Reconstruction
I.
Union Victory
Constants in the American Dream
a.
1. Self improvement
b.
2. Racial minorities have less access then white men
Slavery
c.
Slavery survived because the early American economy was dependent
on it. The Birth of the nations capitalist economy was a burden carried
on the backs of black slaves
d.
Ignored black voters
Reconstruction
e.
1860s- blacks were given rights of citizenship, just for them to be
taken away
A. The “Great Emancipator”- Abraham Lincoln
Self-taught lawyer, skilled orator, and an ambitious, tactful Illinois
politician, pragmatist
(not a saint)
Republican, supported ambition
1858- became famous. Debates against Douglas. Lincoln engaged
in racial politics. Racist to gain political support.
Cuts both ways on slavery debate
Emancipation Proclamation- not how presidency began
Peace with confederates
Promised South- He wouldn’t aloud slavery to expand, but allow it
in the South
1863- Emancipate slaves, aloud blacks to serve in union army (less
pay & not promoted) and gain citizenship
Doesn’t care that slavery isn’t moral
B. “Forty Acres and a Mule”
o
General Sherman
In 1864 and 1965, general William T. Sherman, and architect of
modern “total war”, produced essential Union victories in the
southeastern Confederacy. Sherman’s Special Field Order No.
15, which provided 40-acre plots and mules, was an early
wartime template for postwar Reconstruction.
Blacks were defined as property not humans
Blacks received freedom, but second hand citizens
C.
Freed Slaves’ Aspirations & Southern White Expectations
260,000 men died fighting for the Confederacy or 1/5 of the
Souths adult male population
Some families in the South lost entire life saving
Destruction of animal, farm buildings, etc.
Sherman’s famous, or notorious, “March to Sea” at the end of the
civil war survived by pillaging isolated plantations and left
southern cities in ruins
South lost war, southern economy was ruined after civil war lost
II. Presidential Reconstruction (1865-67)- Driven by Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson (Lincolns vice president)
Johnson (Southern Democrat), only southern senator who remained
in office after secession
Wasn’t supposed to be president
