The Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan is a white supremacist group which originated in 1866, following the civil war, and it became the country's first ever domestic terror group. They initially wanted to stop all blacks from voting, but eventually their goals became to deprive blacks of all rights whatsoever and create a white America. Not only did they target blacks by lynching and killing them, but they also attacked many whites who sided with the blacks and were radical republicans who wanted equal rights for all people. Nowadays, they claim to be trying to restore the world order peacefully, but they clearly do not know what exactly peace is because they still attempt to instill fear in all other races because of their strong white-supremacist views. All throughout history, members have dressed in white clothes that cover their whole body and head so as not to be identified, calling themselves the white knights. The new amendments to the constitution started the KKK and it has continued and led to more and more fear among blacks as time has passed. Today they continue to send letters to victims and burn crosses and other cultural items in protest of equality.


angryblacklady.com
http://www.history.com/topics/ku-klux-klan

Henry McNeal Turner and Black Legislators

Henry McNeal Turner was a minister at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Georgia who was elected to the Georgia General Assembly, although he and other black legislators were taken out of power by the white supremacists who ran the mostly Democratic legislature. The white democrats claimed that the blacks had the right to vote but not to hold office, and the federal government had to intervene and called it unconstitutional to do that. The black legislatures got their seats back. Before the whole ordeal, Turner received an education in Washington D.C., where he met some powerful friends, Charles Sumner (who was caned to death) and Thaddeus Stevens, as well as other powerful figures. He used them to get a jump start into the political world, in which he excelled greatly. Despite receiving many threats from the KKK and other hate groups, Turner established a Republican party in Georgia and went on to serve the legislature as a representative from Macon. His accomplishments happened because he defied the odds to get an education and he effected Georgia by acting as a prominent black politician and role model at the time.



















http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-632
en.wikipedia.org

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments

The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were all new, slavery-related amendments which were passed at the end of the civil war. They were passed as a result of the abolition of slavery, and they all led to better treatment of blacks even though they also led to some hate groups as well.Here is a synopsis of all three, known as the Reconstruction Amendments.

13th Amendment:
The 13th amendment to the constitution was the one which completely outlawed slavery and forced labor, except as a result from a crime/punishment. It was passed on January 31, 1865, and was adopted on December 6, 1866.

14th Amendment:
The 14th amendment to the constitution was the one in which all freedmen were guaranteed citizenship and equal protection under the U.S. laws. It also prevented all former Confederate officers from holding office in the country. It was adopted on July 9,1868.

15th Amendment:
The 15th amendment to the constitution was the one in which all men (not yet women) were given the right to vote, regardless of skin color or if they were a slave in the past. It was ratified on February 3, 1870.


www.abhmuseum.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Reconstruction Plans

The reconstruction era that directly followed the civil war was a time in which the entire south was in a deep economic depression due to war debts and low morale. Reconstruction in the south was caused because of the civil war and its economic impact, and it led to racism and eventually the betterment of the southern economy. There were three main plans for reconstruction, made by three different people or groups of people.

1. Lincoln's Plan-
Abraham Lincoln, the president of the United States at the time, felt that it was crucial for the south to be quickly reunited with the northern states. In his plans, southerners were pardoned after taking an oath of allegiance to the north. and when 10% of voters in a state had taken the oath, they were allowed to have their state rejoin the Union.

2. Andrew Johnson-
Johnson, the vice president of the confederacy at the time, agreed fully with Lincoln's plan and also added a few touches of his own. Firstly, the 13th amendment was required to be passed, guaranteeing that slavery would be forbidden everywhere in the nation. Secondly, Johnson wanted to completely nullify the ordinances of secession, or make the states all rejoin immediately. While Johnson did want to have slavery anymore, he did not advocate black suffrage at all, as he thought that it would cause problems for the states.

These first two plans both had major downfalls to them, including...
-Black Codes were passed, which restricted black rights.
-No attempts were made to fix economic issues related to newly freed people.

