History Midterm Questions
1. What goals did Republican policymakers, ex-Confederates, and freedpeople
pursue during Reconstruction” To what degree the each succeed or fail?
Republican Policymakers
I)Goals
A)Increase political power in the south via building a constituency
B)Improve quality of life for african americans
II)Building a constituency -> Failure
A)wanted to build a voter base out of black voters
i) Reconstruction Act of 1867
a) granted freedmen right to vote, while removing ex-
Confederates from the voter pool
ii) 15th amendment
b) 15th = can’t discriminate voters based on “race, color, and previous state
of servitude”
c) failure due to loopholes (Ie poll tax and literacy tests)
B)Redeemers retake the south
i) from 1873 - 1875, Republican governments were overthrown in the states of
Texas, Alabama, and Arkansas
ii) armed Democrats paraded the streets and stuffed ballot boxes in Missisipi
(1875)
C) Success / Fail
i) overall a fail, Republicans were unable to create a constituency in the south, and
due to loopholes the lives of blacks can be argued as being worse than that of what
they started with.
III) Improve quality of life for freedmen
A)Freedmen's Bureau (Founded 1865)
i) received direct federal funding in 1866
ii)Bureau agents tasked w/ investigating southern abuses
B)Civil RIghts Act of 1866
i)Declared that freedmen were citizens, and thus receive equal protection, and the
right of contract and to the courts
C)14th Amendment
i)response to Black codes
ii)naturalized freedmen, and declared them as equals to other citizens
iii)Made an amendment so that it would be harder for individual states to infringe
on peoples rights (Federal gov’t > State gov’t )
D) Success / Fail
i)Short term success, once military occupation of the south was over, states went
back to white rule
Ex-Confederates
I)Goals
A)Return the south to its Antebellum era level of Prosperity
B)Deprive African Americans of their rights
II)???
A)Black Codes (1865)
i)blacks were still viewed as inferior and a free source of labor; black codes formed
to force freedmen back onto plantations
ii)this reflected the economic interests of southern plantation owners, who lost a
great deal of labor
iii)failure due to Civil RIghts Act of 1866 and the 14th amendment
a)CRA -> protected Freedmen from Black codes
b)14th -> gave Freedmen right to vote; naturalized them
B)Sharecropping
i)effectively slavery
ii)Freedmen would lease land from their old masters to work
a) percentage was to be paid to landowners, tenant kept the rest
iii)unfair due to
a) Freedmen were rented tools, sold seeds and fertilizers at exorbitant prices
b) many times masters and storekeepers would work together to keep tenants in
perpetual debt
iv) 3 of every 4 freedmen were share croppers
Freedmen
I)Goals
A)Gain civil and Political rights
B)Own land and be economically self sufficient
II)Civil rights
A) In 1875, over 50% of black children attended school in the states of Florida,
Mississippi, and South Carolina
B)protection from black codes( CRA 1866)
C)Failure
i)KKK targeted freedmen
