Reconstruction

Chris Stroup

Teaching American History on the Great Plains

Summer 2010 - Lesson Plan 2

Class: CIHS America History 1301

Reconstruction

Objective:

For students to expand their understanding of the politics, struggles, and shortfalls of putting the United States back together after the American Civil War. Students will examine various aspects of the time period to determined what were the greatest struggles and accomplishments of the time period.

Procedure:

Over the course of two days students will be exposed to a series of materials that will provide information on Reconstruction of the United States following the American Civil War. There are multiple resources available to the students, and they must utilize four, and from these be able and prepared to defend their assigned position on Reconstruction. Oral arguments will follow in class.

Resources:

A. America: A Narrative History. 6^th Edition. Tindahl and Shi, 2004. Pg 714-735

- Text excerpt explaining the period of Reconstruction

B. Smartboard projection of three main Reconstruction plans (summaries) (attached)

C. “President Andrew Johnson Denounces Changes in His Program of Reconstruction,

1867” (From Major Problems in American History: Vol. 1 to 1877 - by Elizabeth Cobbs-Hoffman, Jon Gjerde)

- President Johnson presents his argument against franchisement of blacks and his opposing radical reconstruction, which might lead to blacks in the South governing whites – and his fear of this.

D. “Congressman Thaddeus Stevens Demands a Radical Reconstuction” (From Major

Problems in American History: Vol. 1 to 1877 - by Elizabeth Cobbs-Hoffman, Jon Gjerde)

- Stevens’ argument for radical reconstruction, and his politically motivated reasons behind it.

E. “United States Atrocities” (excerpt) (From Major Problems in American History: Vol.

1 to 1877 - by Elizabeth Cobbs-Hoffman, Jon Gjerde)

Ida B. Wells

- Wells brings forth the problems faced by the African American community after slavery, including that very little was accomplished during Reconstruction.

F. “DuBois’ Niagara Address, 1906” (excerpt) (From Major Problems in American

History: Vol. 1 to 1877 - by Elizabeth Cobbs-Hoffman, Jon Gjerde)

- Dubois presents a list of problems facing the African American community, and how in actuality Reconstruction did little for blacks.

G. The Unfinished Nation-Tattered Remains(Downloaded from Learn360)

A clip from the full video: The Unfinished Nation

This clip shows the cultural dynamics taking place between White southerners and former slaves right after the Civil War, as well as providing information on the corruption in the state governments.

H. Reconstruction: Northern Disagreement [08:31] (Downloaded from Learn360)

A clip from the full video: Reconstruction: The Struggles Of Ordinary People

Following election dispute, this clip examines the Northerners not only not embracing the idea of African-American equality, but finally backing off and left African Americans to sink or swim on their own in the South.

I. Freedom: A History of US: Episode 7: What Is Freedom? (Downloaded from

Learn360)

A clip from the full video: Freedom: A History of US: Episodes 5 - 8

An overview of the post Civil War period, providing information on early attempts to heal, challenges of/for freed slaves, and a look at Plessy v Ferguson.

J. Just the Facts: America's Documents of Freedom 1868-1890 [29:20]

(Downloaded from Learn360)

This short video presents and interprets the documents following the American Civil War and how they helped/hindered in the healing.

K. Reconstruction: The Beginning [19:36] (Downloaded from Learn360)

A clip from the full video: Reconstruction: The Second Civil War: Retreat

Abraham Lincoln's first speech following the Civil War described how the fight of Reconstruction was only beginning. Learn how African Americans struggled to claim their freedom and claim their civil rights in a nation that was wrestling with the idea of their equality.

L. Searching for a New Home in the American West [04:20] (Downloaded from

Learn360)

A clip from the full video: The Unfinished Nation-The Meeting Ground

A brief look at the desire of newly freedmen to move west, and the struggles they encounter through the

many white immigrants also taking advantage of the Homestead Act.

