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16 Reconstruction, 1865–1877

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AFTER FINISHING THIS CHAPTER GO TO PAGE 306 FOR STUDY TOOLS

LEARNING OBJECTIVES After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:

16-1 Describe the changed world of ex-slaves after the Civil War.

16-2 Outline the different phases of Reconstruction, beginning with Lincoln’s plan and moving through presidential Reconstruction to Congressional Reconstruction.

16-3 Explain how Reconstruction evolved at the individual states’ level.

16-4 Evaluate and understand the relative success and failures of Reconstruction.

CHAPTER 16: Reconstruction, 1865–1877290

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Confederate soldiers returned home to a devastated South in 1865. While northern trains and cities began to hum with activity, the South’s farms and factories, its railroads and bridges—almost its entire infrastruc- ture—had been destroyed by war. Nearly 23 percent of the South’s fighting-age men had died in the war. Thousands more bore the physical scars of battle. The physical rebuilding of the region began quickly and progressed rapidly, but reconstructing southern society was a much more difficult process, especially consider- ing (1) the political questions about how to integrate rebel states back into the nation and (2) the social questions about how to integrate 4 million newly freed slaves.

The North was also vastly changed, albeit in another way. Northern politicians seized the opportunity to pass many of the laws that southerners in Congress had long resisted. During and shortly after the war, Congress passed laws supporting internal improvements, out- lawing slavery, and expanding the developments of the Market Revolution. Indeed, some historians argue that the Civil War was crucial in turning the Market Revolu- tion of the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s into the Industrial Revolution of the second half of the nineteenth century. Regardless of the term you use, the North after the Civil War was beginning to resemble what we think of today as a modern industrial society.

But, first, to the era of Reconstruction, defined as the country’s various attempts to resolve the issues that remained after the Civil War, including: how free could former slaves be in the ex-Confederacy; how could the country re-incorporate the states that had voted to leave; and would the country undertake the dramatic transformations necessary to overturn two hundred years of slavery?

16-1 FREEDMEN, FREEDWOMEN After the Civil War, black Americans encountered a new world of opportunities. After years of enslavement, or at least the perpetual threat of enslavement if they had been already freed, African Americans confronted a new question: what does it mean to be free? After the pas- sage in 1865 of the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing

slavery throughout the land forever, black Americans had to wonder: what does one do after the bonds of slav- ery have been broken?

The first thing many freed people did was move. They often left the plantations upon which they had la- bored as slaves, typically to put some distance between them and their former owners. They also moved in search of long-lost family members who had perhaps been sold to another owner during an era when the stability of slave families was always secondary to profits. The freedom of movement was the key.

This new mobility meant that black family life be- gan to stabilize throughout the South. Men and wom- en now had more control over their lives and their familial roles. Reflecting the priorities of nineteenth- century American society, ex-slaves often removed women from the fields so that they could occupy a “women’s sphere of domesticity.” Most black women still had to work for financial reasons, but they often began working as indoor domestics rather than field hands.

Meanwhile, freed families often desperately sought to purchase land in order to continue the planting life they knew best, sometimes by simply purchasing a piece of the land on which they had labored before the Civ- il War. In their new communities, African Americans also expressed their religious independence by expand- ing the independent network of black churches that had been established since the Revolution. During Reconstruction, the number of black churches grew exponentially.

The newly freed people also sought the education that had been denied them during slavery. Schools for African Americans opened all over the South, for par- ents and for children. Learning to read meant learning to understand contracts, engage in political battles, and monitor wages, new experiences for those who had only recently been deemed chattel.

Politically, African Americans sought to vote. They marched in demand of it. They paraded to advocate bills

The process of reconstructing the nation after four years of civil war was long and exhausting, so long in fact that it may have even allowed the South to lose the war but win the peace. Here, new laws are explained at the office of the Freedman’s Bureau in Memphis, Tennessee.

Reconstruction The federal government’s attempts to resolve the issues resulting from the end of the Civil War in order to reconstitute the nation

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endorsing it. They lionized black Revolutionary heroes in order to establish their credentials as vote- casting Americans. And they held mock elections to show their capacity and desire to participate in the American political process. Life for the newly freed was tumultuous but exciting, filled with possibilities.

16-1a The Freedmen’s Bureau While ex-slaves explored a life based on the free-labor vision, members of the defeated Confederacy sought to maintain as much of the old order as possible. To this end, they worked to prevent ex-slaves from acquiring economic autonomy or political rights. Although they had lost the war, ex-Confederates feared a complete turnover from the lives they had led before it. Indeed, one of the first organizations created after the war in the South was the Ku Klux Klan, founded in 1865 by six white Confederate soldiers con- cerned about the racial implications of black freedom. The Klan and other similar organizations, such as the Southern Cross and the Knights of White Camellia, served as quasi- military forces serving the interests of those who desired the restoration of white supremacy. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general, was the Klan’s first national leader.

To help mitigate this resistance, in 1865, Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau, a government agency designed to create a new social order by government mandate. Under the management of northerner O.O. Howard (after whom Howard

University is named), Congress designed the Freed- men’s Bureau to build and manage new schools, provide food and medical care to needy southern black and white people, and ensure equal access to the judicial system for southerners both black and white. It had some success with this Herculean task: the Freedmen’s Bureau built 3,000 schools and expanded medical care throughout much of the South, paying particular attention to the freed slaves and the areas where they had settled.

Its task of redesigning economic relations would prove more challenging. Lincoln’s Republicans in Congress succeeded in putting into the bureau’s charter a provision that plantations be divided into 40-acre plots and sold to former slaves, thus the origin of the phrase “40-acres-and-a-mule” signifying promises (often broken) made to African Americans. However, that plan was upended by politicians intending to enforce their own plans for reconstructing the South. Because politics were vitally important in determining how Reconstruction would unfold—would wealthy southerners simply get their land back?—it is to politics we must turn.

>> What it means to be free | After the Civil War, freedom was an expansive concept for African Americans in the South. They demonstrated this new freedom in numerous ways, large and small: many bought dogs and married, some purchased firearms, and several held mass meetings without white supervision. These were all actions often denied them under slavery. Pictured here is a group of “freedmen” in Richmond, Virginia circa 1865.

