5.1 Contentualizing Period 5

• US expansion of territory to the Pacific Ocean through treaties, purchases + war

• Expansion → Sectionalism over slavery

• Civil War + Reconstruction → Abe Lincoln President

• Racial conflict → black codes

5.2-5.3 The Idea of Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War

• Manifest Destiny → US had the divine mission to extend its power and civilization across North America

• Driven by nationalism, population increase, economic developments, technological advances, and reform ideals

Texas

• (1821) Mexico independent from Spain

• Many American settlers migrate with the promise to adapt to Mexico

• Sam Houston goes to Mexico City to negotiate w/ Mexican dictator Santa Anna, jails him & wipes out local rights (similar to American Revolution)

• Alamo & Goliad 1836: Santa Anna wipes out American forces

• “Remember the Alamo” + Goliad

• Lone Star Republic

  • NORTHERN WHIGS against the annexation of TX into U.S

  • Texas = slave state + Tensions with Mexico

  • Mexican Troops out & Southern border at Rio Grande

  • Texans wanted to be part of the Union + applied for annexation

Maine

• Aroostook War: conflict between lumber workers on the Maine-Candian boundary

• Webster-Ashburton Treaty: the settled border between US and Canada in regard to Maine

Oregon

• Britain claimed Orgeon on the Hudson Bay Company’s profitable fur trade with Natives

• US-based claims on the exploration of the Columbus River by Robert Gray and the William and Clark expedition and fur trading post

• Oregon Trail → brought pioneers to the territory

Election of 1844

• Key issue: annexation of Texas

• Democrat James K. Polk supported the annexation (“Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!”)

• Whig candidate Henry Clay opposed it

• Polk ultimately won the election and Texas was annexed shortly thereafter

Annexing Texas and Dividing Oregon

• Tyler pushed both houses of Congress to pass a joint resolution for annexation (only majority needed)

• Polk signed an agreement with the British to divide Oregon territory at the 49th parallel

• June 1846, the treaty was submitted to the Senate for ratification → compromise settlement

Mining Frontier

• Discovery of gold in California, Colorado, Nevada + more

• Boom towns + Chinese immigrants

Farming Frontier

• Pioneer families moved west to start homesteads + begin farming

Urban frontier

• Foreign Commerce

  • Shipping firms encourage trade and travel across the Atlantic by est. a regular schedule for departures

War with Mexico

• Polk wanted Slidell to persuade Mexico to sell California and New Mexico territories to the US and settle the border

• Immediate Causes of the War

  • Polk ordered Zachary Taylor to move toward Rio Grande but Mexican Army crossed the Rio Grande and captured the American army

  • Used to justify prepared war message to congress

• Military Campaigns

  • John C. Fremont overthrew Mexican rule in California and proclaimed it to be an independent republic (bear flag republic)

  • Taylor drove the Mexican army from Texas into Northern Mexico + won the battle of Buena Vista

  • Winfield Scott invaded central Mexico

• Consequences of the War

  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

    • Mexico recognized the Rio Grande as the border of Texas

    • The US took possession of California + New Mexico for $15 million

  • Wilmot Proviso: Basis of free Soil party movement

    • Proposes land ceded from Mexico to be closed off by slavery

    • Is not been passed but ALL FREE states support

  • Prelude to Civil War

    • North and South tensions increased + renewed slavery sectional debate

5.4 The Compromise of 1850

Manifest Destiny to the South

• Onstead Manifesto: a declaration (1854) issued from Ostend, Belgium, by the U.S. ministers, stating that the U.S. would be justified in seizing Cuba if Spain did not sell it to the U.S

• Walker Expedition: organized unauthorized military expeditions into Mexico and Central America to est. private colonies

• Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850): US and Britain should jointly control and protect the canal soon to be built across the isthmus of Panama.

