Chapter #22: The Ordeal of Reconstruction Big Picture Themes 1.

. After the war, the question was, What to do with the southern states? The more moderate Republicans, like Lincoln and his successor Andrew Johnson, lost out to the Radical Republicans who desired to punish the South. 2. The South was divided up into military districts. The southern states were not allowed to reenter the U.S. until the Norths stipulations were met. 3. For Southern blacks, these years were good politically. Since whites wanted nothing to do with the U.S., blacks voted and were often elected to state legislatures and Congress. 4. Economically, freed blacks fared worse. They were no longer slaves, but with little other options, they largely became sharecroppers. The end result was little different and little better than slavery. 5. In 1877, a presidential election was essentially a tie. A compromise was worked out, and the South got the U.S. Army to pull out. This left the southern blacks on their ownsouthern whites reasserted their power.

GUIDED READING The Problems of Peace Know: Reconstruction 1. "Dismal indeed was the picture presented by the war-wracked South when the rattle of musketry faded." Explain. Souths economic and social structures were destroyed. Factories were out of work, rails were twisted and lands became useless. Instead of cotton, only tobacco grew in southern states and southern plantation owners lost their property and became poor. Freedmen Define Freedom Know: Exodusters, American Methodist Episcopal Church, American Missionary Association 2. How did African-Americans respond to emancipation in the decade following the war? At first, emancipation was looked at with doubts. However, freed African-Americans went to find their family. They established their own society by creating a black community church. Also, they built schools for education. The Freedmen's Bureau Know: Freedmen's Bureau, General Oliver O. Howard 3. Assess the effectiveness of the Freedmen's Bureau. The bureau was intended to be a primitive welfare agency. It was to provide food, clothing, medical care, and education both to freedmen and to white refugees. The bureau achieved its greatest successes in education. It taught about 200,000 blacks how to read. However, in other areas, the

bureaus achievements were meager. Although the bureau was authorized to give freed men 40 acre tracts confiscated from the Confederates, little land actually made to blacks. Also, it cajoled freed men to sign labor contracts to work for their formal masters. Johnson: The Tailor President Know: Andrew Johnson 4. Explain the strengths and weaknesses of Andrew Johnson. Andrew Johnson was intelligent, able, forceful, and gifted with honesty. Steadfastly devoted to duty and to the people, he was a dogmatic champion of states rights and the Constitution. However, he was a southerner who did not understand the North, and a southerner who gained distrust from his south. Also, he was a Democrat who had never been accepted by the Republicans. He was a president who was not welcomed in a Republican White House. Presidential Reconstruction Know: Lincolns 10 percent plan, Wade-Davis Bill, Radical Republicans 5. How did the Presidents plan for reconstruction differ from the plan of the Radical Republicans? Radical Republicans believed that the South should atone more painfully for its sins. Before the South should be restores, the radicals wanted its social structure uprooted, the planters punished, and the newly emancipated blacks protected by federal power. However, the Presidents plan for reconstruction differed from that of the Radical Republicans as Andrew Johnson granted pardons in abundance to aristocrats. The Baleful Black Codes Know: Black Codes, Labor Contracts, Sharecropping, Debt Peonage 6. How were Black Codes used to keep the freedmen down? The Black Codes regulated the affairs of the emancipated blacks, much as the slave statues had done in pre-Civil War days. Blacks who violated the labor contracts could be made to forfeit back wages or could be forcibly dragged back to work by a negro catcher. The codes also sought to restore as nearly as possible the pre-emancipation system of race relation. All codes forbade a black to serve on a jury, some even stopped blacks from renting or leasing land and a black could be punished for being lazy in work. Lastly, blacks were not allowed to vote. Congressional Reconstruction 7. Why did northern congressmen refuse to seat the southerners when they came to take their seats? (Hint: there are two reasons -- one moral and one practical) The Republicans were in no hurry to embrace their former enemies, virtually all of them Democrats, in the chambers of the Capitol. Looking to the future, the Republicans were alarmed to realize that a restored South would be stronger than ever in national politics. Before the war a black slave had counted as three-fifths of a person in apportioning congressional representation. Now freed blacks were counted as five fifth, which granted 12 more southern electoral votes.