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Ku Klux Klan A quasi-military force formed immediately after the Civil War by former Confederate soldiers in order to resist racial integration and preserve white supremacy; after a temporary decline, the group reformed in 1915 and sporadically returned to prominence throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Freedmen’s Bureau Government agency designed to create a new social order by government mandate; this bureau provided freedmen with education, food, medical care, and access to the justice system

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16-2 POLITICAL PLANS FOR RECONSTRUCTION

Even before the war was over, President Lincoln had pondered what it would take to bring the South back into the nation. Unfortunately for him, many in Con- gress were more interested in punishment than in rec- onciliation.

16-2a Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction and His Assassination

In 1863, while battle was still raging, Lincoln issued his Ten- Percent Plan, which offered amnesty to any southerner who proclaimed (1) loyalty to the Union and (2) support of the emancipation of slaves. When 10 percent of a state’s voters in the election of 1860 had taken the oath to the United States, they could develop a new state government, which would be required to abolish slavery. Then that state could reenter the Union with full privileges, including the crucial apportionment to the House of Representatives and Senate. Although requiring just 10 percent of the population to declare loyalty to the Union, and sidestepping the issue of preserving rights for the millions of ex-slaves,

it is important to remember that the war was still being fought. Lincoln was simply attempting to drain support from the Confederacy and shorten the war by making appeasement look easy.

CONGRESS BRISTLES

Republicans in Congress, more interested in punishing the South than Lincoln was, bristled at Lincoln’s leniency. In opposition to Lincoln’s plan, they passed the Wade-Davis Bill, which would have allowed a southern state back into the Union only after 50 percent of the population had taken the loyalty oath. Fur- thermore, to earn the right to vote or to serve in a constitutional convention, southerners would have to take a second oath, called the iron-clad oath, that testified that they had never voluntarily aided or abetted the rebellion. The iron-clad oath was designed to ensure that only staunch Unionists in the South could hold political power. Lincoln vetoed the bill, thinking it too harsh, and the battle about Reconstruction continued.

LINCOLN’S ASSASSINATION

As the battle wore on between Congress and the presi- dent, the hostilities of the American Civil War finally ended. Although the South had lost the war, a few dis- gruntled southerners would attempt to get revenge. Three days after Appomattox, John Wilkes Booth, a lo- cal actor and Confederate sympathizer, shot and killed Lincoln during a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Eleven days later, a Union soldier shot and killed Booth as he tried to escape from a burning barn. In the coming political showdown, Lincoln’s deep empathy and political acumen would be missed, as the battle to reconstruct the nation now took place between defiant congressional Republicans and the insecure man who had stumbled into the presidency—Andrew Johnson.

>> “The Secretary of War may direct such issues of provisions, clothing, and fuel, as he may deem needful for the immediate and temporary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their wives and children, under such rules and regulations as he may direct.”—Freedmen’s Bureau Bill, 1865. The image shows the old and sick being issued rations at the Freedmen’s Bureau.

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Ten-Percent Plan Plan issued by Lincoln in 1863 that offered amnesty to any southerner who proclaimed loyalty to the Union and support of the emancipation of slaves; once 10 percent of a state’s voters in the election of 1860 signed the oath, it could create a new state government and reenter the Union

Wade-Davis Bill Bill that would have allowed a southern state back into the Union only after 50 percent of the population had taken the loyalty oath

iron-clad oath Oath to be taken by southerners to testify that they had never voluntarily aided or abetted the rebellion

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16-2b Andrew Johnson and Presidential Reconstruction

Upon Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson became president. Johnson was a native southerner, born poor to functionally illiterate parents in North Carolina, before the family moved to Tennessee. He didn’t master reading and writing until he was in his twenties, and was trained to be a tailor. It was his wife who pushed him into politics and throughout the war Johnson proved a loyal Unionist. He served as Tennessee’s military governor after the state was taken over by the Union Army. And, despite Johnson being a Democrat, in 1864 Lincoln selected Johnson as his running mate because Lincoln hoped to quiet dissent by running with a non-northerner and a non-Republican. While it may have helped him win the election, Lincoln’s plan would ultimately backfire.

PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION, 1865–1867

Johnson was a lonely man who had a tough time han- dling criticism. Since his youth, he had looked up to the South’s planter aristocracy and constantly sought

its approval. Reflecting these insecurities, within a month of assuming the presidency, Johnson unveiled his plan for Reconstruc- tion: (1) scrapping the “40-acres-and-a- mule” plan suggested in the charter of the Freedmen’s Bureau and (2) creating a tough loyalty oath that many southerners could take in order to receive a pardon for their participation in the rebellion. How- ever, Johnson added a curious but vital ca- veat that Confederate leaders and wealthy planters—who were not allowed to take the standard oath—could appeal directly to Johnson for a pardon. Anyone who re- ceived amnesty through either of these measures regained his citizenship rights and retained all of his property, except for his slaves. Under Johnson’s plan, a gover- nor appointed by the president would then control each rebel state until the loyalty oath was administered to the citizens. At that point, southerners could create new

state constitutions and elect their own governors, state legislatures, and federal representatives. Johnson’s plan showed no concern for the future of black people in America.

Southern states made the most of the leeway Johnson afforded them. Even Robert E. Lee applied to be pardoned (although his pardon was never grant-

ed during his lifetime). A line of southern planters literally ap- peared at the White House to ask Johnson’s personal forgiveness; doing so allowed the southern elite to return to its former privi-

leged status. In the end, Johnson granted amnesty to more than 13,000 Confederates, many of whom had been combative leaders in the Confederacy. Once Johnson had granted these pardons, he ensured that there would be no social revolution in the South. With pardons in hand, wealthy southerners would not lose their land or their social control of the South.

