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Civil War, Reconstruction and Jim Crow Timeline
 
 
1846-7 Mexican War brings new territory. 
 Wilmot Proviso to ban slavery (and African Amer.) in Mexican terr.  blocked by Southerners 
1850  Compromise of 1850 (Clay, Fillmore, Douglas [IL]): NM and UT popular sovereignty (Dems), CA as   free state, new Fugitive Slave Law (denied jury trial and right to testify)
1852  Party system breaks down. Dems win by default as Whigs lose cross-sectional appeal
1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act: opens terr. north of compromise line to popular sovereignty (Douglas [Dem])  repeals Missouri Compromise line; Whigs, North. Dems and Free Soilers win in congressional   elections; Know-Nothings emerge as Whigs decline; Republicans emerge
1856 Bleeding Kansas: Free Soilers vs. slavery supporters. 
1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford : MO slave travelled to WI (free by Miss. Compromise). Chief Justice Taney   denies Congress’ power to prohibit slavery in territories (MO Comp invalid)
1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates for Senate in IL
1859 John Brown raids Harper’s Ferry, VA, tried for treason/ South’s fear of slave rebellions increase
1860  Lincoln (IL)  beats Seward (NY) for Rep. nomination: free soil, tariff, homestead, int. improv. 
  Douglas (Northern Dem): popular sovereignty vs. Breckinridge (Southern Dem): slavery in terr.
 Lincoln carries North, Northwest (WI, MN, IA) and West (CA, OR): Sectional split complete
 SC secedes
 Sen. Crittendon (KY) offers 36? 30’ to Pacific, compensation for escaped slaves, prot. of exist. slavery
  Lincoln as Hedgehog: refuses to support compromise. UNION (as means to liberty)- weakness of   divided nation and proof of successful popular gov’t-democracy a failed experiment if minority   can secede. Secession as illegal act. Elected on free-soil platform by the majority
1861 Deep South secedes in Montg. AL: found Confederacy (SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, LA, TX) 
  Const. arg: states rights; Union as “compact;” protection of slavery; refute fed power over    territory (Dred Scott). Goal was to restore Union to pre-Republican status
  Population fears (control of House); Territorial fears (control of Senate)
  Slave revolts/ slave runaways/ poor white discontent (Helperism)
  Econ threat as industry expands and plantation slavery retreats
 Fort Sumpter fired on and surrenders to Confederates (April)
  Civil War stats: four years
       200,000+ died in battle (WWI, 120,000; WWII, 300,000)
       400,000  died from disease
       375,000 wounded
       North South
   soldiers:  1,500,000 1,080,000
   workers:  1,300,000 110,000
   factories:  110,000 1,800
 Upper South secedes(VA, NC, TN, ARK): former Whigs support Union; slavery on the decline and   free labor rising. But Sumpter and Lincoln’s call for militias forces choice (on Constitutional   grounds as much as in support of slavery)
 four slave states remain (MD, WVA [1863], KY, MO)- sig: Washington, DC, question of abolition
  Pro-Unionism; Mixed economy; federal intervention (martial law in MD)
 Confederate forces win at Bull Run
 Lincoln proposes compensated emancipation to the border states. Refused
1862 Grant and Farragut successful, McClellan fails on Richmond peninsula but stops Lee at Antietam
 preliminary Emancipation Proclamation: gradual, compensation and colonization; 
  exempts 450,000 slave in Union and 250,000 in occupied LA
  Was it about moral abolitionism or war goals (Union)?:
   Gen Butler had protected escaped slaves in 1861: led to Confiscation Act
   war aims: deprive South of labor/ add to Union army (‘total war’ philosophy)
   Sec of War Cameron had proposed arming freed slaves. Lincoln replaces w/ Stanton (1861)
   Abolitionists in Congress; Grant approaches Deep South (1862)
   Diplomacy and sympathy of British workers
   most important: now war against, not insurrection within, US. Changes Lincoln’s const. duty
   179,000 Blacks enlisted by war’s end
 enlistment of Black soldiers begins
 Homestead Act: 160 acres for $10
  Question of Lincoln as “conservative revolutionary” (McPherson)
   1) blitz of (mostly) Whiggish laws: National banking act, int. improv., Homestead (Dem),    Tariff, greenbacks (war necessity), intercon. RR: reshapes postwar economy
   2) defend the revolution of the founders
   3) abolition of slavery (albeit reluctantly)
   4) transforms notions of liberty and power. State active in defending liberty : positive     liberty as opposed to negative liberty of Bill of Rights. See 13-20th amendments.
 Lee victorious at Fredericksburg
1863 final Emancipation Proclamation
 Northern victories at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Chattanooga. Turning point 
  54th Mass. Colored Regiment leads failed attack on Fort Wagner, SC (Glory)
 Enrollment Act calls for conscription of white males, but permits paid substitutes
  Draft Riots
 10% Reconstruction Plan (Lincoln): requires oaths from 10% accepting Union and Emancipation
1864 Grant v. Lee in VA; Sherman takes Atlanta during “march to the sea” from nashville
 Lincoln pocket vetoes Wade-Davis Bill  which would req. 50% acc. Union, court enf. emanc., only   non-confederate voters (“Radical”)
 Lincoln re-elected over McClellan
1865 Creation of Freedmen’s Bureau (Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands)
  “40 acres and a mule”
 13th Amendment: emancipation; abolishes slavery
 Grant captures Richmond; Lee surrenders at Appomattox (April)
 Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
 Johnson (anti-planter Dem) begins conciliatory Reconstruction: pardons, Black Codes
  Congress refuses to seat Southern reps.
1866 Midterm election gives Republicans 2/3 majority in Congress
 Johnson vetoes Freedmen’s Bureau extension, Civil Rights Act (passed over veto)
  sharecropping becomes predominant labor system for free Blacks;
   “crop lien” system creates cycle of poverty
 14th Amendment: equal rights and protection, citizenship (positive liberty)
 Black codes established: peonage, segregation, but still intermixing (repealed during reconstruction)
 first KKK established in TN: use intimidation and murder to limit black voter participation
1867 First Reconstruction  Act (over Johnson veto) leads to anti-discrimination statutes
  beginning of Congressional “Radical Reconstruction:” military rule, confiscation and   redistribution of property, aid to schools, vote
 Republican control of politics; “carpetbaggers,” “scalawags” (Whig planters and merchants), poor   white farmers, freedmen. Ends by mid 1870s as result of violence and corruption scandals
1868 Impeachment Crisis
 Grant elected: corruption (Whiskey ring) and Specie Controversy eventually weakens national party
1869 15th Amendment: right to vote. Black legislators and “carpetbaggers” fill state legislatures   (positive liberty)
1870 KKK Acts to enforce 15th Amendment (positive liberty)
1872 Credit Mobilier scandal (siphoning profits from Union Pacific RR)
1873 Panic/ Depression. Agricultural depressions last through 1880s and 90s
1875 Whiskey Ring scandal (liquor tax defraud)
Civil Rights Act
1877 disputed election between Hayes (OH-Rep) and Tilden (NY-Dem) resolved with
 Compromise of 1877 : Home Rule restored, (revival of negative liberty) end occupation. End of   “Radical Reconstruction”
 “Redeemers” lead re-establishment of “home rule” based on white supremacy, but intermixing   continues: support laissez-faire and white supremacy
 Conservative Dems = merchants/capitalists, wealthy, and ex-Whigs: 
  believe in Black suffrage based in vestigial Paternalism
 Conservative Dems need black vote against remaining Republicans and poor whites
  Blacks retain suffrage until turn of century, but tide turns
 