• Gadsden Purchase: President Pierce succeeded in adding a strip of ling to American Southwest for a railroad for $10 million

Conflict Over the Status of Territories

• Free-soil movement: Northern Democrats + Whigs supported the Wilmot Proviso and the position that all African American should be excluded from the Mexican session (whites only)

  • “Free soil, free labor, free and free men”

• Southern Position: Souther plantation owners viewed attempts to restrict slavery expansion as violations of their constitutional right to take property where they wished

• Popular Sovereignty: Lewis Cass proposed that slavery matter be determined by a vote of the people who settled on the territory

Election of 1848

• Democrats nominated Cass and adopted a platform pledged to popular sovereignty

• Whigs nominated Zachary Taylor who took no position on slavery

• The free-Soil party nominated Martin Van Buren (consisted of conscience Whigs + antislavery Democrats) “Barnburners”

Compromises to Preserve the Union

• Californians drafted a constitution for their state that banned slavery

• Henry Clay proposed

  • Admit California as a free state

  • Divide the remainder of the Cession into 2 territories (Utah + New Mexico) for popular sovereignty

  • Give land in dispute between TX and NM to new territories + fed gov assuming $10 million Texas debt

  • Ban slave trade in Columbia but permit whites to hold slaves

  • Adopt the Fugitive Slave law

• Debates aroused but the Compromise of 1850 was passed for the Union

5.5 Sectional Conflict: Regional Difference

Immigration controversy

• Irish

  • 1/2 of all immigrants + tenant farmers that came due to potato famine

  • Discrimination due to Roman Catholicism

  • Worked hard competing with AAs

  • Tammany Hall control

• German

  • Economic hardships + failure of democratic revolutions in 1848 → 1 million immigrants

  • Farmers + artisans that moved westward for cheap land

  • Supported public education + opposed slavery

• Nativist Opposition to Immigration

  • Native-born Americans alarmed by the influx of immigrants feard newcomers would take their jobs and dilute culture

  • Nativism: hostility to these immigrants → sporadic rioting

  • Supreme Order of the Star Spangled Banner → Nativist secret society

  • Know-Nothing party gained strength (against immigrants)

  • Religious discrimination

The Expanding Economy

• Industrial technology

  • Factories produced shoes, railroads, and sewing machines (Elias Howe)

  • Telegraph (Samuel F.B. Morse)

• Railroads

  • Canal building era was replaced by railroads (the largest industry)

  • The US gov gave land grants for railroads

  • Rapid transportation + Western agriculture on the rise

• Panic of 1857

  • A sharp decrease in prices for Midwestern agricultural products

  • Increase in unemployment in Northern cities

  • Cotton remains profitable in the South

Agitation Over Slavery

• Fugitive Slave Law: used to track down runaway enslaved people who had escaped to northern states + return them to the South

• opposition → anyone who attempted to hide runaway or obstruct enforcement was subject to heavy penalties

Underground Railroad

• Series for network activities that helped enslaved people escape to the north

• Harriet Tubman: 19 trips into the South to help 300 people

Books

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe) → showcased brutal white sale owners and the lives of slaves

• Impending Crisis of the South (Hinton R. Helper) → attacked slavery from economic + demeaning southern slave owners’ angle

• Southern Reaction

  • Argued that slavery was good for the owner and slave

  • Sociology for the South + Cannibal’s All! (George Fitzhugh) pro-slavery books

5.6 Failure of Compromise

What divided the North and South

• Attitudes about the morality of slavery

• Views about the constitutional rights of states esp. slavery

• Differences over economic policies between North and South

National Parties in Crisis

• Election of 1852

  • Democrats: Franklin Pierce's dark horse WINS

  • Free Soil party: John Hale

  • Whigs: war hero Winfield Scott

  • Whigs split

    • Results + Impacts:

    • Not fighting right away had a significant impact with a delay in fighting

    • North forges ahead in population and wealth

The Kansas-Nebraska Act(1854)

• Contradicted Missouri Compromise

• Popular sovereignty instead in Kansas (free) and Nebraska  (slavery)

• President Pierce supported

• Underestimated opposition in North

Extremists and Violence

• “Bleeding Kansas”