3. Congressional-
Congress wanted to approach reconstruction by requiring the ratification of the 14th amendment, which stated that freedmen had equal rights as far as economics and also legal rights. It also placed the states under military rule, meaning that a Union general watched over a certain part of the south.




















http://www.icsd.k12.ny.us/legacy/highschool/pjordan/ushonors/Regents%20Review/Manifest%20Destiny%20to%20Reconstruct/reconstruction.html 
georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu

Sharecropping and Tenant Farming

Sharecropping was not at all an ideal way for freed slaves to make money, but it would have to do for the time being. Just having found independence, many blacks still faced much racism and prejudice from everyone who had once looked down upon them. They struggled to find jobs, homes, and safety from hate groups and abuse. Sharecropping was the best that most could manage. It was just a small step up from slavery, and sharecropping entailed a lot more giving to the land owners that receiving to provide for the family. The way sharecropping worked was that people, mostly ex. slaves, would rent land from the rich white landowners, and in exchange, they would pay for the land with up to half of their earnings or crop harvest, while not getting paid much at all. Sharecropping was mainly a trap, as the landowners would always pretend that the black farmers had not made enough crop for the year, so they would always have the farmers in a deficit. This made it impossible to get away from the lifestyle. Sharecropping happened as a result of the end of slavery, and it led to an all new kind of enslavement of the black people.





Tenant farming was a step up from sharecropping in the south. A tenant farmer usually owned his own animals and equipment, rather than borrowing from the land owner, but the trap in this situation was that the landowner owned the very house that the farmer and his family slept in and at the end of each growing season the farmer forked over much of what money he had earned and what crop he had grown in order to continue renting the land and home. Tenant farming was created as a way for those who owned tools and animals to have more opportunities, but it also led to the unfair treatment of the black people in the south. The typical amount of crop given in tenant farming was about 1/4-1/3 of the total production.

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/brown/sharecropping.htm
www.english.illinois.edu
3chicspolitico.com 
http://stfm.astate.edu/tenant.html
 

The Freedman's Bureau

The Freedman's Bureau was created in 1865 to assist in the transfer of blacks from a life of slavery to a life of freedom and promise in the new south. It was formed by radical republicans, who believed in totally equal rights for blacks and whites, and they wanted to make sure that the rights of the newly freed blacks were protected to the best of their abilities. Some of the workers of the Freedman's Bureau assisted northern school teachers and built new schools for blacks all across the country, facing the adversity brought on by Jim Crow Laws and black codes, which hindered rights and segregated almost everything. Blacks, using Bureau funds, were able to set up  new churches, schools, and homes as well as get land. The Freedman's Bureau was run by the war department, and it also protected blacks who were being unfairly prosecuted in courts and who were being mistreated by white landowners or who were simply being taken advantage of. The abolition of slavery led to the establishment of the Freedman's Bureau and the Bureau led to more equal rights for all of the newly freed black people in America.


http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_freed.html
www.learnnc.org

Sherman's Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea

The Atlanta Campaign took place in the Spring and Summer of 1864, just before the end of the civil war. In it, Union General William T. Sherman marched into Atlanta and took the city, which was the heart of almost all Southern manufacturing power. Atlanta, at the time, was also a major railroad hub of the south, which allowed for exporting and importing of tons of goods. Sherman's men were mostly not contested, and while there were some battles along the way, the majority of Sherman's men lived and Atlanta was taken and 1/3 of it was burned down as well. This was the beginning of morale war, which is when the lives of civilians are effected to make a conflict much less popular. The events leading up to it was the need for a final death blow to the now struggling south, and it led to the loss of one of the biggest southern cities there was. Sherman, however, did not stop here. He waited for a few months in Atlanta, and then went of a march to the sea when Lincoln gave him the go-ahead. Sherman's plan was simple, but dangerous. He planned to march south from Atlanta all the way to Savannah, living off the land as he and his army went. Before he set off, he had all of his men checked for illness, and those who were injured or sick had to stay put. Sherman's plan was risky because he was going to pillage farms and things as he went along to feed troops, and Georgia did not have a very well settled back-country. In the end, his plan worked and they arrived in Savannah, which was surrendered to him because the governor had heard of what happened in Atlanta and submitted. The burning of Atlanta gave Sherman the confidence for his march, and it led to the loss of yet another important city and port, Savannah.




http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2713
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-march-to-the-sea-begins
langecivilwar4b.wikispaces.com

