolina had first enacted black codes in 1865, and other Southern states had rapidly followed suit.

Black codes had the effect of restoring many of the restrictions of slavery by prohibiting blacks from carrying weapons, serving on juries, testifying against whites, marrying whites, and traveling without permits. In some states, African Americans were forbidden to own land. Even worse, in many areas resentful whites used violence to keep blacks from improving their position in society. To many members of Congress, the passage of black codes indicated that the South had not given up the idea of keeping African Americans in bondage.

Johnson shocked everyone when he vetoed both the Freedmen’s Bureau Act and the Civil Rights Act. Congress, Johnson contended, had gone far beyond any- thing “contemplated by the authors of the Constitution.” These vetoes proved to be the opening shots in a battle between the president and Congress. By rejecting the two acts, Johnson alienated the moderate Republicans who were trying to improve his Reconstruction plan. He also angered the Radicals by appearing to support Southerners who denied African Americans their full rights. Johnson had not been in office a year when presidential Reconstruction ground to a halt.

Congressional Reconstruction Angered by Johnson’s actions, radical and moderate Republican factions decided to work together to shift the control of the Reconstruction process from the executive branch to the legislature, beginning a period of “congressional Reconstruction.”

MODERATES AND RADICALS JOIN FORCES In mid-1866, moderate Republicans joined with Radicals to override the president’s vetoes of the Civil Rights and Freedmen’s Bureau acts. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 became the first major legislation ever enacted over a presidential veto. In addition, Congress drafted the Fourteenth Amendment, which provided a constitutional basis for the Civil Rights Act.

The Fourteenth Amendment made “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” citizens of the country. All were entitled to equal protection of the law, and no state could deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due

C

Reconstruction and Its Effects 379

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C

Analyzing Causes

How did black codes help bring about the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866?

!

One important project of the Freedmen’s Bureau was establishing primary schools, like the one shown here, for the children of former slaves.

process of law. The amendment did not specifically give African Americans the vote. However, it did specify that if any state prevented a portion of its male citi- zens from voting, that state would lose a percentage of its congressional seats equal to the percentage of citizens kept from the polls. Another provision barred most Confederate leaders from holding federal or state offices unless they were permitted to do so by a two-thirds-majority vote of Congress.

Congress adopted the Fourteenth Amendment and sent it to the states for approval. If the Southern states had voted to ratify it, most Northern legislators and their constituents would have been satisfied to accept them back into the Union. President Johnson, however, believed that the amendment treated former Confederate leaders too harshly and that it was wrong to force states to accept an amendment that their legislators had no part in drafting. Therefore, he advised the Southern states to reject the amendment. All but Tennessee did reject it, and the amendment was not ratified until 1868.

1866 CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS The question of who should control Reconstruction became one of the central issues in the bitter 1866 congressional elections. Johnson, accompanied by General Ulysses S. Grant, went on a speaking tour, urging voters to elect representatives who agreed with his Reconstruction policy. But his train trip from Washington to St. Louis and Chicago and back was a disaster. Johnson offended many voters with his rough language and behavior. His audiences responded by jeering at him and cheering Grant.

In addition, race riots in Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana, caused the deaths of at least 80 African Americans. Such violence convinced Northern voters that the federal government must step in to protect former slaves. In the 1866 elections, moderate and Radical Republicans won a landslide victory over Democrats. The Republicans gained a two-thirds majority in Congress, ensuring them the numbers they needed to override presidential vetoes. By March 1867, the 40th Congress was ready to move ahead with its Reconstruction policy.

RECONSTRUCTION ACT OF 1867 Radicals and moderates joined in passing the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which did not recognize state governments formed under the Lincoln and Johnson plans—except for that of Tennessee, which had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment and had been readmitted to the Union. The act divided the other ten former Confederate states into five military districts, each headed by a Union general. The voters in the districts—including African- American men—would elect delegates to conventions in which new state

380 CHAPTER 12

E

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D Summarizing

What were the main benefits that the Fourteenth Amendment offered African Americans?

D

Legislation Provisions Freedmen’s Bureau Acts (1865–1866) Offered assistance, such as medical aid and education, to freed slaves and war refugees

Civil Rights Act of 1866 Granted citizenship and equal protection under the law to African Americans

Fourteenth Amendment Makes all persons “born or naturalized in the United States” citizens; stipulates that (ratified 1868) states that prevented male citizens from voting would lose a percentage of their

congressional seats; barred most Confederate leaders from holding political offices

Reconstruction Act of 1867 Abolished governments formed in the former Confederate states; divided those states into five militar y districts; set up requirements for readmission to the Union

Fifteenth Amendment States that no one can be kept from voting because of “race, color, or previous condition (ratified 1870) of ser vitude”

Enforcement Act of 1870 Protected the voting rights of African Americans and gave the federal government power to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment

Major Reconstruction Legislation, 1865–1870

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

E

Analyzing Effects

What effect did the election of 1866 have on Republicans’ ability to carry out their plan for Reconstruction?

constitutions would be drafted. In order for a state to reenter the Union, its con- stitution had to ensure African-American men the vote, and the state had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.

Johnson vetoed the Reconstruction Act of 1867 because he believed it was in conflict with the Constitution. Congress promptly overrode the veto.

JOHNSON IMPEACHED Radical leaders felt President Johnson was not carrying out his constitutional obligation to enforce the Reconstruction Act. For instance, Johnson removed military officers who attempted to enforce the act. The Radicals looked for grounds on which to impeach the president—that is, to formally charge him with misconduct in office. The House of Representatives has the sole power to impeach federal officials, who are then tried in the Senate.

In March 1867, Congress had passed the Tenure of Office Act, which stated that the president could not remove cabinet officers “during the term of the president by whom they may have been appointed” without the consent of the Senate. One purpose of this act was to protect Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, the Radicals’ ally.

Johnson, along with many others, was certain that the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional. To force a court test of the act, Johnson fired Secretary of War Stanton. His action provided the Radicals with the opportu- nity they needed—the House brought 11 charges of impeachment against Johnson, 9 of which were based on his violation of the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson’s lawyers disputed these charges by pointing out that President Lincoln, not Johnson, had appointed Secretary Stanton, so the act did not apply.

Johnson’s trial before the Senate took place from March to May 1868. On the day the final vote was taken at the trial, tension

Reconstruction and Its Effects 381

ATLANTIC OCEAN

TEXAS 1870

ARKANSAS 1868

TENNESSEE (not in a military district)

1866

LOUISIANA 1868

FLORIDA 1868

MISS. 1870 ALABAMA

1868

GEORGIA 1870

SOUTH CAROLINA

1868

NORTH CAROLINA

1868

VIRGINIA 1870

30°N

90°W

80°W

N

S

EW

General John Schofield

General Daniel Sickles

General John Pope

General Edward Ord

General Philip Sheridan

Date state readmitted to the Union

0

0 150 300 kilometers

150 300 miles

1868

Southern Military Districts, 1867

!

The lucky holders of tickets like this one could see Johnson’s impeachment proceedings in 1868.

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER 1. Place Which former Confederate state was not included in any

militar y district? 2. Place When were the latest readmissions of former Confederate

states? Which states were readmitted in this year?

mounted in the jammed Senate galleries. Would the Radicals get the two-thirds vote needed for conviction? People in the Senate chamber held their breath as one by one the senators gave their verdicts. When the last senator declared “Not guilty,” the vote was 35 to 19, one short of the two-thirds majority needed.