 Northern liberals retreat:  Imperialism (1898 and Spanish American War)
         “white man’s burden” and racial theories
        Immigration and Nativism (1880s-)
         Immigration Restriction League
         Social Darwinism
 Jim Crow laws:  1880s-90s   Railroads
      1890s-1900s  Disfranchisement  (pioneered in Miss. in 1890s)
           property and literacy reqs (with loopholes for whites)
           poll tax
           white primary (Progressive reform)
      1900-20s  Public accommodations: law and custom
1880s Southern Alliance grows in strength (Populist paty in 1890s)
 Conserv Dems fear rise of Populism: Hamiltonian policies not popular. Identify Black vote with   Populists to play upon lower class white negrophobia (Woodward- recapit. Morgan)
 Populists turn on Blacks for submitting to vote fraud and intimidation of Conservative Dems
 Unity of white South restored using Blacks as scapegoats: after 1890 conservative fear and   reformist anger lead to exclusion of Blacks from voting
1883 Civil Rights cases in Supreme Court: limit extent of 14th amendment. Power to restrain states but not individuals from discrimination (Court curtails protections through 70s and 80s)
1884 Grover Cleveland (first dem since  Buchanan in ‘56)
1896 Plessy v. Ferguson: 7/8ths caucasian tries to ride in ‘whites only’ RR car. 
Black: “separate but equal;”  Harlan dissents
1902 John Burgess writes of Reconstruction as “unholy alliance” of corrupt carpetbaggers and ignorant Blacks
1907 Hoke Smith elected Gov of GA as Progressive segregationist
  Progressive oppose bosses, corruption, trusts; institute primary system, labor reform BUT
  lead disfranchisement of Blacks: Racism as means for cross class unity
   good government rely upon eliminating Black vote (bought by Conservatives)
  Middle Class establishes political supremacy with appeal to rural whites thru racism
1915 Birth of a Nation
Rise of new KKK
 

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