Reconstruction plans Proclamation of Amnesty Reconstruction AMH2020 Study Guide for Exam 1 I have deleted a few terms that she said we didn t have to worry about Good Luck Studying Email me with questions ajb11g my fsu edu Week 1 President Abraham Lincoln firmly believed that reconstruction was a matter of executive responsibility Congress just as firmly asserted its jurisdiction There were significant differences about the terms of reconstruction Lincoln s aim was the restoration of a national unity which he sought through a program of speedy forgiving political reconciliation Congress wanted assurances of white loyalty and guarantees of black rights Neither gave attention to the South s land and labor problems Lincoln s plan for reconstruction offered full pardon restoring property except slaves and political rights to rebels willing to renounce succession and to accept emancipation His offer excluded only high ranking Confederate military and political officers and a few other groups When 10 percent of a state s voting population had taken an oath of allegiance the state could organize a new government and be readmitted to the union He wanted rapid forgiving restoration of the Union Wade Davis Bill Henry Davis and Benjamin Wade jointly sponsored a bill that demanded that at least half of the voters in a conquered rebel state had to take an oath of allegiance before reconstruction could begin It also banned all ex confederates from participating in the drafting of new state constitutions Guaranteed the equality of freedmen before the law Lincoln refused to sign and they charged the president with overstepping the limits of his power Freedmen s Bureau Andrew Johnson General William Sherman set aside part of the coast south of Charleston for black settlement He devised the plan to relieve himself of the burden of thousands of impoverished blacks who trailed desperately behind his army June of 1965 40 000 freedmen sat on 400 000 acres of Sherman land The bill established the Bureau of refugees Freedmen and Abandoned Lands It distributed foods and clothing to destitute southerners and eased the transition of blacks from slaves to free persons Congress also authorized the agency to divide abandoned land into 40 acre plots to rent them to freedmen and eventually sell them By 1965 about 10 000 black families settled on half a million acres abandoned by planters Self educated and ambition he moved to Tennessee and worked as a tailor accumulated a fortune in land acquired five slaves and built a career in politics Only Senator from a confederate state to remain loyal to the union Johnson held the planter class responsible for succession He was a democrat vigorously defended states rights but not succession and opposed republican efforts to expand the power of the federal government also supporter of slavery He hated planters Like Lincoln he stressed the rapid restoration of civil government in the South and promised to pardon most ex rebels He recognized the state governments created by Lincoln but set out his own requirements for restoring the other rebel states to the union Citizens of a state had to do was renounce the right of succession deny that the debts of the confederacy were legal and binding and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery He returned all confiscated and abandoned land to pardoned ex confederates even if it was in the hands of freedmen Civil Rights Act of 1865 Nullify black codes by affirming African Americans rights to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property as enjoyed by white citizens Required the end of discrimination in state laws and Sharecropping Elizabeth Cady Stanton represented an extraordinary expansion of black rights and federal authority Johnson vetoed both bills this one and the freedmen s bureau bill Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the American Equal Rights Association in 1866 The Fourteenth amendment provided for punishment of any state that excluded voters based on race but there was no mention of gender The word male was introduced into the constitution when it referred to a citizen s right to vote Stanton predicted that it would take a century to get the word male out They were also part of the National Woman s suffrage association said they couldn t trust men and fought for women suffrage They tested the strength of the 14th and 15th amendments Anthony voted and was arrested 1869 women able to vote Susan B Anthony See Elizabeth Cady Stanton Compromise that offered something to both ex masters and ex slaves but satisfied neither Planters divided their cotton plantations into small farms that the freedmen rented paying with a share of each years crop usually half Sharecropping gave blacks more freedom than the system of wages and labor gangs and released them from day to day supervision by whites Still most black families remained dependent on white landlords who had the power to evict them at the end of each growing season Landlords would supply sharecroppers with land mules seeds and tools but blacks also needed credit to obtain essential food and clothing before they harvested their crops Thousands of small crossroad stores sprang up to offer credit Arrangement called crop lien a merchant would advance goods to sharecropper in exchange for a legal claim on the farmer s future crop They increased the interest crooked bookkeeping permanent debt resulted Cotton prices fell and farmers had no choice but to borrow more money and start the cycle over Some left land and started new lives but many didn t move Ranching Comstock Lode Week 2 Cattle ranches followed the railroads onto the plains Cowboys drove huge herds of cattle north because they were worth so much more money up there 1886 record blizzards decimated herds In cities they built stockyards to hold cattle and then were sent east to Chicago to become cheap beef The coming of railroads ended the long cattle drives Richest vein of silver ore on the North American continent discovered in the Washoe basin in Nevada in 1859 The silver and the speculative businesses that grew up around it attracted a steady stream of heterogeneous migrants to the region 2 1 men to women ratio which means 100s of brothels and salons Bonanza Ore cavern of gold and silver attracted big corporations Miners started to become laborers for businesses By the 1880s Virginia City becomes a ghost town because of the dangers poisoned water
View Full Document
Unlocking...