  • Proslavery border ruffians poured into Kansas and illegally voted

  • New England Emigrant Company: sent abolitionist and free soiler settlers to Kansas

  • Both established extralegal governments (one fraud one illegal)

  • First real test territorial legislature

  • Murder + violence + mounted tensions

• Canning of Senator Sumner

  • Violence in Kansa spilled into Congress

  • Sumner→ made personal charges to Andrew Butler

  • Preston Brooks → defended uncle’s honor and beat Sumner

Birth of the Republican Party

• Sprang up in Middle West

• Gathered dissatisfied elements, including Whigs, Dems, Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings (whoever disagreed with Kansas-Nebraska Act)

• Included Abraham lincoln

• Grew rapidly but sectionally (not in the South)

Election of 1856

• Dem but proslavery James Buchanan WINS

• Republican: John C. Fremont

  • Afraid of what would happen to the union

  • Free-soilers vote the Lecompton Consitution down

Constitutional Issues

• Lecompton Consitution (1857):

  • Vote either FOR slavery or no slavery (still protected though)

  • Proslavery document

• Dred Scott v. Sandford

  • Background

    • Dred Scott moved to Wisconsin (Free territory), came back to Missouri, and sued for freedom

    • Supreme Court Ruled that slaves are not citizens and private property

  • Decision

    • Supreme Court claimed Congress had no authority over slavery

    • Intensified tensions + further split Democrats sectionally

• Lincoln Douglass Debates

  • Background

    • Illinois senate election

    • Douglas won the senatorial election but Lincoln gained popularity

  • Freeport Doctrine

    • Douglas claimed that “slavery cannot exist without slave codes”, the territory should just not pass legislation favorable to slaves

    • Loses support

  • Impact

    • National Plane to Fame for Lincoln

5.7 Election of 1860 and Secession

Road to Secession

• Southern fears grew that their constitutional rights would be repealed

John Brown’s Raid at Harpers Ferry

• John Brown was a staunch abolitionist that was convicted and hanged

• Captured citizens & seized federal armory/ arsenal in VA

• Seen as a martyr in the North

Election of 1860

• The Breakup of the Democratic Party

  • Democrats held their national conversion → Stephen Douglass was the leading candidate

  • In the section national convention delegates from slave states walked out

  • Southern democrats held their own convention and nominated John C. Breckinridge as their candidate.

• Republican Nomination of Lincoln

  • Reps met in Chicago and enjoyed the Democrats’ division.

  • Made the most of their advantage and drafted a platform that appealed to economic self-interest

  • Nominated Abraham Lincoln could carry the key midwestern states

  • In the South, secessionists warned that if Lincoln was elected president they would leave the union

• 4th political Party

  • Former Whigs, Know-Nothings, and moderate Democrats made the constitutional union party

  • Nominated John Bell of Tennesse + campaigned for enforcement of laws

• Election Results

  • Lincoln won free states of the North leaving Douglas and Bell with only a few electoral votes

The secession of the Deep South

• Reps neither controlled Congress nor the supreme court

• December 1860, SC voted to secede within the next 6 weeks GA, FL, AL, MI, LA, and TX seceded too

• They make a constitution except for place limits on the power

• Crittenden Compromise

  • Radical plan to end slavery

  • Right to hold slaves in all territories to the south of 36’30”

  • Too extreme because it made slavery permanently legal

A Nation Divided

• Fort Sumter

  • Cut off from Southern control

  • Notified SC that he will only send supplies, South saw it as an act of aggression

  • South opened fire

  • 1st shots of the civil war

  • The capital of the Confederacy moved to Virginia

• The secession of the Upper South

  • 7 deep south states had seceded before Sumter but after realizing that Lincoln would use troops 4 upper South seceded (VA, NC, TN, AK)

• Keeping the Border States in the Union

  • Border states would have seceded but due to Union sentiments in those states and federal policies they didn’t

  • Border states served as a significant part of the war as they tremendously help lincoln

