HIST 2620 1nd Edition Lecture 3 Outline of Last Lecture I Continuing secularization II American Imperialism a 19th Century b Continental Empire c American Imperialism an Implicit policy Outline of Current Lecture II Capitalism III Racism IV Reconstitution a Evaluation of the three questions b Major Achievements of Congressional Reconstruction Current Lecture Capitalism Charles Beard believed the Constitution was written because the founding fathers were motivated to create a document that would allow them to keep their power and also so they could stay wealthy Each person had a personal stake when creating the constitution created a system to institutionalize a class system Racism any attitude action or institutional structure which subordinates a person or group because of his or their color we are a white man s society There is no evidence to be drawn from history archaeology psychology ethnology or sociology to support the idea that one race has more potential for cultural development than any other states that there is not a race that is better than any other race Reconstitution These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute the national effort to rebuild the south and restore the United States and move forward toward a more powerful united nation slavery goes away but racism doesn t America was very intolerant of black men being equal to white men Central Problem of Reconstruction the status of the black men status of the freedmen or freed slaves Major question to be answered was what shall we do with the negro what was the new status of the black men going to be since the definition of America was a white man s country was it going to change so that the black may be included Central question of Reconstruction was what was the new south going to be like three different basic answers to this question 1 Restore the Union with little or no political economic or social change in the South 2 Restore the Union and shift political power in the South not to the blacks but to the poorer whites 3 Restore the Union and bring about extensive political economic and social change in the South Evaluating answer 1 Slavery would not exist the status of the freedmen in the South would be worked out by the white Southerners who d controlled South in the pre war years there would be little or no interference from outsiders Lincoln s Plan Offered general amnesty to all who would pledge future loyalty to the United States Prohibited only the highest civilian and military leaders of the Confederate States of America from taking the oath and obtaining amnesty Allowed the citizens of each southern state to elect a new state government and return to the Union as soon as 10 percent of the number of people who had voted in that state in 1860 had taken the loyalty oath since Lincoln led the country to the war he was willing to support this plan for reconstruction his plan failed to go through because of his assassination Evaluating answer 2 the political power would be taken from the planters and given to the yeoman farmers and poor whites of the South the status of the freedmen would be determined by the southern poor whites and yeomen farmers instead of the planters who had held power before and during the war there would be little or no outside interference President Johnson favored this answer he politically and personally represented the poor whites and yeomen of the South and Border States he was a Democrat from Tennessee Johnson s plan each state had to reject the Confederate war debt and its own state war debt as a condition of re entry into the Union A majority of the number of people who had voted 1860 had to take the loyalty oath instead of the 10 percent under Lincoln s plan All former Confederates worth 20 000 or more were prohibited from taking the loyalty oath therefore ineligible to participate in the formation of the new state government Southern yeomen would be the ones to decide on the new status of the freedmen Johnson s plan was put in into operation during the seven months between Johnson s accession to the presidency in April 1865 and the convening of Congress in December 1865 his plan did not work because it meant that farmers and poor whites had to be in charge something they did not know how to do nor were they prepared instead they elected the old plantation aristocracy to office in the new state governments they returned large numbers of ex Confederates to office at both the state and national levels Black Codes laws enacted by southern legislatures to replace the institution of slavery as a labor and social control system Example blacks without a steady occupation could be arrested fined for vagrancy and then hired out to private employers to satisfy the fine still had to view the white men as upper classman they made sure that the new status of the freed slaves would be one of inferiority to whites in terms of civil rights political power and economic opportunity the south tolerated with violence Example Blacks were still being badly abused by former owners Clara Barton said a young black girl who had been cut to the bone with a bullwhip by an employer because she was unable to work during the last month of her pregnancy it was different for the north all blacks were to be the slaves of all whites they confirmed the worst fears which was to re establish slavery Johnson refused to work with Congress racist politician who did not want to compromise Johnson had lost his political power before his impeachment and leadership on the issue of Reconstruction shifted from the President to Congress he was impeached from the House in 1868 Evaluating 3 Radical Republicans took over the decision making they wanted to make the New South as much like the rest of the country as possible politically the reconstructed South would be a South in which political power would be distributed among white and black Southerners economically distribute region s wealth with all of the citizens white and black socially they hoped to move the blacks in the reconstructed South toward first class citizenship Major achievements of Congressional Reconstruction Freedmen s Bureau 1866 Fourteenth Amendment to the U S Constitution 1866 1868 Reconstruction Acts 1867 Fifteenth Amendment to the U S Constitution 1870 Freedmen s Bureau an agency created by the federal government to aid and protect the freed