Lectures and Discussion Questions for

Chapters 18-20

By the end of the Civil War, the outlook for the South was bleak to say the least. Confederate soldiers returning to their homes found their former ways of life drastically changed or totally non-existent. The South’s social, economic and political institutions had been devastated. Many freed slaves left the plantations in search of members of their families and a better life. For those Blacks that remained in the South, life during the Reconstruction period was filled with hope for a better life, uncertainties, despair and a White society that did all it could to attempt to return Southern life to its former-antebellum form. President Lincoln was in favor of a more lenient reconstruction plan for the South., but conservative Republicans demanded a more radical approach to reconstruction. These early attempts at reforming the South are especially important because the decisions made by the pre-dominantly Republican Federal government in reconstructing the South would play a large part in how the defeated Southern states would address the main problems of social, economic and political development of both Blacks and Whites during the period. The effects of Reconstruction would be felt well into the twentieth century and even today.

In December 1863, President Lincoln laid out his plan for Reconstruction to Congress. However, Congress was opposed to how lenient Lincoln was to addressing Reconstruction and in July 1864, created the Wade-Davis Bill. In this Bill, President Lincoln would appoint a governor for each state; the state‘s delegates (only those who have never borne arms against the Union) would create a new state constitution which would be expected to abolish slavery, disenfranchise former Confederate military and civil leaders and repudiate debts accumulated during the war. On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth, a Southern sympathizer. Lincoln was succeeded by his Vice President, Andrew Johnson. However, the North was now taking a much harder stand at any leniency for the South following Lincoln’s assassination and the South’s reluctance to abolish slavery and allow suffrage for Blacks. This period of Radical Reconstruction would see the passage of three more Amendments (13^th, 14^th and 15^th), the attempted impeachment of a President, "carpetbaggers" and continued trials of a well-meaning North to pass reform laws in an attempt to direct the unwilling South to allow for social, economic and political opportunities for Blacks in the South. One program, the Freedmen’s Bureau, provided food for many slaves and allowed for missionaries to organize schools, hospitals and churches for the former slaves. This Bureau also assisted former slaves in settling on their own property. However, this Bureau was short-lived and future events during Reconstruction would prove to undermine or unravel any good that this program may have initiated. In response to these new privileges that the North was attempting to provide for the former slaves, Southern state legislatures passed what are called the Black Codes. Some of these Codes included enabling state and local governments to arrest any unemployed Blacks for vagrancy, fine them and place them to work until their fines were paid. Other Codes stated that Blacks could not own property or take jobs other than working on the plantations or as domestic help. The response to these Codes by the Federal government was to, in April 1866, pass the first Civil Rights Act which made Blacks citizens and allowed for the Federal government to intercede in a state’s affairs when a citizen’s rights have been violated. In the 1866 Congressional elections, the Republicans returned a majority of candidates. With this majority, these "Radical Republicans" were able to create their own plan of Reconstruction. The Congressional Plan placed a military commander in 10 of the 11 Confederate states (Tennessee had already ratified the 14^th Amendment). These commanders would ensure that all voters (Black and White males…as long as they did not fight for the Confederacy…would elect delegates that would create new constitutions. By 1870, all Southern states had created their own government and ratified the 14^th and 15^th Amendments. In addition, to further prevent President Johnson from interfering with their plans, the "Congressional Radicals" passed laws such as the Tenure of Office Act (1867), which prevented the President from removing civil officials without the approval of the Senate and the Command of the Army Act (1867), which was to prevent the President from issuing orders to the military without the review of the commanding general of the Army (General Grant). Riding high on their successes, the Radicals believed that they would benefit from removing President Johnson from office; so, when Johnson dismissed the Secretary of War (Stanton) in 1867, the Radicals struck. They attempted to drum support for impeachment but fell short of the necessary votes.

The Federal Reconstruction legislature trusted that the newly organized Southern state’s governments would move toward reform and fair play with respect to all of their citizens, especially the freemen. However, the White population in the South became apprehensive to educating the Black populace and allowing them representation in government as Blacks might feel they were "equal" to Whites.

As the postwar years waned, the agricultural profits in the South declined. Blacks, as well as poor whites, found themselves purchasing their supplies on credit from independent store owners who tacked-on high interest rates for their merchandise. This Crop-Lien System helped trap many farmers in an endless cycle of debt. In addition, the Crop-Lien System was directly responsible for many Black landowners losing their property if they could not pay on their debts. Farmers, in order to make enough money to pay on their debts, began planting only cash crops. Cotton and tobacco sold well on the market and farmers planted these crops until the soil became drained and useless. Many Blacks left the plantations and the farming life in general, seeing the work in the fields as a negative connotation related to slavery. Many Blacks also left to find and reunite their families. In 1868, General Ulysses S. Grant (a Republican) was elected President. During this period of time, corruption was prevalent throughout governments in both the North and the South. Grants’ administration was no exception. During Grant’s term in office, accusations of kick-backs, fraud and scandals were numerous.