5.8 Military Conflict in the Civil War

Military Differences

• Confederacy → Defensive war + shorter distances to move, more soldiers at first + control over navy

• Union → Offensive + longer distances to move

Economic

• Union→ dominated economy

• Southern → hoped European demand for cotton would bring in recognition and financial aid

Political

• Union → fighting for unity

• Confederacy → struggling for independence needed a strong central gov to win the war hoped people of the union would turn against Lincoln

The Confederate States of America

• The Confederate constitution was molded after US Constitution except for a 6 term president + vetos

• Denied confederate congress the power to levy a protective tariff

• Short of money y+ tried loans, income taxes, and impressment of private property

• Gov issued $1 billion in paper → inflation

First Years of a Long War: 1861-1862

• First Battle of Bull Run

  • First major battle

  • Confederate victory → got rid of the northern disillusionment of a swift victory

• Union Strategy

  • Use U.S. Navy to blockade Southern Ports (anaconda plan), cutting off essential supplies from reaching the Confederacy

  • Take control of the Mississippi River → Confederacy into 2

  • Raise and train an army 500,000 strong to conquer Richmond

• Peninsula Campaign

  • Union General McClellan's plan to capture Richmond, Virginia in 1862

  • McClellan moved his troops by boat to the tip of the Virginia Peninsula, southeast of Richmond

  • McClellan's army was stalled at the Battle of Seven Pines just outside of Richmond and then was pushed back by General Lee's Confederate forces

  • The campaign ended in failure for the Union, but it demonstrated that the Confederate capital could be threatened and that the Union was capable of mounting major offensives

• Fredericksburg

  • December 1862 in Virginia.

  • Union Army of the Potomac: Major General Ambrose Burnside

  • Confederate Army of Northern Virginia: General Robert E. Lee

  • Confederate victory, the most lopsided Union defeat of the war, with the Union army suffering over 12,000 casualties

• Monitor vs. Merrimac

  • March 9, 1862, the Union's Monitor, an ironclad ship, faced off against the Confederacy's Merrimac, an armed ship

  • The battle was a draw, but it marked a turning point in naval warfare + demonstrated the effectiveness of ironclad ships in combat

• Grant in the West

  • In the West, General Ulysses S. Grant was making steady progress in his campaign to gain control of the Mississippi River

  • In February 1862, he captured Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee, opening the way for Union forces to move into northern Mississippi

  • In April, Grant's forces won the Battle of Shiloh, which secured the Union's hold on western Tennessee and opened up the possibility of an attack

Foreign Affairs and Diplomacy

• Trent affair

  • Trent affair: 2 confederacy diplomates bound for GB taken by the union

  • Britain's anger → Lincoln releases them

  • British helping Confederate building commerce raiders, tested their neutrality

• Confederate Raiders

  • British didn’t allow confederates to purchase warships from British shipyards

  • Alabama, a ship, was captured before being sunk off the coast of France by a Union warship

• Failure of Cotton Diplomacy

  • confederacy’s hopes for European intervention were disappointed

  • Egypt + India cotton became British textiles

  • Britain outlawed slavery + didn't want to recognize the Confederacy

  • Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation made the end of slavery an objective

The Union Triumphs, 1863-1865

Turning Point

• Vicksburg

  • Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River

  • Union General Ulysses S. Grant launched a long campaign to capture the city + Grant besieged Vicksburg, cutting off its supply lines and bombarding it with artillery

  • After a six-week siege, Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, 1863.

  • major turning point in the war, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River and splitting the Confederacy in half.

• Gettysburg

  • July 1-3, 1863, in Pennsylvania

  • Confederate General Robert E. Lee advanced north into Pennsylvania and clashed with Union General George G. Meade's army at Gettysburg.

  • The three-day battle ended with the Confederacy's retreat + bloodiest battle

• Address at Gettysburg

  • November 19, 1863

  • President Abraham Lincoln delivered a speech to dedicate the cemetery where Union soldiers killed at the Battle of Gettysburg were buried

Grant in Command

• In 1864, President Lincoln appointed Ulysses S. Grant as general-in-chief of all Union armies, giving him command of the war effort.

