Summer 2011 Week 1 The Reconstruction of the South AMH 2020 What does freedom mean o To right the wrongs committed to blacks o Reconstruction would be the remedy to freedom o Punishing the south What does reconstruction mean o Reconstruction was messy it wasn t successful but it also wasn t a failure o Centrally involved issues o Complicated because everyone had different views as to why it happened South o Devastation crops unkempt and literally had to rebuild the south o Struggle to define the reason behind the war and violence o White and black people defined freedom and equality differently First concern with president Lincoln o Federal troops stayed in the south to keep peace o Freedman s Bureau tended to the newly freed slaves o What to do with the enemies What to do with the slaves o Many in the south couldn t come to terms to the confederacy o People were determined to make meanings for the useless deaths of soldiers in o Wanted slavery to be abolished and didn t demand much more o Wanted not only to abolish slavery but to punish the south and anyone who o Wanted to go back to how the south was before the civil war as soon as possible the war Conservative republicans Radical republicans fought against the north Southern democrats Lincolns general amnesty o Pledge an oath of loyalty o Abolished slavery to be accepted Wade Davis Bill o Provided a governor to each state in the south to reestablish and make state constitutions o Had to abolish slavery and take away former southern legislatures right to vote which was controversial because that pretty much took away their citizenship o Only could elect people that never fought against the union Summer 2011 Lincoln died o 5 days after the war o Killed by a southern conspiracy man because of the radical republicans ideas and actions Andrew Johnson o Million of people went to his funeral recession o Was vice president to Lincoln and took over after his assassination o Southern democrat was not sympathetic towards the newly freed slaves in the o He was mostly sympathetic towards the small farmers who didn t fight against the reconstruction of the south union o Ratified the 13th amendment to abolish slavery o Ensured civil rights for slaves o Radical republicans still believed that the south needed to be punished The Freedmen s Bureau during reconstruction The Black Codes o Northern soldiers were placed into the south to protect the newly freed slaves o Attempted to educate the slaves o Disputes of labor wages and land were all delegated by the Freedmen s bureau o Restricted black men and women s lives even with the 13th amendment in place o Severely limited their rights o Couldn t serve in jury s go to court or vote o Were an attempt by southerners to recreate the south almost exactly like it was before the war 14th and 15th amendments o Civil rights movement o All black citizens of the US were finally given rights o 14th granted citizenship to everyone born or naturalized in the US except women o 15th African American men were granted the right to vote o Hoped these amendments would help the radical republicans reconstruct the south and Indians Impeachment trial o Congress tried to limits the president s power o They also tried to limit the judicial and legislative branches which was going against the constitution o President Johnson was then found guilty but didn t lose his place in office Carpet baggers o People who came from different states and moved to the south Summer 2011 o People with money coming to exploit the poor broken people of the south o Seen as taking advantage of the poor people o Northerners were encouraged to move to the south and create buisnesses o Was not a successful way to make a living Scalawags African Americans o Former southern democrats that did not own slaves or fight in the war o Supported radical republicans plans to reconstruct the south o Had to learn how to protect this large group or freed slaves o Some eventually rose to middle class by purchasing land o Dramatic improvement in the education system for blacks o A fundamental definition for blacks freedom was the ability to have an education o Freedman Bureau schools eventually was the civil rights movement for the segregation of schools Crop lean system large work force o Agriculture was the biggest in the south and the recently freed slaves were a very o Farmers would go to the carpet baggers newly opened businesses and would borrow items hoes and seeds and promise in return a share of their crop produced o This helped but caused incredible debt for farmers because they couldn t pay up o The angriest people were the poor farmers The Grant Administration o Politically inexperienced o Most corrupt cabinet in American history o Supported the radical republicans The panic of 1873 o Debtors wanted the federal government to pay their money back from the war o Federal government didn t have enough paper money to around for everyone o Should money be gold backed silver backed or paper backed o Green backers formed their own political party that helped fix currency o Protected the wealthy at the expense of the poor Seward s Folly secretary of state o Known for his purchase of Alaska from Russia o 7 million dollars for Alaska o Helped expand America from coast to coast The abandonment of reconstruction o Blacks were not work as hard as needed to to stand on their own feet without federal help Summer 2011 o Many northerners felt that blacks needed to be able to their own weight o The panic of 1873 also made people give up The Compromise of 1877 o Hayes republican won presidency but had to give southern democrats what they wanted politically in return for his win o i e getting rid of the freedman bureau and northern soldiers out of the south o abolishment of reconstruction The New South war o Redeemers were trying to redeem the south back to the way it was before the civil o White supremacy reigns again and one by one black legislatures were voted out o New cash crops were introduced o Slowly the south began to recover Share cropping in the south Jim Crow Laws o Lost land that farmers would rent from new landowners o You then would have to share your profits with the landowner o Replaced the crop lean system o Mostly happened to African American farmers o 70 of farmers were only tenants o Most people didn t believe in 100 racial equality o Turned their black codes into Jim Crow Laws o Got even more strict in the 1800 s o Very creative ways to go