Transcript Georgia and the American Experience

Georgia
and the American Experience
Chapter 9: 1866-1889
Reconstruction and the
New South
Study Presentation
© 2005 Clairmont Press
Section 1: Lincoln and
Reconstruction
Section 2: Reconstruction in
Georgia
Section 3: Georgia’s Redemption
Years
Section 4: The New South
© 2005 Clairmont Press
Section 1:
Lincoln and Reconstruction
• ESSENTIAL QUESTION
–What were Lincoln’s plans for
rebuilding the South after the Civil
War?
Section 1:
Lincoln and Reconstruction
• What words do I need to know?
– freedmen
– Freedmen’s Bureau
– Reconstruction
– disfranchise
– Thirteenth Amendment
– Nullify
– assassinated
Section 1:
Lincoln and Reconstruction
• What people do I need to know?
–Abraham Lincoln
–John Wilkes Booth
–Andrew Johnson
John Wilkes Booth
Andrew Johnson
Conditions in Georgia at the end
of the war:
• farms were in ruins
• homes, railways, bridges,roads were
destroyed or in need of repair
• not enough food
• banks were closed – Confederate money
was worthless
• the state owed $20,000,000 in war debt
• 25,000 Georgians had died of wounds or
disease – many more were crippled and
could not work
Richmond, Virginia
The Freedmen
• Problems of freedmen (former slaves):
– homeless
– hungry
– uneducated
– free for the 1st time
– no property or goods
• Many former slaves feared re-enslavement
• Most whites had difficulty treating freeman
as free persons
The Freedmen’s Bureau
• Started as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen,
and Abandoned Lands by U.S. government in
1865
• Its job was to help freed slaves and poor whites
with basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter
• The purpose shifted to education
– Set up 4,000 primary schools
– Started industrial schools for jobs training
– Started teacher-training schools
• Missionaries started schools like Atlanta
University, Morehouse College, and Clark College
Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction
• Lincoln wanted to rebuild and return the south to
the Union as soon as possible
• “Reconstruction” would have two parts:
1.Southerners would be pardoned after taking an oath of
allegiance;
2.When 10% of voters had taken the oath, the state could rejoin
the Union and form a state government.
• Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865 during a
play at Ford’s Theater by actor John Wilkes
Booth.
• Vice President Andrew Johnson took over as
President.
Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction
• Lincoln’s plan to reconstruct the south was
challenged. Some northerners called
“Radical Republicans” thought the south
should be more severely punished.
• The Radical Republicans wanted to make
sure the freedmen retained their new rights.
• Confederate President Jefferson Davis was
captured and imprisoned.
Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
• In addition to Lincoln’s requirements,
President Johnson added a few more.
Southern states had to:
– approve (ratify) the 13th Amendment (outlawing
slavery);
– nullify their ordinances of secession;
– promise not to repay money borrowed during
the war.
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Section 2:
Reconstruction in Georgia
• ESSENTIAL QUESTION
– What changes occurred in Georgia
during Reconstruction?
Section 2:
Reconstruction in Georgia
• What words do I need to know?
– provisional
– discrimination
– Black Codes
– Fourteenth Amendment
– carpetbagger
– scalawag
– Ku Klux Klan
Section 2:
Reconstruction in Georgia
• What words do I need to know?
– suffrage
– Georgia Act
– Fifteenth Amendment
– impeach
– sharecropping
– credit
– tenant farming
Section 2:
Reconstruction in Georgia
• What people do I need to know?
–James Johnson
–General John Pope
–Henry McNeal Turner
The Constitutional Convention of 1865
• President Johnson appointed James
Johnson as Georgia’s provisional Governor.
• Governor Johnson held a Constitutional
Convention. The representatives voted to
abolish slavery and repeal the ordinance of
secession.
• Elections were held in November 1865 for a
new legislature.
• The General Assembly voted to extend
rights to freedmen.
Congressional Reconstruction
• Congress was angry about Georgia’s Black
Codes, so it passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
This law gave:
– citizenship to all freedmen;
– the federal government power to intervene any
time civil rights were taken from freedmen.
• The 14th Amendment was passed granting
citizenship to freedmen and required “equal
protection under the law.”
Congressional Reconstruction
• Congress required southern states to ratify the
14th Amendment.
• Georgia and most of the other southern states
refused.
• Congress abolished these states’ governments
and put them under military rule.
• Georgia was ruled by General John Pope.
• Pope was required to register all male voters –
black and white. These voters would elect new
representatives to form a new state government.
General John Pope
Constitutional Convention of 1867
• Georgia male voters elected delegates to the
convention to create a new state constitution.
• Delegates were carpetbaggers (northerners who
had moved south), scalawags (southerners who
sided with the Republicans), and blacks.
• Accomplishments of the Convention:
– A new constitution ensuring civil rights for all citizens;
– Free public education for all children;
– Women were allowed to control their own property.
• Georgia had satisfied Congress, so General Pope
and his troops left the state.
Carpetbaggers
Black Codes
• Black Codes were laws passed to keep
freedmen from having the same rights as
whites.
– Didn’t allow blacks: the same jobs as
whites, the right to vote, the right to marry
a white person, jury service, or the right to
testify.