ULYSSES S. GRANT ELECTED The Democrats knew that they could not win the 1868 presidential election with Johnson, so they nominated the wartime governor of New York, Horatio Seymour. Seymour’s Republican opponent was the Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant. In November, Grant won the presidency by a wide margin in the electoral college, but the popular vote was less decisive. Out of almost 6 million ballots cast, Grant received a majority of only 306,592 votes. About 500,000 Southern African Americans had voted, most of them for Grant, bringing home the importance of the African-American vote to the Republican Party.

After the election, the Radicals feared that pro-Confederate Southern whites might try to limit black suffrage. Therefore, the Radicals intro- duced the Fifteenth Amendment, which states that no one can be kept from voting because of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The amend- ment would also affect Northern states, many of which at this time barred African Americans from voting.

The Fifteenth Amendment, which was ratified by the states in 1870, was an important victory for the Radicals. Some Southern governments refused to enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and some white Southerners used violence to prevent African Americans from voting. In response, Congress passed the Enforcement Act of 1870, giving the federal government more power to punish those who tried to prevent African Americans from exercising their rights.

Such political achievements were not, however, the only changes taking place during Reconstruction. The period was also a time of profound social and economic changes in the South.

382 CHAPTER 12

•Andrew Johnson •Reconstruction •Radical Republicans

•Thaddeus Stevens •Wade-Davis Bill •Freedmen’s Bureau

•black codes •Fourteenth Amendment

•impeach •Fifteenth Amendment

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance. !

A campaign poster supporting the Republican ticket in the election of 1868

MAIN IDEA 2. TAKING NOTES

Fill in a chart like the one shown with features of presidential Reconstruction and congressional Reconstruction.

Why did presidential Reconstruction fail?

CRITICAL THINKING 3. HYPOTHESIZING

Describe how Reconstruction might have been different if Abraham Lincoln had lived.

4. INTERPRETING CHARTS Look again at the chart on page 380. What was the primar y focus of the major Reconstruction legislation?

5. EVALUATING DECISIONS Do you think the Radical Republicans were justified in impeaching President Johnson? Why or why not? Think About:

• the controversy over Reconstruction policies

• the meaning of the Tenure of Office Act

• Johnson’s vetoes

Presidential Reconstruction

Congressional Reconstruction

Reconstruction and Its Effects 383

Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

Reconstructing Society WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

•scalawag •carpetbagger •Hiram Revels

•sharecropping •tenant farming

Various groups contributed to the rebuilding of Southern society after the war.

Many African-American institutions, including colleges and churches, were established during Reconstruction.

Robert G. Fitzgerald, an African American, was born free in Delaware in 1840. During the Civil War, he served in both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy. In 1866, the Freedmen’s Bureau sent Fitzgerald to teach in a small Virginia town. His students were former slaves of all ages who were hungry to learn read- ing, writing, spelling, arithmetic, and geography.

A PERSONAL VOICE ROBERT G. FITZGERALD “ I came to Virginia one year ago on the 22nd of this month. Erected a school, organized and named the Freedman’s Chapel School. Now (June 29th) have about 60 who have been for several months engaged in the study of arithmetic, writing, etc. etc. This morning sent in my report accompanied with compositions from about 12 of my advanced writers instructed from the Alphabet up to their [present] condition, their progress has been surprisingly rapid.”

—quoted in Proud Shoes

Fitzgerald was one of many who labored diligently against the illiteracy and poverty that slavery had forced upon most African Americans. The need to help former slaves, however, was just one of many issues the nation confronted during Reconstruction.

Conditions in the Postwar South Under the congressional Reconstruction program, state constitutional conven- tions met and Southern voters elected new, Republican-dominated governments. In 1868, the former Confederate states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina reentered the Union (joining Tennessee, which had reentered earlier). The remaining four former Confederate states com- pleted the process by 1870. However, even after all the states were back in the Union, the Republicans did not end the process of Reconstruction because they wanted to make economic changes in the South.

One American's Story

TEACHER OF A FREED PEOPLE Robert Fitzgerald and Reconstruction

A

Southern families like this one lost their homes and most of their possessions because of economic problems after the Civil War.

!

!

Clearing battlefields of human remains was just one of many tasks facing Reconstruction governments.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

Identifying Problems

What were the main postwar problems that Reconstruction governments in the South had to solve?

PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS Because the Civil War was fought mostly on Southern soil, many of the new Southern state governments faced the challenge of physically rebuilding a battle-scarred region. The Union general William T. Sherman estimated that his troops alone had destroyed about $100 million worth of Confederate property in Georgia and South Carolina. Charred buildings, twisted railroad tracks, demolished bridges, neglected roads, and aban- doned farms had to be restored or replaced.

The economic effects of the war were devastating for the South. Property val- ues had plummeted. Those who had invested in Confederate bonds had little hope of recovering their money. Many small farms were ruined or in disrepair. As a result of these and other factors, Southerners of every economic class were poor- er than they had been at the start of the war. In one county of Alabama, for exam- ple, the wealth per capita among whites dropped from $18,000 in 1860 to about $3,000 in 1870.

Not only were many of the South’s economic resources destroyed, but the region’s population was devastated. More than one-fifth of the adult white men of the Confederacy died in the war. Many of those who did return from battle were maimed for life. Tens of thousands of Southern African-American men also died, either fighting for the Union or working in Confederate labor camps.

PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMS The Republican governments built roads, bridges, and railroads and established orphanages and institutions for the care of the mentally ill and disabled. They also created the first public school systems that most Southern states had ever had.

These ambitious projects—and the larger state governments that were required to administer them—were expensive. Few financial resources were avail- able, and Northern capitalists were reluctant to invest in the region. To raise

money, most Southern state governments increased taxes of all kinds, drain- ing existing resources and slowing the region’s recovery.

B

Politics in the Postwar South Another difficulty facing the new Republican governments was that different groups within the Republican Party in the South often had conflicting goals.

SCALAWAGS AND CARPETBAGGERS Although the terms scalawag and car- petbagger were negative labels imposed by political enemies, historians still use the terms when referring to the two groups. Democrats, opposed to the Republicans’ plan for Reconstruction, called white Southerners who joined the Republican Party scalawags. Some scalawags hoped to gain political offices with the help of the African-American vote and then use those offices to enrich them- selves. Southern Democrats unfairly pointed to these unscrupulous individuals as representative of all white Southern Republicans. Some so-called scalawags honestly thought that a Republican government offered the best chances for the South to rebuild and industrialize. The majority were small farmers who wanted to improve their economic and political position and to prevent the former wealthy planters from regaining power.

The Democrats used an equally unflattering name for the Northerners who moved to the South after the war—carpetbaggers. The name referred to the belief that Northerners arrived with so few belongings that everything could fit in a carpetbag, a small piece of luggage made of carpeting. Most white Southerners believed that the carpetbaggers wanted to exploit the South’s postwar turmoil for their own profit. However, like the scalawags, car- petbaggers had mixed motives. Some were Freedmen’s Bureau agents, teachers, and ministers who felt a moral duty to help former slaves. Others wanted to buy land or hoped to start new industries legitimately. Still oth- ers truly were the dishonest businesspeople whom the Southerners scorned.

Reconstruction and Its Effects 385

AnalyzingAnalyzing

UNWELCOME GUEST Of all the political cartoonists of the 19th centur y, Thomas Nast (1840–1902) had the greatest and most long-lasting influence. Nast created symbols that have become part of America’s visual heritage, symbols that include the Democratic donkey, the Republican elephant, and Santa Claus.

