HIST 2620 1nd Edition Lecture 3 Outline of Last Lecture I. Continuing secularizationII. American Imperialisma. 19th Centuryb. Continental Empirec. American Imperialism an Implicit policy Outline of Current Lecture II. CapitalismIII. RacismIV. Reconstitutiona. Evaluation of the three questionsb. Major Achievements of Congressional ReconstructionCurrent LectureCapitalism-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 systemRacism -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 raceReconstitutionThese 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 menCentral 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 countrywas 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 question1.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 thepoorer whites3. 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 assassinationEvaluating 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 TennesseeJohnson’s plan: -each state had to reject the Confederate war debt and its own state war debtas 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 levelsBlack 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 violenceExample: Blacks were still being badly abused by former owners: Clara Barton said a young blackgirl 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 1868Evaluating #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