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Chapter 22

The document summarizes the effects of the Civil War and emancipation on the post-war South from 1865-1877. It discusses the economic devastation of the South, the confusion over freed slaves' status, black codes passed to maintain control over blacks, and northern Republicans' concerns over southern political influence if Reconstruction was not implemented.

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41 views3 pages

Chapter 22

The document summarizes the effects of the Civil War and emancipation on the post-war South from 1865-1877. It discusses the economic devastation of the South, the confusion over freed slaves' status, black codes passed to maintain control over blacks, and northern Republicans' concerns over southern political influence if Reconstruction was not implemented.

Uploaded by

krzy4tennis
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter 22 – The Ordeal of Reconstruction

Effects of Civil War on South:


1865-1877
• All rebel leaders were finally pardoned by President Johnson as sort of a Christmas present
in 1868. But Congress did not remove all remaining civil disabilities until 30 years later and
only restore Davis’s citizenship more than a century later.
• Charleston and Richmond were destroyed.
• Economic life came to a halt. Banks and business houses closed down, ruined by inflation.
• Factories were dismantled. Transportation system was broken down completely.
• Agriculture- the economic lifeblood of the South- was almost hopelessly crippled. Once white
cotton fields now yielded a lush harvest of nothing but green weeds. The slave-labor system
collapsed, seed was scarce, and livestock had been driven off by plundering Yankees.
Effects of Freedom on Blacks:
• Confusion spread in the South about the precise meaning of “freedom” for blacks. Many
blacks found themselves emancipated and then re-slaved.
• Planters resisted, protesting that slavery was lawful until state legislatures or the Supreme
Court declared otherwise.
• Loyalty to the plantation masters prompted some slaves to resist the liberating Union armies
while other slaves’ pent-up bitterness burst forth violently on the day of liberation. Many
emancipated slaves joined the Union troops in pillaging their master’s possessions.
• Many of the emancipated blacks got married and had children. The church also became the
focus of the black community life. Emancipating also meant education for many African-
Americans.
Views of Freedmen’s Bureau by white Southerners:
• Although the bureau was authorized to settle former slaves on the forty-acre tracts
confiscated from the Confederates, little land actually made it into blacks’ hands.
• Instead local administrators often collaborated with planters in expelling blacks from towns
and cajoling them into signing labor contracts to work for their former masters.
• Still, the white South resented the bureau as a meddlesome federal interloper that
threatened to upset white racial dominance. President Andrew Johnson, who shared the
white-supremacist views of mort white Southerners, repeatedly tried to kill it, and it
expired in 1872.

Black Codes Purpose:


• These laws were designed to regulate the affairs of the emancipated blacks, much as the
slave statues had done in pre-Civil War days.
• The Black Codes aimed, first of all, to ensure a stable and subservient labor force. The
Cotton Kingdom was crushed. Many white wanted to make sure that they retained tight
control they had exercised over black field hands and plow drivers in the days of slavery.
• The codes also sought to restore as nearly as possible the pre-emancipation system of race
relations. All the codes forbade a black to serve on jury; some even barred blacks from
renting or leasing land.
• These oppressive laws mocked the ideal of freedom, so recently purchased by buckets of
blood.
• Had the North really won the war if former slaves were being re-enslaved?
Reasons for Concern Among Congressional Republicans:
• To the shock and disgust of the Republicans, many former Confederate leaders were on
hand to claim their seats in the Capitol.
• Looking to the future, Republicans were alarmed that a restored South would be stronger
than ever in national politics because slaves were now five-fifths of a person as opposed to
the previous three-fifths.
• If Southerners teamed up with Northern Democrats, they could perpetuate the Black Codes
and 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.

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