Reconstruction the Freedmen 1865 1877 I Freedmen s Policies A Emancipation Proclamation January 1 1863 1 Freed some slaves not all of them 2 Only freed the slaves that were in the currently rebellious states 3 Lincoln didn t want the border states who chose to fight with the Union side to join the Confederacy B Freedmen s Bureau 1 Biggest step that the US government took to help freed slaves 2 Worked with the military to help set up schools moderately successful because literacy rate was only 30 3 Assumed control of hospitals and expanded the system into new communities 4 Provided medical care and medicine to both black and white southerners 5 Did not provide economic benefits for freed slaves C Forty Acres and a Mule 1 William Sherman Union General set aside land to give to former slaves 2 Pres Johnson did not allow this to happen and restored the land to plantation 3 Some freed slaves believed they had a moral right to own the land they had long worked as slaves wanted to control their own property 4 Freed slaves expected to claim 40 acres of land and a mule after the end owners of the war D Sharecropping 1 Replaces slavery 2 Allowed many former slaves and poor whites to live on plantations and 3 manage their own small section of crops Instead of paying rent the sharecropper would pay a share of their crops to the plantation owner II Failed Attempts for Suffrage Equal Rights A Thomas Nast s Pardon and Franchise cartoon 1 Thomas Nast famous political cartoonist 2 African Americans should be trusted and given equal rights B Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1 Advocate for abolishment of slavery and women s suffrage 2 Fifteenth amendment excluded women C Colfax Massacre Easter 1873 1 Congress did not help African Americans in Louisiana 2 Controversial election for governor of LA Black Reps v White Dems 3 Republican wins election but democrats insist they won and set up their own governor a Republicans sent their candidates for sheriff and judge to court house with armed guards b Democrats were waiting for them with guns and cannons open fire and kill over a hundred black guards 4 Most horrific act of violence during Reconstruction 150 killed mostly blacks D P G T Beauregard 1 Former Confederate general 2 After war became part of the New South 3 Wrote a party platform a Dedicated to the unification of men of every race color or religion excludes women b Good for business to include black men voting becoming customers etc c Wanted integration of railroads doesn t get it 4 Contrasts with Beauregard a Democrats say whites only want blacks to vote for the amount of votes for their state not because they care about what they have to say b Just tools not citizens denying 14th amendment 5 Reconstruction ends with whites opposing black suffrage III The End of Reconstruction 1877 A New Orleans Riots 1866 1 White mobs killed 34 blacks and 3 white supporters in New Orleans B Ku Klux Klan 1 Redeemers terms used by white Southerners to describe a white Democrats that wanted to get rid of the freedmen 2 Denied political and economical participation from the former slaves C Francis Nicholls 1 Presidential Election of 1876 a Rutherford B Hayes R v Sam Tilden D b Because of a close election there was a recount in FL LA and SC c Hayes wins presidency 2 Compromise of 1877 Pulled troops out of the South especially from LA SC a b Brings about the end of Reconstruction 3 Nicholls becomes governor of LA D Civil Rights Act of 1875 1 Allows blacks into places of business hotels theaters trains etc but not schools 2 Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 1883 saying that the federal government cannot prohibit individuals from discriminating 3 Leads to the beginning of segregation and the Jim Crow South
View Full Document
Unlocking...