American History

CIVIL WAR AND

RECONSTRUCTION

The Impact of the War with Mexico

 New lands for settlers

 Increased debate over

whether slavery should

be allowed to spread

 Idea of popular

sovereignty suggested

 Citizens decide

The Impact of the War with Mexico

 The Split of the Whig Party

 Conscience Whigs North

 Joined the Democrats to form

the Free-Soil Party

 Opposed slavery, they believed

that allowing slavery to expand

would make it difficult for free

men to find work

 Cotton Whigs South

 Pro slavery

 Nominated Zachary Taylor for

President, who won the election

The Search for Compromise

 Gold Rush

 Forty-Niners

 Increased population in

California

 Slavery issue raised

again

 The states admission into

the union would upset the

balance between free and

slave states

The Search for Compromise

 Compromise of 1850

 Presented by Henry

Clay

 Grouped his

resolutions in pairs so

that each pair

offered concessions to

both sides

The Compromise of 1850 had five sections





1. The territories of New Mexico,

Nevada, Arizona, and Utah

would be organized without

mention of slavery. The decision

would be made by the territories'

when they applied for statehood.

2. California would be admitted as

a free state.

3. Texas would relinquish the land in

dispute but, in compensation, be

given 10 million dollars to pay

off its debt to Mexico.

4. The slave trade would be

abolished in the District of

Columbia, although slavery would

still be permitted.





6

Old Senate chambers where the debate took place

The fifth part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law, caused a storm of

protest and would be a catalyst for Civil War eleven years later.







1. It clothes any ruffian who may be commissioned to act in

his new and infamous office of Slave-Catcher, with

magisterial and judicial authority.

2. It commands and requires good citizens to aid in this

heartless and brutal business, imposing the work of

bloodhounds upon them.

3. It authorizes such kidnappers and rascals as may choose to

do so, to arrest o seize persons without “due process of

law”.

4. It jeopardizes the liberty of every colored person, by

requiring merely a “general description” and by casting

out the evidence of the person arrested.

5. It seeks to annul the writ of Habeas Corpus which tends to

secure justice and liberty by delivering a person from

false imprisonment, or by removing a case from one court

to another.

6. It imposes excessive fines.

7. It denies the citizen a Jury Trial, where his liberty, and

perhaps his life, is at stake.



7

A critique of the law from an anti-slavery perspective

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

 Harriet Beecher Stowe

 Her book sold millions

& swayed public

opinion

 Historianssay it was

one of the causes of the

Civil War

 She would later say

Lincoln “…was the

cause of the Civil

War…”

According to legend, when Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1862 he said:





"So you're the little

woman who wrote the

book that started this

Great War!"









9

The Fugitive Slave Act

 Injustice toward African

Americans

 Accused had no rights

 Could not testify

 No rights to a trial



 Political Action Against

the Act

 Frederick Douglass

 Harriet Tubman

 Helped slaves escape via

the underground railroad

An emotional condemnation of the Fugitive Slave Act. The print shows a group of four black

men--possibly freedmen--ambushed by a posse of six armed whites in a cornfield. One of the

white men fires on them, while two of his companions reload their muskets. Two of the blacks

have evidently been hit; one has fallen to the ground while the second staggers, clutching the

11

back of his bleeding head. The two others react with horror.

Fugitive slave Anthony Burns,

whose arrest and trial in Boston

under the provisions of the

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850,

incited riots and protests by white

and black abolitionists and

citizens of Boston in the spring of

1854. The reaction to his arrest

showed the depth of feeling

against the law and slavery

itself.









12

Burns arrest, trial and return to

slavery in Virginia was protested

by an estimated 50,000 angry

citizens who lined the streets of

Boston as an army of soldiers

escorted Burns to the waterfront.

This engraving depicts the scene

of Burns' march. Men in a window,

along with the angry mob outside

and on top of the surrounding

buildings, shout out "Kidnappers”.

A Black church raised $1300

($27,442 in 2003 dollars) to

purchase Burns' freedom. In less

than a year Anthony Burns was

back in Boston.









The issue of slavery, symbolized by the Fugitive Slave Law, was fatally dividing the nation.