Andersonville

Andersonville was one of the many Confederate prison camps which made life absolutely horrible for Union prisoners during the civil war. Andersonville, located in central Georgia, was the worst of them all, and it is widely regarded to be the model which the Nazis used to create death camps such as Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. In Andersonville, prisoners would huddle together in their makeshift huts known as Shebangs, which were made out of anything and everything that they could get. Rations were handed out once per day, often stale bread, and this was the only thing that the men could look forwards to. When someone died, the body was hauled away on the dead wagon, which also came back at night to deliver rations. Of the 45,000 people in the camp, 13,000 died of infection, disease, or exposure. The camp itself was only designed to hold a mere 10,000 people. The chance of escape was slim to none, and sentry posts, or pigeon roosts, sat at every 90 feet, and there was no way to find a way to safety if you did get out of the tall, pine wood walls. The pond which was used to get water to the prisoners was polluted with waste, and was undrinkable for the most part. The event that led up the Andersonville was the overlfow of Union prisoners, and it led to Henry Wirz, the warden, being the only person to be hanged due to war crimes in the whole civil war. 

en.wikipedia.org
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/warfare-and-logistics/warfare/andersonville.html

The Union Blockade of Georgia's Coast

The Union Blockade was an event that, while it involved no real bloodshed, strangled and destroyed the economy of Georgia and the entire Confederacy. The Union, which had a much more powerful navy than the south, sent ships to stop the entry and exit of all goods that would have been imported or exported through the Atlantic ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. This ultimately crumpled the Southern economy, and it was absolutely necessary to get rid of the blockade.There were two major new inventions that were created as a result of the blockade as well:
1. The blockade runners- Blockade runners were small, fast ships owned by the British navy which were quick and could get away from big ships. While 5/6 were successful, many were still caught by the Union.
2. Ironclads- The ironclads were ships made of iron that resisted cannonballs and could sink ships by simply running into them. The Confederates created the Merrimac and the Union the Monitor.

The reason why the south was blockaded was because of the many losses the north had been suffering and it led to the creation of ironclads and the death of the southern economy.



This cartoon was made in 1861, and it depicted the blockade. It was called Scott's Anaconda or Great Snake because of Winfield Scott, the man who made the plan to blockade the coast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_blockade

The Battle of Chickamauga

 The Battle of Chickamauga was a very large battle of the civil war with over 30,000 causcasualties. To this day it is still debated as to whether or not is was a southern win, although the arrow of favor does point to the South in this case. This is because while the city of Chattanooga, the gateway to the deep south, did fall after the battle, the South dominated the north in battle. The way that the battle of Chickamauga went was that the Union general Ambrose Burnside accidentally opened up a huge gap in his lines die to fatigue, and general Braxton Bragg noticed and capitalized off of his foe's errors, destroying the northern lines and forcing them into Chattanooga, which did backfire a llittle bit.  Bragg was later discharged from command due to innefectivity, but this was a big win for him and all of his men. Chickamauga happened because the North needed a foothold in the south, and Chattanooga was perfect, and it led to the Atlanta campaign because the north now had a foothold in the south.
 

 



For a closer look at Chickamauga's Four Thought, click HERE





http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/ga004.htm
en.wikipedia.org 

The Battle of Gettysburg

Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of the entire Civil War with over 50,000 casualties combined. It was fought on July 1-3, 1863, and it was a pivotal moment in the civil war, which changed everything about the momentum of the war. It is considered a turning point because the Union had not won many battles at all, so it boosted morale greatly and also showed that the North could go on the defensive. Lee lost almost 1/3 of his remaining army after the war, meaning that the North outnumbered his forces even more now. The South's plan had a critical flaw as well, and that came in the form of General Pickett. Pickett decided to speed things up by hastily making a massive cavalry assault on the heavily fortified Union lines, and he was completely dominated by the Union. It was not even a close fight, and it became known as Pickett's Charge. The battle, which was a Union victory, engaged over 160,000 men in it, 90,000 union and 70,000 confederate, was possibly the biggest of all time. It was caused by the heightened spirits of the southern army due to many wins that they had picked up, and it led ultimately to the defeat of the south due to its heavy losses. After the battle, Lincoln issued the Gettysburg address and the battlefield became a cemetery.




For a bigger look at the four thoughts for Gettysburg, click the following link, right HERE

http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/gettysburg.html?tab=facts














 commons.wikimedia.org

The Battle of Antietam and the Emancipation Proclamation

The battle of Antietam (September 16-18, 1862, Sharpsburg, Maryland) was one of the few times that the South, under General Robert E. Lee, went on the offensive, directly attacking the northern lands. Antietam should have been an easy victory for the North, as General McClellan had twice as many troops as Lee, and he knew Lee's battle plans, which he had found in a cigar box at an abandoned battlefield. Antietam, sometimes referred to as Sharpsburg, could have been a pivotal moment in the war had the South won. Among many things on the line for the Confederacy was the trust of the major European powers, who would only enter the war on the side of the Confederacy if they could successfully attack the North, which did not really happen. A very slim win at Antietam was also enough to boost morale in the North and give Lincoln the support he needed to pass the Emancipation proclamation. The casualties at Antietam totaled 22,000, making it the bloodiest day of the war. Many events lead up to Antietam, including the many victories from the south that made Lee feel invincible, and it led to passing the Emancipation Proclamation.



