Congressional Reconstruction After the Civil War

Johnson's Reconstruction Plan:

President Johnson's reconstruction plan was named Presidential Reconstruction. He pursued this plan while congress was in recess. It pardoned southerners who swore allegiance to the Union, permitted each state to hold a constitutional convention, and required states to void secession, abolish slavery, and repudiate the Confederate debt. After all this was done, the states were then allowed to hold elections and rejoin the Union. His plan was adapted from Lincoln's reconstruction plan with more generosity towards the south.

Black Codes:
These were laws that severely restricted the freedmen's newfound freedoms and rights. They denied the freed slaves' earned rights. These codes consisted of curfews that restricted people from gathering after sunset, vagrancy laws that said the freedmen needed to work or they would be punished, labor contracts that had to be signed by the freedmen that said they had to work for the whole year and if they quit they would lose their wages, and land restrictions that permitted the freedmen to rent land or homes in rural areas forcing them to live on plantations. These laws were unjust and defeated the whole purpose of freeing the slaves.

14th Amendment:
This amendment was made when President Johnson wanted to veto the Civil Rights Act. Congress decided to build equal rights into the constitution. It defined citizenship and stated that anyone born in the United States is a citizen of it and that the state couldn't make a law that curtailed a citizen's rights or deny the citizen of equal protection from the laws. This stopped the black codes.

Radical Reconstruction:
The Radical Republicans' main goal was to grant African Americans their civil rights. The moderates didn't want this because their were still racial inequalities in the north and they didn't want to impose stricter laws in the South.
White people were being violent towards the freedmen and they killed many of them. Johnson opposed equal rights to African Americans and angry Northerners put Radical Republicans into Congress so they could put their own reconstruction plans into action.
The Radicals in Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867. This act put the south under military rule dividing it into five districts that were governed by Northern generals, ordered southern states to told new election for delegates to create new state constitutions, required states to allow all male voters including African Americans to vote, temporarily bared those who had supported the Confederacy from voting, required southern states to guarantee equal rights to all citizens, and required the states to ratify the 14th Amendment. They later impeached President Johnson because of his lack of will to grant the freedmen their rights and the fact that Johnson's firing of the Secretary of War was unconstitutional. African Americans would later take part in politics.

15th Amendment:
Freedmen started demanding the rights of citizenship such as voting, serving on juries, and testifying in court. This led the Congress, through Radical power, to pass the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. It stated that no citizen may me denied the right to vote by the United States because of their race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Carpetbagger:
This was the insulting nickname given to northern Republicans who moved to the South. The Southerners felt that these carpetbaggers were profiting from southern misery. They were described as greedy men that wanted to make money but it has been proven that they were well educated men including former union soldiers, black northerners, Freedmen's Bureau officials, businessmen, clergy, and political leaders.

Scalawag:
This is also a nickname that was given to white southern Republicans. They were seen as traitors. Some scalawags were former Whigs who had opposed secession and others were small farmers and former planters. Many were poor.

What I Learned From the Videos in Class

Ken Burns Documentary
Civil War was fought in 10,000 places. Schoolhouses sheltered the dying. 7,000 men died in 12 minutes in Cold Harbor. The effects were devastating. The war made some rich and ruined others. Between 1861 and 1865, Americans made war against each other and killed each other. Many teenagers fought in the war because they thought it was cool and they were later honored after the war (the ones that survived). The last veteran died in 1959. In a historians point of view, the Civil War was about the higher ideals (changed pathway of country).

Slave Resistance
Slaves were maltreated and often separated from families when sold. They weren’t allowed to have meetings without a white person present.
The Underground Railroad was created by Harriet Tubman. It was a network of houses that the slaves stayed at until they reached Canada and were free. Harriet made 19 trips to free slaves. She also served as a union army spy.