13

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

 Stephen Douglas

 Divided the region into two

territories

 Allowed popular sovereignty to

decided the issue of slavery

 The Act is passed



 Bleeding Kansas

 Northerners vs. Southerners

 Northerners headed for Kansas

because they wanted to create

an antislavery majority there

U.S. in 1854

15

The status of slavery in the territories after the Kansas Nebraska Act of

1854







Slavery now allowed under the

Kansas Nebraska Act. It was not

allowed under the Missouri

Compromise of 1820.









Slavery allowed under Missouri

Compromise and the Kansas Nebraska

Act.





Missouri Compromise of 1820 line

16

Birth of the Republican Party

 Whig Party Destroyed

 Broken by Kansas

Nebraska Act

 Free Soil + Conscience

Whigs + Anti Slavery

Democrats =

Republicans

The Kansas-Nebraska Act had a profound impact on the

course of U.S. history



the reopening of the slavery question in the territories

“Bleeding Kansas”, open warfare in the territory between pro and

anti-slavery forces

political parties realigned along sectional lines

the Democrats became a southern proslavery party

the Whig Party, which had opposed the Act disappeared in the South

and was fatally wounded in the North

a new party emerged, the Republican which gathered in anti-slavery

Whigs and Democrats and was seen as a mortal danger to pro-slavery

forces

18

The Election of 1856

 Republican

 John C. Fremont

 Democrat

 James Buchanan

1856 Election results. Notice which states voted for the

anti-slavery Republican Party.









20

Sectional Divisions Grow

 Dred Scott v Sandford

 Supreme Court decided

 slaves could not be freed

by their residence in a free

state

 Missouri Compromise, or

free soil, is unconstitutional

 Kansas and the Lecompton

constitution

 Legalized slavery

 Voters rejected the slavery

and voted against the

constitution

 Kansas did not become a

state

Dred Scott Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Roger

B. Taney



“Upon these considerations it is the opinion of the Court that the act of Congress which prohibited a citizen from holding

and owning property of this kind in the territory of the United States north of the line therein mentioned is not warranted by

the Constitution and is therefore void; and that neither Dred Scott himself, nor any of his family, were made free by being

carried into this territory; even if they had been carried there by the owner with the intention of becoming a permanent

resident.”

22

Lincoln and Douglas

 Race for Illinois Senate

seat

 Series of debates held

 Popular sovereignty v.

anti slavery

 Douglas won the

election

John Browns Raid

 Rebellion

 Seized the federal

arsenal at Harpers

Ferry Virginia

 Arm enslaved people

an begin and

insurrection against

slaveholders

 Brown was tried,

convicted and

sentenced to death

The Election of 1860

 Lincoln becomes

president

 South saw his election

as a victory for the

abolitionists

 Six states vote to

secede the Union

Four parties ran candidates in the 1860 election





Northern Democrats



Republicans









Stephen Douglas

Abraham Lincoln









Southern Democrats Constitutional Union









26 John Breckinridge John Bell

Compromise Fails

 Seceding Southern States

 Seized property in their

states

 North Carolina, Arkansas,

Tenessee

 The Union held on to Fort

Sumter

 Create the Confederacy

 February 8, 1861

 Drafted a Constitution that

guaranteed the existence of

slavery and made states

independent

 Jefferson Davis chosen as

president

Attempt to prevent a war between the states



The Crittenden Compromise



It was one of several schemes to prevent open warfare and

reunite the nation. In an attempt to stop states from seceding,

a Senate plan authored mainly by John J. Crittenden of

Kentucky proposed a compromise plan. It consisted of a series

of proposed constitutional amendments, which protected

slavery in all territories south of the Missouri Compromise line

of 36° 30' "now held, or hereafter acquired," while

prohibiting it north of the line; prohibited Congress from

abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, or in national

jurisdictions within slave states; forbade federal interference

with interstate slave trade; and indemnified owners

prevented by "local opposition" from recovering fugitive

slaves. These amendments would have been perpetually

binding, non amendable and could not be repealed “for all

time”. Other provisions added on to the Crittenden

Compromise would have modified the fugitive slave law and

requested that states repeal laws that conflicted with it.

Republicans in Congress opposed the Compromise, seeing it Senator John J. Crittenden

as an utter repudiation of their platform. They were able to

kill it in committee on December 28, 1860, and on the Senate

floor on January 16, 1861.