This cartoon from a Southern Democratic newspaper depicts Carl Schurz, a liberal Republican who advocated legal equality for African Americans. Schurz is shown as a carpetbagger trudging down a dusty Southern road as a crowd of people watch his arrival.

SKILLBUILDER Analyzing Political Cartoons 1. Is Schurz shown in a positive or negative light? How

can you tell? 2. Why do you think the cartoonist portrays the Southern

people standing in a group, far away from Schurz?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R24.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B Comparing

What were some similarities in the goals of scalawags and carpetbaggers? of carpetbaggers and African Americans?

Northerners were thought to carry their belongings in carpetbags such as this one. !

AFRICAN AMERICANS AS VOTERS African Americans—who made up the largest group of Southern Republicans —gained voting rights as a result of the Fifteenth Amendment. During Reconstruction, African-American men registered to vote for the first time; nine out of ten of them support- ed the Republican Party. Although most former slaves had little experi- ence with politics, and relatively few could read and write, they were eager to exercise their voting rights.

A PERSONAL VOICE WILLIAM BEVERLY NASH

“ We are not prepared for this suf- frage. But we can learn. Give a man tools and let him commence to use them and in time he will earn a trade. So it is with voting. We may not understand it at the start, but in time we shall learn to do our duty.”

— quoted in The Trouble They Seen: Black People Tell the Story of Reconstruction

In many areas of the South, almost 90 percent of the qualified African-American voters voted. Early in 1868, a Northerner in Alabama

observed that “in defiance of fatigue, hardship, hunger, and threats of employ- ers,” African Americans still flocked to the polls.

POLITICAL DIFFERENCES Conflicting goals among Republican Party members led to disunity in the party’s ranks. In particular, few scalawags shared the Republican commitment to civil rights and suffrage for African Americans. Over time, many of them returned to the Democratic Party.

In addition, some Republican governors began to appoint white Democrats to office in an attempt to persuade more white voters to vote Republican. This policy backfired—it convinced very few white Democrats to change parties, and it made blacks feel betrayed.

The new status of African Americans required fundamental changes in the attitudes of most Southern whites. Some whites supported the Republicans dur- ing Reconstruction and thought that the end of slavery would ultimately benefit the South. In addition, some Southern farmers and merchants thought that investment by Northerners would help the South recover from the war. Many white Southerners, though, refused to accept blacks’ new status and resisted the idea of equal rights. A Freedmen’s Bureau agent noted that some “Southern whites are quite indignant if they are not treated with the same deference as they were accustomed to” under the system of slavery.

Moreover, white Southerners had to accept defeat and the day-to-day involve- ment of Northerners in their lives. Eva B. Jones, the wife of a former Confederate officer, understood how difficult that adjustment was for many. In a letter to her mother-in-law, she expressed emotions that were typical of those felt by many ex- Confederates.

386 CHAPTER 12

!

This woodcut from a newspaper shows freedmen voting in Washington, D.C., June 1867.

A PERSONAL VOICE EVA B. JONES “ A joyless future of probable ignominy, poverty, and want is all that spreads before us. . . . You see, it is with no resigned spirit that I yield to the iron yoke our conqueror forges for his fallen and powerless foe. The degradation of a whole country and a proud people is indeed a mighty, an all-enveloping sorrow.”

— quoted in The Children of Pride: A True Stor y of Georgia and the Civil War

Not all white Southerners were willing to remain in the South. Several thou- sand planters emigrated to Europe, Mexico, and Brazil after the war.

Former Slaves Face Many Challenges Amid the turmoil of the South during Reconstruction, African Americans looked forward to new opportunities. Slaves had been forbidden to travel without permis- sion, to marry legally, to attend school, and to live and work as they chose. After the war, the 4 million former slaves gained the chance to take control of their lives.

NEW-WON FREEDOMS At first, many former slaves were cautious about testing the limits of their freedom. One freedman explained, “We was afraid to move. Just like . . . turtles after emancipation. Just stick our heads out to see how the land lay.” As the reality of freedom sank in, freed African Americans faced many deci- sions. Without land, jobs, tools, money, and with few skills besides those of farm- ing, what were they to do? How would they feed and clothe themselves? How and where would they live?

During slavery, slaves were forbidden to travel without a pass. White planters had enforced that rule by patrolling the roads. During Reconstruction, African Americans took advantage of their new free- dom to go where they wanted. One former slave from Texas explained the passion for traveling: “They seemed to want to get closer to freedom, so they’d know what it was—like it was a place or a city.”

The majority of freed African Americans who moved, however, were not just testing their freedom. Thousands were eager to leave plantations that they associated with oppres- sion and move to Southern towns and cities where they could find jobs. From 1865 to 1870, the African-American population of the ten largest Southern cities doubled.

REUNIFICATION OF FAMILIES Slavery had split many African-American families apart; spouses sometimes lived on different plantations, and children were often sep- arated from their parents. During Recon- struction, many freed African Americans took advantage of their new mobility to search for loved ones. In 1865, for exam- ple, one man walked more than 600 miles from Georgia to North Carolina, looking for his wife and children.

Reconstruction and Its Effects 387

C

!

Many former slaves bought charts like this one to keep track of their family histories.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C

Analyzing Motives

What do you think the former Confederates who emigrated hoped to accomplish?

The Freedmen’s Bureau worked to reunite families, and African- American newspapers printed poignant “Information Wanted” notices about missing relatives. Tragically, in many cases the lost family members were never found. However, freed persons, who had been denied legal unions under slavery, could now marry legally, and raise children without the fear that someone would sell them. For African Americans, reconstructing their families was an important part of establishing an identity as a free people.

EDUCATION Because slaves had been punished if they tried to learn how to read and write, nearly 80 percent of freed African Americans over the age of 20 were illiterate in 1870. During Reconstruction, however, freed people of all ages—grandparents, parents, and children alike—sought education.

African Americans established educational institutions with assistance from a number of public and private organizations, including the Freedmen’s Bureau and African-American church- es. One college founded during Reconstruction was Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia. By 1870, African Americans had spent more than $1 million on education. Initially, most teachers in black schools were Northern whites, about half of whom were women. However, educated African Americans like Robert G. Fitzgerald also became teachers, and by 1869, black teachers outnumbered whites in these schools.

Some white Southerners, outraged by the idea of educated African Americans, responded vio- lently. In one instance, the former slave Washington Eager was murdered because, as his brother explained, he had become “too big a man . . . he [could] write and read and put it down himself.” Despite the threat of violence, freed people were determined to learn. By 1877, more than 600,000 African Americans were enrolled in elementary schools.

CHURCHES AND VOLUNTEER GROUPS During slavery many plantation slaves had attended white churches and camp meetings with their owners. Resenting the preachers who urged them to obey their masters, the slaves had also held their own religious gatherings called “praise meetings.”

After the war many African Americans founded their own churches, which were usual- ly Baptist or Methodist, and held services similar to the earlier praise meetings. Because churches were the principal institutions that African Americans fully controlled, African-American ministers emerged as influential community leaders. They often played an important role in the broader political life of the country as well.

Among former slaves, younger generations sometimes helped educate their elders. A young woman in Mt. Meigs, Alabama, teaches her mother to read. !

School Enrollment of 5 - to 19 -Year- Olds, 1850–1880

Source: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970

Pe rc

en t

en ro

lle d

1880187018601850

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

White Black and other races

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Graphs How might you explain why white school enrollment decreased between 1860 and 1870 while enrollment of others increased?