BLACK CODES

Most of the new southern state governments returned Confederate leaders to political power. These leaders then created black codes modeled on the slave codes that existed before the Civil War. Although the codes legalized black marriages and allowed African Ameri- cans to hold and sell property, freed slaves were pro- hibited from serving on juries or testifying against white

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>> Shown here, in an act of retribution, actor John Wilkes Booth shoots Lincoln in the head just three days after the Civil War had ended.

black codes Post–Civil War laws specifically written to govern the behavior of African Americans; modeled on the slave codes that existed before the Civil War

Even Robert E. Lee applied to be

pardoned.

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people in court. Inter- marriage between black and white Americans was also strictly forbidden. Some states even had spe- cial rules that limited the economic freedoms of their black populations. Mississippi, for example, barred African Americans from purchasing or rent- ing farmland. Most states created laws that allowed police officials to round up black vagrants and hire them out as laborers to white landowners.

In the end, these new laws hardened the separa- tion of black Americans from white Americans, ending the intermingling and interaction that had been more common during slavery. With the rise of post-Civil War black codes, black and white southerners began a long process of physical separation that was not present before the war and that would last for at least a century. These black codes would also begin the process where- by black southerners after the Civil War were left with, in the words of one historian, nothing but freedom.

16-2c Congressional Reconstruction Johnson did nothing to prevent the South from re- imposing these conditions on the black population. In Johnson’s eyes, reconstruction of the Union would be finished as soon as southern states returned to the Union without slavery. Conservative members of Congress agreed. However, a group that would come to be called the Radical Republicans heartily disagreed.

THE RADICAL REPUBLICANS

The Republican Party had never been squarely behind Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction, and in fact the Radi- cal Republicans, defined as the wing of the party most hostile to slavery, had opposed Lincoln’s plans fierce- ly. Radicals in Congress, including Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts (of “Bleeding Sumner” fame), and Benjamin Wade of Ohio, had pushed for emancipation long before Lin- coln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and they considered Lincoln’s lenient Reconstruction program

outrageous. As they looked to- ward the end of the war, Radicals hoped to use the Confederacy’s defeat as an opportunity to over- haul southern society. At the very

least, they hoped to strip the southern planter class of its power and ensure that freed slaves would acquire basic rights.

THE RADICALS VERSUS JOHNSON

As we have seen, Johnson, considering himself some- what of a moderate, took office intending to wrap up the process of Reconstruction quickly. Granting amnesty to former Confederate leaders and other wealthy south- erners demonstrated as much. Radicals in Congress, however, continued to devise measures for protecting the interests of the newly freed black population. With no southerners yet in Congress, the Radical Republicans wielded considerable power.

Their first moves were (1) to expand the role of the Freedmen’s Bureau, creating a stronger organization with greater enforcement powers and a bigger budget, and (2) to pass the important Civil Rights Act, which was designed to counteract the South’s new black codes by allowing all citizens, black or white, the protection of the law, the right to enforce contracts, to sue and be sued, give evidence in court, and hold property. Johnson

>> This print shows a campaign banner for 1864 Republican presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln and running mate Andrew Johnson. An insecure man who had stumbled into the presidency, Johnson found it difficult to reunite the nation. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-ppmsca-17562]

Radical Republicans Wing of the Republican Party most hostile to slavery

Civil Rights Act Bill that granted all citizens mandatory rights, regardless of racial considerations; designed to counteract the South’s new black codes

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vetoed both bills, but Congress overrode the veto on the Civil Rights Act, making them the first laws ever passed over presidential veto. Their willingness to override a presidential veto suggests the importance that Radical Republicans placed on a meaningful reconstruction effort. It was the first of many vetoes the Radical Republicans would override.

THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT

Congress’s success in circumventing Johnson’s veto began a new phase of Reconstruction known as Congressional Reconstruction in which Congress wielded more power than the president. Congress introduced a constitutional amendment in 1866 that (1) barred Confederate lead- ers from ever holding public office in the United States, government (2) gave Congress the right to reduce the representation of any state that did not give black people the right to vote, and (3) declared that any person born or naturalized in the United States was, by that very act, an American citizen deserving of “equal protection of the law.” This, in essence, granted full citizenship to all black people; by the power of the constitution, states were prohibited from restricting the rights and privileges of any citizen.

To the frustration of Radicals like Thaddeus Ste- vens and Charles Sumner, the amendment, which became the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, did not also protect the voting rights of African Americans. Nevertheless, Congress passed the amendment and it went to the states for ratifica- tion. Tennessee approved it and, in 1866, was invited by Congress to reenter the Union. Every other state of the

former Confederacy rejected the amendment, suggest- ing that the Radicals’ hopes for restructuring the South would not be realized easily.

CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION, 1867–1877

Despite the strenuous labors of Andrew Johnson, the midterm elections of 1866 gave the Radical Republicans a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress, and they began to push their program of Reconstruction more vigorously. The election was vicious, as Johnson and his supporters went around the country on what was called the “swing around the circle” to castigate and even threaten the execution of several Radical Republicans.

Despite Andrew Johnson’s claim that Reconstruction was over, the Radical-led Congress easily passed (again over Johnson’s veto) the Military Reconstruction Act in March 1867. This act divided the former rebel states, with the exception of Tennessee, into five military districts. In each district, a military commander took control of the state governments, and

federal soldiers enforced the law and kept order (see Map 16.1).

Congress also made requirements for readmission to the Union more stringent. Each state was instructed to register voters and hold elections for a state consti- tutional convention. In enrolling voters, southern offi- cials were required to include black people and exclude any white people who had held leadership positions in the Confederacy, although this provision proved easy to ignore. Once the conventions were organized, the delegates then needed to (1) create constitutions that protected black voting rights and (2) agree to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment. Only then would Congress ratify the new state constitutions and accept southern state representatives back into the national Congress. Holding a fair state election and agreeing to the Fourteenth Amendment became the litmus tests for reentry to the nation. Without doing so and thereby becoming full-fledged members of the Union again, the southern states would remain without congressional apportionment and under military control.

THE SECOND RECONSTRUCTION ACT

At first, these provisions proved to be both too harsh and too lenient. The Military Reconstruction Act so outraged southerners that they refused to enroll the voters needed

There was nothing worse than being

part of a nation and having no say in

how that nation was governed.