– Blacks could be: whipped as punishment,
forced to work from sunrise to sunset six
days per week, or put in jail if they didn’t
have a job.
African Americans in Politics
• The election of 1867 was the first time African
Americans had voted.
• Several African Americans were elected to
Georgia’s General Assembly.
• Rev. Henry McNeal Turner was one of the first
black men elected in Georgia.
• The African Americans elected to the General
Assembly were expelled in 1868.
• It was argued by whites that civil rights laws gave
blacks the right to vote but not to be elected.
Ku Klux Klan
• Secret organization – originally started as a
social club for men returning from the war.
• Members hid behind robes and masks.
• The group terrorized blacks to keep them
from voting.
• As a result, Congress passed “The Georgia
Act” and sent troops back to Georgia.
• The act required Georgia to pass the 15th
Amendment giving all males the right to
vote.
KKK
Economic Reconstruction
• Without slaves, landowners needed laborers to
work their large farms.
• Two systems emerged: tenant farming and
sharecropping.
• Cotton was Georgia’s most important crop.
• Continuous growing of tobacco and cotton ruined
the soil on many farms.
• Railroads expanded across the state.
• Savannah and Brunswick became important
shipping ports.
• Atlanta began its growth into an important
business center.
Tenant Farming and
Sharecropping
Sharecropping
Landowner provides a house, land,
equipment, animals, fertilizer and
seeds.
The landowner issued credit to the
worker to buy medicine, food,
clothing and other supplies.
The landowner gets a share of the
crop and crops to pay any debt
owed.
Sharecroppers rarely had any cash.
Tenant Farming
Landowner provides house and
land.
Landowner received a set amount
of cash or a portion of the crop at
the end of the season.
Tenant farmers usually made a
small profit.
The End of Reconstruction
• The African Americans who had been
expelled from the General Assembly in
1868 were readmitted by the Georgia
Supreme Court in 1870.
• The Assembly approved the 14th and 15th
Amendments.
• Georgia was readmitted to the Union,
again, ending Reconstruction.
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Section 3:
Georgia’s Redemption
Years
• ESSENTIAL QUESTION
– How did Georgians work to improve
their state after Reconstruction?
Section 3:
Georgia’s Redemption
Years
• What words do I need to know?
– redemption
– white supremacy
– Bourbon Triumvirate
– ally
– temperance
– convict lease system
Section 3:
Georgia’s Redemption Years
• What people do I need to know?
–Joseph E. Brown
–Alfred H. Colquitt
–John B. Gordon
–Rebecca Latimer Felton
–Tom Watson
–Leo Frank
The Bourbon Triumvirate
• Democrats controlled Georgia’s government after
Reconstruction.
• Powerful Democratic leaders, known as the
“Bourbon Triumvirate” were Joseph E. Brown,
Alfred H. Colquitt, and John B. Gordon.
• Their goals were:
– expand Georgia’s economy and ties with
industries in the North;
– maintain the tradition of white supremacy.
Decline of the Bourbon Triumvirate
• “Independent Democrats” criticized the Bourbons
for not attending to the needs of the poor or
improve education and working conditions in
factories.
• Leaders William and Rebecca Felton worked to
improve conditions for poor Georgians using
newspapers to highlight problems in the state.
• The convict lease system “rented” prisoners to
companies to use as workers. It took many years
for the poor conditions the prisoners endured to
be brought to light and changed.
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Section 4:
The New South
• ESSENTIAL QUESTION
–What changes occurred to create the
era of the “New South” in Georgia?
Section 4:
The New South
• What words do I need to know?
– New South
– normal school
– segregation
– Grange
– Farmers’ Alliance
– co-op
Section 4:
The New South
• What people do I need to know?
–Henry Grady
–Joel Chandler Harris
–Sidney Lanier
–Charles Henry Smith
The New South Era
• Challengers to the Bourbon Triumvirate wanted
Georgia to be more industrialized.
• Henry Grady was a speaker and newspaper
editor.
• Grady described Georgia as a place which could
have competitive industry and more efficient
farming.
• Grady envisioned improved race relations in a
“New South” which left its antebellum past behind.
Education in the New South Era
• Funding to provide elementary education for all
children in Georgia grew slowly from 1868-1895.
• Teachers were paid a little more than farm hands
and had little or no training.
• Normal schools were started to train more
teachers.
• The “school year” was only three months long
which allowed children to work on farms or in
factories.
• The state constitution of 1877 did not allow for
school beyond 8th grade and segregated black
and white students.
The Arts of the New South Era
• Several Georgians gained fame for their work as
writers:
– Joel Chandler Harris’ most famous work was
Uncle Remus: His Sayings and Stories;
– Sidney Lanier was one of the best known poets
of his time;
– Charles Henry Smith wrote satire for
newspapers in Georgia.
Agriculture in the New South Era
• Crop prices declined through the 1870s.
• The Grange and the Farmers’ Alliance started out
as social groups but began to reorganize to put
pressure on lawmakers to find ways to help
farmers.
• Georgia created the first state to have a
Department of Agriculture.
• Co-ops allowed farmers to work together to buy
goods and equipment at a lower cost.
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Click to return to the Table of Contents