388 CHAPTER 12

Besides organizing their own schools and churches, freed African Americans formed thou- sands of volunteer organizations. They established their own fire companies, trade associations, politi- cal organizations, and drama groups, to name just a few. These groups not only fostered independence but also provided financial and emotional support for their members, while offering African Americans opportunities to gain the leadership skills that slav- ery had often denied them.

POLITICS AND AFRICAN AMERICANS The period from 1865 to 1877 saw growing African-American involvement in politics at all levels. For the first time, African Americans held office in local, state, and federal gov- ernment. At first, most African Americans in politics were freeborn. Many of these black officeholders were ministers or teachers who had been educated in the North. By 1867, however, former slaves were playing an increasing role in political organizations and were winning a greater number of offices.

Nevertheless, even though there were almost as many black citizens as white citizens in the South, African- American officeholders remained in the minority. Only South Carolina had a black majority in the state legislature. No Southern state elected an African-American governor. Moreover, out of 125 Southerners elected to the U.S. Congress during congressional Reconstruction, only 16 were African Americans. Among these was Hiram Revels, the first African-American senator.

LAWS AGAINST SEGREGATION By the end of 1866, most of the Republican Southern state governments had repealed the black codes. African-American legislators took social equal- ity a step further by proposing bills to desegregate public trans- portation. In 1871, Texas passed a law prohibiting railroads from making distinctions between groups of passengers, and several other states followed suit. However, many antisegrega- tion laws were not enforced. State orphanages, for example, usually had separate facilities for white and black children.

African Americans themselves focused more on building up the black community than on total integration. By estab- lishing separate African-American institutions—such as schools, churches, and political and social organizations— they were able to focus on African-American leadership and escape the interference of the whites who had so long dom- inated their lives.

Changes in the Southern Economy When asked to explain the idea of freedom, Garrison Frazier, a former slave turned Baptist minister, said that freedom consisted in “placing us where we could reap the fruit of our own labor.” To accomplish this, Frazier said, freed African Americans needed “to have land, and turn it and till it.” Few former slaves, however, had enough money to buy land, and those who did have cash were frequently frustrated by whites’ refusal to sell property to them.

KEY PLAYERKEY PLAYER

HIRAM REVELS 1822–1901

Hiram Revels of Mississippi (pic- tured above on the far left, with—left to right—the African- American representatives Benjamin S. Turner of Alabama, Robert C. De Large of South Carolina, Josiah T. Walls of Florida, Jefferson M. Long of Georgia, Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina, and Robert Brown Elliott of South Carolina) was born of free parents in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Because he could not obtain an education in the South, he attended Knox College in Illinois. As an African Methodist Episcopal minister, he recruited African Americans to fight for the Union during the Civil War and also ser ved as an army chaplain.

In 1865, Revels settled in Mississippi. He ser ved on the Natchez city council and then was elected to Mississippi’s state senate in 1869. In 1870, Revels became the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate. Ironically, he held the seat that had once belonged to Jefferson Davis.

D

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D Summarizing

How did freed African Americans try to improve their lives?

Reconstruction and Its Effects 389

40 ACRES AND A MULE In January 1865, during the Civil War, General Sherman had promised the freed slaves who followed his army 40 acres per family and the use of army mules. Soon afterward, about 40,000 freed persons settled on 400,000 abandoned or forfeited acres in coastal Georgia and South Carolina. The freed African Americans farmed their plots until August 1865, when President Johnson ordered that the original landowners be allowed to reclaim their land and evict the former slaves.

Many freed African Americans asserted that they deserved part of the planters’ land. An Alabama black con- vention declared, “The property which they hold was near- ly all earned by the sweat of our brows.” Some Radical Republicans agreed. Thaddeus Stevens called for the gov- ernment to confiscate plantations and to redistribute part of the land to former slaves. However, many Republicans considered it wrong to seize citizens’ private property. As a result, Congress either rejected land-reform proposals or passed weak legislation. An example was the 1866 Southern Homestead Act. Although it set aside 44 million acres in the South for freed blacks and loyal whites, the land was swampy and unsuitable for farming. Furthermore, few homesteaders had the resources—seed, tools, plows, and horses—to farm successfully.

RESTORATION OF PLANTATIONS Although African Americans and poor whites wanted to own small farms, the planter class wanted to restore the plantation system, in which many acres were devoted to a single profitable cash crop, such as cotton. Some wealthy Northern merchants and owners of textile mills encouraged the planters in their efforts to reestablish plantations and resume widespread cotton production.

Planters claimed that to make the plantation system work, they needed to have almost complete control over their laborers.

Before the abolition of slavery, planters had forced young and old and men and women to work in the fields for extremely long hours. Now the planters feared that they might not be able to make a profit, since they had to pay their laborers and could no longer force field hands to put in such brutally long workdays. In addition, many former slaveholders deeply resented having to negotiate for the ser- vices of former slaves.

Planters also faced a labor shortage, caused by a number of factors. The high death toll of the war had reduced the number of able-bodied workers. Many African-American women and children refused to work in the fields after they

were freed. Finally, many freed persons felt that raising cotton under the direction of white overseers was too much like slavery.

As an alternative, some former slaves worked in mills or on railroad-con- struction crews. Others tried subsistence farming—growing just enough food for their own families. To stop this trend, white planters were determined to keep the former slaves from getting land that they could use to support themselves.

390 CHAPTER 12

NOWNOW THENTHEN

E

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

E

Identifying Problems

What caused land-reform proposals to fail?

REPARATIONS FOR SLAVERY In the year 1867, Representative Thaddeus Stevens introduced a bill that, had it been successful, would have granted each freed adult male slave 40 acres of land and $100. Since then, a number of other attempts have been made to legislate reparations— amends, usually financial—for the evils of slavery.

In 1989, Representative John Conyers of Michigan (shown above) proposed the first in a series of bills that would create a commission to study the impact of slavery. If the committee found that reparations were called for, it would recommend appropriate measures for Congress to take. In 1999, Conyers introduced a bill that would require the government to issue a formal apology for slavery. So far, these proposals and others like them have not been passed into law.

However, a group of prominent class-action lawyers met in 2000 to begin studying the issue, intending to bring suit against the government and against busi- nesses that profited from slavery,

Some victims of postslavery racism have actually been grant- ed reparations. Early in 2001, a state commission in Oklahoma awarded $12 million to black sur- vivors and victims’ descendants of a deadly 1921 Tulsa race riot.

They plant a crop. (Yields

are low, and the same crop year

after year depletes the soil.)

Sharecroppers buy food, clothing, and supplies on credit.

Sharecroppers sell what crops

remain but are at the mercy of

low market prices.

Sharecropping

A CYCLE OF POVERTY Sharecroppers were supposed to have a chance to climb the economic ladder, but by the time they had shared their crops and paid their debts, they rarely had any money left. A sharecropper often became tied to one plantation, having no choice but to work until his or her debts were paid.

Sharecroppers are given small plots of land and seed by the landowners.

Sharecroppers must give the

landlords a large share of the

harvested crops.

Sharecroppers pay off accounts. Some landlords and merchants charge unjust fines for late

payments.

!

A sharecropper works a Georgia cotton field in 1870.

A few sharecroppers with leftover cash

might become tenant farmers.

SHARECROPPING AND TENANT FARMING Without their own land, freed African Americans could not grow crops to sell or to feed their families. Economic necessity thus forced many former slaves to sign labor contracts with planters. In exchange for wages, housing, and food, freedmen worked in the fields. Although the Freedmen’s Bureau promoted this wage-labor system, the arrangement did not satisfy either freedmen or planters. On the one hand, freedmen thought that the wages were too low and that white employers had too much control over them. On the other hand, planters often lacked sufficient cash to pay workers. These conditions led planters and laborers to experiment with two alternative arrangements: sharecropping and tenant farming.