 The Emancipation Proclamation is the document which Lincoln drafted that freed all of the slaves in the southern states which were rebelling. A win at Antietam (although it is considered a draw) allowed Lincoln, who was struggling with political support, to rally some more supporters in the senate and pass the revolutionary bill. The Emancipation Proclamation was not valid in slave states on the border of north and south which had not rebelled against the Union, so it by no means destroyed slavery completely. It also allowed for black soldiers to join the Union army who turned the Confederacy on its ear, acting as the difference between success and defeat. The issue was that the southern states did not honor it because they felt that they were their own country. The Emancipation Proclamation was passed because of the battle of Antietam's morale boost, and it led to the freedom of many slaves and a boost for the Union army.




 To read the Emancipation Proclamation, click right HERE!





www.murdoconline.net
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/antietam.html
www.learnnc.org

Election of 1860, Secession in Georgia and Alexander Stephens

The election of 1860 was the first time that Abraham Lincoln, a republican out of Illinois where he was a senator, won. Lincoln won by a very slim margin, not even winning the popular vote, which led many southerners to call his election "unholy".His election also prompted many of the southern states to secede, starting with South Carolina on December 20, 1860. The election of 1860 was caused by a split ion the democratic party, and led to secession. Georgia held its secession meeting the capitol, Milledgeville, in 1861. There were two main types of people at the convention; cooperationists, who did not want to secede, and secessionists, who did. In the end of it all, secession was agreed on. Georgia was the only southern state without a unanimous decision not to secede, because many felt it could not stand without the Union. The secession in Georgia was started by the unhappiness of the southerners due to the election and other reason, and it led to the secession of the state. Alexander Stephens was the vice president of the newly formed confederacy, under president Jefferson Davis. He was a cooperationist, but he constantly changed his views due to what the public wanted him to do. He and Davis were close at first, but grew apart as war continued. Stephens wanted to stay in the Union, but signed the secession from the union in the end. He came to power due to popularity in the south, but was a controversial figure by the end and was not popular any longer.





















 Alexander Stephens

http://www.ushistory.org/us/32d.asp
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2492
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_H._Stephens

Kansas-Nebraska Act and Dred Scott Case

The Kansas Nebraska act was the act which made slavery possible everywhere, and this made the North feel frightened because they felt that it would make slavery spread more and more throughout the country. It ultimately repealed the Missouri Compromise and allowed the spread of slavery to be north of the 36 and 30 degree border that the Mason-Dixie line had previously set. After it was passed in 1854, the act caused many disputes between slavery and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas. The Kansas-Nebraska act also stated that popular consent would decide whether a state would be a slave state or not by a state-wide vote. The  unhappy southerners from the south who disagreed with the Mason-Dixie line started this act, and it led to the founding of more slave states near the northern areas.
The Dred Scott case led to much tension between the north and south as well. Dred Scott, a slave who had gone to live in Wisconsin for a few years, was recalled by his master, who claimed he was his property despite living in free territory, which Scott disagreed with. The case went to the supreme court, which decided that Scott was still property of the government. This made southerners happy to see the fugitive slave act, which led to the conflict, being upheld, but it enraged northern abolitionists. It was a big contributing factor in the civil war.

Dred Scott
  

www.learnnc.org
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/kansas.html

Compromise of 1850 and Georgia's Platform

The Compromise of 1850 was what finally tipped the balance of slave states to non slave states after many years, when California officially entered the state do to its booming gold rush and people moving there by the thousand to get a shot at the riches. The Compromise of 1850 had five major points to it.
1. Texas's present day borders are made in exchange for paid off debt to Mexico.
2. Land formerly claimed by Texas is made into New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada.
3. Slavery was abolished in D.C.
4. California entered as a free state.
5. Fugitive slave act passed.
The things that led to the passage of the Compromise of 1850 included the gold rush in California, and what happened afterwards was more anger in the south because the balance of free and slave states was thrown off. The overall idea of the act was that of Henry Clay.