28

The Civil War Begins

 Inaugural speech

 Lincoln repeated his

commitment not to interfere

with slavery where it

already existed

 Attack on Fort Sumter

 Begins the war

 Border States

 Lincoln wanted to prevent

Maryland from seceding

 Did not want Washington,

D.C. surrounded by the

Confederacy

Fort Sumter was running out of supplies when Lincoln assumed the presidency. He informed the Southern

commanders at Charleston he was sending cargo ships to re-supply the fort. Essentially Lincoln was telling

the South if they wanted to start a war here was there chance. On April 10, 1861, Brig. Gen.

Beauregard, in command of the provisional Confederate forces at Charleston, South Carolina, demanded

the surrender of the Union garrison of Fort Sumter. Garrison commander Anderson refused. On April 12,

Confederate batteries opened fire on the fort. At 2:30 p.m., April 13, Major Anderson surrendered Fort

Sumter, evacuating the garrison on the following day. The bombardment of Fort Sumter was the opening

engagement of the American Civil War.









31

Advantages and Disadvantages

 North

 Huge population

 Industrious

 Strong Economy

 Produced 90% of nations

iron

 Produced almost all the

country’s gunpowder and

fire arms

 Controlled the treasury

 Legal Tender Act

 Home of the Navy

Advantages and Disadvantages

 South

 1/3 of pop was

enslaved

 Huge food production



 Military Schools



 Weak government,

most power given to

states

The First “Modern” War

 New Technology & Tactics

 Cone shaped bullets

 More accurate

 Trenches

 Attacking forces suffered

high casualties

 Attrition

 Wearing down of one side

by another

 Anaconda Plan

 Blockade of Confederate

ports and sending

gunboats down the

Mississippi to divide the

Confederacy

Northern Commanders

38









George G. Meade









Joseph Hooker

George McClellan







Irwin McDowell

A. E. Burnside

Northern Commanders

39









Ulysses S. Grant



-- “U.S. GrantWhen in

doubt, fight”



•Son of an Ohio tailor &

drunken failure until the Civil

War





•Reputation for boldness,

resourcefulness, &persistance

Southern Commander

40



Robert E. Lee



“It is a good thing war is so terrible;

else we should grow too fond of it” -

- R.E. Lee







•Brilliant southern gentleman from one of

country’s oldest families



•Offered command of Union armies



•Family plantation occupied early in the war and

turned into Arlington National Cemetary





Who has the advantage in Commanders?

Southern Commanders









Jeb Stuart

“Stonewall” George Pickett

Jackson









James Nathan Bedford

Longstreet Forrest

1st Battle of Bull Run

 Union defeated

 Lincoln realized

 He needed a well

trained army

 He needed more

troops

Battle of Bull Run

(1st Manassas)

July, 1861

The Battle of the Ironclads,

March, 1862



The Monitor vs.

the Merrimac

Antietam

 Bloodiest one day

battle of the war

 Union Victory

 Lincoln decided it was

time to end slavery in

the South

Battle of Antietam

“Bloodiest Single Day of the War”





September 17, 1862









23,000 casualties

The Emancipation Proclamation

 Changed the War

 Janunary1,1863

 War was now to free

slaves

Emancipation in 1863

African Americans in the Military

 54th Massachusetts

 1stAfrican American

regiment officially

organized in the North









Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.

African-American Recruiting

Vicksburg Falls

 Union forces attack

 Want control of the

Mississippi

 Put Vicksburg under

siege

 Cut off food and

supplies

 Bombarded the city

 Confederates

surrender on

July4,1863

Gettysburg

 The turning point of the

war

 Union forces

 Went through several

changes in generals

 Held their ground

 Were victorious

 Southern forces

 Pickett’s Charge

 7,000 died in ½ an

hour

 Gettysburg Address

 Best known speech in

American history

Sherman’s

“March

to the

Sea”

through

Georgia,

1864

1865

January

General William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order

No. 15 after meeting with black clergymen in

Savannah, Georgia, to discuss the future of former

slaves after emancipation. Special Field Order 15 set

aside portions of coastal South Carolina, Georgia, and

Florida exclusively for settlement by black people.