Congressional Reconstruction Phase of Reconstruction during which Radical Republicans wielded more power than the president, allowing for the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and the Military Reconstruction Act

Fourteenth Amendment Amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed in 1868 that extended the guarantees of the Constitution and Bill of Rights to all persons born in the United States, including African Americans and former slaves; it promised that all citizens would receive the “due process of law” before having any of their constitutional rights breached

Military Reconstruction Act Act that divided the former rebel states, with the exception of Tennessee, into five military districts; a military commander took control of the state governments and federal soldiers enforced the law and kept order

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to put Reconstruction into motion. But southerners also preferred military rule to civilian control by those hos- tile to the South. In response to these various objections (and to the South’s subsequent foot-dragging), Congress passed the Second Reconstruction Act, authorizing the Union military commanders to register southern vot- ers and assemble the constitutional conventions (since southerners were not eager to do this themselves). The southern states continued to stall, so, in the summer of 1867, Congress passed two more acts designed to force southerners to proceed with Reconstruction, including requiring universal manhood suffrage. President John- son vetoed all these measures, but his vetoes were all overridden by Radical Republicans in Congress. He was helpless to stop Congress’s actions.

Eventually, the southern states had no choice but to follow the Military Reconstruction Act’s in- structions. There was nothing worse than being part of a nation and having no say in how it was governed.

Southerners wanted congressional representation back, and, in order to get it, they had to acquiesce to Congress’s demands. In June 1868, Congress readmit- ted representatives and senators from six states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana. By 1870, the remaining four southern states—Virginia, Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas—had also agreed to the required provisions and they too received permission to send congressmen to Washing- ton. As more and more Confederate states came back into the Union, the Fourteenth Amendment became the law of the land in 1868.

FRUSTRATIONS

Although the Radical Republicans in Congress had con- siderable successes, in many important ways they did not produce the social revolution they had envisioned: (1) they did not redistribute land to freed slaves; (2) they did not provide black people with guaranteed access to

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Map 16.1 Reconstruction in the South >> Reconstruction in the South required continued military involvement, even after the end of formal hostilities. This map shows the five military districts created by the US government in order to keep the southern states in line with the demands of the United States.

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education; (3) they did not forbid racial segregation; and (4) they did not call for absolute racial equality for black and white people. President Johnson’s leniency at the out- set of Reconstruction, allowing wealthy southerners to re- tain their land and possessions, had denied Republicans the ability to radically reform the social structure of the South.

16-2d Johnson’s Impeachment Still stung by Johnson’s initial act of granting pardons to the southern aristocracy, Radicals were equally sty- mied by his constant string of vetoes. Frustrated by all this, Congress took steps to limit the president’s authority.

THE TENURE OF OFFICE ACT

In 1867 Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which required the president to obtain the consent of the Sen- ate before removing certain government officials from office. In essence, the law declared that Johnson could not fire anyone who had earned congressional approvals, especially Republicans who had been appointed by Lin- coln. Johnson of course vetoed the act, but Congress once again overrode his veto.

THE IMPEACHMENT

A showdown over the new law occurred in August 1867, when Johnson wanted to remove from office Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Stanton sympathized with the

Radicals and had fallen out of favor with Johnson, so John- son ordered his dismissal. The Senate, however, refused to authorize the firing. Undeterred, Johnson ordered Stanton to resign. When Republicans in the House of Repre- sentatives learned that Johnson had defied the Senate’s Tenure of Office Act, they drafted a resolution to impeach Johnson. This could be the chance they had sought to eliminate a major obstacle to Congressional Reconstruc- tion. The House made eleven charges against Johnson, stemming mostly from his refusal to heed the Tenure of Office Act, and a majority of the representatives voted in favor of putting him on trial. This made Andrew Johnson the first president in the nation’s history to be impeached.

Radical Republicans in the House of Rep-resentatives (especially Thaddeus Stevens) powered the vote for impeachment, but the Constitution dictates that impeach- ment trials must take place in the Senate and must be judged by the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Moderate Republicans and Democrats in the Senate refused to join the House Radicals in condemning Johnson, and, by one vote, the Senate lacked the two-thirds majority needed to convict the president and remove him from office.

16-2e The Fifteenth Amendment In 1868, there was no way the Republicans were going to allow Johnson to run for reelection. Instead, they nominated the war hero Ulysses S. Grant for president,

hoping that Grant’s tremen- dous popularity in the North would help them control the White House and propel their Reconstruction plans through the federal govern- ment. The Democrats nomi- nated Horatio Seymour, the governor of New York. To the shock of the Republi- cans, the race between Grant and Seymour was relatively close. Although Grant ob- tained a majority in the Elec- toral College, he won the popular vote by only 300,000 ballots. Since an estimated 450,000 black people had voted for Grant, it was clear that a narrow majority of white Americans had cast their ballots for Seymour.

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>> Johnson was the first president ever to face an impeachment trial, and he held onto his job by only one vote in the Senate. Tickets, like the one pictured here, were sold at the trial.

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Recognizing the importance of their newest support base—and aware that their time in power might be limited—Republicans in Congress moved quickly to create a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the suffrage rights of black males. It became the Fifteenth Amendment, which was rati- fied and adopted in 1870. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibited any state from deny- ing citizens the right to vote on the grounds of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

16-2f Women’s Rights The Fourteenth Amendment introduced the word male into the Constitution for the first time, and the Fifteenth Amendment ratified the notion that voting rights were solely in- tended for men. Many women, who had of- ten supported the fight for black civil rights, fought back. Historically, advocates for the rights of women have often first fought for the rights of racial minorities, especially black people. This was the case in the 1830s and 1840s, and again in the 1860s and 1870s. Viewing the overhauling of the U.S. Constitu- tion as a moment ripe for extending various freedoms to women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Olympia Brown, veterans of the struggle to expand women’s rights, pushed for a constitu- tional guarantee of women’s suffrage. Using new journals such as The Agitator and The Revolution, women also pushed for a reform of marriage laws, changes in inheri- tance laws, and, as always, the vote.

