Chapter 15 Reconstruction

Contents Page

Chapter 18 notes

 

Chapters 16 and 17

Reconstructing the South and Settlement of the West

  1. Election of 1876
    1. Republican – Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio – War veteran, reformer, clean reputation (no more scandals)
    2. Democrat – Samuel Tilden – Governor of New York – had stopped the Boss Tweed ring, wanted to limit government involvement, return to gold standard.
    3. Results – Tilden seems to have won—needed 185 electoral votes had 184 with 20 in dispute.  SC, LA, and FL had cheated.  Republicans threw out Tilden votes and announce Hayes was the winner
    4. A slanted electoral commission set up in Congress (p. 423) gave the election to Hayes
    5. Southern reps refused to hold the electoral count—threatened to postpone the election indefinitely. 
    6. Received concessions to allow Hayes be Pres.

                                                               i.      S would be ruled by home rule – no more oversight from Fed govt.

                                                             ii.      Wanted a say in Hayes’ cabinet

                                                            iii.      Wanted Fed govt. to fund internal improvements in S

    1. Result was Hayes was pres. but S could end reconstruction, nullified 14th and 15th amendment, and allowed black codes and KKK to thrive for next 80 years.
  1. Black culture in the US
    1. White S was reconciled to the Union at the expense of black Americans.
    2. Supreme Court declared Civil Rights act of 1875 void, turned very conservative on both business and social affairs.  Govt. should not be involved in improving society.
    3. 90% of blacks lived in S. – 2 separate societies developed.  Jim Crow laws kept blacks and whites segregated in virtually all areas.  Jobs for black citizens were in their own society, or to serve a white “master”. 
    4. Plessy v Ferguson upheld separate but equal
    5. Right to vote was taken from most black men – used poll taxes, registration laws, and literacy tests (also threats of violence)
    6. Booker T Washington – Black leader preached that black Americans should accept conditions as they were and simply try to improve themselves as a group. (Atlanta Compromise speech)
  2. Redeemers – the new leaders of the S – mainly Democratic – removed many of the changes Reconstruction had implemented.  They cut taxes and the level of services
    1. Removed support for schools, and used prisons and prisoners as a source of free labor for new industries.
    2. Tried to create industries as they rebuilt the S. not very successful – result was selling of resources to N industries that destroyed resources and removed them to the N.
    3. Most of S still used sharecropping system – were controlled and abused by creditors
    4. Industries that were created were low wage, low skill of processing crops or resources of the S
  3. Comparison of N and S
    1. S per capita income $376 in 1880
    2. N per capita income approx. $1000
    3. The S lagged behind the N in income, education, public health and standard of living
  4. Development of the Great Plains
    1. Forbidding looking territory separating east coast from west coast
    2. Area in which the Indians had been moved into – 300,000 Native Americans and millions of buffalo lived there.  Both had adapted well.
    3. Both Americans and Native Americans were brutal towards the other.
    4. Following the Civil War, US policy was to “concentrate” tribes into small areas where they would learn to become “Americans” (Walk the white man’s road).
    5. Treaties were broken regarding land rights, and those Native Americans who did not move voluntarily were moved forcefully or exterminated.
    6. Discovery of gold and silver led to increase in white population and a further removal of Native Americans and the Sioux War of 1865-1867.
    7. Millions of dollars was discovered and many “towns and gulches” sprung up in the west.
    8. Further S cattle ranches developed (TX and OK).  Wild cattle roamed the area, they were gathered and penned in.  Transported by “cowboys” to RR hubs further N.  Millions were made by first arrival, but spread of RR led to increase in supply of meat and lowered prices – many later arrivals went broke.
  5. Homestead policy and the creation of new farms
    1. Almost 4 million new farms were started from 1860 –1900.  600,000 were homesteads – free farms given by the govt. to settlers. 
    2. Much of the land had been given to the RR who then sold it to immigrants for a profit.
    3. Land was bought by speculators, who arrived first, and then sold it for a profit to later arrivals.
    4. Population of the US in 1865:  35,701,000

In 1900: 76,094,000