Chapter 22- The Ordeal of Reconstruction
The Problems of Peace
Many banks and businesses closed due to inflation during the war
Factories destroyed and transportation demolished
Slave-labor system collapsed so cotton fields abandoned, livestock driven off by Yankees
Planter aristocrats temporarily faced poverty
Freedmen Define Freedom
Free slaves often recaptured into slavery
Some free slaves loyal to owners and refused freedom. Some owners argued slavery was lawful until state legislatures or supreme court ruled otherwise
Somes free slaves changed their names and demanded that whites refer to them as “Mr.” or “Mrs.”
Some only wore silk, satin, and other fabrics instead of cotton
1878-1880 blacks from Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi made a huge exodus to Kansas
Blacks formed their own churches (African Methodist episcopal church)
Freedmen accepted aid of Northern white women sent by the American Missionary Association to voluntarily serve as teachers
The Freedmen’s Bureau
Congress created the Freedman’s Bureau march 3, 1865 to help unskilled blacks with no money and no idea how to survive as free men. Provided food, clothing, medical care, and education
Oliver O. Howard was head of bureau. It achieved greatest success with education
Little land actually given to blacks. Local administrators often worked with planters in expelling blacks from towns and cajoling them to sign labor contracts to work for their former masters
Johnson: The Tailor President
Attracted favored attention in the north and not south when he refused to secede with his own state (Tennessee)
Appointed war governor in the Union
Johnson was democrat so he seemed like an ideal man to draw war democrats and other pro-southerners to Lincoln’s Union party in 1864. He appeared in the vice-presidential inaugural ceremonies rather drunk after drinking whisky to dull a fever
“old andy” Johnson was never accepted by republicans and distrusted by the south