M. Diagram of the Federal Government and American Union by N. Mendal Shafer,

attorney and counseller at law, office no. 5 Masonic Temple, Cincinnati

- Illustrates the intertwined nature of the American republic

N. What a Colored Man Should do to Vote (Pamphlet)

O. Reynolds's political map of the United States

- Demonstrates the area of the free and slave states

Procedures/Culminating Activities:

H-1: Students will have read text account of Reconstruction.

Day 1: Students will be provided projection of the summaries of the major Reconstruction plans, and will be provided a position within the scope of Reconstruction. Video clip providing general information on Reconstruction will be viewed and discussed as a class. Readings will be posted online for students to read on their own prior to day 2.

Day 2: Class will meet in the computer lab to continue research on their position regarding Reconstruction. Of the resources provided (video clips, readings, documents, visuals, etc.) students will investigate and gather information to strengthen their position regarding Reconstruction. They may also research for their own two (2) resources to aid in their arguments.

Day 3: In class, students will propose, argue, and defend their Reconstruction positions. This will continue for a maximum of 3 class periods depending on student engagement.

Resource B. (Each group will only need to read one section, they can read the others)

Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan: 1863–1865

After major Union victories at the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln began preparing his plan for Reconstruction to reunify the North and South after the war’s end. Because Lincoln believed that the South had never legally seceded from the Union, his plan for Reconstruction was based on forgiveness. He thus issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863 to announce his intention to reunite the once-united states. Lincoln hoped that the proclamation would rally northern support for the war and persuade weary Confederate soldiers to surrender.

The Ten-Percent Plan

Lincoln’s blueprint for Reconstruction included the Ten-Percent Plan, which specified that a southern state could be readmitted into the Union once 10 percent of its voters (from the voter rolls for the election of 1860) swore an oath of allegiance to the Union. Voters could then elect delegates to draft revised state constitutions and establish new state governments. All southerners except for high-ranking Confederate army officers and government officials would be granted a full pardon. Lincoln guaranteed southerners that he would protect their private property, though not their slaves. Most moderate Republicans in Congress supported the president’s proposal for Reconstruction because they wanted to bring a quick end to the war.

In many ways, the Ten-Percent Plan was more of a political maneuver than a plan for Reconstruction. Lincoln wanted to end the war quickly. He feared that a protracted war would lose public support and that the North and South would never be reunited if the fighting did not stop quickly. His fears were justified: by late 1863, a large number of Democrats were clamoring for a truce and peaceful resolution. Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan was thus lenient—an attempt to entice the South to surrender.

Lincoln’s Vision for Reconstruction

President Lincoln seemed to favor self-Reconstruction by the states with little assistance from Washington. To appeal to poorer whites, he offered to pardon all Confederates; to appeal to former plantation owners and southern aristocrats, he pledged to protect private property. Unlike Radical Republicans in Congress, Lincoln did not want to punish southerners or reorganize southern society. His actions indicate that he wanted Reconstruction to be a short process in which secessionist states could draft new constitutions as swiftly as possible so that the United States could exist as it had before. But historians can only speculate that Lincoln desired a swift reunification, for his assassination in 1865 cut his plans for Reconstruction short.

Louisiana Drafts a New Constitution

White southerners in the Union-occupied state of Louisiana met in 1864—before the end of the Civil War—to draft a new constitution in accordance with the Ten-Percent Plan. The progressive delegates promised free public schooling, improvements to the labor system, and public works projects. They also abolished slavery in the state but refused to give the would-be freed slaves the right to vote. Although Lincoln approved of the new constitution, Congress rejected it and refused to acknowledge the state delegates who won in Louisiana in the election of 1864.

The Radical Republicans

Many leading Republicans in Congress feared that Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction was not harsh enough, believing that the South needed to be punished for causing the war. These Radical Republicans hoped to control the Reconstruction process, transform southern society, disband the planter aristocracy, redistribute land, develop industry, and guarantee civil liberties for former slaves. Although the Radical Republicans were the minority party in Congress, they managed to sway many moderates in the postwar years and came to dominate Congress in later sessions.