In the system of sharecropping, landowners divided their land and gave each worker—either freed African American or poor white—a few acres, along with seed and tools. At harvest time, each worker gave a share of his crop, usual- ly half, to the landowner. This share paid the owner back and ended the arrange- ment until it was renewed the following year.

In theory, “croppers” who saved a little and bought their own tools could drive a better bargain with landowners. They might even rent land for cash from the planters, and keep all their harvest, in a system known as tenant farming. Eventually they might move up the economic ladder to become outright owners of their farms.

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Charts How did the sharecropping system make it hard for small farmers to improve their standard of living?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R27.

391

The arrangement seldom worked that way in practice, how- ever. Most tenant farmers bought their supplies on credit, often from merchants who charged them inflated prices. Farmers rarely harvested enough crops to pay for both past debts and future supplies. The end result was that very few farmers saved enough cash to buy land.

COTTON NO LONGER KING Another economic change turned Southern agriculture upside down: cotton was no longer king. During the war, demand for Southern cotton had begun to drop as other countries increased their cotton production. As a result, prices plummeted after the war. In 1869, the price of cotton was 16.5 cents per pound. By the late 1870s, the price

had fallen to about 8 cents per pound. Instead of diversifying—or varying—their crops, Southern planters tried to make up for the lower prices by growing more cotton—an oversupply that only drove down prices even further.

The South’s agricultural problems did lead to attempts to diversify the region’s economy. Textile mills sprang up, and a new industry—tobacco-product manufacturing—took hold. Diversification helped raise the average wage in the South, though it was still much lower than that of Northern workers.

At the end of the Civil War, most of the state banks in the South were sad- dled with Confederate debts—loans made to the Confederate government. The banks awaited repayment that, in most cases, would never come. In the follow- ing years, falling cotton prices and mounting planters’ debts caused many banks to fail. The only credit that Southerners in rural areas could get was that offered by local merchants. Despite efforts to improve the Southern economy, the devas- tating economic impact of the Civil War rippled through Southern life into the 20th century.

Many whites, frustrated by their loss of political power and by the South’s economic stagnation, took out their anger on African Americans. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, certain white groups embarked on a campaign to terrorize African Americans into giving up their political rights and their efforts at eco- nomic improvement.

392 CHAPTER 12

•scalawag •carpetbagger

•Hiram Revels •sharecropping

•tenant farming 1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

MAIN IDEA 2. TAKING NOTES

In a chart like the one shown, list five problems facing the South after the Civil War and at least one attempted solution for each one.

CRITICAL THINKING 3. FORMING GENERALIZATIONS

How did the Civil War weaken the Southern economy? Give examples to support your answer.

4. ANALYZING ISSUES Thaddeus Stevens believed that giving land to former slaves was more important than giving them the vote. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

5. EVALUATING Which accomplishment of African Americans during Reconstruction do you consider most significant? Explain your choice. Think About:

• the development of a free African-American community

• the lingering effects of slaver y • opportunities for leadership

F

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

F

Analyzing Causes

What factors contributed to the stagnation of the Southern economy?

!

One successful Southern industry was the manufacture of tobacco products.

Problem Attempted Solution

Reconstruction and Its Effects 393

Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

One American's Story

The Collapse of Reconstruction

WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

•Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

•panic of 1873 •redemption •Rutherford B. Hayes

•Samuel J. Tilden •Compromise of 1877

•home rule

Southern opposition to Rad- ical Reconstruction, along with economic problems in the North, ended Recon- struction.

The failure of Congress and the Supreme Court to protect the rights of African Americans during Reconstruction delayed blacks’ achievement of full civil rights by over a century.

In 1868, white Georgia legislators, who were in the majority in both houses, expelled 27 black members of the state senate and House of Representatives. The new state constitution gave African Americans the right to vote, they argued, but not to hold office. Outraged by this expulsion, Henry M. Turner, an African-American legislator, addressed the Georgia House of Representatives.

A PERSONAL VOICE HENRY M. TURNER “ Whose Legislature is this? Is it a white man’s Legislature or is it a black man’s . . . ? . . . It is said that Congress never gave us the right to hold office. I want to know . . . if the Reconstruction measures did not base their action on the ground that no distinction should be made on account of race, color or previous condition! . . . We have built up your country. We have worked in your fields, and garnered your harvests, for two hundred and fifty years! Do we ask you for compensation? . . . We are willing to let the dead past bury its dead; but we ask you, now, for our RIGHTS.”

— quoted in The Trouble They Seen: Black People Tell the Stor y of Reconstruction

The expelled legislators petitioned the U.S. Congress and were eventually reinstated in office. But by the time Congress acted, more than a year later, the terms of Turner and his colleagues were almost at an end.

Opposition to Reconstruction White Southerners who took direct action against African-American participation in government were in the minority. Most white Southerners swallowed whatever resentment they felt over African Americans’ change in status. However, some bitter Southern whites relied on violence to keep African Americans from participating in politics.

!

Henry M. Turner became a leading proponent of African-American emigration to Africa.

A

KU KLUX KLAN Founded as a social club for Confederate veterans, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) started in Tennessee in 1866. As membership in the group spread rapidly through the South, many of the new chapters turned into violent terrorist organiza- tions. By 1868, the Klan existed in nearly every Southern state. Its overarching goal was to restore white supremacy. Its method was to prevent African Americans from exercising their political rights. Between 1868 and 1871, the Klan and other secret groups killed thousands of men, women, and chil- dren, and burned schools, churches, and property.

Abram Colby, who organized a branch of Georgia’s Equal Rights Association and later served as a Republican member of the Georgia legislature, testified before Congress about Klan atrocities.

A PERSONAL VOICE ABRAM COLBY “ [The Klan] broke my door open, took me out of bed, took me to the woods and whipped me three hours or more and left me for dead. They said to me, ‘Do you think you will ever vote another damned rad- ical ticket?’ . . . I supposed they would kill me any- how. I said, ‘If there was an election tomorrow, I would vote the radical ticket.’ They set in and whipped me a thousand licks more, with sticks and straps that had buckles on the ends of them.”

—quoted in Testimony Taken by the Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States

While the vast majority of the Klan’s victims were African-American, whites who tried to help African Americans—whether by educating them, renting land to them, or buying their crops—were also in danger.

Another Klan objective was to turn the Republicans, who had established the Reconstruction governments, out of power. The North Carolina state senator John Stephens, a white Republican, answered warnings that his life was in danger by saying that some 3,000 African-American voters had supported him “at the risk of persecution and starvation” and that he would not abandon them. Stephens was assassinated in 1870.

While Klan members tried to conceal their identities when they struck, Southern Democrats openly used violence to intimidate Republicans before the 1875 state election in Mississippi. Democrats rioted and attacked Republican lead- ers and prominent African Americans. Their terrorist campaign frightened the African-American majority away from the polls, and white Democratic candidates swept the election. The Democrats used similar tactics to win the 1876 elections in Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana.

ECONOMIC PRESSURE The Klan and other secret groups tried to prevent African Americans from making economic, as well as political, progress. African Americans who owned their own land or who worked in occupations other than agriculture were subject to attacks and destruction of property.

In fact, economic necessity forced most former slaves—who had little money or training in other occupations—to work for whites as wage laborers or share- croppers. Some white Southerners refused to hire or do business with African Americans who were revealed by election officials to have voted Republican. The fear of economic reprisals kept many former slaves from voting at all.

