At Colfax, Louisiana, in 1873, scores of Black militiamen were killed after surrendering to armed whites intent on seizing control of local government. VI. But the aftermath of the war left portions of the Confederacy in ruins. Reconstruction Amendments? Johnson refused, but Grant resigned, and Congress put Edwin M. Stanton back in office over the presidents objections. Wartime labor shortages promoted the use of mechanical reapers, reducing demand for labor, boosting farm yields, and sowing the seeds of inequality. They also offered lavish aid to railroads and other enterprises in the hope of creating a New South whose economic expansion would benefit Blacks and whites alike. Reconstruction ended with the compromise of 1877 which was between republicans and democrats. Perhaps most striking of all, in the vast agricultural wealth of the South, many southerners struggled to find enough to eat. I am no Statesman, she disclaimed; I am only a poor woman whose husband has been murdered for his devotion to his country. Laws like the Black Codes, which so obviously attempted The laundress, nameless in Gertrudes records, performed her job and returned home. One of the more marked transformations that took place after emancipation was the proliferation of independent Black churches and church associations. citizenship, and democracy? Do I need to play drakengard to understand Nier? The Homestead Act, meant to open the West to small farmers, was often frustrated by railroad corporations and speculators. kept black farmers, as well as small white farmers, in an endless cycle of debt and poverty. citizenship from whiteness. This was the question that Few were too young, and none too old, to make the attempt to learn.16, Many churches served as schoolhouses and as a result became central to the freedom struggle. Not until the 1960s would African American voter registration once again reach would the 14th Amendment become an important tool While no one could agree on what the best plan for reconstructing the nation would be, Americans understood the moment as critical and perhaps revolutionary. Radical Reconstruction attempted to give African Americans full equality. Explain. In December 1863, less than a year after he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Pres. than 2,000 African Americans held public office, Blacks hopes that the federal government would provide them with land had been raised by Gen. William T. Shermans Field Order No. White southerners demanded that African American women work in the plantation home and instituted apprenticeship systems to place African American children in unpaid labor positions. In nearly every conflict, white conservatives initiated violence in reaction to Republican rallies or conventions or elections in which Black men were to vote. Through the provisions of the congressional Reconstruction Acts, Black men voted in large numbers and also served as delegates to the state constitutional conventions in 1868. In 1876, Thompson was exposed for cross-dressing. Grant was reelected in 1872 in the most peaceful election of the period. Southern state governments attempted to limit the physical freedom of African Americans as well, with statutes known as the Black Codes. The 14th and 15th Amendments led to short-lived revolutions in the Black churches provided space for conflict over gender roles, cultural values, practices, norms, and political engagement. Southern state governments, and African Americans Meanwhile, Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican, won a landslide victory in the Ohio gubernatorial election without mentioning Reconstruction, focusing instead on fighting corruption and alcohol abuse and promoting economic recovery. Pictured here are Hiram Revels (the first African American Senator) alongside six Black representatives, all from the former Confederate states. I demand that you, President Grant, keep the pledge you made the nationmake it safe for any man to utter boldly and openly his devotion to the United States.34. The death tolls of these conflicts remain incalculable, and victims were overwhelmingly Black. Gertrude Clanton, a plantation mistress before the war, disliked cooking and washing dishes, so she hired an African American woman to do the washing. By the end of Reconstruction, the desire for self-definition, economic independence, and racial pride coalesced in the founding of dozens of Black towns across the South. It ruled in favor of segregation as long as facilities were equal. Some worked for wages, others as sharecroppers, who divided the crop with the owner at the end of the year. The former slaves also demanded economic independence. Southern cities grew rapidly after the war as migrants from the countrysideparticularly freed peopleflocked to urban centers. Perhaps the most well-known of these towns was Mound Bayou, Mississippi, a Delta town established in 1887 by Isaiah Montgomery and Ben Green, formerly enslaved by Joseph and Jefferson Davis. The war and its aftermath forever ended legal slavery in the United States, but African Americans remained second-class citizens and women still struggled for full participation in the public life of the United States. Joseph E. Baker, The Rail Splitter at Work Repairing the Union, 1865.Library of Congress. Under these new terms, states would have to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, write new constitutions enfranchising African Americans, and abolish repressive Black Codes before rejoining the union. From 1861 onward, the Confederate government struggled to find the guns, food, and supplies needed to field an army. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. 15, in which land in Georgia and South Carolina was to be set aside as a homestead for the freedpeople. African Americans and Radical Republicans pushed the nation to finally realize the Declaration of Independences promises that all men are created equal and have certain unalienable rights. White Democrats granted African Americans legal freedom but little more. Because most African Americans in the South were very poor, they could not afford to pay poll taxes that most white people could pay. Freedpeople placed a great emphasis on education for their children and themselves. Scandals sapped trust in the Grant Administration. The factories and farms of the North successfully supplied Union troops, while the federal government, with some adjustments, found the means to pay for war. The center illustration shows a Black soldier as Othello and President Andrew Johnson as Iago.Johnsons slogans Treason is a crime and must be made odious and I am your Moses are on the wall. Which statement best explains why Reconstruction ended? Reconstruction policies were no longer needed when the Southern states rejoined the Union. African Americans prospered financially. Reconstruction was intended to be a short-term event that would end in 10 years. Enforcement of Reconstruction Acts decreased because of political compromise. . In 1875, the Supreme Court addressed this constitutional argument: acknowledging womens citizenship but arguing that suffrage was not a right guaranteed to all citizens. Meanwhile, New Departure Democratswho focused on business, economics, political corruption, and tradegained strength by distancing themselves from pro-slavery Democrats and Copperheads. One of the most significant accomplishments of these conventions was the establishment of a public school system. Attempts to restore the antebellum economic order largely succeeded. Yes, opportunities for skilled workers dwindled and many African Americans had to take any job they could Regardless of the reasons, the end of Reconstruction also signaled an end to whatever forward Okay, first let's look at Racial violence, whether city riots or rural vigilantes, continued to threaten these vulnerable households. decision in Dred Scott declared that no African Americans Black southern voters helped Grant win most of the former Confederacy. After Reconstruction, African Americans did not enter the political arena again in large numbers until well into the twentieth century. The Midwest produced seas of grain that fed the country, with enough left over for export to Europe. Well, after the amendments, African Americans were free The Democrats wanted to end Reconstruction and the, Hayes won presidency and removed all federal troops in the South, Tilden won the popular vote but not the electoral vote Updates? So how much did the In the South, limits on human freedom endured and would stand for nearly a century more. Please clickhereto improve this chapter.*. Congress decided to begin Reconstruction anew. Frank Bellew, Visit of the Ku-Klux,1872.Wikimedia. This political cartoon reflects this viewpoint, showing Lincoln and Johnson happily stitching the Union back together with little anger towards the South. In a short time, the South was transformed from an all-white, pro-slavery, Democratic stronghold to a collection of Republican-led states with African Americans in positions of power for the first time in American history.9. Shortly thereafter, Congress approved the Fourteenth Amendment, which put the principle of birthright citizenship into the Constitution and forbade states to deprive any citizen of the equal protection of the laws. During the Panic of 1873, workers began demanding that the federal government help alleviate the strain on Americans. In the South, a politically mobilized Black community joined with white allies to bring the Republican Party to power, and with it a redefinition of the responsibilities of government. Republicans in Congress responded with a spate of legislation aimed at protecting freedmen and restructuring political relations in the South. Section One granted citizenship and repealed the Taney Courts infamous Dred Scott (1857) decision. In his last speech, on April 11, 1865, Lincoln, referring to Reconstruction in Louisiana, expressed the view that some Blacksthe very intelligent and those who had served in the Union armyought to enjoy the right to vote. Was reconstruction a success or a failure? With the war coming to an end, the question of how to reunite the former Confederate states with the Union was a divisive one. The second document, demonstrates one way that white Southerners denied these claims. to pass the 14th Amendment, which defined a US citizen as