Uncle Tom's Cabin
In the North, slavery didn’t affect the people until the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Your average northerner didn’t think that much about slavery since slavery was outlawed in the north. This book was about what slave life was like. The author put of this information and it had a similar effect as the common sense pamphlet. It stated that slavery violated Christian morals. She scorned American slave owners because she believed that God was the one to judge and that a country under God with these circumstances is a bad country. Parts of it were put in magazines and it was very popular after a while. Southerners hated this book and Northerners were interested. The book was used in the north to teach slaves why slavery should be abolished. Southerners tried to write pro slavery novels but they didn’t become that popular.

Abolish Slavery!

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery and escaped from it. He wrote autobiographies and newspapers that opened America’s eyes to slavery. His writing also presented the idea of freeing slaves in America. He was a black abolitionist leader and lobbied for and recruited African American soldiers to fight for the Union Army. He was also the first African American to be nominated to be Vice President.

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery and escaped to become a passionate fighter for abolition. She helped free other slaves on the Underground Railroad. She rescued about 70 slaves in 11 years. She was also a spy in the Union Army during the civil war where she was a nurse and cook.

William Lloyd Garrison was one of the most influential abolitionist leaders. He had newspaper in which he argued for freedom for all people held in slavery. He publicly set fire to a copy of the constitution because it sanctioned slavery. He also founded the New-England Anti-slavery Society and the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Events Important to Our Study of the Civil War

Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a plan to help maintain balance between the free and slave states in the Senate if they were to admit California to the United States as a free state. It consisted of five laws, two that favored the south and two that favored the North. These are the laws:
1) Congress would admit California into the Union as a free state.
2) The people of the New Mexico and Utah territories would decide for themselves whether to allow slavery. (popular sovereignty)
3) Congress would abolish the sale of enslaved people, but not slavery, in Washington, D.C.
4) Texas would give up claims to New Mexico for $10 million.
5) A Fugitive Slave Act would order all citizens of the United States to assist in the return of escaped slaves and would deny a jury trial to escaped slaves.
The Compromise of 1850 is important to our study of the Civil War because many people had opposed to it and it only helped them see their differences in opinion clearer which would lead to disputes later on. The south thought that the north would be controlling the Government if it's population grew because it would have more seats in the House.

Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was introduced by Senator Stephen Douglas. It called for the creation of two new territories, Kansas and Nebraska, and stated that the people there would get to decide if they were to become free or slave states (popular sovereignty). The two territories were north of the boundary the Missouri Compromise had set. If the territories were to allow slavery, it would be the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was meant to please both the south and the north. Douglas knew the Southerners would accept it because there was a probability that they would be slave states. He also though that the Northerners would accept it because they thought that slaves weren't needed where cotton couldn't grow. This Act was passed by Congress.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act is important to our study of the Civil War because after it was passed, anti-slavery and pro-slavery settled in Kansas to effect the vote of weather the territory would be a free state. This led to violent raid and counter-raids. Therefore, this added to the tension between them that would soon lead to a Civil War.

Presidential Election of 1860
The presidential election of 1860 occurred when the North couldn't stand having a Southern leader and vice versa. It was clear that there were no national political parties. When the Democratic Party met in South Carolina to nominate it's candidate for President, the party broke in two because there were Southern Democrats who were for slavery and Northern Democrats who were for popular sovereignty. Eight Democratic states agreed to nominate their own candidate. Then there were the Whig and American Parties who formed to make the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell. Then we had the Republic Party who nominated Abraham Lincoln who stood against the spread of slavery with moderate views on slavery as well.
In the South, the election was between Bell and Beckinridge. In the North, it was between Lincoln and Douglas. All the free states except for half of New Jersey were for Lincoln. He won the election without any votes from the South.
The Presidential election of 1860 is important to our study of the Civil War because it infuriated the Southerners that Lincoln was able to win without any votes from the South. They felt like they had no say in the government. This cause them to completely secede from the Union. It showed that their differences couldn't be solved easily. They didn't even consult the North showing their lack of willingness to talk and compromise. This is one of the final events that added to the tension between them that would lead to the Civil War.

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