394 CHAPTER 12

Klan members wore costumes to conceal their identities and to appear more menacing. These Klan members were captured in an Alabama riot in 1868.

!

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

Analyzing Motives

What were the goals of the KKK?

Reconstruction and Its Effects 395

B

Vocabulary amnesty: a pardon granted by a government, especially for political offenses

LEGISLATIVE RESPONSE To curtail Klan violence and Democratic intimi- dation, Congress passed a series of Enforcement Acts in 1870 and 1871. One act provided for the federal supervision of elections in Southern states. Another act gave the president the power to use federal troops in areas where the Klan was active. However, President Grant was not aggressive in his use of the power given to him by the Enforcement Acts, and in 1882, the Supreme Court ruled that the 1871 Enforcement Act was unconstitutional.

Although federal enforcement of anti-Klan legislation was limited, it did con- tribute to a decrease in the Klan’s activities in the late 1870s. However, the reason for the reduction in Klan violence was the Klan’s own success—by 1880, terrorist groups had managed to restore white supremacy throughout the South. The Klan no longer needed such organized activity to limit the political and civil rights of most African Americans.

SHIFTS IN POLITICAL POWER By passing the Enforcement Acts, Congress seemed to shore up Republican power. But shortly after these acts went into effect, Congress passed legislation that severely weakened the Republican Party in the South.

With the Amnesty Act, passed in May 1872, Congress returned the right to vote and the right to hold federal and state offices—revoked by the Fourteenth Amendment—to about 150,000 former Confederates, who would almost certain- ly vote Democratic. In the same year Congress allowed the Freedmen’s Bureau to expire, believing that it had fulfilled its purpose. As a result of these actions, Southern Democrats had an opportunity to shift the balance of political power in their favor.

Scandals and Money Crises Hurt Republicans As Southern Republicans struggled to maintain their hold on Reconstruction governments, widespread political cor- ruption in the federal government weakened their party. During the early 1870s, scandals plagued the Grant admin- istration. These scandals diverted public attention away from conditions in the South.

FRAUD AND BRIBERY President Grant was considered an honest man. However, he had had no political experi- ence before becoming president and found it difficult to believe that others might use him for their own political advantage. When making political appointments, he often selected friends and acquaintances rather than people of proven ability. Too frequently, Grant’s appointees turned out to be dishonest.

Beginning in 1872, a series of long-simmering scandals associated with Grant’s administration boiled over. First, a newspaper exposed how the Crédit Mobilier, a construc- tion company working for the Union Pacific Railroad, had skimmed off large profits from the railroad’s government contract. Implicated were several top Republicans, includ- ing Vice-President Schuyler Colfax.

REPUBLICAN UNITY SHATTERED A group of Repub- licans, angered by the corruption, called for honest, effi- cient government. They formed the Liberal Republican Party in 1872, hoping to oust Grant in that year’s presi- dential election.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

Identifying Problems

Why was the government weak in its ability to confront the Klan?

WORLD STAGEWORL D STAGE

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

HAITI

THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Although the United States focused largely on domestic prob- lems during Reconstruction, the nation did have one significant dealing with a foreign power. In 1870, President Grant attempted to annex the Dominican Republic, one of two nations sharing the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (the other being Haiti).

This action aroused a storm of controversy. The plan’s support- ers believed that annexation would increase Caribbean trade and spread “the blessings of our free institutions.” Opponents pointed out that the Dominican Republic was caught up in a civil war and felt that the United States should avoid involvement in the conflict. The Senate reject- ed the annexation treaty.

C

As the 1872 presidential election approached, the Liberal Republicans held a separate convention. They chose Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune and a vocal pre-Civil War abolitionist, as their candidate. He had sup- ported some Radical Republican causes—abolition and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. However, he had broken with Radicals by calling for uni- versal amnesty for Confederates and for an end to military rule in the South. Claiming that Reconstruction governments had achieved their purpose, he want- ed former slaves to fend for themselves.

Believing that it would take a united effort to oust Grant, the Democrats also nominated Greeley. Nevertheless, Greeley lost the 1872 presidential election to Grant by a wide margin. “I was the worst beaten man that ever ran for that high office,” Greeley said, “and I have been assailed so bitterly that I hardly know whether I was running for President or the penitentiary.” Physically exhausted by his rigorous campaign, Greeley died a few weeks after the election—before the electoral college made his defeat official.

Although the Liberal Republicans did not win the White House, they did weaken the Radicals’ hold over the Republican Party. The breakdown of Republican unity made it even harder for the Radicals to continue to impose their Reconstruction plan on the South.

CONTINUED SCANDAL Despite the rift in the Republican party that resulted from the scandals, corruption in Grant’s administration continued. In 1875, the so-called Whiskey Ring was exposed. Internal-revenue collectors and other offi- cials accepted bribes from whiskey distillers who wanted to avoid paying taxes on their product—a conspiracy that defrauded the federal government of millions of dollars. One of the 238 persons indicted in this scandal was Grant’s private secre- tary, General Orville E. Babcock. Grant refused to believe that such a close associ- ate was guilty and helped him escape conviction.

Finally, in 1876, an investigation revealed that Secretary of War William W. Belknap had accepted bribes from merchants who wanted to keep their profitable trading concessions in Indian territory. The House of Representatives impeached Belknap, who promptly resigned. The public also learned that the secretary of the navy had taken bribes from shipbuilders and the secretary of the interior had had shady dealings with land speculators. As the evidence mounted, there was increasing disgust with the blatant corruption in the Grant administration, and Grant did not seek reelection in 1876.

396 CHAPTER 12

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C Summarizing

Give examples of corruption in the Grant administration.

AnalyzingAnalyzing

SCANDAL IN THE GRANT ADMINISTRATION Political cartoonists had a field day with Grant’s troubles and often criticized the president’s refusal to believe that his associates were dishonest. In this cartoon, President Grant pulls packets labeled with the names of various scandals out of a barrel. The caption—“I hope I get to the bottom soon”— suggests that the corruption in Grant’s administration runs deep and that there may be more scandals to come.

SKILLBUILDER Analyzing Political Cartoons 1. What political scandals can you identify from the packets lying outside

the barrel? 2. Why do you think the cartoonist portrayed Grant as having his head

stuck in a barrel?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R24. U. S. Grant: “ I hope I get to the bottom soon.”

D

Economic Turmoil As if political scandals were not enough for the country to deal with, a wave of economic troubles hit the nation in 1873.

THE PANIC OF 1873 The economy had been expanding since the end of the Civil War, and investors became convinced that business profits would continue to increase indefinitely. Eager to take advantage of new business opportunities in the South, Northern and Southern investors borrowed increasing amounts of money and built new facilities as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, many of those who invested in these new businesses took on more debt than they could afford. A Philadelphia banker named Jay Cooke invest- ed heavily in railroads. Not enough investors bought shares in Cooke’s railroad lines to cover his ballooning construction costs, and he could not pay his debts. In September 1873, Cooke’s banking firm, the nation’s largest dealer in govern- ment securities, went bankrupt, setting off a series of financial failures known as the panic of 1873. Smaller banks closed, and the stock market temporarily collapsed. Within a year, 89 railroads went broke. By 1875, more than 18,000 companies had fold- ed. The panic triggered a five-year economic depression—a period of reduced business activity and high unemployment—in which 3 million workers lost their jobs.

