Transcription
What up, APUSH people?
Today we are going to take a look at the period known as Reconstruction in American history. If you're using any APUSH textbook, this lecture will help you as long as you're studying Reconstruction.
Keep in mind there's a whole bunch of issues the nation has to deal with after the Civil War is over. The Civil War dealt with the issue of slavery and secession, but you have some key challenges facing the nation.
For instance, how do we bring back the Southern states into the Union? How do we have reunification and reconciliation? Another issue is how do we rebuild the South after its destruction during the war?
The third thing, and a very important one, is how do we integrate and protect newly emancipated black freed men and women? And then fourth, what branch of government is going to control this process of Reconstruction? Should it be Congress or should it be the president? You're going to see disagreement over that issue as well.
Even things like, what do you do with the former Confederate leaders? People like Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis—should they be punished or should they be forgiven? What should happen to them?
One of the earliest problems Lincoln, even before the war was over, had to address was the problem of these now freed people who were largely unskilled, illiterate, without property or money. How are you going to help them out?
Congress addresses this in March of 1865 and they create something called the Freedmen's Bureau. This was to act as kind of a welfare agency for former slaves and also poor Southern whites who were impacted by the war or suddenly found themselves free.
It was supposed to give food, shelter, and basic medical care to those impacted by the war, but its greatest area of success was in that of education. The Freedmen's Bureau created something like 3,000 schools throughout the South and it's estimated it taught over 200,000 African Americans how to read. So it was a huge achievement in that regard.
But there are shortcomings to it and in Reconstruction in general, you know, there was this idea talked about—this idea of 40 acres and a mule—that land should be given to the former slaves so that they can become economically independent. The reality is this almost never happened, and as a result, many of the former slaves remained economically vulnerable.
You're going to see how that turns out during this video. Now, Reconstruction really begins, and there are different phases to it, but it begins even before the war is over with Lincoln in his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863.
This is kind of known as wartime Reconstruction because the war is going on. Lincoln's plan was intended to try to shorten the war and to give the South an incentive to quit the fighting. As a result, the plan was really simple and lenient.
Southern states may rejoin the Union once 10% of state voters—those who voted in the election of 1860—pledge their loyalty to the Union. The idea would be they have to accept emancipation—no more slavery. Once that 10% goes and gives their oath to the Constitution and the Union, creates new state constitutions, they could be accepted back into the Union.
It was easy on the South, but not all Northerners agreed with Lincoln. In fact, Congress comes up with its own plan called the Wade-Davis Bill, named after its two chief architects. Their plan was a little bit more strict.
It said basically Southerners had to have 50% of the voters from the election of 1860 take an ironclad oath of allegiance. If you were a Southerner who helped out the Confederacy, you were excluded from these new governments. This plan was much more strict, but it was pocket vetoed by Lincoln, meaning he doesn't sign it, so it doesn't go into law.
Now, many historians disagree on what would have happened next, but we don't know what Lincoln would have done because he is assassinated in the days shortly after the war ends. His vice president, a former Democrat from the state of Tennessee, becomes the president of the United States. Everyone's wondering what his Reconstruction approach is going to be.
Basically, he accepts Lincoln's plan and recognizes the 10% governments that were established in the Confederacy. He does do something, though—he disenfranchises former Confederate leaders and anybody who owned more than $20,000 of taxable property. But they could apply for a pardon, and he ends up pardoning most of those who apply.
Something else they had to do under Andrew Johnson's plan is they must ratify, at this point, the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. But what ends up happening, and this really angers many in the North, especially Republicans, is Johnson ends up pardoning most of the former Confederate leaders.
What occurs is Southern planters start reestablishing political control of Southern politics. The most famous example is the former Confederate vice president, Alexander Stephens, who is elected senator of Georgia. Northerners are outraged.
A key idea, though, you need to keep in mind is this: the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, bringing about the war's most dramatic social and economic change. This is huge, people. But the exploitive and soil-intensive sharecropping system endured for several generations.
What do I mean by that? Southern defiance. Johnson welcomes back the Southerners relatively easily, and Southerners begin their resistance to Reconstruction with something called the Black Codes.
The purpose of the Black Codes was to guarantee a stable labor supply. Now that blacks are emancipated, what are they going to do now that they don't have their slaves? Southerners really are hoping with these Black Codes to restore the pre-emancipation system of race relations.
Here are some examples of what these Black Codes did: they prohibited African Americans from renting land or borrowing money to buy land. They also required that African Americans were forced to sign labor contracts. If you did not have a contract, there was a penalty for leaving before the contract expired or not having one.
African Americans could not serve on a jury or vote in most Southern states. As a result, many African Americans found themselves forced to become sharecroppers. The idea was really simple: it allowed you to use the land in exchange for giving a percent of the crop to the owner of the land.
For many Northerners, this looked like a new form of slavery. As a result, you see this anger in the North, and Congress splits with President Johnson. By 1866, Northern Republicans in Congress are angry when former Southern Confederate officials are returned to office.
As a result, there are calls for a stricter version of Reconstruction, and this is going to be known as Congressional Reconstruction. Congress is going to take over, and it is important for those of you studying for APUSH to know the transition of Reconstruction between Lincoln, President Johnson, and the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
Congress breaks with the president and begins to take over Reconstruction when a couple of things happen. When the Southern Congressional delegates hope to come back into Congress under the Johnson Plan, they are flat-out denied that right.