Black settlers were to receive "possessory title" to forty-

acre plots.





General Sherman







“The islands from Charleston south, the abandoned rice-

fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea,

and the country bordering the St. John’s River, Florida, are

reserved and set apart for the settlement of the negroes

now made free by the acts of war and the [Emancipation]

proclamation of the President of the United States.”

Election of 1864

 General George

McClellan

 Promised to stop the

war

 Lincoln

 Reelected



 Proceeded with the

passing of the 13th

Amendment

 Banning slavery

The South Surrenders

 Appomattox

Courthouse

 GeneralLee

surrendered to

General Grant

 April 9, 1865

 Guaranteed the U.S.

would not prosecute

Confederate soldiers

for treason

President Lincoln entered Richmond, Virginia,

the former Confederate capital, on April 4,

1865.

The Civil War ended in April of 1865 when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate

Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant.









General Lee General

Grant

Casualties on Both Sides

Civil War Casualties

in Comparison to Other Wars

Lincoln’s Assassination

 John Wilkes Booth

 Killed the president on

April 14, 1865

President Lincoln shot,

April 14, 1865

Murdered by John Wilkes Booth, a loyal Confederate Southerner who believed

that he was avenging the South when he assassinated the president.

Ford’s Theater (April 14, 1865)

President Lincoln died on April 15, 1865

The conspirators were caught and

hung.









Derringer used by Booth to kill Lincoln

Lincoln’s funeral train

RECONSTRUCTION



AFTER THE WAR WAS OVER THE NATION NEEDED TO REBUILD. THIS

PERIOD WAS KNOWN AS RECONSTRUCTION. IT BEGAN DURING

THE CIVIL WAR(1861-1865) AND ENDED IN 1877.









THE MAJOR ISSUES THAT FACED THE U.S. AT THE END OF

THE WAR WERE:



HOW SHOULD THE NATION BE REUNITED?

WHAT SYSTEM OF LABOR SHOULD REPLACE SLAVERY?

WHAT WOULD BE THE STATUS OF THE FORMER SLAVES?

Richmond, Virginia 1865

The Reconstruction Battle Begins

 Rebuilding the South

 Lincoln’s Proclamation of Amnesty

and Reconstruction

 Pardon to all Southerners who

 took an oath of loyalty to the U.S

 Accepted the slaves were now free

 Reconciling with the south rather

than punishing it

 Radical Republicans

 did not want to reconcile with the

South

 Thaddeus Stevens

 Proposed their plan in congress as

the Wade-Davis Bill

 Lincoln pocket vetoed the bill

Wade-Davis Bill (1864)

 Required 50% of the number of

1860 voters to take an “iron clad”

oath of allegiance (swearing they

had never voluntarily aided the

rebellion ).

 Required a state constitutional

Senator convention before the election of Congressman

Benjamin state officials. Henry

Wade W. Davis

(R-OH)  Enacted specific safeguards of (R-MD)

freedmen’s liberties.

THREE PLANS FOR RECONSTRUCTION

LINCOLN PROPOSED HIS PLAN IN

1863: RADICAL REPUBLICANS IN

JOHNSON PROPOSED HIS

CONGRESS PROPOSED

HE OFFERED A PARDON TO ALL PLAN AFTER LINCOLN WAS

THEIR PLAN:

SUPPORTERS OF THE ASSASSINATED AND HE

CONFEDERACY IF THEY SWORE ASCENDED TO THE EQUAL RIGHTS FOR

ALLEGIANCE TO THE UNION AND PRESIDENCY: FREED AFRICAN

PLEDGED TO ACCEPT THE END OF AMERICANS

AMNESTY TO WHITES WHO

SLAVERY. WHEN 10% OF THE MEN SIGNED LOYALTY OATHS PREVENT CONFERDATE

ELIGIBLE TO VOTE IN 1860 DID THIS LEADERS FROM

THE STATE QUALIFIED FOR REENTRY STATES MUST ABOLISH

RETURNING TO POWER

INTO THE UNION SLAVERY

WANTED THE REPUBLICAN

NEW STATE CONSTITUTIONS HAD STATES MUST PAY WAR

PARTY TO BECOME

TO OUTLAW SLAVERY DEBTS

POWERFUL IN THE SOUTH

NO PROTECTION FOR FREED NO ROLE FOR FREED BLACKS

MILITARY OCCUPATION

AFRICAN AMERICANS NO VOTE FOR AFRICAN OF THE SOUTH TO

AMERICANS OVERSEE CHANGES

VOTING RIGHTS FOR

AFRICAN AMERICAN

MALES

13TH, 14TH, 15TH

AMENDMENTS

The Freedmen’s Bureau

 Freedmen’s Bureau

 Answering the slave refugee

crisis

 Led in feeding, clothing, and

finding work for former slaves

 Reunited families

 Education

 Established African American

colleges

 Built schools, paid teachers

 Created the Buffalo soldiers

 U.S. Cavalry

 Established a Network of

courts

The Freedmen’s Bureau was attacked.

Cartoon

expressed the

outrage many

Northerners felt

at how white

Southerners were

treating ex-

slaves. Only

soldiers could

protect the

freedmen from

abuse.

Johnson Takes Office

 Johnson Issues a New

Proclamation of Amnesty

 Key Differences from

Lincoln’s Proclamation

 Required individual

pardons for top officials

in the Confederacy

 Ratification of 13th

amendment to be done by

each individual state

Johnson Takes Office

 The South agrees

 Thousands are pardoned

 Many confederates are

elected to congress

 Creation of Black Codes

 Demonstrated lingering

prejudice

 African Americans not

truly free

 Created new

regulations for African

Americans

Vice-President Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency.

Johnson’s soft approach did not include oversight in the South, which led

to the passage of a series of racist laws known as the Black Codes.





The Black codes were passed for two main purposes:

1. To control and inhibit the freedom of ex-slaves. These laws controlled almost all aspects of

life for African Americans and prohibited them from exercising their freedoms that had

been won in the Civil War.

2. White Southerners needed a stable labor force since slavery was abolished. Although the

codes differed from state to state, there were some common provisions:

 Blacks were required to enter into annual labor contracts, with penalties if they tried

to quit early.

 Dependent children were forced into compulsory apprenticeships, and the use of

corporal punishments by “masters” was sanctioned.

 Unemployed blacks and “vagrants” could be sold into private service if they could

not pay designated fines.

A critical look

at Johnson’s

reconstruction

policy allowing

former rebels

back into

Congress while

allowing the

mistreatment of

freed slaves.

A broadside

attacking

President

Johnson’s

lenient policy

toward

former rebels

and his lack

of concern for

freedmen in

the South.

Many former Confederate officials were elected

to Congress and state level positions.



4 ex-Confederate generals

elected

6 ex-Confederate cabinet

officers elected

58 ex-Confederate

congressmen elected

Former vice- president of

the Confederacy Alexander Stephenson, the

former vice-president of the

Confederacy, was elected to

Senate from Georgia in

December of 1865.

“Slavery is dead?”

The left panel shows a slave being sold as punishment for a crime; the right panel shows an

African American being whipped as punishment for a crime in 1866.

Chained Black Code “vagrants” forced to work for no wages (slavery).

Examples of Black Code laws in Louisiana and

Mississippi

Excerpt from a Louisiana Black Code law, Excerpt from a Mississippi Black Code

1865 law, 1865

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, &c., That Section 10. It shall be lawful for any

persons who have attained the age of freedman, free negro, or mulatto, to

majority, whether in this State or any other charge any white person, freedman, free

State of the United States, or in a foreign negro or mulatto by affidavit, with any

country, may bind themselves to services to criminal offense against his or her person

be performed in this country, for the term of or property, and upon such affidavit the

five years, on such terms as they may proper process shall be issued and

stipulate, as domestic servants and to work on executed as if said affidavit was made

farms, plantations or in manufacturing by a white person, and it shall be lawful

establishments, which contracts shall be valid for any freedman, free negro, or mulatto,

and binding on the parties to the same. in any action, suit or controversy pending,

or about to be instituted in any court of

law equity in this State, to make all

needful and lawful affidavits as shall be

necessary for the institution, prosecution or

defense of such suit or controversy.

