one punishment that the South faced was being divided into 5 military ... The North had only a handful of battles in their territory so Northerners did not feel
Explanation:
In March, eighteen sixty-eight, Congress tried to remove President Andrew Johnson from office. At that time, Congress was controlled by radical members of the Republican Party. They opposed Johnson, a Democrat.
Congress failed to remove Johnson. But it did succeed in getting control of efforts to re-build the South following America's Civil War.
Radical Republicans wanted to punish the South for starting the war. They also wanted to be sure new governments in the southern states would support the Republican Party.
I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Doug Johnson and I tell about this reconstruction.
One way radical Republicans gained support was by helping give blacks the right to vote. They knew former slaves would vote for the party which had freed them.
Another way Republicans kept control in the South was by preventing whites from voting there. They passed a law saying no southerner could vote if he had taken part in the rebellion against the Union. This prevented the majority of southern whites from voting for Democrats and against Republicans.
Congress also made strong rules about what southern states had to do to re-enter the Union. It said each of the states needed a new constitution that protected the voting rights of all black men. And it said each southern state must approve an amendment to the United States Constitution that gave citizenship to blacks.
The radicals did not rest with changes in the law. They also sent their supporters south to organize blacks for the Republican Party. Many southern whites hated these men from the North. They had a special name for them: carpetbaggers.
The name arose because many of the northerners who went south arrived with all their possessions in a carpet handbag. Southerners also had a name for their own people who cooperated with the carpetbaggers. They called them scalawags. Neither name was friendly.
Southern whites had a reason to be bitter. They had lost the Civil War. Now much of their power was gone, and they were suffering. But there was another side to the story, as well.
Southern whites had held black people in slavery for many years. Now, the former slaves were getting to enjoy a small taste of freedom. Also, the South had started the Civil War which had caused so much death and destruction. It was not surprising that the North showed little sympathy when the fighting stopped and the South lay in ruins.
Southern states organized conventions to form new governments. Soon, all but three southern states had new legislatures.
Not surprisingly, radical Republicans held firm control in every one of the new governments. Many of the new governors and state officials were carpetbaggers from outside the state. Others were southern scalawags.
Many of these new state officials were dishonest. They began using their power to become rich.
In South Carolina, for example, the new governor was a former army officer from the state of Ohio. He gave government jobs to many dishonest men, including some who were wanted for crimes in other states.
The same situation existed in other state governments in the South. In Louisiana, for example, the governor was a carpetbagger from the state of Illinois. He left office after four years with one million dollars. His official pay during that time was only thirty-two thousand
The South was not the only place where public offic