But they were frustrated at almost every turn. Even Republicans declared that Reconstruction was designed solely for black men. Women were torn about whether or not to support the Reconstruction amendments, even if they excluded provisions for women’s rights. These bitter differences led to divisions within the women’s suffrage movement that would last until the 1890s.

16-3 GRASSROOTS RECONSTRUCTION

With all the political jockeying within the federal government, Reconstruction at the state level was even more rancorous. At the state level, freed slaves exercised more muscle, ensuring that Republicans

dominated all of the new state governments in the South. Newly freed slaves steadfastly cast their ballots for the party that had given them their freedom. To support this voter bloc, Republican politicians—from the North and the South—sought dramatic Recon- struction efforts. But at every turn they encountered strong opposition. Before long, it became evident that the process of reconstructing the South would be a process of two steps forward, one step back. And the most substantive change that could have happened—land and economic redistribution to the ex-slaves—remained perpetually frustrated.

16-3a Black Officeholders Even with the admission of black voters, the propor- tion of government positions held by black Americans was still smaller than their proportion in the population. They were rarely elected to high positions, and until

>> During Reconstruction, Hiram Revels of Mississippi (on the left in this image of seven African American congressmen) became the nation’s first African American senator, while several other southern states voted African Americans to the House.

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1990 no black person was ever elected or nominated to serve as governor of a southern state. South Carolina was the only state where a black judge served in the state supreme court, and, because the state was 60 percent African American, only in South Carolina did African Americans form a plurality of the legislature. Never- theless, more than 2,000 black citizens gained political office in the Reconstruction South. Some were policemen, some were sheriffs, some were tax assessors. Their roles were important because they ensured that fairness would be enforced and that the rule of law would be upheld.

16-3b Carpetbaggers and Scalawags Yet white men held most of the offices in the new state governments, and many were Republicans supportive of

protecting black rights. Some of these new officials were northern-born white men who moved south after the Confederacy’s defeat. Southerners called these men carpetbaggers because they supposedly journeyed to the South with nothing more than what they could carry in a ratty old carpetbag. The carpetbag was meant to symbolize corruption and lowliness, as supposedly poor and preten- tious northerners headed south seeking to capitalize on the region’s fall from grace. Not all the so-called carpetbaggers were corrupt, of course. Many of them came to the South with a desire to improve the lot of America’s black people.

Southern-born, white Republicans were given the name scalawag, originally a term used by cattle drivers to describe livestock that was too filthy for consumption, even by dogs. Although southern Democrats insisted that only the “dirtiest” citizens became scalawags, in reality, many elite southerners joined the Republican Party, including Confederate generals Pierre Beauregard and James Longstreet. Most of the scalawags, however, had been nonslaveholding poor white farmers who worked and lived in the hill country. Many of these scalawags be- lieved that participating in the Republicans’

plan was the fastest way to return their region to peaceful and prosperous conditions.

SOUTHERN REPUBLICAN SUCCESSES

Although they faced considerable opposition from the old antebellum elite, southern Republicans managed to (1) construct the South’s first public school system, (2) develop a system of antidiscrimination measures, (3) strengthen the rights and privileges of agricultural workers, and (4) begin efforts at internal improve- ments in the various states. Under the leadership of southern Republicans, for example, every state in the South financed a system of railroads and attempted to lure northern industries to the South. They met with mixed results, but they showed a newfound commitment to greater equality and to bringing the gains of the Market Revolution southward.

16-3c Sharecropping Despite the new opportunities put forward by south- ern Republicans, freed slaves had to struggle hard to enjoy their new liberty. There was no serious land

>> The Man with the (Carpet) Bags by Thomas Nast, 1872, Harper’s Weekly. This political cartoon of Carl Schurz depicted as a carpetbagger, reflected Southern attitudes toward Northerners during Reconstruction. Many Southerners saw carpetbaggers as corrupt and lowly, although many came South with the intention of improving the life of America’s black people.

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carpetbagger Northern-born white who moved south after the Confederacy’s defeat

scalawag Southern-born white Republican; many had been nonslaveholding poor farmers

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reform and the Market and Industrial Revolutions were slow to move southward, so most black southern- ers had no choice but to accept work as agricultural wage laborers for white landholders, many of whom had been slaveholders before the war.

THE BATTLE OF LABOR

Many of these landowners attempted to recreate as much of the slave system as they could, closely oversee- ing their workers, forcing them to work in gangs, and even trying to use the whip to maintain discipline. The freedmen, however, refused to be reduced to slavery again. They insisted on working shorter hours, and they often refused to work in gangs. To limit the amount of surveillance, freedmen often built their own log cab- ins far away from the houses of their employers. Unless they were willing to go beyond the rule of law, most landowners could do nothing to stop them.

THE SHARECROPPING SYSTEM

The power struggle between southern whites and the freedmen led former slaveholders to establish and de- velop the sharecropping system. As sharecroppers, families farmed a plot of land owned by someone else and shared the crop yield with the owner of the prop- erty. Typically, the farmer and the owner split the yield in half, but the owner often claimed an even larger share if he supplied the seeds or tools necessary for cultivating the crop or if he provided housing and food. Although black farmers had earned the right to work in a familial setting, as opposed to the gang labor system of the slave era, landowners had managed to curtail black freedom by preventing many of them from owning property.

Despite sharecropping’s prominent place in southern black history, there were more white sharecroppers in the South than black. It was a sign of the South’s poverty after the war. The sharecropping system offered little hope for economic or social advancement. Sharecroppers could rarely earn enough money to buy land, and they were constantly in debt to their landlords. The landlord was al- ways paid first when crops were sold at market, so if crop prices were lower than expected, sharecroppers were left with little or no income. Although sharecropping was not slavery, it was still a harsh and limited form of economic existence that permeated the South after the Civil War. By 1900, 50 percent of southern whites and 75 percent of southern blacks lived in sharecropping families.