• Grant's strategy was to engage and defeat Lee's army in Virginia, while other Union armies simultaneously attacked Confederate forces throughout the South.

• Grant was willing to accept higher casualties as it could replace its losses more easily than the South.

• Sherman’s march

  • The military campaign led by Union General William Tecumseh with Sherman's troops leaving Atlanta, Georgia, and ended with the capture of the city of Savannah, Georgia

  • Notable for its destruction of Confederate infrastructure and resources, as well as its use of "scorched earth" tactics

  • The Confederacy's inability to wage war contributed to the Union's ultimate victory.

• End of war

  • Appomattox Court House

    • On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.

5.9 Government Policies During the Civil War

The End of Slavery

• Lincoln’s concerns

  • Keeping the support of border states

  • constitutional protection of slavery

  • Radical prejudice of many Northerners

  • Read that premature actions could be overturned in the next election

Confiscation acts

• The power to seize enemy property used to wage war against the US was the legal basis

• Thousands of “contrabands” used feet to escape slavery by finding their way into Union camps

• 2nd confiscation act → freed persons enslaved by anyone engaged in rebellion against the US

Emancipation proclamation

• Issued by Lincoln in 1863

• Declared all slaves in Confederate-held territory to be free (no border states)

• Did not free all slaves immediately, but it was a major step toward abolition

13th Amendment

• Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude.

African Americans in War

• Initially excluded from the Union army then allowed to serve in segregated units

• These units faced discrimination and were often given menial tasks, but they performed admirably in combat.

• Their service was a major factor in the Union's victory and contributed to the eventual abolition of slavery.

Effect of the War on Civilian Life

• Political Change

  • Radical Reps demanded immediate abolition

  • Free-soil Reps focused on economic opportunities for Whites

  • Dems (Copperheads) opposed the war and wanted peace

• Civil liberties

  • Lincoln focused on prosecuting the war and then protecting citizens’ rights

  • He was suspended habeas corpus in MD + arrested due to suspicion

  • Ex Parte Milligan → government acted improperly in Indiana as civilians had been subject to a military trial such procedures could only be used when civilian courts we unavailable

• The Draft

  • North

    • A large pool of volunteers AT FIRST

    • 1863 → conscription: Unfair to the poor ($300 for exemption)

    • NY draft riots 1863

    • 90% were volunteers, with lots of desertion

  • South

    • Don’t have to win the war, FOUGHT ON DEFENSE

    • Desertation→ starvation

    • Had to rely on volunteers, population weakness

    • 17-50 aged soldiers → oldies but goodies

    • The Confederacy draft was seriously unjust

      • 20 Negro law → if an individual owned MORE than 20 slaves could opt out

    • “RICH MAN’S FIGHT, POOR MAN’S WAR”

Political Dominance of the North

• Suspension of habeas corpus + operation of the draft

• The new definition of the nature of the Federal Union

• Nullification and secession ceased to be issues

• Supremacy of the federal gov over states

• Abolition of slavery → Emancipation Proclamation → advanced cause of democratic government in the US and inspired champions of democracy

Economic Change

• Financing the war

  • Union borrowed $2.5 billion through government bonds but wasn't enough so tariffs were raised (Morrill Tariff)

  • Greenbacks → paper currency of $430 million issued by the US treasury

  • National banking system

• Modernizing Northern Society

  • Worker’s wages didn’t keep up with inflation

  • Little doubt that many aspects of the modern industrial economy accelerated by the war

  • Premium on mass production + complex organization

  • War profiteers took advantage of the need for military supplies → high rate

  • Produced concentration of capital in the hands of millionaires who would finance North’s industrialization

  • Morrill Tariff Act(1861) → raised tariff rates to increase revenue and protect manufacturers