The Wade-Davis Bill

In the summer of 1864, the Radical Republicans passed the Wade-Davis Bill to counter Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan. The bill stated that a southern state could rejoin the Union only if 50 percent of its registered voters swore an “ironclad oath” of allegiance to the United States. The bill also established safeguards for black civil liberties but did not give blacks the right to vote.

President Lincoln feared that asking 50 percent of voters to take a loyalty oath would ruin any chance of ending the war swiftly. Moreover, 1864 was an election year, and he could not afford to have northern voters see him as an uncompromising radical. Because the Wade-Davis Bill was passed near the end of Congress’s session, Lincoln was able to pocket-veto it, effectively blocking the bill by refusing to sign it before Congress went into recess.

The Freedmen’s Bureau

The president and Congress disagreed not only about the best way to readmit southern states to the Union but also about the best way to redistribute southern land. Lincoln, for his part, authorized several of his wartime generals to resettle former slaves on confiscated lands. General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15 set aside land in South Carolina and islands off the coast of Georgia for roughly 40,000 former slaves. Congress, meanwhile, created the Freedmen’s Bureau in early 1865 to distribute food and supplies, establish schools, and redistribute additional confiscated land to former slaves and poor whites. Anyone who pledged loyalty to the Union could lease forty acres of land from the bureau and then have the option to purchase them several years later.

The Freedmen’s Bureau

The Freedmen’s Bureau was only slightly more successful than the pocket-vetoed Wade-Davis Bill. Most southerners regarded the bureau as a nuisance and a threat to their way of life during the postwar depression. The southern aristocracy saw the bureau as a northern attempt to redistribute their lands to former slaves and resisted the Freedmen’s Bureau from its inception. Plantation owners threatened their former slaves into selling their forty acres of land, and many bureau agents accepted bribes, turning a blind eye to abuses by former slave owners. Despite these failings, however, the Freedman’s Bureau did succeed in setting up schools in the South for nearly 250,000 free blacks.

Lincoln’s Assassination

At the end of the Civil War, in the spring of 1865, Lincoln and Congress were on the brink of a political showdown with their competing plans for Reconstruction. But on April 14, John Wilkes Booth, a popular stage actor from Maryland who was sympathetic to the secessionist South, shot Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. When Lincoln died the following day, Vice President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat from Tennessee, became president.

Andrew Johnson, Laissez-Faire, and States’ Rights

Johnson, a Democrat, preferred a stronger state government (in relation to the federal government) and believed in the doctrine of laissez- faire , which stated that the federal government should stay out of the economic and social affairs of its people. Even after the Civil War, Johnson believed that states’ rights took precedence over central authority, and he disapproved of legislation that affected the American economy. He rejected all Radical Republican attempts to dissolve the plantation system, reorganize the southern economy, and protect the civil rights of blacks.

Although Johnson disliked the southern planter elite, his actions suggest otherwise: he pardoned more people than any president before him, and most of those pardoned were wealthy southern landowners. Johnson also shared southern aristocrats’ racist point of view that former slaves should not receive the same rights as whites in the Union. Johnson opposed the Freedmen’s Bureau because he felt that targeting former slaves for special assistance would be detrimental to the South. He also believed the bureau was an example of the federal government assuming political power reserved to the states, which went against his pro–states’ rights ideology.

Like Lincoln, Johnson wanted to restore the Union in as little time as possible. While Congress was in recess, the president began implementing his plans, which became known as Presidential Reconstruction. He returned confiscated property to white southerners, issued hundreds of pardons to former Confederate officers and government officials, and undermined the Freedmen’s Bureau by ordering it to return all confiscated lands to white landowners. Johnson also appointed governors to supervise the drafting of new state constitutions and agreed to readmit each state provided it ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery. Hoping that Reconstruction would be complete by the time Congress reconvened a few months later, he declared Reconstruction over at the end of 1865.

The Joint Committee on Reconstruction

Radical and moderate Republicans in Congress were furious that Johnson had organized his own Reconstruction efforts in the South without their consent. Johnson did not offer any security for former slaves, and his pardons allowed many of the same wealthy southern landowners who had held power before the war to regain control of the state governments. To challenge Presidential Reconstruction, Congress established the Joint Committee on Reconstruction in late 1865, and the committee began to devise stricter requirements for readmitting southern states.