CONVICT LEASING

Southern landowners and politicians also began the prac- tice of convict leasing during these years, whereby the

state leased out prisoners to private companies or land- owners looking for workers after the demise of slavery. Convicts usually were not paid for their labor and were often treated harshly. But the system was good for the state, which earned income from the practice, and the lessees, who exploited the labor of the prisoners. Convicts were used in railroad, mining, and logging operations, as well as on farms. And, although convicts of all colors were exploited by the system, African Americans were particu- larly targeted. During the three decades after the Civil War, the number of men in prison increased in nearly ev- ery state of the South, and the percentage of those pris- oners who were black ballooned. Many were convicted on questionable charges, and more than one dirty judge was exposed for fraudulently convicting an innocent black man who would be destined to work as the leased prop- erty of the state. Some historians see convict leasing as just an extension of slavery, with only a different name.

16-4 THE COLLAPSE OF RECONSTRUCTION

Despite the obvious setbacks, the reconstruction of the South did have some significant achievements, including two new constitutional amendments, the passage of the nation’s first civil rights law, and the abolition of slavery. These positive achievements could have continued to accumulate, but they did not, for two reasons: (1) growing northern disinterest in the plight of America’s southern black population and (2) increasingly violent resistance to Reconstruction from white southerners.

16-4a In the North On the whole, the eight years of Grant’s presidency (1869–1877) were not marked by great strides for African American civil rights. Instead, Grant’s term became infamous for economic chicanery and corruption. The president’s personal secretary was caught embezzling federal whiskey revenues in the so-called Whiskey Ring, while Grant’s own family was implicated in a plot to corner the gold market. Charges of corruption even led to a split in the Republican Party, further draining sup- port for Reconstruction efforts. As more upstanding

sharecropping System in which a family farmed a plot of land owned by someone else and shared the crop yield with the owner

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political leaders became preoccupied with efforts to clean up the government and institute civil service reform, securing equal rights for black people in the South ceased to be the most pressing issue. Other things seemed to matter more. And, as Reconstruction moved into the background, northerners’ racism—always just under the surface—became more visible.

Despite charges of corruption, Grant was reelected to the presidency in 1872, and during his second term, only one major piece of Reconstruction legislation was passed. Even that had key limitations. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 forbade racial discrimination in all public facilities, transportation lines, places of amusement, and juries. Segregation in public schools, however, was not prohib- ited. Moreover, there was no effort whatsoever to legislate against racial discrimination by individuals or corporations, so discrimination in the workplace remained legal.

In addition to these flaws, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 proved ineffective anyway. The federal government did not enforce the law vigorously, so the south- ern states ignored it. And in 1883, in what would come to be called the Civil Rights Cases, the Supreme Court delivered a final blow to this last act of Reconstruc- tion by declaring all of its provisions unconstitutional, except for the prohibi- tion of discrimination on juries. In 1890, Henry Cabot Lodge, a Republican from Massachusetts, led the House of Repre- sentatives in passing a Federal Elections Bill that would have revived protection of voting rights for African Americans, but a Senate filibuster prevented the piece of legislation from becoming law. It would be nearly seven decades before another civil rights bill made its way through Congress.

The failure of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 re- flected a larger northern disinterest in Reconstruc- tion. For many northerners, support for black rights had been an outgrowth of their animosity toward the South. In 1865, such feelings burned hotly, and north- erners were willing to support federal efforts to guar- antee the liberties of former slaves. As the bitterness of war faded, northerners were tired of the antago- nism between North and South, so their interest in civil rights faded, too.

Instead, northerners became consumed with economic matters, especially after the United States entered a deep recession in 1873. The Panic of 1873 erupted when overspeculation, high postwar inflation, and disruptions from Europe, emptied the financial reserves in America’s banks. Rather than honor their loans, many banks simply closed their doors, which led to a panic on Wall Street. Although Grant acted quickly to end the immediate panic, many businesses were forced to shut down. The Panic lasted six years and left 3 million Americans unemployed. In the years after 1873, Americans became concerned more with jump-starting the economy than with forging new laws to protect the needs and interests of black citizens.

The Republicans, meanwhile, took the blame for the nation’s economic troubles, so, in the congressional elec- tions of 1874, they lost seventy-seven seats, thus losing control of the House. The party that had spearheaded civil rights legislation in America was no longer in a position to control federal policy. Instead, the Democrats were back.

>> African American sharecroppers picking cotton during Reconstruction.

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Civil Rights Act of 1875 Act that forbade racial discrimination in all public facilities, transportation lines, places of amusement, and juries; it proved largely ineffective

Civil Rights Cases Cases in which, in 1883, the Supreme Court declared all of the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional, except for the prohibition of discrimination on juries

Panic of 1873 Financial crisis provoked when overspeculation, high postwar inflation, and disruptions from Europe emptied the financial reserves in America’s banks; many banks simply closed their doors; this emergency focused northern attention on the economy rather than on civil rights

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16-4b In the South The decline of northern support for Reconstruction emboldened southern Democrats, who worked to re- claim political control of their region. In order to create white solidarity against Republican rule in the South, the Democrats shamelessly asserted white superiority.

Racism proved to be a powerful incentive for the Dem- ocratic Party, especially to attract poor southerners worried about their economic fortunes. Keeping black people as an underclass in southern society was important to poor white people’s sense of self-worth (and economic well-being), and Democrats promised to protect the racial hierarchy as it had been before the Civil War. Democrats earned the backing of the vast majority of white southerners—mostly by championing continued white supremacy.

INTIMIDATION OF BLACK AND REPUBLICAN VOTERS

To control black votes, white Democrats often used eco- nomic intimidation. Throughout the nineteenth century, voting was not done by secret ballot, so it was easy to know how every individual cast his ballot. Democratic landowners fired tenant farmers who voted Republican and publicized their names in local newspapers to pre- vent other landowners from hiring them too. The threat of starvation and poverty thus kept many black citizens from voting for the Republican Party.

More than economic intimidation, however, southern Democrats used violence to control southern politics. A number of paramilitary groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, provided the ground troops. They harassed black and white Republicans, disrupted Republican Party meetings, and physically blocked black southerners from casting ballots in elections. They even assassinated Republican Party leaders and organizers. Their goal was to erode the base of Republican support in the South and to ensure election victories for the Democratic Party. For instance, prior to the presidential election of 1868, 2,000 people were killed or injured in Louisiana alone. In Texas, the federal military commander said murders were so common he could not keep track of them.

