The Racist Era
K.K.K. Actual Name and when did it begin?
Ku Klux Klan. Formed in 1866, Pulaski, Tennessee.
What was freedom bureau
a government agency created in 1865 to assist formerly enslaved people and poor writes during the aftermath of the civil war. AID REFUGE, LAND MANAGEMENT AFTER WAR.
2. included Freedman's bank.
How and why did Reconstruction policies change over time?
braham Lincoln and his successor, Southerner Andrew Johnson, preferred a more lenient and faster Restoration Plan for the southern states. The Freedmen’s Bureau attempted to educate and aid formerly enslaved people, negotiate labor contracts, and reunite families. Lincoln’s assassination led many Northerners to favor the Radical Republicans, who wanted a more transformative plan designed to end the grasp of the old plantation elite on the South’s society and economy. Southern Whites resisted and established Black codes to restrict the lives of formerly enslaved people. Congressional Reconstruction responded by stipulating that to reenter the Union, former Confederate states had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) and Fifteenth Amendment (1870) to the U.S. Constitution to expand and protect the rights of African Americans. Congress also passed the Military Reconstruction Act, which used federal troops to enforce the voting and civil rights of African Americans.
1. The assassination of President Lincoln (gave power to Johnson, who had different ideals)
2. Johnson's Plan (he was a Democrat who hated both the Confederacy and racial equality, wanted the federal government to stay out of Reconstruction, he issued the Proclamation of Amnesty which excluded ex-Confederates that Lincoln pardoned and anyone who was a big landowner. But he pardoned them later to get reelected, he sent Unionists to govern ex-Confederate states and ordered conventions to accept the 13th Amendment before re-admittance)
3. The Radicals rebel. They wanted re-admittance by Congress, not the President. Ex-Confederates shouldn't vote so things can't go back to how they were before. They denied seats to Confederates elected into the government. Johnson vetoed their bill to renew the Freedmen's Bureau. He also vetoed the Civil Rights Act, but that was overridden. There were race riots in Memphis and N. Orleans.
4. Black Codes.
5. The 14th Amendment was passed (citizenship to everyone born or naturalized in the U.S., except Native Americans. No denying these people of their rights).
6. When Johnson went on a campaign to the Midwest to get more Democratic votes, he was humiliated and Republicans gained 2/3 majority in offie. Reconstruction was in their hands now. They passed the Military Reconstruction Act (military control in Confederate states' gov.s, each state has a new constitution giving voting rights to all, 14th Amendment BEFORE re-admittance), the Command of the Army Act (Grant oversaw all army orders so that military generals are not too lenient), and the Tenure of Office Act (the president couldn't fire a federal official without it going through the Senate first).
7. Johnson was impeached. He fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (who the Tenure of Office Act protected) and Congress developed articles of impeachment based off of that.
8. Radical Republican rule in the South allowed the 15th Amendment to pass (voting rights to AA men)
How many Black people became state legislators that were once enslaved?
600
What year did the reconstruction begin and end.
1865-1877
Blacks became free with opportunities however....
WHite people still embraced racism against them. they found to survive they needed to just work for their owners again. They were free but not equal.
What is black codes ?
A restrictive law made by southern states after the civil war. Punished unemployed with fines, forced labor, restricted employment options, denied basic rights like voting, testifying whites, and serving on juries.
1. African Americans were free but not treated equal.
2. To put the black people in their "place", white people killed and kept them from using their political rights.
3. It acted as a way to bring back slavery, as a former slave said to president johnson.
What major challenges did the federal government face in reconstructing the South after the Civil War?
With the defeat of the Confederacy and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, the federal government had to develop policies and procedures to address a number of difficult questions: What was the status of the defeated states, and how would they be reintegrated into the nation’s political life? What would be the political status of the formerly enslaved people, and what would the federal government do to integrate them into the nation’s social and economic fabric?