  • Homestead Act(1862) → promoted settlement of the Great Plains by offering 160 acres of public land for 5 years of farming

  • Morrill Land Grant Act(1862) → encouraged states to use the sale of federal land grants to maintain agriculture + tech colleges

  • Pacific Railway Act (1862) → authorized the building of the transcontinental railroad

Social Change

• Women at work

  • Did work in place of men + military nurse and volunteers

  • Nursing open to women + responsibilities undertaken by women → impetus to voting rights for women

• End of Slavery

  • 13th amendment got rid of slavery but discrimination + economic hardships + political oppression continued

  • Slaves are protected by the US constitution

  • Destroyed slavery devasted the Southern economy

  • Sharecropping turned popular

Assassination of Lincoln

• Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C (April 15, 1865)

5.10 Reconstruction

Post-civil war conditions

• Characterized by a period of reconstruction and rebuilding in the United States

• The country faced many challenges, including rebuilding its infrastructure, dealing with the aftermath of slavery, and healing from the war

• Saw significant changes in American society and politics, including the rise of industrialization and the growth of political parties

Reconstruction Plans of Lincoln and Johnson

• Lincoln’s Policies

  • Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (1863) → simple process for political reconstruction, reconstruction of state governments in the South

  • Presidential grants granted to Confederates if

    • Took an oath of allegiance to the Union and the US Constitution

    • Accepted the emancipation of slaves

  • The state could be re-est. as soon as at least 10% of voters took a loyalty oath

• Wade Davis Bill (1864)

  • Reps in Congress objected 10% plan as it reconstructed state govs to fall under dominating of disloyal secessionists

  • Required 50% of voters of a state to take a loyalty oath

  • Permitted only non-Confereates to vote for the new state constitution

• Freedmen’s Bureau → Congress created the Bureau for Refugees, freedmen, and abandoned lands as an early welfare agency (greatest success in education)

5.11 Failure of Reconstruction

• Lincoln’s Last speech

  • Given on April 11, 1865, on plans for reconstructing the South after the end of the Civil War

  • He advocated for giving suffrage rights to at least some African Americans, and he also suggested that some Confederate officials might be pardoned.

• Johnson and Reconstruction

  • After Lincoln died, Johnson(VP + white supremacist) was made president

  • Reps in Congress believed that the war was fought to preserve the union and liberate blacks from slavery

  • Johnson’s Reconstruction Policy (disfranchisement)

    • All former leaders and officeholders of the Confederacy

    • Confeds with more than $20,00 in taxable property

  • Johnson was pardoning disloyal Southerners but Confed leaders back in the office by the fall of 1865

• Southern Governments of 1865

  • 11 ex-Confederate states qualified under the reconstruction plan

  • Drew up constitutions that repudiated secession, negated debts of the Confed gov + ratified the 13th amendment

• Black codes

  • Prohibited blacks from renting land and borrowing money to buy land

  • placed freedmen into semi-bondage by forcing them as vagrants and apprentices to sign work contracts

  • Prohibited blacks from testifying against whites in court

• Johnson’s vetos

  • Vetoed bill increasing the services and protection offered by the Freedmen’s Bureau

  • Civil rights bill nullified the black codes and marked the end of the 1st round of reconstruction

Congressional Reconstruction

• Radical Republicans

  • Divided between moderates(chiefly concerned with econ gains for white middle class) and radicals (championed civil rights for blacks)

  • Charles Sumber, Thaddeus Stevens, Benjamin Wade

• Civil Rights Act of 1866

  • Defined US citizenship and affirmed that all citizens were equally protected by the law

  • It granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, except Native Americans

  • Gave African Americans the same legal rights as white Americans, and authorized federal intervention to ensure that those rights were protected

  • Vetoed by President Andrew Johnson, but Congress overrode the veto, and the law was enacted

• 14th amendment

  • All persons born or naturalized in the US were citizens

  • Obligated states to respect the rights of US citizens and provide them with “equal protection of the laws” and “due process of law”