Radical Republican Take Control

 Goals

 Prevent Confederate leaders from

returning to power

 Make Republican party powerful in

the South

 Guarantee the African American vote

in the South

 Civil Rights Act of 1866 & the

Fourteenth Amendment

 Gave citizenship to all born in the

U.S.

 Own property

 Treated equally in court / due process

 Andrew Johnson was opposed

 Became the major issue in the election

of 1866

Radical Republicans Take Control

 Republican Reconstruction

 Military Reconstruction Act

 Did away with Johnson’s

reconstruction plan

 Former Confederate states

could elect people to congress

 Had to ratify the 14th

amendment 1s

 Tenure of Office Act

 Required the Senate to

approve the removal of any

government official whose

appointment had required the

Senate’s approval

Radical Republicans Take Control

 President Johnson

impeached

 Johnson challenges Tenure of

Office Act

 Fires Secretary of War

Edwin M. Stanton for

agreeing with Radical

Republicans

 Broke the law

 Johnson does not seek re-

election in 1868

 Republicans pass the 15th

Amendment

 The right to vote could not

be denied on account of

race, color, or previous

servitude

Election of 1868

 Ulysses S. Grant

 Republican candidate

 Believed the presidents

role was to carry out

laws

 African Americans vote

in large numbers

 Had protection from

Union Soldiers

Republican Rule in the South

 Carpetbaggers

 Northerners who moved south

 Many were elected or appointed to

positions in the state government

 Take advantage of War torn region

 Scalawags

 White Southerners who supported

reconstruction

 Owners of small farms who did not want

wealthy planters to regain power

 African Americans help govern the south

 Joseph Rainey

 1st elected to the House of Representatives

 Hiram Revels

 The 1st in the United States Senate

The Forty-First and Forty-

Second Congress (1869-

1873) included black

members for the first time in

American history. A total of

sixteen blacks served in

Congress during

Reconstruction.

This commemorative print

issued at the time portrays

Senator Hiram Revels of

Mississippi and representatives

Robert DeLarge of South

Carolina, Jefferson Long

of Georgia, Benjamin Turner

of Alabama, Josiah Walls of

Florida, and Joseph Rainey

and Robert B. Elliott of South

Carolina.

Colored Rule

in the South?

Southern Resistance

 Ku Klux Klan

 Aim to destroy the

Republican party in the

South

 Three Enforcement Acts

aimed to end southern

violence

 Federal crime to interfere

with right to vote

 Federal elections under the

supervision of marshals

 The activities of the KKK

illegal

Election of 1872

 Ulysses S. Grant

 Republican

 Victorious in Civil War

 Little political

experience

 Horace Greely

 Liberal Republican

 News paper publisher

The Grant Administration

 Scandals

 Whisky Ring

 St. Louis Distillers cheated

the government out of

taxes

 Government officials

involved

 Panic of 1873

 Banks close

 Stock markets fall

 Unemployment rises

 Power shift

 Democrats control both

houses

The Election of 1876

 Election Fraud / No

clear winner

 Rutherford B. Hayes

 Republican

 Wanted to end

Radical Reconstruction

 Samuel Tilden

 Democrat

 Governor of New York

Hayes Prevails

Reconstruction Ends

 Compromise of 1877

 Hayes declared winner

 Southern Democrats

agree

 Republican must

promise to pull federal

troops out of the South

 Pulling out of the troops

 Ends Reconstruction and

Republican governments

in the south

A “New South” Arises

 Alliance between

North and South

 Economic growth

 New technology helped

produce more crops,

which lowered prices

 African Americans

return to the Old South

 Sharecroppers

 PostCivil War southern

labor system

Sharecropping

Tenancy & the Crop Lien System

Furnishing Merchant Tenant Farmer Landowner

 Loan tools and seed  Plants crop,  Rents land to tenant

up to 60% interest harvests in in exchange for ¼

to tenant farmer to autumn. to ½ of tenant

plant spring crop. farmer’s future

 Turns over up to ½ crop.

 Farmer also secures of crop to land

food, clothing, and owner as payment

other necessities on of rent.

credit from

merchant until the  Tenant gives

harvest. remainder of crop

to merchant in

 Merchant holds payment of debt.

“lien” {mortgage} on

part of tenant’s

future crops as

repayment of debt.