1. Who would rebuild the formerly Confederate States?
2. Which is the best plan to readmit states into the Union? Lincoln's (Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction) 10% of voters swear allegiance to the Union, certain groups never pardoned)? Congress' (drastic transformation, including granting freed slaves full citizen rights, middle class farmers)? Radical Republicans' (The Wade-Davis Bill which was vetoed by Lincoln, said that the majority of white men should swear allegiance)?
3. How should the gov. redistribute land to freed slaves? (Freedmen's Bureau, 40 acres and a mule)
4. The abolition of slavery destroyed Southern economy. Southerners are reluctant to admit that they have lost.
5. Large cities were destroyed.
6. Determining the official status of the states that were coming back
What people was most often to become the first political leaders?
Black military leaders
The grant administration was elected.
1868.
There was prejudice not only against black people...2. what helped black people be able to vote but ignored this group? What Ammendments helped races in general (theres 3).
1. Chinese Americans.
They were said to be inferior and incapable of progress. (people v. hall 1857).
2. 13th ammendment abolished slavery.
3. 14th ammendment citizenship for aLL people
4. Secure voting rights for black people.
Rutherford B. Hayes was the pres
2. The Republicans promised that if Hayes were named president, he would remove all federal troops from the South.
In what ways did White and Black Southerners react to various Reconstruction programs and requirements?
1. Blacks were freed but not equal. Freedmen from the Union army were the leaders of blacks under Reconstruction. They built churches and schools just for themselves. They participated in Southern politics (the Union League encouraged AAs to join the Republican Party, and those AAs became governors, treasurers, secretary of states, etc.). Many AAs couldn't find their own land, or economic self-sufficiency, so they were forced to return to their farms. Banks wouldn't loan to them. They had to participate in sharecropping, which left them in a lot of debt. There were tensions among mulattos and regular blacks.
2. whites who took office in the Southern state governments were either "carpetbaggers" (Northerners who rushed to the South with their belongings in a bag to gain political power) or "scalawags" (white Southern Republicans who were 'traitors' and hated by Democrats). There was Southern resistance and the concept of White Redemption. Whites created black codes, they didn't follow Congress' rules, and their resistance to Congressional Reconstruction and "Radical Rule" was violent (formed the KKK, Knights of White Camelia, and White League).
3. As whites overturned Republican governments, what was left behind was the gov.s' constitutions, which protected voting rights and helped shifting populations. The governments were overturned b/c poor whites experience political clout (lol) for the first time. Republicans constructed railroads, school systems, rebuilt, dealt w/ the poor...
Who was one of the legislators? Who complained about the state legislators?
Robert Smalls of South Carolina. Southern Whites complained about the skills of newly elected Black leaders.
When did Abraham Lincoln die. Who was his processor? What happened to the processor? Include dates.
1. April 14th, 1865.
2. Andrew Johnson. He was impeached in 1868.
What was Lincoln's idea for ENDING SLAVERY. what helped?
LINCOLN SIGNED EMANCIPATION PACT TO END SLAVERY IN WASHIONHGTON DC. THEN CONGRESS ENDED IT EVERYWHERE. FULFILLING HIS 1860 CAMPAIGN PROMISE TO END SLAVERY.
How did the reconstruction end?
By 1877, Americans were no longer willing to pay the price to protect the newly won rights of African Americans.
Democrats gain control again, so even though the North won, they lost the peace. Blacks were still restricted. “what does it all amount to if the black man, after having been made free by the letter of your law, is unable to exercise that freedom . . . and is [again] to be subject to the slaveholder’s shotgun?”
What were the political and economic factors that lead to the end of Reconstruction in 1877?
1. The Grant Administration. Blacks were the reason Grant won. But Grant was politically weak. He let his administration, who were concerned with their own gains, walk all over him. What an idiot! Even though Grant wasn't involved in the scandals, his reputation plummeted. There were many scandals.
