Emancipation and Reconstruction

Transcription

1 Emancipation and Reconstruction

2 I. The Failure of Reconstruction A. Three alternative explanations 1. New South or Dunningite School a. trained under William A. Dunning b. Reconstruction too harsh c. until 1950s 1) white southerners 2) African Americans and objectivity 2. Revisionists a. Congress postwar policies appropriate b. not successfully implemented 3. post-revisionism a. Republicans too cautious b. Republicans ultimately conservative

3 From slave labor to free: contraband of war 1. Imperatives a. making sure lands were supervised and cultivated b. occupying the freedmen constructively 2. New Orleans a. too many freedmen to employ b. forced them back onto plantations 1) strict controls placed on their movement 2) required to sign a one-year contract

4 c. General Nathaniel Banks 1) regarded contract labor as temp. measure 2) required that slave families still be kept intact 3. South Sea Islands a. Field Order No. 15 1) granted families 40 acre lots

5 2) land to Afs. still a practical issue b. task system--freedmen paid by the task 4. Free Labor ambiguities a. Af.Ams. expected to work less under free labor than slave labor b. Af.Ams. thought past labor entitled them to land c. some refused to sign contracts d. had no money 1) used strikes 2) signed petitions

6 5. Conclusion --Freedmen more interested in having their own land than in working for somebody else --Southern whites and Freedmen had different ideas about free labor -small landowners were subjected to oppressive taxation -small plots would hardly solve economic problems of freedmen

7 Development in the North --the National Banking Act: created a uniform system of banking and banknote currency --the Homestead Act of 1862: --Fed. Govt. provided 160 acres of free land to any settler, regardless of race or sex --settler must pay a small filing fee and reside on and improve the land for 5 yrs. --settler could choose to buy land for $1.25 after living on it for a yr.

8 --Morrill Land Grant Act --each state to receive 30,000 acres of public land per member of Congress from the state, for colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts. Primary tasks: Freedman s Bureau --introduce a workable sys. of labor in the South --establish schools for the Freedmen --provide aid to the destitute, ill, and insane --adjudicate disputes among Afs. and between the races --attempt to ensure equal justice from state and local governments

9 Land, Labor and Relief --held back on poor relief --reflected the North s view that poor relief undermined manly independence --free labor entailed social mobility; Southern establishment worked against that --agricultural wages pitiably low, no political apparatus for social mobility Education --plagued by financial difficulties --helped found the first Black colleges in the South

10 Purpose: Presidential Reconstruction --to produce civilian governments in southern states capable of functioning on their own Lincoln and the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction Provisions: 1. 10% Plan 2. pass Thirteenth Amendment 3. Louisiana as a testing ground

11 Andrew Johnson, Amnesty and Reconstruction 1. loyalty oath for all adult males of Confederacy 2. excluded Confederacy s political and military leaders and those worth more than $20, provisional governors to take charge of state s political life 4. states had to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment Problems: 1. Johnson assumed that Southerners would actually see the advantage of cooperation for themselves 2. Johnson gave in to governors who complained and procrastinated 3. ordered that seized and abandoned land be given back to original owners

12 Image as Southern Champion --no mass arrests --Jefferson Davis spent two years in federal prison, but was never put on trial --15,000 Southerners issued pardons wholesale, sometimes hundreds in a single day Congressional Reconstruction Two options: 1. overturn everything Johnson had done and begin anew 2. try to cooperate with the president

13 The Radical Republicans --for decades supported black suffrage --castigated the idea that America was a white man s government --believed Af. Am. troops should be armed A striking departure in American life Congressional Actions: --extended life of Freedmen s Bureau --ratified Johnson s order to restore land to pardoned rebels --placed three-year limit on Field Order No Passed Civil Rights Act, ratified Fourteenth Amendment, 1868

14 --passed Military Reconstruction Act, divided the Confederate states into five military districts --oversaw the writing of new state constitutions African Americans Seize Opportunities --16 Af. Ams. sat in Congress during Reconstruction Af. Ams. occupied posts like: --lieutenant governors, sheriffs, recorders of deeds Black Self-help: --between 1869 and 1896 Louisiana had 133 Af. Am. legislators --instrumental in passing the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amends. --almost everywhere Af. Am. legislators had trouble retaining their seats --participation represented a major revolution in American history

15 Southern Intransigence Black Codes: --Convinced N. that force was needed --Regulated labor 1. could not own farm land in some places, but were barred from most occupations 2. could not carry firearms w/out license to do so 3. vagrancy laws Labor Arrangements share-wage system: --cash wages, paid monthly or at year s end --a share of the crop time-share: freedmen work for part of the week for the planter and part of the week on their own plot of land

16 sharecropping: --individual families signed contracts with the landowner and became responsible for a specified piece of land --retained one-third of the year s crop --offered freedmen an escape from day-to-day white supervision