anyone born or naturalized It was a moment of revolutionary possibility and violent backlash. This gave black farmers a lot more freedom over their own work, since they didn't have to With the Compromise of 1877, army intervention in the South ceased and Republican control collapsed in the last three state governments in the South. Three groups made up Southern Republicanism. Unsurprisingly, these were also the places that were exempted from the liberating effects of the Emancipation Proclamation. Many southern governments enacted legislation that reestablished antebellum power relationships. The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 divided the South into five military districts and outlined how new governments, based on manhood suffrage without regard to race, were to be established. What happened after the end of Reconstruction? Formerly wealthy women hoped to maintain their social status by rebuilding the prewar social hierarchy. He pardoned all southerners engaged in the rebellion with the exception of wealthy planters who possessed more than $20,000 in property.5The southern aristocracy would have to appeal to Johnson for individual pardons. In January 1874, over 7,000 protesters congregated in New York Citys Tompkins Square to insist the government make job creation a priority. She lent her educational expertise to the war effort by relocating to South Carolina in 1862 with the goal of educating formerly enslaved people. Through Ladies Memorial Associations and other civic groups, southern women led the efforts to bury and memorialize the dead, praising and bolstering their mens masculinity through nationalist speeches and memorials. However, this provoked a violent backlash from whites who did not want to relinquish supremacy. The economy in the South was not rebuilt, and the rights of African Americans were not protected. Does it look as if he has forgiven me, seeing how he tries to keep me in a condition of helplessness?14. Learning Objectives Describe the Southern freedman experience after the Civil War Key Takeaways Key Points The stage was set for an election that would end Reconstruction as a national issue. In churches, women continued to fight for equal treatment and access to the pulpit as preachers, even though they were able to vote in church meetings.20. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Unlike other contemporary images that depicted African Americans as ignorant, unkempt, and lazy, this print shows these Black men as active citizens. In 1871 the administration launched a legal and military offensive that destroyed the Klan. naturalized in the United States in 1868, and the 15th Amendment, which gave black men the For twenty years she successfully passed as a woman. of the 1950s and '60s. the rights of citizens. It did not pass, and women would not gain the vote for more than half a century after Stanton and others signed this petition. WebAfter the war they schemed to stay in rulership, thus tenant farming and sharecropping. War brought destruction across the South. After all, it is much easier to hate people whom you do not interact with. Like white LMA members, African American women formed clubs to bury their dead, to celebrate African American masculinity, and to provide aid to their communities. White planters had most of their capital tied up in enslaved laborers, and so lost most of their wealth. The Civil War, like all wars, interrupted the rhythms of commercial life by destroying lives and property. Joseph Locke and Ben Wright (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018). Access to pulpits and growing congregations provided a foundation for ministers political leadership. Her name can be seen at the top of this petition to extend suffrage to all regardless of sex, which was present to Congress on January 29, 1866. The years between 1865 and 1877 form the period in American history known as Reconstructionreconstruction, in this case, meaning the rebuilding of the federal Union which had been disrupted by the attempt of eleven Southern states to secede from that Union in order to protect legalized slavery. Most enslavers sought to maintain control over their formerly enslaved laborers through sharecropping contracts. what it means to be free. When just 10 percent of a states voting population had taken such an oath, loyal Unionists could then establish governments.3 These so-called Lincoln governments sprang up in pockets where Union support existed like Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Gertrude believed that her money had purchased a days labor, not just the load of washing, and she became quite frustrated. Many freedpeople rushed to solemnize unions with formal wedding ceremonies. for civil rights activists to break down segregation. to own their own bodies and labor, but that was about it. Frederick Douglass on remembering the Civil War, 1877, Americans came together after the Civil War largely by collectively forgetting what the war was about. Southern, rural Black churches preferred worship services with more emphasis on inspired preaching, while Black urban northerners favored more orderly worship and an educated ministry. Reconstruction, in U.S. history, the period (186577) that followed the American Civil War and during which attempts were made to redress the inequities of slavery and its political, social, and economic legacy and to solve the problems arising from the readmission to the Union of the 11 states that had seceded at or before the outbreak of war. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. The Ku Klux Klan emerged in the late 1860s as the most infamous of these groups. Some worried that political support for freedmen would be undermined by the pursuit of womens suffrage. Numerous Republican politicians, perhaps dozens, were killed, either while in office or while campaigning. Cotton fed the textile mills of America and Europe and brought great wealth to the region. Scalawags and Carpetbaggers also buttressed Republicans in the South. Newspaper ads sought information about long-lost relatives. . Can my 13 year old choose to live with me? This new relationship created a political backlash, especially in the West and South, against Washingtons perceived eastern and industrial bias. Loyal to the Union during the Civil War, they saw the Republican Party as a means of keeping Confederates from regaining power in the South. Try to solve this dilemma, Congress passed, and the states ratified, three new Constitutional amendments during the Reconstruction Because he did not believe African Americans deserved equal rights, President Johnson opposed the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment and vetoed the Civil Rights Act. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton maintained a strong and productive relationship for nearly half a century as they sought to secure political rights for women. White southerners initially opposed the Redeemers and instead clung tightly to white supremacy and the Confederacy, but between 1869 and 1871, the Redeemers won support from white southerners by promising local rule by white Democrats, rather than Black or white Republicans. The Klans reputation became so potent, and its violence so widespread, that many groups not formally associated with it were called Ku Kluxers, and to Ku Klux meant to commit vigilante violence. Under the peculiar circumstances what could the people of South Carolina do but resort to Ku Kluxing?33, Victims and witnesses to the violence told a different story. His Reconstruction plan required provisional southern governments to void their ordinances of secession, repudiate their Confederate debts, and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. Workers demanded higher wages to pay rents and buy necessities, while the business community groaned under their growing tax burden. An extensive network of banks and financial markets helped aggregate capital that could be reinvested into further growth. led to short-lived revolutions in the concept of citizenship What rights did freedom confer on formerly enslaved people? The economic turmoil enabled the Democrats to take control of the House of Representatives after the 1874 elections, blunting the legislatures capacity to any longer direct Reconstruction. On all other matters, the conventions could do what they wanted with no federal interference. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. White supremacist organizations that committed terrorist acts, such as the Ku Klux Klan, targeted local Republican leaders for beatings or assassination. Reconstruction-era levels. Fourteen men served in the House of Representatives. . A provision that allowed a voter to skip a literacy test if his father or grandfather had been eligible to vote on January 1, 1867 (Because no African American in the South could vote before 1868, nearly all were denied the right to vote), Enforced separation of races (These so-called Jim Crow laws barred the mixing of races in almost every aspect of life). The KKK brought violence into the voting polls, the workplace, and as seen in this Harpers Weekly print the homes of Black Americans. The future of the South was uncertain. In April, the remaining troops were ordered out of the South. One of those was the election of African Americans to local, state, and national offices, including both houses of Congress. Reconstruction came to an end as a direct result of too many Southerners opposing the reconstruction. When all efforts for reconstruction were met with a battle, the spirits of the Northerners to reconstruct the South began to wane because they did not want to constantly be met with confrontation while trying to reconstruct the area. After the Civil War had been fought and black people were granted the right to vote as true citizens of the United States, there were many people in the South In the years leading up to the Civil War, with few exceptions, only white President Abraham Lincoln began planning for the reunification of the United States in the fall of 1863.2 With a sense that Union victory was imminent and that he could turn the tide of the war by stoking Unionist support in the Confederate states, Lincoln issued a proclamation allowing southerners to take an oath of allegiance. The Rebels imprisoned my Husband. Lincolns policy was lenient, conservative, and short-lived.