2. The Gold Scandal. Jay Gould and James Fisk Jr. purchased tons of gold (to corner to gold market and to drive up its value in the market). At first it worked and it had a lot of investors, but then the U.S. treasury realized what was happenin→g and sold the gold, depreciating its value and leading lots of investors into the stock market failure.
3. The Greenbacks Scandal. Greenbacks were dollars issued during the Civil War to help pay for it. The nation's money supply grew faster than its economy, so inflation happened. People with money wanted to return to hard currency but debtors hated the gold standard (realize that in order for money to hold value, there needs to be hard money in the bank to back it up). Grant signed the Public Credit that supported hard money. There was a financial panic. Grant tried to get rid of the greenbacks, which led to an economic collapse and the Panic of 1873 (deep economic depression, banks closed). So, the treasury printed more Greenbacks, which only prolonged the depression.
4. Liberal Republicans. They wanted to end federal reconstruction in the South, get rid of Grant and his administration, and elected Horace Greenley. Grant was re-elected anyway.
5. White Terror. The Southerners had "Radical Rule". Their violence resulted in the Enforcement Acts of 1870-1871, which inflicted penalties for interfering with voting rights, had federal supervisors monitoring elections, outlawed the activities of the KKK. These laws were not enforced. White violence only increased.
6. Southern Redeemers. When Grant passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which gave people of all races equal access to public facilities, they did not reinforce it. Northerners were too distracted by Western expansion and Indian wars to care either.
7. The Contested Election of 1877. The votes were rigged and the whole thing took weeks to sort out. In the end, Rutherford B. Hayes won over Samuel Tilden, but only with the Compromise of 1877, which said that if Hayes were elected, he would remove federal troops from the South.
8. Reconstruction ended when the Republican governments ended in the South, which decreased protection of black civil rights. The government was back in the hands of the former slave holders.
What are two deragatory words and their meanings during this time?
1. Carpetbaggars: NORTHERN NEWCOMERS. is a derogatory term for a person who moves to a new region to gain political power or financial advantage
2. Scalawags. a pejorative term for a white Southerner who supported Reconstruction policies, particularly by aligning with the Republican Party and its support for Black freedmen and Northern newcomers. WHITE SOUTHERNS THAT SUPPORT BLACK FREEDMEN AND NORTHERN NEWCOMERS.
What year did the Grant administration begin? Did he get a second term? What was brought with him? Policies wise
1. 1868. He was reelected in 1872.
2. The battle to enforce fifteenth amendment.
3. Asserting women's rights.
4. Policy toward Native Americans.
Which political party helped free the slaves? Were they also southern or northern. What was their name?
1. Republicans.
2. Northern.
3. The Union.
Who was Charles Summer and Thaddeus Stevens?
Thaddeus was a congressional leader, wanting to abolish slavery.
Charles was a lawyer representing massacheusettes.
What was the significance of Reconstruction for the nation's future?
1. Blacks were still dependent on and discriminated against by whites.
2. Reconstruction left behind the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments as its legacy. This paved the way for future civil rights movements. It proved that the government could be willing to promote radical social reformations in America, even thought it wasn't willing to at the time that Reconstruction ended. It left behind hope. It lay out a political foundation for reform.
The economy under Grant was..
PANIC of 1873.
Money supply and greenbacks.
ECONOMIC DEPRESSION!
What is the military reconsytruction act
2. what is the command of the army act
3. what is the tenure of office act?
1. 1867 divided the former Confederate states (except Tennessee) into five military districts under Union generals. To be readmitted to the Union, each state had to write a new constitution that guaranteed voting rights for African American men and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.
2. 1867 U.S. law that restricted President Andrew Johnson's authority by requiring all military orders to be issued through the commanding general of the army, Ulysses S. Grant, who could not be removed without Senate consent. This act was a part of Congressional efforts during Reconstruction to limit the president's power over the military.
3. a U.S. federal law, passed in 1867, that prevented the president from removing civil officers without the Senate's consent