Johnson Clashes with Congress Know: Civil Rights Bill, Andy Veto, Fourteenth Amendment 8. How did Republicans use their dominance of Congress? What did President Johnson do in response? Republicans passed the Civil Rights Bill, which conferred on blacks the privilege of American citizenship and stuck at the Black Codes. President tried to veto the Bill, but Republicans forced it through. Then, Republicans rivet the Bill into the 14th amendment, because they feared that the Southerners might one day win control of Congress and repeal the Bill. President Johnson, in response to the passing of the amendment, advised the Southern states to reject it. Swinging `Round the Circle with Johnson 9. How did Johnsons campaigning during the 1866 congressional elections backfire? Why did it backfire? President Johnson delivered a series of speeches, in which he accused the radicals in Congress of having planned large-scale antiblack riots and murder in the South. As he spoke, hecklers hurled insults at him. He shouted back angry retorts, amid cries of the oppositions. Republican Principles and Programs Know: Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, Joint Committee on Reconstruction, Moderate Republicans 10. How did the views of Moderate Republicans about reconstruction differ from the views of Radical Republicans? Still opposed to rapid restoration of the Southern states, the radicals wanted to keep them out as long as possible and apply federal power to bring about a drastic social and economic transformation in the South. But moderate Republicans, more attuned to time-honored principles of states rights and self-government, recoiled from the full implications of the radical program. They preferred policies that restrained the states from abridging citizens rights, rather than policies that directly involved the federal government in individual lives. Reconstruction by the Sword Know: Reconstruction Act, Fifteenth Amendment, Military Reconstruction, Redeemers, Home Rule 11. Describe military reconstruction. Congress passes the Reconstruction Act on March 2, 1867. Supplemented by later measures, this drastic legislation divided the South into five military districts, each commanded by a Union general and policed by blue-clad soldiers, about twenty thousand all told. The act also temporarily disfranchised tens of thousands of former Confederates. No Women Voters Know: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Woman's Loyal League, Fourteenth Amendment 12. Why did some women feel that they did not receive their due after the Civil War? Women had played a prominent part in the prewar abolitionist movement and had often pointed out that both women and blacks lacked basic civil rights. The struggle for black freedom and the crusade for womens rights, therefore, were one and the same in the eyes of many women. But the

Fourteenth Amendment used the word male in to the Constitution. This cause many feminists to think that it was unfair. The Realities of Radical Reconstruction in the South Know: Union League, Suffrage, Hiram Revels, Blanche K. Bruce, Scalawags, Carpetbaggers 13. In what ways did African-Americans become politically involved in the years immediately following the Civil War? How did White southerners view their involvement? Having gained their right to suffrage, Southern black men seized the initiative and began to organize politically. Their primary vehicle became the Union League. Assisted by Northern blacks, freedmen turned the League into a network of political clubs that educated members in their civic duties and campaigned for Republican candidates. The sight of former slaves holding office deeply offended their onetime masters. The Ku Klux Klan Know: Ku Klux Klan, Force Acts, Disfranchise 14. In what ways did Southern whites attempt to keep former slaves down? A number of secret organizations came forth, the most notorious of which was the Invisible Empire of the South, or Ku Klux Klan. Because of this organization, many African Americans and white carpetbaggers did not vote. This white resistance undermined attempts to empower blacks politically. Johnson Walks the Impeachment Plank Know: Radical Republicans, Ben Wade, Tenure of Office Act, Edwin Stanton 15. How did the Radical Republicans "manufacture" an impeachment of Andrew Johnson? As an initial step, Congress in 1867 passed the Tenure of Office Act through overriding Johnsons veto. Contrary to precedent, the new law required the president to secure the consent of the Senate before he could remove his appointees once they had been approved by that body. When Johnson removed Edwin M. Stanton, The House of Representatives immediately voted to impeach Johnson. A Not-Guilty Verdict for Johnson Know: Benjamin F. Butler, Thaddeus Stevens 16. Why were the Radicals unsuccessful in removing Johnson from office? Several factors shaped the outcome. Fears of creating a destabilizing precedent played a role, as did principled opposition to abusing the constitutional mechanism of checks and balances. Also, as the vice presidency remained vacant under Johnson, his successor would have been radical Republican Ben Wade, who was opposed by moderate Republicans for his high tariff, soft money, prolabor views.

The Purchase of Alaska Know: William Seward, Russia 17. Explain why Alaska was called "Seward's Folly," but was purchased anyway. The American people, still preoccupied with Reconstruction and other internal vexations, were economy-minded and anti expansionists. But Alaska was purchased anyways, because Russia was in good relationship with the North during the recent Civil War. The North did not want to offend Russia by refusing the deal. So Congress and the country accepted the deal somewhat derisively but nevertheless hopefully. The Heritage of Reconstruction 18. Assess the success of Republican reconstruction. The Republicans acted from a mixture of idealism and political expediency. They wanted both to protect the freed slaves and to promote the fortunes of the Republican Party. In the end, their efforts backfired badly. Reconstruction conferred only fleeting benefits on blacks and virtually extinguished the Republican party in the South for nearly one hundred years. Despite good intentions by Republicans, the Old South was in many ways more resurrected than reconstructed.