In February of 1866, President Johnson vetoes the extension of the Freedmen's Bureau, and Congress overrides his veto and passes it anyway. The same thing happens again when Congress passes the Civil Rights Bill of 1866.
This is a huge Civil Rights Bill because it gives citizenship to African Americans. Remember, Dred Scott said no, they're not citizens. It sought to get rid of the Black Codes. Johnson vetoes that bill as well, and both of them are passed over Johnson's veto by Congress.
What you see happening is it becomes a priority for the majority of Congress: how do we prevent Southern states from overturning laws passed during Reconstruction? For instance, the Civil Rights Bill of 1866 leads to the creation of the 14th Amendment.
It does a couple of things: it declares all persons born in the U.S. are citizens of the United States, including African Americans. Forget you, Dred Scott! It states not just the federal government, but states must protect rights and provide equal protection of the law and due process.
That piece of the 14th Amendment is going to have huge consequences in the 20th century for women, minority groups, and many others. It prevented former Confederates from holding political offices, and Southern states would be punished for denying the right to vote to their black citizens.
What you see happening is in Congressional Reconstruction, Congress is setting the rules. There was debate among Republicans in Congress; radicals wanted to go much further with Reconstruction, whereas the moderates were more measured or cautious in their approach.
But the key thing happens when the Reconstruction Act of 1867 is passed. It divides the South into five military districts controlled by Union generals. It is military occupation of the South to make sure Reconstruction is being followed.
This is a hugely important phase in Reconstruction because you have federal power being brought into the South to bring about social and economic change. Southern former Confederates were disenfranchised. All of those Lincoln and Johnson governments—the 10% governments—were ruled invalid.
To be readmitted, Southern states had to create a new constitution that included the right of black suffrage for black men. This is going to be controversial; women's groups are going to be quite disappointed when women are not included.
Southern states must ratify the 13th and 14th Amendments. Now, Johnson really kind of sees how weak he is when he is impeached—the first president in our nation's history.
In 1867, Congress passes a very political bill called the Tenure of Office Act. It had two goals: one, reduce presidential power, and two, protect Republican Reconstruction cabinet members left over from Lincoln.
What it basically said is that the Senate must approve any presidential dismissal of a cabinet official or a general. Johnson violates this Tenure of Office Act when he removes Secretary of State Edwin Stanton, and this basically brings on impeachment.
The House of Representatives immediately votes to impeach President Johnson. A trial takes place in the U.S. Senate, and Johnson narrowly avoids removal from office by one vote short of the two-thirds required.
But at this point, Johnson is weakened, and Congress is in the driver's seat. It's important you keep in mind the three Reconstruction amendments: the 13th, all about freedom—it abolishes slavery; the 14th, which is about citizenship, guaranteeing citizenship and the protection of the rights of citizens with equal protection and due process; and of course the 15th, which was eventually ratified, giving universal male suffrage—the right to vote could not be denied on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
What you see happening is under Congressional or Radical Reconstruction, as it is sometimes referred to, the South is temporarily experiencing a social and political revolution. African American men are voting. In fact, in the South, you see Republicans taking states in presidential elections, such as in 1868 and 1872.
Kind of symbolic of this revolution is Hiram Revels, who was elected in 1870 to the seat that Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy, used to hold. So you got groups of African American senators and congressmen taking power in the South.
A big part of these Reconstruction governments was the fact that you have this whole new electorate after African American men, as a result of the 15th Amendment.
Grant's going to win Southern states as a Republican candidate in 1868, and this Republican coalition is a mixture of African American male voters, scalawags—cooperating Southern whites who wanted economic development and peace but were often hated by other Southerners—and the so-called carpetbaggers, who were Northerners who went to the South.
Some were looking to profit and to benefit their own personal economic interest, but others just wanted to help out and transform Southern life.
But eventually, Reconstruction will slowly fall apart, and it's important you know why. The KKK is established, like, in 1868, and its sole purpose is to secure white supremacy and to resist the Reconstruction governments.
The government tries to deal with this resistance by passing the Force Bills of 1870 and 1871, which were to stop this resistance by putting federal troops into the South. But unfortunately, as time goes on, for instance, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 guarantees equal access to public places and protects the right to serve on juries.
But as time goes on, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 would be rarely enforced and eventually overturned by the Supreme Court in 1883. By the late 1870s, mid to late 1870s, Congress and the president—even Republicans in the North—are going to be unwilling to use federal government's power to monitor Southern society.
As a result, Reconstruction is slowly going to come to an end, and finally, the end of it will be following the election of 1876 with the Compromise of 1877. We'll cover that in another video.
Some key things about Reconstruction before we close out: federal intervention in Southern society under Congressional Reconstruction yielded some short-term success. It reunited the Union, opened up political opportunities for former slaves, and temporarily rearranged the relationships between white and black people in the South.
The Civil War ended slavery and the idea of a divisible Union, but it left largely unchanged the social and economic patterns. You're going to see the rise of sharecropping and Jim Crow laws throughout the South.
Although citizenship, equal protection of the laws, and voting rights were granted to African Americans in the 14th and 15th Amendments, these rights were progressively stripped away through segregation, violence, Supreme Court decisions, and local political tactics.
But the Reconstruction Amendments establish judicial principles that were stalled for many decades but eventually became the basis for court decisions upholding rights in the 20th century.
That's going to do it for today. Thanks for watching! Make sure if you haven't done so, subscribe to Joe Productions. Click like on the video. If you have any questions, post them in the comments, and we'll see you next time right here, same place, same channel. Peace!