1865-1877Reconstructing AmericaChapter 15
The Year of Jubilee, 1865
African American Families●Freed people tried to reestablish families torn apart by slavery●Many took to the road●Work was a choice between: wage labor, renting land, sharecropping●Many moved to cities, created a labor glut●Freedmen’s Bureau adjudicated labor disputes, distributed food, built schools, hospitals
Black Population of the United States, 1880
Southern Whites and the Problem of Defeat●Assassination of Lincoln shocked the country in April 1865●Some southerners realized this hurt their interest, others celebrated●Several thousand southerners relocated to Brazil●Most wanted easy readmission and to maintain authority over freed people●Southern men struggled to explain defeat, failure of paternalism●White women gave up wartime roles, advocated traditional gender relationships
Shaping Reconstruction, 1865-1868
Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction●Johnson allowed ‘self-reconstruction’●Repudiate secession and state debts●Ratify the Thirteenth Amendmentoutlawing slavery●
