01:512:104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Bracer, War Democrat, Converting Vegetarians
16 May 2018
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Chapter 22 - The Ordeal of Reconstruction 1865-1877
Freedmen Define Freedom
• Emancipation took effect unevenly in different parts of the Confederacy.
• Many thought that African Americans were ‘incapable of accepting “freedom” in any sense’
because:
• Some slaves resisted the liberating Union armies due to their loyalty to their masters.
• Freed blacks had no idea what to do now since they’re free and all they know how to do
is labor work causing whites to resume leadership/control.
• Education arose for the blacks due to the emancipation proclamation. Blacks were now able to
learn to how to read and write.
• Church became the main focus of black community life; they formed their own churches
pastured by their own ministers.
• Many ex-slaves: sought families, organized society around churches, sought education, as many
remained poor.
The Freedman's Bureau
• Freedman's Bureau was created to help the newly freed slaves who were considered less experienced at
life
• Kind of life welfare; provided clothing, food, medical care, edu.
• Greatest achievement was the education mostly cause blacks wanted to be closer to whites and read the
word of God
• Bureau was week in other departments, little land was given to blacks that was promised, land was
captured from Confederate
Johnson: The Tailor President
• Johnson was born into an extremely poor family and therefore never went to school. instead he became
the apprentice to a tailor at ten. he taught himself how to read, and later his wife taught him how to write
and do simple arithmetic.
• Johnson was a champion of the poor whites against planter aristocrats, although he did own a few slaves.
elected to Congress, he became favored by the north when he refused to secede with his state. after
Tennesse was partialy reclaimed by union soldiers, he was appointed war general.
• Johnson then moved into the vice presidency-->Lincoln's Union party in 1864 needed support from War
Democrats and other pro-southern elements and Johnson seemed to be ideal. Unfortunately, he arrived
at the vice-presidential inaugural ceremonies in a scandalous condition-->he had been recently afflicted
with typhoid fever and had been urged by his friends to take a stiff bracer of whiskey, he did.
• "Old Andy" Johnson was intelligent, able, forceful, gifted with honesty, devoted to duty and people,
dogmatic champion of states' rights and Constitution. However, he was a misfit-->Southerner did not
understand the North, a Tennessean had earned distrust of the South, a Democrat who had never been
accepted by Republicans, a president who had never been elected to the office, not at home in a
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republican white house. wrong man in wrong place at wrong time-->a Reconstruction policy would have
failed in his hands.
The Baleful Black Codes
• The first of the new Southern regimes sanctioned by Johnson were the Black Codes.
• The Black Codes were designed to regulate the affairs of the emancipated blacks.
• Mississippi passed the first law like this in Nov 1865, with other states soon following.
• The Black Codes varied in severity from state to state, Mississippi being the harshest and Georgia the
most lenient.
• The Black Codes were aimed to create a stable subservient labor force.
• Consequences for "jumped" labor contracts were usually one year service under the contract holder at
pittance wages. Violators could be made to forgeit back wages, or could be dragged back to work by a
paid "Negro-catcher".
• Blacks freedom was recognized, and they had the right to marry, but could not serve on a jury, and in a
few stats could not rent or lease land. They could be punished for "idleness" by forced servitude on a
chain-gang. They were not allowed the right to vote.
Congressional Reconstruction
• blacks could dismantle the economic program of the republican party by lowering tariffs, rerouting the
transcontinental railroad, repealing the free farm homestead act, possibly even repudiating the national
debt. President Johnson thus deeply disturbed the congressional republicans when he announced on
December 6th, 1865, that the recently rebellious states had satisfied his conditions and that in his view
the union was now restored.
• Among those who presented themselves at the Capitol in Dec 1865, there was four former Confederate
generals, five colonels, and various members of the Richmond cabinet and Congress who tried
reclaiming their seats.. The presence of these "whitewashed rebels" infuriated the Republicans in
Congress.
• While the South had been "out" from 1861 to 1865 the Republicans in Congress had enjoyed a relatively
free hand. They had passed much legislation that favored the North, such as the Morrill Tariff, the Pacific
Railroad Act, and the Homestead Act.
• Before the war a black slave had counted as three-fifths of a person. Now the slave was five-fifths of a
person. Because of this, a full counting of free blacks showed that the rebel states were entitled to twelve
more votes in Congress and twelve more presidential electoral votes.
Johnson Clashes with Congress
• the clash came out into the open in february 1866 when Johnson vetoed a bill, extending the life of the
Feedmen's Bureau.
• the Republicans, in March 1866, passed the civil rights Bill. this conferred on blacks the privilege of
American citizenship and struck at the black codes.
• Johnson veteod this bill, but Congress ignored his veto, something they repeatedly did henceforth.
Congress assumed the dominant role in running the government,
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