If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.
You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!
After the end of the Civil War, the North and South each experienced a number of problems politically, economically, and socially.
The South was devastated after the Civil War with tens of thousands of landless farmers and former slaves living in deep poverty. The Northern states were financially well off at the end of the conflict, but still had to deal with having lost hundreds of thousands of lives and with increasing economic inequality and social clashes between American citizens and immigrant groups within inner cities.
The question over how to organize the Reconstruction of the South would polarize American politics and have dramatic consequences on the history of the United States.
President Lincoln, a moderate republican, wanted the Southern States under military occupation to be reincorporated into the Union as fast as possible to reunite the Nation and help rebuild social ties lost during the war between the North and South.
Lincoln faced opposition from the "Radical" wing of the Republican Party who wanted the Southern leaders to be punished for the rebellion against the Union and to give the former slaves economic relief and full U.S. citizenship. The Radical Republican leadership felt the Lincoln was going to be soft on social and economic reforms now that the Civil War had ended.
President Lincoln, however, was assassinated on April 14, 1865 just days after the end of the war and was never able to implement of his plans for the Reconstruction. His successor Andrew Johnson, a Tennessee Conservative Democrat, would clash with the Radical Republicans in Congress over how the South should be reconstructed in the post-war era.
President Andrew Johnson believed in states rights. He believed that the South had never really seceded from the Union, and therefore they should rebuild their governments as they saw fit.
While Johnson originally thought that some wealthy, elite people who had ties to the Confederate cause should not be in power anymore, he gave many of them pardons. This meant that some ended up having economic and political power.
Under new Southern leadership, officials created Black Codes. These codes were an attempt to legalize practices that would keep African Americans at second class citizenship status.
Johnson announced that the United States was whole and in 1865, shortly before Congress reconvened in December, he considered Reconstruction to be "done".
There were several different factions in congress that disagreed strongly over what to do with reconstruction, but over all everyone agreed that much more needed to be done before reconstruction could be considered “done.” They launched a series of plans known as the 2nd Reconstruction or Radical Reconstruction (see below).
Congress did not want to allow southerners to be able to participate in government. They thought the southern states had, in essence, lost their status as states because of their participation in rebellion. Therefore, Congress thought that the Southern states needed to go through a process of rebuilding and recommitting to the union before they could be considered worthy of participating in government again.
Congress was concerned about the discrimination African Americans faced. It ratified the 14th Amendment to help secure rights for everyone (see below).
Link here to read more about Congressional Reconstruction.
Image from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1868
In 1868, after years of frustration in dealing with the President over issues of reconstruction, the House of Representatives impeached Johnson on eleven charges, the most famous being his violation of the Tenure of Office Act.
(This act disallowed the president from dismissing any appointed government official that the senate had approved, without permission of the senate.)
The Army Act also prohibited the President from giving orders to the army except through the General of the Army.
But the impeachment was also in reaction to his opposition to the 14th Amendments to the U.S. constitution and other positions on Reconstruction.
Impeachment failed by one vote from removing Johnson from office.
Andrew Johnson grew up in extreme poverty. He learned the trade of a tailor, became a successful businessman, taught himself to read, and became a highly influential orator.
He was a southerner who opposed slave owners and was made military governor of Tennessee in 1862 and then Vice-President in 1864.
He was unable to lead effectively after Lincoln's death, leaving Reconstruction up to the southern states which led to his impeachment.
He was elected to the Senate after his presidency, the only former President to serve in the Senate.
For more background, see The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson from Eric Foner's book, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (Harper and Row, 1988).
C. 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution
Map shows the order of when states ratifying the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Blue (1865), Green (1865-1870), Pink (Ratified after Rejecting, 1866- 1995), Gray (Not Yet States)
13th Amendment (1865): Outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude except for a punishable crime.
14th Amendment (1868): Comprised of five sections, the 14th Amendment broadly defines citizenship.
All people who are born in the United States are citizens. All citizens are entitled to due process of the law.
Each male citizen over 21 will have the right to vote and be represented.
No one will be able to run for any government office if he has been part of a rebellion against the government.
The South does not owe the government any money for losses during the war. The government does not owe the South any money for the loss of slaves.
Congress has the right to enforce the above.
Linked here is a timeline of the 14th Amendment, that not only shows how important it was when it was ratified, but also how it shaped the nation throughout the coming years and the implications that it held in a court of law.
The 14th Amendment also affected women in a large way, especially black women who were freed from slavery. Here is an article showing the importance of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments in relation to helping women get rights.
Here is a video summarizing the important aspects of the 14th Amendment and how it affected more people than one would think.
15th Amendment (1870): stated that the rights of citizens could not be denied based on “race, color or previous condition of servitude.”