CURRENCY DISPUTE The economic depression following the panic of 1873 also fueled a dispute over currency. This dispute had its roots in the Civil War. During the war, the federal government had begun to issue greenbacks, paper money that was not backed by equal value in gold. When the war ended, many financial experts advocated withdrawing the greenbacks and returning the nation completely to a currency backed by gold. This action would have reduced the number of dollars in circulation.

In contrast, Southern and Western farmers and manufacturers wanted the government to issue even more greenbacks. They believed that “easy money”—a large money supply—would help them pay off their debts.

In 1875, Congress passed the Specie Resumption Act, which promised to put the country back on the gold standard. This act sparked further debate over mon- etary policies. As the economy improved, beginning in 1878, the controversy died down. However, the passionate debate over the money question in the 1870s was one of many factors that drew the attention of voters and politicians away from Reconstruction.

Judicial and Popular Support Fades In 1874, a Southern Democratic senator wrote, “Radicalism is dissolving—going to pieces.” Indeed, political scandals, economic problems, and the restoration of political rights to former Confederate Democrats seriously weakened the Radical Republicans. In addition, the Supreme Court began to undo some of the social and political changes that the Radicals had made.

Reconstruction and Its Effects 397

This 1873 cartoon portrays the panic as a health officer, sweeping garbage out of Wall Street. The trash is labeled “rotten railways,” and “shaky banks,” among other things.

!

Background See gold standard on page R41 in the Economics Handbook.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D

Predicting Effects

What effect do you think the panic of 1873 might have had on the Republican Party?

SUPREME COURT DECISIONS Although Congress had passed important laws to protect the political and civil rights of African Americans, the Supreme Court began to take away those same protections. During the 1870s, the Court issued a series of decisions that undermined both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

In the Slaughterhouse cases of 1873, for example, the Court decided that the Fourteenth Amendment protected only the rights people had by virtue of their citizenship in the United States, such as the right of interstate travel and the right to federal protection when traveling on the high seas and abroad. The Court con- tended that most of Americans’ basic civil rights were obtained through their citizenship in a state and that the amendment did not protect those rights.

Another setback for Reconstruction was U.S. v. Cruikshank in 1876, in which the Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment did not give the federal govern- ment the right to punish individual whites who oppressed blacks. The same year, in U.S. v. Reese, the Court ruled in favor of officials who had barred African Americans from voting, stating that the Fifteenth Amendment did not “confer the right of suffrage on anyone” but merely listed grounds on which states could not deny suffrage. By the late 1870s, the Supreme Court’s restrictive rulings had narrowed the scope of these amendments so much that the federal government no longer had much power to protect the rights of African Americans. Although the Supreme Court would later overturn them, these decisions impeded African Americans’ efforts to gain equality for years to come.

NORTHERN SUPPORT FADES As the Supreme Court rejected Reconstruction policies in the 1870s, Northern voters grew indifferent to events in the South. Weary of the “Negro question” and sick of “carpetbag government,” many Northern voters shifted their attention to such national concerns as the panic of 1873 and the corruption in Grant’s administration. In addition, a desire for reconciliation between the regions spread through the North. Although political violence continued in the South and African Americans were denied civil and political rights, the tide of public opinion in the North began to turn against Reconstruction policies.

As both judicial and public support decreased, Republicans began to back away from their commitment to Reconstruction. The impassioned Radicals who had led the fight for congressional Reconstruction, Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens, were dead. Business interests diverted the attention of both moderates and Radicals, and scalawags and carpetbaggers deserted the Republican Party. Moreover, Republicans gradually came to believe that government could not impose the moral and social changes needed for former slaves to make progress in the South. As a result, Republicans slowly retreated from the policies of Reconstruction.

398 CHAPTER 12

F

E

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

E

Analyzing Effects

How did the Slaughterhouse and Reese decisions affect African Americans’ pursuit of civil rights?

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

F

Analyzing Issues

Why did Northern attitudes toward Reconstruction change?

Date Decision(s) Ruling 1873 Slaughterhouse cases Most civil rights were ruled to be state, rather than

federal, rights and therefore unprotected by the Fourteenth Amendment.

1876 U.S. v. Cruikshank The Fourteenth Amendment was ruled not to grant the federal government power to punish whites who oppressed blacks.

1876 U.S. v. Reese The Fifteenth Amendment was determined not to grant voting rights to anyone, but rather to restrict types of voter discrimination.

Civil Rights Setbacks in the Supreme Court

Reconstruction and Its Effects 399

Democrats “Redeem” the South Between 1869 and 1875, Democrats recaptured the state governments of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. As a result of redemption—as the Democrats called their return to power in the South—and the national election of 1876, congressional Reconstruction came to an end.

ELECTION OF 1876 In 1876, Grant decided not to run for a third term. The Republicans then chose the stodgy governor of Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes, as their candi- date. Smelling victory, the Democrats put up one of their ablest leaders, Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York. Tilden had helped clean up the graft that had flourished in New York City under the corrupt Tweed Ring.

As most people had expected, Tilden won the popular vote. However, he fell one short of the number of electoral votes needed to win, and 20 electoral votes were disputed. Congress appointed a commission to deal with the prob- lem. The commission, which had a Republican majority, gave the election to the Republican, Hayes, even though he had received a minority of the popular vote.

For the first time in U.S. history, a candidate who had lost the popular election became president. How did it hap- pen? In the oldest tradition of politics, party leaders made a deal. Although Republicans controlled the electoral com- mission, Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, which had to approve the election results. Southern Democrats were willing to accept Hayes if they could get something in return.

The price they demanded was, first of all, the with- drawal of federal troops from Louisiana and South Carolina—two of the three Southern states that Republicans still governed. Second, the Democrats wanted federal money to build a railroad from Texas to the West Coast and to improve Southern rivers, harbors, and bridges. Third, they wanted Hayes to appoint a conservative Southerner to the cabinet. In the Compromise of 1877, Republican leaders agreed to these demands, and Hayes was peacefully inaugurated. The acceptance of this compromise meant the end of Reconstruction in the South.

HOME RULE IN THE SOUTH After the 1876 election, Republicans and Democrats disputed the results in Louisiana’s and South Carolina’s elections, and both states ended up with two rival state governments! When Hayes later removed the federal troops in those states, the Democrats took over. Florida also had questionable election returns, but the state supreme court ruled in favor of the Democrats. As a result, Republicans no longer controlled the government of any Southern state.

The Democrats had achieved their long-desired goal of home rule—the ability to run state governments without federal intervention. These so-called Redeemers set out to rescue the South from what they viewed as a decade of mis- management by Northerners, Republicans, and African Americans. They passed laws that restricted the rights of African Americans, wiped out social programs, slashed taxes, and dismantled public schools.

SPOTLIGHTSPOTLIGHT HISTORICALHISTORICAL

THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE AND THE 1876 ELECTION

The nation was in such turmoil over the disputed 1876 election that people talked of another civil war. Of the 20 contested electoral votes, 19 came from Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana. Republican officials in those states threw out election returns from counties where violence kept Republican voters from the polls. The Democrats refused to accept the altered returns, and each party sent its own set of results to Washington, D.C.

Fortunately for the countr y, the warlike slogans proved to be just political rhetoric. After a joint ses- sion of Congress met to witness the counting of electoral votes, which did not settle the dispute, the parties struck a deal—the Compromise of 1877.

!

An advertisement expresses ambivalence about the two candidates in the 1876 election.

G

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

G

Analyzing Causes

How did the Compromise of 1877 bring about the end of Reconstruction?

“Reconstruction was a success.” Reconstruction was an attempt to create a social and political revolution despite economic collapse and the opposition of much of the white South. Under these conditions its accomplishments were extraordinar y.