TERROR IN THE HEART OF FREEDOM

In addition to these more purely political forms of re- pression, southern white males also used rape and sexual violence against African American women as a form of political terror. Because black women now had the right to accuse white men of sexual crimes, historians have been able to determine that white men often staged elaborate attacks meant to reenact the antebellum

racial hierarchy, when southern white men were firmly in control. African Americans of course fought back, but as Democrats grew increasingly powerful in the region, the claims made by southern black women often went unheard. Most damningly, these crimes indicated how limited black freedom had become in the decade after the Civil War. Not only were African Americans losing their political and social rights, they were also losing the right to basic safeties, the right to organize their life as they saw fit, and the right to live comfortably in a democratic nation.

GRANT’S RESPONSE

Although not known for its civil rights activism, the Grant administration did respond to the upsurge in southern violence by pushing two important mea- sures through Congress: (1) the Force Act of 1870 and (2) the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. The new laws

>> The White League and other similar organizations were founded to use violence and intimidation to keep African American voters from the polls throughout the South. This cartoon from a Northern American newspaper of 1874 depicts the efforts of White League member in Louisiana attempting to intimidate and disenfranchise black voters.

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declared that interfering with the right to vote was a felony; they also authorized the federal government to use the army and suspend the writ of habeas corpus in order to end Klan violence. Grant proceeded to suspend the writ in nine South Carolina counties and to arrest hundreds of suspected Klan members. These efforts crushed the Klan in 1871 (although it would resurge in the 1910s and 1920s).

THE MISSISSIPPI PLAN

Southern Democrats, however, did not relent. In 1875, Democrats in Mississippi initiated a policy called the Mississippi Plan, which called for using as much violence as necessary to put the state back un- der Democratic control. Democratic clubs began to function much as the Klan had, terrorizing Republican Party leaders and the black and white citizens who supported them. This time, the Grant administration refused to step in to stop the vio- lence. Most northerners no longer seemed willing to support federal intervention into southern strife.

In 1876, the Mississippi Plan formally succeeded. By keeping tens of thousands of Republicans from casting ballots, the Democrats took charge of the state government. In the vocabulary of the time, Mississippi had been “redeemed” from Republican rule. In fact, it had been tortured into submission; official reports proclaiming as much were generally ignored.

“REDEEMERS” WIN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1876

The presidential election of 1876 put the final nail in Re- construction’s coffin. Through violence and intimidation, the Democrats had already succeeded in winning control

of all the southern states except Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina. Now they intended to use the Mississip- pi Plan to “redeem” those three states and win the presi- dency as well. Perversely using the Christian language of redemption, the leaders of these efforts were widely called Redeemers.

The presidential campaign pitted Ohio Republican Rutherford B. Hayes against New York Democrat Samuel Tilden, who had a reputation as a reformer and a fighter against political corruption. The election was a mess. Violenceprevented as many as 250,000 southerners from voting Republican, and, as southern Democrats had hoped, Democratic governors triumphed in Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina. The Democrats in those states reported that the majority of voters favored Tilden

for the presidency. Republicans were suspicious, however, and did a canvass of their own. They claimed that the Democrats had used violence to fix the results. Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina, the Republicans argued, should have gone to Hayes. These disputed states carried enough Electoral College votes to swing the entire election one way or the other.

THE COMPROMISE OF 1877

After receiving two versions of the final tallies, Congress needed help deciding what to do. It created a 15- member electoral commission, with 5 members from the Senate, 5 from the House, and 5 from the Supreme Court. The commission was composed of 8 Republicans and 7 Democrats, and, by a purely partisan vote of 8 to 7, the commission gave the disputed states of Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina to Hayes, the Republican. The Democratic Party leaders were furious, but, in order to prevent further violence, Republican leaders proposed a compromise that became known as the Compromise of 1877 (see Map 16.2).

In the compromise, Republicans promised (1) not to dispute the Democratic gubernatorial victories in the South and (2) to withdraw federal troops from the region. The white redeemers would thus be in control throughout the entire South. In return, the Republicans asked the Democrats to (1) accept Hayes’s presidential victory and (2) respect the rights of its black citizens. The Democrats accepted these terms, and, with that, Hayes withdrew the federal military from the South. Of course, without a federal military to protect black Americans, Reconstruction was over, and the South

Reconstruction was America’s unfinished revolution, and a great chance to

correct the colossal wrong that was

slavery.

Mississippi Plan 1875 Democratic plan that called for using as much violence as necessary to put Mississippi back under Democratic control

Redeemers A collection of southern Democrats and their supporters who used violence, intimidation, and the law to win political and social control away from those promoting greater racial equality in the region

Compromise of 1877 Compromise in which Republicans promised not to dispute the Democratic gubernatorial victories in the South and to withdraw federal troops from the region, if southern Democrats accepted Hayes’s presidential victory and respected the rights of black citizens

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was left under the control of the Redeemers who used violence, intimidation, and the law to create the society they envisioned. Freed blacks progressively lost whatever political and social gains they had achieved during the previous twelve years. This failure ensured that racial oppression would continue. In the words of one historian, Reconstruction was America’s unfinished revolution. A great chance to correct the colossal wrong that was slavery vanished. For more on why Reconstruc- tion ended in 1877, see “The Reasons Why . . .” box.

>LOOKING AHEAD...

W hy did Reconstruction fail? So boldly stated, the question is perhaps unfair. There were major accomplishments. Slavery was abolished. Federal laws were established that provided support

for further political gains for America’s black population. Following the 2016 elections, there have been only ten black senators ever elected to the U.S. Senate, but two of them were elected during Reconstruction (Hiram Rhodes Revels and Blanche K. Bruce, both from Mississippi). About 10% of the 139 black Americans ever to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives were elected during Reconstruction.

GA 11

AL 10

MS 8LA

8TX 8

CA 6

NEW MEXICO

TERR.

ARIZONA TERR.

UTAH TERR.

OR R-2/C-1

NV 3

CO 3

WASH. TERR.

IDAHO TERR.

MONTANA TERR.

