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Social or Political?  Change    Slavery Ends   New constitution ended slavery   People suffered   No white males to work & support farms   Implemented social welfare programs to feed the poor   Starvation   No money for necessities   Louisiana rejoins the Union   Downturn in sugar and cotton industries

Social or Political?  Change    Slavery Ends   New constitution ended slavery   People suffered   No white males to work & support farms   Implemented social welfare programs to feed the poor   Starvation   No money for necessities   Louisiana rejoins the Union   Downturn in sugar and cotton industries

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Directions: Use the Document to determine if each change is a social or political change. 6 changes are social and 3 are political. 

 

Social or Political? 

Change 
 

Slavery Ends
 

New constitution ended slavery
 

People suffered
 

No white males to work & support farms
 

Implemented social welfare programs to feed the poor
 

Starvation
 

No money for necessities
 

Louisiana rejoins the Union
 

Downturn in sugar and cotton industries 
Social and Political Changes During the Civil War These troops (more than 24,000 African American Louisianans) symbolized the most dramatic of the changes Louisiana witnessed during the war-the ending of slavery. In 1860, Louisiana possessed 331,726 slaves, which were 46.8 percent of the state's population (and 59 percent of the population outside of New Orleans). Emancipation came unevenly to the state. As soon as General Butler arrived in New Orleans, runaway slaves, known as -contrabands, I escaped to his lines. Officially, Butler returned slaves belonging to loyal slaveholders while allowing slaves of Confederate owners to remain in New Orleans, yet in practice this distinction was difficult to maintain. A similar divergence occurred when President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which freed the slaves in rebel controlled areas but not those within Union lines. In Louisiana, this meant that slaves in New Orleans and many of the sugarcane parishes did not fall under its mandate. Nevertheless, the state's unionist 1864 Constitution ended this distinction by | abolishing slavery in Louisiana a year before the Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery throughout the United States. During this whole process, the Union army helped supervise a transition from slave labor to free, wage labor, a transition that remained incomplete at war's end. The 1864 Constitution was emblematic of Louisiana's role as a test case for President Lincoln's Reconstruction policies. As early as December 1862, the Union government held congressional elections in New Orleans. Later, Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction called for a state's reentry in the Union after a portion of the population equaling 10 percent of the votes cast in the 1860 presidential election swore loyalty to the United States. This plan, dubbed the 10 Percent Plan, went into effect in Louisiana in 1864 and resulted in a new constitution, which ended slavery but did not allow African Americans to vote. In 1864, Unionist voters selected Michael Hahn as governor, and when the legislature selected Hahn to be U.S. senator in March 1865, Lt. Governor James Madison Wells succeeded him as ruler of the reconstructed portion of the state. The end of slavery was only one of the many striking changes to the home front in Louisiana. The absence of military age white males, the disruption of the sugar and cotton trade, rampant inflation, lack of credit, and the presence of an occupation army-and some Confederates as well-all contributed to tremendous suffering for the civilian population. For many Louisianans, starvation was a real threat, as armies either seized or destroyed food crops. Some planters, who possessed the means to move, fled to Texas, often with their slaves. Other Louisianans struggled to feed, clothe, and house themselves. The Confederate state government tried to help by allocating $5 million to soldiers' families and distributing food to those in need, but this amount did not prove sufficient to alleviate all of the state's suffering, especially in areas that saw repeated Union incursions. Confederate Governor Henry Watkins Allen, elected in 1863 to succeed Governor Moore, gained lasting fame for his efforts to aid Louisiana's plain folk in the Confederate portion of Louisiana during the final year of the war.
Transcribed Image Text:Social and Political Changes During the Civil War These troops (more than 24,000 African American Louisianans) symbolized the most dramatic of the changes Louisiana witnessed during the war-the ending of slavery. In 1860, Louisiana possessed 331,726 slaves, which were 46.8 percent of the state's population (and 59 percent of the population outside of New Orleans). Emancipation came unevenly to the state. As soon as General Butler arrived in New Orleans, runaway slaves, known as -contrabands, I escaped to his lines. Officially, Butler returned slaves belonging to loyal slaveholders while allowing slaves of Confederate owners to remain in New Orleans, yet in practice this distinction was difficult to maintain. A similar divergence occurred when President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which freed the slaves in rebel controlled areas but not those within Union lines. In Louisiana, this meant that slaves in New Orleans and many of the sugarcane parishes did not fall under its mandate. Nevertheless, the state's unionist 1864 Constitution ended this distinction by | abolishing slavery in Louisiana a year before the Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery throughout the United States. During this whole process, the Union army helped supervise a transition from slave labor to free, wage labor, a transition that remained incomplete at war's end. The 1864 Constitution was emblematic of Louisiana's role as a test case for President Lincoln's Reconstruction policies. As early as December 1862, the Union government held congressional elections in New Orleans. Later, Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction called for a state's reentry in the Union after a portion of the population equaling 10 percent of the votes cast in the 1860 presidential election swore loyalty to the United States. This plan, dubbed the 10 Percent Plan, went into effect in Louisiana in 1864 and resulted in a new constitution, which ended slavery but did not allow African Americans to vote. In 1864, Unionist voters selected Michael Hahn as governor, and when the legislature selected Hahn to be U.S. senator in March 1865, Lt. Governor James Madison Wells succeeded him as ruler of the reconstructed portion of the state. The end of slavery was only one of the many striking changes to the home front in Louisiana. The absence of military age white males, the disruption of the sugar and cotton trade, rampant inflation, lack of credit, and the presence of an occupation army-and some Confederates as well-all contributed to tremendous suffering for the civilian population. For many Louisianans, starvation was a real threat, as armies either seized or destroyed food crops. Some planters, who possessed the means to move, fled to Texas, often with their slaves. Other Louisianans struggled to feed, clothe, and house themselves. The Confederate state government tried to help by allocating $5 million to soldiers' families and distributing food to those in need, but this amount did not prove sufficient to alleviate all of the state's suffering, especially in areas that saw repeated Union incursions. Confederate Governor Henry Watkins Allen, elected in 1863 to succeed Governor Moore, gained lasting fame for his efforts to aid Louisiana's plain folk in the Confederate portion of Louisiana during the final year of the war.
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