Schism over the 15th Amendment between universal suffrage and the rights for African American men
Voting rights, while “secured” in the 14th amendment, were not actually enforced for all citizens, namely black southerners, until nearly a century later. Women were also not included in this amendment.
Do you think that the discrimination that was outlawed in the 15th Amendment has been enforced?
D. Opposition of Southern Whites to Reconstruction
Many, if not most, Southern whites resisted Northern attempts at reconstructing the South. Southerners felt threatened by readjusting to a life without being able to exercise legal control over other human beings. Many also harbored ill feelings against the North, which they had just spent years fighting and rebelling against. Their resistance manifested itself in many ways.
One such way was the creation of Black Codes (see above).
Another way was the formation of the Ku Klux Klan in 1865.
The KKK was (and is) a white supremacist hate group that discriminated against Blacks and other minority groups, including Jews, Catholics and foreign immigrants.
Throughout the 19th and 20th century, thousands of African Americans were murdered and terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan, and various other white supremacist hate groups.
Follow this link from the Southern Poverty Law Center to get more information on the history of hate groups in America.
Image depicts Horace Greeley and an unknown person with a group of U. S. Senators, including Carl Schurz, Charles Sumner and Lyman Trumbull, all depicted as school children, watch Uncle Sam, as teacher, pose questions to Ulysses S. Grant, also depicted as a school child, 1872
The event was covered widely in the press and would help (along with the riot in New Orleans) to push Congress into action against President Johnson and usher in Radical Reconstruction.
A Congressional Committee called to examine the causes and outcomes of the riot detailed 46 blacks and 2 whites killed, 75 persons injured, over 100 persons robbed, 5 women raped, and 91 homes, 4 churches and 8 schools burned.
Albert Harris: African American account of the Memphis Riot (6 pages)
Lavinia Goodell: African American woman's account of the death of her husband during the Memphis Riot (2 pages)
The Colfax Massacre occurred on April 13, 1873 when white supremacists murdered 81 African American people in Colfax, Louisiana.
When the defendants were subsequently freed by a Supreme Court decision, racial violence was greatly increased and Reconstruction effectively ended in the South.
Radical Reconstruction refers to the Congressional efforts to redefine Reconstruction and reform Johnson’s form of Reconstruction. Under Radical Reconstruction, Congress:
Made the five southern state governments set up by Johnson illegitimate and divided the South into five military districts.
Ruled that for states to be readmitted to the Union they had to accept the fourteenth amendment and allow black men to vote.
Created the 15th Amendment (see above).
The Freedmen's Bureau
The Freedmen's Bureau was established to support new freed African Americans and whites in the South make a transition from an economy based on slavery to one based on freedom for everyone.
After many years of Reconstruction, Americans began to feel that it was time for it to come to a close. In 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden ran against each other. Hayes won the presidency, even though Tilden got a majority of the popular vote.
The election was very close and controversial. Southerners opposed Hayes, but accepted him when he motioned to remove troops from the South, put a southerner in Congress, and called for an official end to Reconstruction. In addition, the desired direct effect of this election was to end Reconstruction, whether it be formal, congressional, or "radical".
Click here for more information about Election of 1876.
The Compromise of 1877 effectively ended northern occupation of the south and reconstruction but gave the presidency to a republican.The end of reconstruction led the way for the Jim Crow Laws in the South.
H. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
John Marshall Harlan, sole dissenter in Plessy case
Plessy v. Ferguson was 1896 Louisiana court case that established the legality of “separate but equal” accommodations for blacks and whites on interstate trains.
This law helped to solidify segregation.
People in power used this court case to keep blacks out of white areas. Because their motives were racist, they did not keep facilities “equal,” whether they were railroad cars, schools, or public restrooms.
Plessy v. Ferguson would prove to be detrimental for blacks and society as a whole for more than 50 years.
In 1954, Brown v Board of Education overturned Plessy by stating that racial segregation in public schools was illegal.
Click here to watch a video about Plessy v Ferguson Case.
I. Women's Suffrage During Reconstruction
After the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 demanded Women's Suffrage for the first time, America became distracted by the coming Civil War. The issue of the vote resurfaced during Reconstruction.
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution proposed granting the right to vote to African American males. Many female suffragists at the time were outraged. They simply could not believe that those who suffered 350 years of bondage would be enfranchised before America's women.
Activists such as Frederick Douglass, Lucy Stone,and Henry Blackwell argued that the 1860s was the time for the black male. Linking black suffrage with female suffrage would surely accomplish neither.
Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth Lady Stanton and Sojourner Truth disagreed. They would accept nothing less than immediate federal action supporting the vote for women.
Stone and Blackwell formed the American Women Suffrage Association and believed that pressuring state governments was the most effective route.
Anthony and Stanton formed the National Women Suffrage Association and pressed for a constitutional amendment.
The split occurred on 1869 and weakened the suffrage movement for the next two decades.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.