DAKOTA TERR.

WYOMING TERR.

MN 5

INDIAN TERR. AR

MO 15

KS 5

IA 11NE

WI 10 MI

FL 4

TN 12

IN 15IL21

OH 22

KY 12

VA 11

WV 5

NY 35

PA 29

SC 7

NC 10

VT 5

NH 5

DE 3

NJ 9

MA 13

ME 7

CT 6

RI 4

MD 8

Hayes (Republican)

Tilden (Democrat)

Candidate (Party)

Contested

Territories

185 50%165 4,036,572 48.0%

4,284,020 51.0%

Electoral Vote Uncontested Electoral Vote

Popular Vote

184 50%184

1876

Map 16.2 The Disputed Election of 1876 >> An electoral map of the 1876 presidential election, showing the states that supported Hayes and Tilden, as well as the three contested states, where Democrats likely received more votes but only because of the violent suppression of Republican votes.

There were three prominent reasons why Reconstruc- tion ended in 1877, before equality could be ensured for southern African Americans.

Northern indifference. After the Panic of 1873, many northerners focused intently on economic matters. The passions inflamed by the Civil War had begun to fade by the early 1870s, and the economic turmoil provoked by the Panic led northerners to focus on their personal fortunes. Plus, with the Industrial Revolution ramping up in the North (see Chapter 17), northerners were even less likely to take big risks on behalf of black civil rights in the South.

Southern recalcitrance. With northern indifference becoming increasingly evident during the second

presidential term of Ulysses S. Grant, white southern- ers increased the level of violence—political, physi- cal, and sexual—they used against African Americans and Republicans more generally. The Democratic Party in the South promised white superiority, and throughout the 1870s it was beginning to deliver.

National political ambivalence. By 1876, northern politicians had more at stake in reviving the sagging economy than in fighting for the rights of African American southerners. When it became clear that the results of the presidential election of 1876 were going to be disputed, northern Republicans willingly negotiated with southern Democrats, securing the Republicans the presidency at the cost of pulling federal troops out of the South. Without northern oversight, southern whites were free to reclaim their social and political power, and that is exactly what they did.

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But there was a dramatic decline of black political par- ticipation in the South (where a large majority of black peo- ple lived) beginning in 1876 and lasting until after the Sec- ond World War. There was an even more dramatic increase in physical segregation between America’s black and white populations during and after Reconstruction. The causes are many. President Johnson’s unwillingness to participate in a wholesale social revolution meant that land would not be redistributed in the South, signifying that, for the most part, the wealthy would remain wealthy and the poor would remain poor. The development of sharecropping as an institution further paralyzed black advancements, especially after the emergence of black codes limited black

Americans’ abilities to protest economic injustices. Finally, the violence used by the southern Redeemers served as an emblem of the wrongs felt by white southerners, and, when northerners became more focused on the rollicking economy of the Industrial Revolution, there was no one left to monitor the henhouse. Plainly enough, most white southerners strongly opposed racial change, and after 1876, they were left in power to do as they wished.

As this happened, most Americans began to look away, focusing their attentions on another dramatic transformation in American life. It is to the development and ramifications of the great Industrial Revolution that we now must turn.

STUDY TOOLS 16 READY TO STUDY? IN THE BOOK, YOU CAN: ❏ Rip out the Chapter Review Card, which includes key terms

and chapter summaries.

ONLINE AT WWW.CENGAGEBRAIN.COM, YOU CAN: ❏ Collect StudyBits while you read and study the chapter.

❏ Quiz yourself on key concepts.

❏ Find videos for further exploration.

❏ Prepare for tests with HIST5 Flash Cards as well as those

you create.

❏ Read Lincoln’s proclamation on vetoing the Wade-

Davis Bill.

❏ View a Library of Congress picture gallery about Lincoln’s

assassination.

❏ View an oath of amnesty to the Union from Joseph Trimble.

❏ Read a Harper’s Weekly editorial about the Civil Rights Bill.

❏ Read the Second Reconstruction Act.

❏ Find out more about the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

❏ Analyze an image of the South Carolina legislature.

❏ Read the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

❏ Read the Mississippi legislature’s black codes.

❏ Analyze a Harper’s Weekly cartoon on the Panic of 1873.

❏ Analyze a Harper’s Weekly cartoon on the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

1863 Abraham Lincoln proposes the lenient Ten- Percent Plan.

1864 Lincoln pocket-vetoes the stricter Wade-Davis Bill for Reconstruction.

1865: John Wilkes Booth assassinates Abraham Lincoln.

C H 1 6 T I M E L I N E

What Else Was Happening

1865–1867 Johnson’s presidential Reconstruction demands loyalty oath from Confederates. Congress establishes Freedmen’s Bureau. Congress passes Civil Rights Bill.

1866 The Ku Klux Klan forms in Tennessee. 1867: Congress enacts Military and Second Reconstruction Act.

Benjamin Disraeli helps pass the 1867 Reform Bill in Britain, which extends the franchise to all male householders, including, for the first time, members of the working class.

1867–1877 During Congressional Reconstruction Congress enforces its rules for readmission.

1868 Fourteenth Amendment grants full citizenship to all persons born in United States. North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana return to Union.

1869: Opening of the Suez Canal in Egypt connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, allowing water travel between Asia and Europe without having to navigate around Africa.

1873: Marketing of Remington typewriter opens clerical positions for women.

Financial panic causes severe recession and mass unemployment.

Mark Twain patents the scrapbook.

1870 Fifteenth Amendment bans state disfranchisement based on race but not gender. Virginia, Mississippi, Texas return to Union.

First New York City subway line opens.

1871 Force Act of 1870 and Ku Klux Klan Act permit federal government to respond to Klan violence.

Euphemia Allen, age sixteen, composes simple piano tune “Chopsticks.”

1875 Mississippi Plan calls for use of violence to restore Democratic control. Civil Rights Act forbids racial discrimination in public places.

1877 To overcome election stalemate, Republicans grant Democrats home rule in return for presidency.

1883 In Civil Rights Cases, U.S. Supreme Court declares Civil Rights Act unconstitutional.

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