Georgia's platform among all of the rage and anger in the south during this time is credited for saving the union for a little while longer. What Georgia basically said was that in exchange for continuing to honor the fugitive slave act, which required slaves to be returned to the south if found in northern states, because it was being contested by the north, the southern states would stay in the Union as long as it was honored. Many tensions led to this including when South Carolina threatened to secede, and later did, and it led to the preservation of the Union for a few more years, because congress consented.




 Negotiations of the Compromise of 1850

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Compromise1850.html (info and picture)

The Missouri Compromise

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was passed in part to help insure that the slave and non-slave states had a balance of power. It stated that whenever a slave state wanted to enter, and non-slave state had to as well. The two states that were allowed to enter as a result of the Missouri Compromise were the free state of Maine and the slave state of Missouri. The Missouri also drew out the Mason-Dixon line, above which not slave states could be founded, with the exception on Missouri, which was already above it's area of jurisdiction. This made many southerners upset because they felt that it was limiting the spread of slavery. Three years later, the Kansas-Nebraska act repealed the Missouri Compromise, much to the relief of southerners, although it too came with negative repercussion. Part of what led to the passing of the Missouri Compromise was the conflict of the slavery vs. non-slavery factions in the united states and it immediately led to the unhappiness of much of the south because of its harsh restrictions.



http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Missouri.html (information and map)
http://www.history.com/topics/missouri-compromise

State's Rights and Nullification

State's rights were a huge part of why the southern states that seceded did so in the first place. South Carolina, the state that started the seceding frenzy, was one of the absolute biggest advocates of state's rights all through the civil war. What I mean by state's rights is that the southern states all felt that they had the given right to do what was best for themselves. These things included feelings that the Fugitive slave act, as I mentioned in an earlier post, was absolutely necessary for southern states because if northern people were not returning slaves, which were considered property, the south would be living with the loss of billions of dollars of property, which is a ton of money. Southern states called it unconstitutional to not require the return of slaves. Yet another way that states argued for their rights was the right to vote for whether or not they wanted slavery, because it was considered unfair for the South to have an unbalanced ratio of slave states to non-slave states in the house of representatives. Subsequent events that led to the argument for state's rights was when the northern states began to ignore the fugitive slave acts, and as a result of state's rights arguments, the congress did in fact back up the fugitive slave act. The biggest argument was that of nullification of laws passed by congress, which South Carolina's John C. Calhoun exerted tremendously. This means that when a state did not like something the government passed, they could deny to follow that law. Many laws were passed that led up to this event which made the south unhappy and edgy, and it led to the south ultimately seceding from the union. Calhoun stated that nullification was needed because "the power she possessed of protecting herself before the equilibrium of the two sections was destroyed.", of course referring to the south. 

 John C. Calhoun

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-overview/statesrights.html
en.wikipedia.org
www.uen.org

Slavery as a Cause

Slavery, or "The Peculiar Institution" as it was referred to at the time, was one of the biggest contributing factors for the Civil War, and it would continue to be an issue that the North and South disagreed on throughout the Civil War. Slavery had built up many different tensions among the slave and free states, in one way by the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act, a part of the Compromise of 1850, which stated that any runaway slave was subject to being found by any citizen of the United States, and then returned to their owner. Slaves were not allowed jury trials or to go to court against white men. This bolstered the feelings of abolitionists in the North, who immediately called for the Fugitive Slave acts to be repealed. The South then argued that it was interfering with their rights to take away their property, or their slaves, which caused more tension between North and South. At this point, southerners already had less senate representation because of the addition of new states, most of which were free, out of the area that used to belong to Texas. These new states included California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. On top of that, Washington D.C. became a free state as well, upsetting the balance further. Yet another way that slavery increased tensions was in congress. During heated debates, representatives would even fight, most notably between Charles Sumner and Preston Brooks, when Brooks beat Sumner with his cane. All of these tensions eventually led to the succession of the South, but not before Georgia tried to solve some issues. Georgia said that if the fugitive slave acts stayed, so would the southern states, and this was Georgia's platform. All of the mentioned topics here will be elaborated in later posts. Slavery as a cause the the civil war led to the death of many, many more people, and eventually the abolition of slavery in the Emancipation Proclamation, and part of the events that led to slavery becoming an issue was that slaves were truly the backbone of the south, making it absolutely necessary for the economy. This helped to make it a very controversial topic.
 
theforgingofaunion.blogspot.com
http://clevelandcivilwarroundtable.com/articles/society/slavery_cause.htm