• African Americans only a few years removed from slaver y participated at all levels of government.

• State governments had some success in solving social problems; for example, they funded public school systems open to all citizens.

• African Americans established institutions that had been denied them during slaver y: schools, churches, and families.

• The breakup of the plantation system led to some redistribution of land.

• Congress passed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which helped African Americans to attain full civil rights in the 20th centur y.

W. E. B. Du Bois summa- rized the achievements of the period this way: “[I]t was Negro loyalty and the Negro vote alone that restored the South to the Union; estab- lished the new democracy, both for white and black.”

Despite the loss of ground that followed Recon- struction, African Americans succeeded in car ving out a measure of independence within Southern society.

“Reconstruction was a failure.” Federal and state governments failed to secure the rights guaranteed to former slaves by constitutional amendments.

• State Republican parties could not preser ve black-white voter coalitions that would have enabled them to stay in power and continue political reform.

• Radical Republican governments were unable or unwilling to enact land reform or to provide for- mer slaves with the economic resources needed to break the cycle of poverty.

• Racial bias was a national, not a regional, prob- lem. After the Panic of 1873, Northerners were more concerned with economic problems than with the problems of former slaves.

• The Supreme Court undermined the power of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

At the end of Recon- struction, former slaves found themselves once again in a subordinate position in society. The historian Eric Foner con- cludes, “Whether mea- sured by the dreams inspired by emancipation or the more limited goals of securing blacks’ rights as citizens. . . . Recon- struction can only be judged a failure.”

C O U N T E R P O I N TC O U N T E R P O I N TP O I N TP O I N T

400 CHAPTER 12

LEGACY OF RECONSTRUCTION Despite the efforts of African Americans and many Radical Republicans, Reconstruction ended without much real progress in the battle against discrimination. Charles Harris, an African-American Union Army veteran and former Alabama legislator, expressed his frustration in an 1877 letter.

A PERSONAL VOICE CHARLES HARRIS “ We obey laws; others make them. We support state educational institutions, whose doors are virtually closed against us. We support asylums and hospitals, and our sick, deaf, dumb, or blind are met at the doors by . . . unjust discriminations. . . . From these and many other oppressions . . . our people long to be free.”

— quoted in American Colonization Society Papers in the Congressional Record

Although Radical Republicans wanted to help the former slaves, they made several serious mistakes. First, they assumed that extending certain civil rights to freed persons would enable them to protect themselves through participation in government, especially in lawmaking. However, Congress did not adequately pro- tect those rights, and the Supreme Court undermined them. Second, the Radicals balked at distributing land to former slaves, which prevented them from becoming

THINKING CRITICALLYTHINKING CRITICALLY

1. CONNECT TO HISTORY Evaluating What are the two major arguments each side makes as to whether Reconstruction was a success or failure? Which per- spective do you agree with, and why?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R16.

2. CONNECT TO TODAY Analyzing Issues One historian has referred to Reconstruction as “America’s Unfinished Revolution.” Is the U.S. still dealing with issues left over from that period? Research Reconstruction’s legacy using newspapers, magazines, or other sources. Make a short persuasive presentation in class.

Reconstruction and Its Effects 401

•Ku Klux Klan (KKK) •panic of 1873

•redemption •Rutherford B. Hayes

•Samuel J. Tilden •Compromise of 1877

•home rule 1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

MAIN IDEA 2. TAKING NOTES

Re-create the time line below. Fill in the major events that ended Reconstruction.

Which event do you think was most significant and why?

CRITICAL THINKING 3. ANALYZING EFFECTS

What were the positive and negative effects of Reconstruction?

4. EVALUATING LEADERSHIP During Reconstruction, was the presidency weak or strong? Support your answer with details from the text.

5. EVALUATING DECISIONS Do you think the political deal to settle the election of 1876 was an appropriate solution? Explain why or why not. Think About:

• the causes of the conflict over the election

• other possible solutions to the controversy

• the impact of the settlement

Medical students at Howard University, an African-American institution founded in 1867

event one

event two event four

event three

!

economically independent of the landowning planter class. Finally, the Radicals did not fully realize the extent to which deep-seated racism in society would weaken the changes that Congress had tried to make.

But congressional Reconstruction was not a complete failure. The Thirteenth Amendment permanently abolished slavery in all of the states. Furthermore, Radical Republicans did succeed in passing the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and although the Supreme Court narrowed the interpretation of the amendments during the 1870s, they remained part of the Constitution. In the 20th century, the amendments provided the necessary constitutional foundation for important civil rights legislation.

During Reconstruction, African Americans had founded many black colleges and volunteer organizations, and the percentage of literate African Americans had gradually increased. The memory of this time of expanding opportunities lived on in the African-American community and inspired the fight to regain civil rights.

TERMS & NAMES For each term or name below, write a sentence explaining its connection to Reconstruction.

1. Andrew Johnson 6. carpetbagger 2. Radical Republicans 7. Hiram Revels 3. Freedmen’s Bureau 8. sharecropping 4. Fourteenth Amendment 9. Ku Klux Klan (KKK) 5. Fifteenth Amendment 10. Ruther ford B. Hayes

MAIN IDEAS Use your notes and the information in the chapter to answer the following questions.

The Politics of Reconstruction (pages 376–382) 1. How did Andrew Johnson’s plan to reconstruct the

Confederate states differ from Lincoln’s? 2. How did the Civil Rights Act of 1866 become law? 3. Why did the Radicals want to impeach Andrew Johnson?

Reconstructing Society (pages 383–392) 4. What three groups made up the Republican Party in the

South during Reconstruction? 5. In what ways did emancipated slaves exercise their freedom? 6. How did white landowners in the South reassert their

economic power in the decade following the Civil War?

The Collapse of Reconstruction (pages 393–401) 7. How did Southern whites regain political power during

Reconstruction? 8. What economic and political developments weakened the

Republican Party during Grant’s second term? 9. What significance did the victor y by Ruther ford B. Hayes in

the 1876 presidential race have for Reconstruction?

CRITICAL THINKING 1. USING YOUR NOTES In a chart like the one below, list the

results of the national elections of 1866, 1868, 1870, 1872, and 1876. Then note how each result affected Reconstruction.

2. ANALYZING ISSUES How do you think Reconstruction could have been made more effective in rebuilding the South and ensuring the rights of the freed slaves?

3. EVALUATING Do you think the changes in the South during Reconstruction benefited Southerners? Support your opinion.

4. DEVELOPING HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE What might Americans today learn from the civil rights experiences of African Americans during Reconstruction?

CHAPTER ASSESSMENT

Year Results Significance

• States ratify the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

• Republicans control most state governments in the South.

• States start public works programs and public schools.

• Former slaves reunite families, work for wages, and build African-American culture.

PROGRESS

FOUNDATIONS

• Presidents Lincoln and Johnson propose lenient policies toward the former Confederate states.

• Radical Republicans gain control of Congress and pass the Reconstruction Act of 1867.

• Conflict over approach leads Congress to impeach Johnson.

COLLAPSE

• War debt and low demand for cotton slow the South’s recovery.

• African Americans are terrorized by racist violence.

• Supreme Court decisions undermine Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

• Republican Party is weakened by internal conflict, scandal, and financial panic.

• Republicans withdraw troops from the South to gain Hayes the presidency in 1876.

• Democrats control governments, weaken civil rights, and eliminate public schools and programs.

VISUAL SUMMARY

RECONSTRUCTION AND ITS EFFECTS

402 CHAPTER 12