The Northern Response

Ironically, the southern race riots and Johnson’s “Swing Around the Circle” tour convinced northerners that Congress was not being harsh enough toward the postwar South. Many northerners were troubled by the presidential pardons Johnson had handed out to Confederates, his decision to strip the Freedmen’s Bureau of its power, and the fact that blacks were essentially slaves again on white plantations. Moreover, many in the North believed that a president sympathetic to southern racists and secessionists could not properly reconstruct the South. As a result, Radical Republicans overwhelmingly beat their Democratic opponents in the elections of 1866, ending Presidential Reconstruction and ushering in the era of Radical Reconstruction.

Radical Reconstruction: 1867–1877

After sweeping the elections of 1866, the Radical Republicans gained almost complete control over policymaking in Congress. Along with their more moderate Republican allies, they gained control of the House of Representatives and the Senate and thus gained sufficient power to override any potential vetoes by President Andrew Johnson. This political ascension, which occurred in early 1867, marked the beginning of Radical Reconstruction (also known as Congressional Reconstruction).

The First and Second Reconstruction Acts

Congress began the task of Reconstruction by passing the First Reconstruction Act in March 1867. Also known as the Military Reconstruction Act or simply the Reconstruction Act, the bill reduced the secessionist states to little more than conquered territory, dividing them into five military districts, each governed by a Union general. Congress declared martial law in the territories, dispatching troops to keep the peace and protect former slaves.

Congress also declared that southern states needed to redraft their constitutions, ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, and provide suffrage to blacks in order to seek readmission into the Union. To further safeguard voting rights for former slaves, Republicans passed the Second Reconstruction Act, placing Union troops in charge of voter registration. Congress overrode two presidential vetoes from Johnson to pass the bills.

Reestablishing Order in the South

The murderous Memphis and New Orleans race riots of 1866 proved that Reconstruction needed to be declared and enforced, and the Military Reconstruction Act jump-started this process. Congress chose to send the military, creating “radical regimes” throughout the secessionist states. Radical Republicans hoped that by declaring martial law in the South and passing the Second Reconstruction Act, they would be able to create a Republican political base in the seceded states to facilitate their plans for Radical Reconstruction. Though most southern whites hated the “regimes” that Congress established, they proved successful in speeding up Reconstruction. Indeed, by 1870 all of the southern states had been readmitted to the Union.

Radical Reconstruction’s Effect on Blacks

Though Radical Reconstruction was an improvement on President Johnson’s laissez-faire Reconstructionism, it had its ups and downs. The daily lives of blacks and poor whites changed little. While Radicals in Congress successfully passed rights legislation, southerners all but ignored these laws. The newly formed southern governments established public schools, but they were still segregated and did not receive enough funding. Black literacy rates did improve, but marginally at best.

The Tenure of Office Act

In addition to the Reconstruction Acts, Congress also passed a series of bills in 1867 to limit President Johnson’s power, one of which was the Tenure of Office Act. The bill sought to protect prominent Republicans in the Johnson administration by forbidding their removal without congressional consent. Although the act applied to all officeholders whose appointment required congressional approval, Republicans were specifically aiming to keep Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton in office, because Stanton was the Republicans’ conduit for controlling the U.S. military. Defiantly, Johnson ignored the act, fired Stanton in the summer of 1867 (while Congress was in recess), and replaced him with Union general Ulysses S. Grant. Afraid that Johnson would end Military Reconstruction in the South, Congress ordered him to reinstate Stanton when it reconvened in 1868. Johnson refused, but Grant resigned, and Congress put Edwin M. Stanton back in office over the president’s objections.

Resource M.

http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/pga.03686/

http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/ampage?collId=rbaapc&fileName=33200/rbaapc33200.db&recNum=0&itemLink=D?rbaapcbib:2:./temp/~ammem_AqQQ::&linkText=0

Resource O.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl

(zoom in using electronic version)

American Crossroads: Teaching History on the Great Plains

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