By the 1870’s, Northern interest in Reconstructing the South was diminishing. Politics and their own economic situations at home now left many Northerners looking at dealing with their own affairs. Subsequently, much of what had been gained during the Reconstruction period was now being thwarted by angry Southern Whites who began electing their own Democratic representatives to state congress to push their own agendas. To further hamper the ability of Blacks to vote, White used threats, intimidation and organized groups such as the Klu Klux Klan and Knights of the White Camellia to subjugate Black voters. Store owners refused credit to Black Republicans and/or refused them the opportunity of employment. To answer the rising of civil unrest in the South, Congress passed the Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871. These Acts made it illegal to discriminate against voters on basis of color or race and gave the federal government the authorization to intercede on behalf of its citizens when their civil rights were violated. As time went by, Northern commitment to Civil Rights decreased. Following the ratification of the 15^th Amendment in 1870, many Northerner activists felt that Blacks should be able to take care of their own problems. Problems with the economy also lent to the reason why Northerners lost interest in Reconstruction. In 1873, the withdraw of paper monies helped lead investors (both foreign and domestic) to losing faith in American stocks/bonds. Many attempted to sell their stocks and bonds, which, in turn, lent to the failure of some railroads and investment companies. The Panic of 1873 was followed by a depression that lasted 6 years and would play an important part in Grant not being reelected in 1876.

During the campaign of 1876, Republican voters had lost faith in Grant’s ability to be an effective President. Instead, they put their support behind Rutherford B. Hayes. A closer look at how Hayes was able to obtain office revealed that certain compromises were made with leaders of both parties. Southern Democrats wanted more federal aid, support to increase industrial growth and the removal of federal troops from their states. Hayes did remove the troops and attempted to re-establish a strong Republican backing in the Southern states. Instead, due to the already harsh view many Northerners and Southerners had with respect to Reconstruction policies, the Southern Democratic party grew in numbers and strength.

Following the Civil War, the government pushed citizens and investors to move South and West to build a new economic base and settle an untamed, but promising frontier. With the government willing to invest large amounts of monies in building transportation routes to these areas, soon, many looked at the South and the West as being places to invest, build and settle.

In the South, the growth of many minerals, products and services, such as textiles, tobacco, coal, lumbering, sugar cane and shipbuilding was witnessed. However, most Southern farmers did not fare out well. With the deflation in crop prices, they attempted to keep their farms by being enticed into Sharecropping, Tennant farming and the Crop-Lien System. In politics, the emergence of Bourbons or Redeemers was seen. These Bourbons pushed a more diversified economy based on railroad expansion and industrial development and brought about many good changes such as commissions to regulate railroad rates, technical and trade schools and even colleges for women and Blacks.

During the 1890’s, the Whites in the south became even more set at limiting the rights of the Blacks. Racism and violence towards Blacks was rampant in the South. Whites looked for loop-holes in the Amendments passed to protect Blacks by passing laws of their own to curb Black participation in the economic, political and social life. These laws came to be known as the "Jim Crow" laws. These laws segregated the races. Other laws placed rules on Black voters in an attempt to keep them from voting. Along with the Jim Crow laws came violence. Many instances of lynching, church and residence burnings occurred. Segregation did, however, lead to Blacks establishing their own schools, financial institutions and the like, catering to only Blacks. In addition, this period of time also saw many activists and educators making their views known, such as Ida B. Wells, Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. In one fashion or another, these activists, and others, looked at progressing the status and position of Blacks in society.

In the West. During the 1840’s, migrants from the east had moved to the west in large numbers. Following the Civil War, the number of migrants only increased by leaps and bounds. The lure of riches in gold, work, land of their own and a new way of life brought many people from the overcrowded cities in the east and newly freed slaves and disenfranchised Whites returning home from the War in the South. In addition, many people were lured by the romantic tales told by others about the west and a dream of making a living in the "last frontier" far and away from any bondages placed on them living in other countries.