  • Disqualified former Confed political leaders from holding state and federal offices

  • Repudiated debts of defeated govs of the Confederacy

  • Penalized a state if it kept an eligible person from voting

• Report of the Joint Committee

  • House + Sente issue report recommending that reorg former states of Confed were not entitled to representation in Congress

  • Congress officially rejected the plan and promised to substitute its own plan (14th Amendment)

• Election of 1866

  • Republicans won a two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

  • Gave reps the power to override any vetoes by President Johnson and to pass legislation without his approval

• Reconstruction Acts of 1867

  • Congress passed 3 acts → placing the South under military occupation

  • Divided Confed states into 5 military districts under the control of the Union army

  • Increased requirements for gaining readmission into the union

  • Ex-Confed states had to ratify the 14th and place guarantees in its constitution for granting the franchise to all adult males regardless of race

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

• In 1868, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Andrew Johnson, alleging that he had violated the Tenure of Office Act by removing the Secretary of War without Senate approval.

• Johnson was the first president to be impeached, but he was not removed from office. The Senate failed to convict him by one vote.

Reforms after Grant’s Election

• Election of 1868

  • Republican Ulysses S. Grant won against Democrat Horatio Seymour in a landslide victory.

  • Grant was a popular war hero and his victory was interpreted as a sign of the public's support

• 15th amendment

  • Prohibited any state from denying or abridging a citizen’s right to vote on the account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude (1870 ratification)

• Civil Rights of 1875

  • Guarantees equal accommodation in public spaces and prohibited courts from excluding AAs from juries

  • Poorly enforced

Reconstruction in the South

• Scalawags and Carpetbaggers

  • Scalawags→ Southern whites who supported the Republican Party and Reconstruction as a way to modernize the South.

  • Carpetbaggers → Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction to take advantage of economic opportunities or to help with Reconstruction efforts.

  • Seen as opportunists by Southern whites, who resented their presence and influence

• African American Legislators

  • Blanche K. Bruce + Hiram Revels

  • Bitter resentment among ex-Condef

Evaluating the Republican Record

• Accomplishments

  • Liberalized state constitutions

  • Promoted the building of many

  • Est. needed state institutions

  • State-supported public schools

• Failures

  • Wasteful + corrupt

  • Kickbacks and bribes from contractors

African Americans Adjusting to Freedom

• Building Black Communities

  • Established schools, churches, and businesses, and formed tight-knit communities that provided support and protection against the discrimination and violence they faced

  • African Americans worked to create a better life for themselves and their families

• Sharecropping

  • Labor system in which landowners provided land, tools, and supplies to tenant farmers in exchange for a share of the crop they produced.

  • Common in the South when many African Americans were unable to find work or land of their own

  • Kept tenant farmers in a cycle of debt and poverty, as landowners charged high-interest rates and manipulated the system to keep their laborers in a state of dependence

North during Reconstruction

• Greed and Corruption

  • Rise of Spoilsmen → Political manipulators used patronage to gain supporters

  • Corruption in Business and Government

    • Jay Gould & James Fisk → obtained the help of Pres BIL in a scheme to corner the gold market

    • Credit Mobilier Affair → a joint-stock company organized in 1863 and reorganized in 1867 to build the Union Pacific Railroad + gov officials accused of getting bribes

• Panic of 1873

  • Over speculation by financiers + overbuilding by industry and railroads → business failures

The End of Reconstruction

• KKK

  • White supremacist groups involved with lynching and terrorizing AAs and whites who helped them

  • Force Acts of 1870 and 1871

• Amnesty Act of 1872 → allowed southern conservatives to vote for Dems to retake control of state gov

• Election of 1876

  • Marked the end of the Reconstruction

  • The election was highly contested, with both the Republican and Democratic candidates claiming victory (Tilden vs. Hayes)

• Compromise of 1877

  • Gave the presidency to Rep Rutherford B. Hayes

  • Removal of federal troops from the South ending Reconstruction and allowing for the rise of Jim Crow laws