Traveling west was no easy task. Migrants found the west to be already populated by various Indian tribes such as the Serrano and Chinook, who fished and foraged for a living and were from the Pacific coast area and the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians, who hunted buffalo, were known as the Plains Indians and provided the largest obstacles to migrants when they attempted to put roots down in Indian territory. Tribes usually fought the encroaching settlers alone, but on several occasions, worked with the other tribes to attack the White settlers and soldiers. In the end, however, the Indians could not compete with an enemy that were so numerous and that had the economic and industrial advantage. Through treaties and force, Indians were soon moved to reservations. Another solution to the ‘Indian Problem’ was to place them all on one large territory. This did not work, as White settlers and hunters killed-off most of the buffalo that the Indians used to support their main way of life. The Indians fought back, the Indian Wars, during the 1850’s-1880’s, but they were usually no match for the military and many White civilians that hunted Indians as if they were game. The last major Indian uprising was at Wounded Knee in South Dakota in 1890. The answer to the hostilities between the Indians and the federal government was to pass the Dawes Act of 1887. This Act attempted to get rid of the reservation land and give smaller tracts of land to individual Indians. By doing this, the government wished to remove any vestiges of Indian culture which, in turn, would individualize the Indians and teach them to become farmers and landowners. In the end, this Act was not enforced and land distribution never really materialized. Soon, Indians were forced onto reservations or moved to less desirable parts of the country that Whites would not inhabit. Other peoples were also effected by the new White settlers. Hispanics, left behind following the annexation of western parts of the United States from Mexico following the Mexican-American War, increased in population once the Indian threat was overcome by federal troops. Spanish settlements sprang up in California and the Pacific coast in the form of missions. As the increase of White miners and settlers continued, Hispanics were excluded by Whites from mining and many of them lost their lands. As Hispanics lost much of their land possessions, they were forced to take unskilled farm and/or industrial labor. The Chinese came to California with hopes of a better life. By 1880, more than 200,000 Chinese had settled in the United States. The Chinese were hard and industrious workers and soon had the White populace irritated with them as the Chinese became such good businessmen that the Whites did not like the competition. Soon, laws, such as the Foreign Miners Tax, were passed to decrease and prohibit the Chinese from certain mining and other skills and employments. As mining jobs diminished, the Chinese found employment with the Railroads; and, as soon as the Railroads no longer needed their services, the Chinese moved to the cities, creating "Chinatowns" and surviving by becoming laborers, servants or opening small businesses like laundry services. By 1882, due to widespread anti-Chinese sentiment, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which banned Chinese from entering the United States and barred them from becoming naturalized citizens.

Millions of new settlers came from the east and other countries to settle in the west. The completion of the transcontinental railroad line in 1869 helped the number of settlers grow. The Railroads and the federal government wanted these migrants to settle in the west and assisted with lower travel costs and the Homestead Act of 1862 and the Timber Culture Act of 1873, which assisted settlers with the purchase of land with only a small purchase price and limited requirements once they owned the property. With the populations of many areas growing, many territories became states. And, these new immigrants needed employment. Unfortunately, when a railroad was built, cattle had been driven to the markets or crops harvested, many workers found themselves without jobs. Withes usually were at the upper-echelon of the management and skilled labor tiers with non-Whites making up the working class. There were many reasons that brought migrants to the west. Some came, in the 1840’s-1890’s, seeking riches in the mine fields; others came to raise cattle and sheep; and, later in the 19^th century, still others arrived due to the lure of romantic tales they read, seen or heard about from dime store novels, paintings, traveling cowboy/Indian shows and books. By the 1870’s, farmers had, poured into the western plains and beyond and created an agricultural base. Farming in the west increased due to in large part to the advancement of the Railroads, which enabled farmers in getting their produce to both local and national markets. However, the boom that farming and agriculture enjoyed during the 1870’s and 1880’s would soon see a downfall due to falling crop prices and the increased cost to produce crops. Many farmers could not pay their notes and were forced off of their land. Commercial farmers grew cash crops that they sold on the national and world markets. Between 1865-1890, farm output increased due in large part to better transportation and communication systems. New markets sprang up around the world and, due to overproduction, the prices for agriculture products dropped. This caused many American farmers to lose their farms or become tenant farmers . Life on the farm did not seem as good a life as it had before. And, in fact, farming took on a negative connotation with many farmers leaving their farms and moving back to the east of cities to pursue other means of existence.

Expansion into the west was followed by the strengthening of economic, political and social ties with the east. And, as they blazed their trails westward, settlers, with the assistance of federal troops, moved the inhabitants of these territories to reservations and other less desirable areas. Many other peoples, such as Europeans, Hispanics, Chinese, Blacks and Filipinos, all played an important role in the evolution of the final frontier.

Even prior to the Civil War, America was well on its way to becoming an industrial giant. Following the War, industries in the United States only increased in number and productivity. Industry grew due to an abundancy of raw materials, an increase in work force (a large number of people that made their ways to the cities from the fields and immigrants), technological advancements, assistance from the federal government, the expansion of domestic, as well as foreign markets and businessmen intent on success, no matter the costs. As new technology emerged, in the late 19^th century, it opened the door to other areas of industry and product development, which, in turn, increased the supply and demand for these new products and services. New inventions such as electricity, telegraph, radio and technological advancements in the production of steel and transportation systems all helped lead to an increase in the manufacturing of products and services. As new machines were created to increase productivity, new innovations, such as oil (gasoline) came about; which, in turn, helped lead to the automobile and the first internal combustion engine. It was not too long before these new engines were used to propel a manned airplane in flight. An emergence of ideas to manage production occurred during the late 19^th century. Frederick Winslow Taylor’s theory, which dealt with the "scientific management" of human labor, argued that this type of management made it possible to measure and manage human labor as it pertained to the demanding era of the machine age. Taylor pressed the issue of subdividing worker’s tasks. By doing this, he argued, the worker would become able to do many tasks and not be relied on for just one specific job. This would make the workers "interchangeable", speed up production and the dependence on one or two employees with special skills would be no more. Mass production during this industrial era was important especially in factories that produced a large quantity of the same items for sale. In 1914, Henry Ford applied mass production in his automobile plants. The assembly line and the interchangeability of parts helped increase production. The assembly line process helped increase production and provided for the decreased cost of Ford vehicles and increased worker pay. Lone company owners soon found that they could realize greater profits and power if they sought the financial assistance of others. The emergence of corporations (selling stock to investors) such as U.S. Steel and Standard Oil resulted in a relatively small group of people (or one person with may stockholders) controlling a certain product and/or service. Many new techniques in business management came to be such as horizontal and vertical integration, pool arrangements, trusts and holding companies. This new type of capitalism, centered around an ever growing industrial base, led to many in the middle and working classes feeling that their destinies were being controlled by this new system in which they had little opportunity to voice any opposition. Opinions varied as to how some came into fortune and others did not. Some of the wealthy explained their rise to the top was due to the popular theory of natural selection making its way around in the late 19^th century: Social Darwinism. Others felt that human intelligence (Dynamic Sociology) and not natural selection shaped society. And, still, others explained that the increase in land values, which made some wealthy, was not due to the owners hard work. Henry George in his Progress and Poverty believed that the wealthy should pay a "land tax" which would be returned to the people.

Large trusts led to some fearing that these monopolies would be able to charge the consumers of their products and/or services any price they chose. Many other hardships worried the working class during the late 19^th century. Workers, many from the cotton and tobacco fields in the South and those that migrated from other countries looking for a better way of life, made their ways into the urban centers of America. Many of these immigrants were brought to the United States by large industries, having to repay their cost of travel back to the industry through deductions in their pay (Contract Labor Law). Laborers found working conditions difficult to say the least. Long hours, low pay (even lower for women and children), learning repetitive tasks and adhering to a schedule were some of these hardships. Additionally, due to the advent of machinery, many skilled artisans found their skills replaced by a machine. Now, many jobs could be completed by any man, woman or child. This allowed the business owner to pay lower wages to both women and children. Later, many states passed child labor laws to prohibit children from working in factories. Still, many felt that the working conditions needed to be challenged. Unions, such as The Knights of Labor, American Federation of Labor and The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers sought to better their member’s situations through strikes. Many of these early attempts by Unions to persuade large industry management to hear their complaints via strikes ended disastrously. Acts of violence, threats, property damage, which usually preceded the calling out of the local militia, National Guard or federal troops, usually ended these strikes shortly after they had begun. These acts of violence and property damage did much to derail the Union’s best efforts. Unions failed in large part due to many Unions only representing a small number of skilled employees and did not represent most women, unskilled workers, Blacks, and new immigrants. Unions also failed due to the divisions in the work force represented by the tensions between racial and ethnic groups. Additionally, a large part of the work force included immigrants. Some of these immigrants worked jobs temporarily until they had earned enough money and then went home. Others moved from job to job, city to city and state to state and had no real ties to any worker’s Union or organization. However, Unions found their paths blocked primarily by the strength of the industries they sought to make their demands from. When challenged by the Unions, corporate organizations smashed these challenges with force. And, with the backing of the federal government, who wished to push industrial growth when and where it could, corporate organizations seemed, by the end of the 19^th century, to have a free hand in building their businesses as they chose.

1. Challenges of Rebuilding Southern Society
2. Rapid Agricultural Growth in the Plains Region
3. Frederick Taylor and Scientific Management

1. What was the Compromise of 1877 and why was it important?
2. Why and how did southern whites disfranchise southern blacks?
3. Why was the Pullman Strike of 1894 important?