Reconstruction

1865-1877
 Reconstruction is the era from 1865 to 1877
when the U.S. government attempted
to rebuild the nation after the Civil War
Quick Class
During Discussion: What
Reconstruction, End were the three
slavery goals
Rebuild the
of the
the federal government
government had to and during Reconstruction?
protect South after
readmit the seceded newly more than
Southern states back emancipated four years
into the Union slaves of fighting
“Worse Than
Slavery”
Harpers Weekly
1874
 As the Civil War was ending, President Lincoln
promised a Reconstruction Plan for the Union
with “malice towards none and charity for all”
But, the Constitution gave
no guidelines on how to
readmit states to the Union
The President and Congress
disagreed over how to
treat the Southern states

Abraham Lincoln’s
Second Inaugural Address
 Lincoln favored a plan that
would quickly re-admit the
Confederate states once
10% of the people swore an
oath of loyalty and states
ratified the 13th Amendment
to abolish slavery in America
 “Radical Republicans” in
Congress rejected Lincoln’s
plan because it was too
lenient on ex-Confederates
They favored a plan that
protected blacks, required
50% of state citizens to
swear a loyalty oath, and
banned ex-Confederate
leaders from serving in gov’t
(Wade-Davis Bill)

When the Civil War ended and Lincoln was

assassinated, the government did not have
a Reconstruction Plan in place
 Reconstruction: 1865-1877

After Lincoln was assassinated in 1865,

VP Andrew Johnson created a plan known
as Presidential Reconstruction (1865-1867)
Johnson’s plan was lenient on
Confederate states because
he wanted the South to rejoin
the United States quickly
President Andrew Johnson
 Jacksonian Democrat.
 Anti-Aristocrat.
 White Supremacist.
 Agreed with Lincoln
that states had never
legally left the Union.
Presidential Reconstruction

Ex-Confederate states could

rejoin the USA once they
ratified the 13th Amendment
and wealthy planters could
regain rights by petitioning
Johnson
Presidential Reconstruction
did not require Southern
state governments to
protect former slaves
Southern states passed
black codes to keep
African Americans from
gaining land, jobs, and
protection under the law
Common elements of Black Codes

• Race was defined by blood; the presence of any

amount of black blood made one black

• Employment was required of all freedmen;

violators faced vagrancy charges

• Freedmen could not assemble without the

presence of a white person
 Reconstruction: 1865-1877

“Radical Republicans”
in Congress led by
Thaddeus Stevens
opposed Johnson’s
Reconstruction plan
and pushed for laws
to protect blacks
Thaddeus Stevens
 In 1865, Congress created the
Freedman’s Bureau to help former slaves
The Bureau provided Promised former slaves
emergency food, housing, “40 acres and a mule”
and medical supplies but never delivered
Agents
supervised
labor contracts
Its most
important
legacy of the
Freedman’s
Bureau was
the creation
of new schools
 Former abolitionists
and profiteers moved
South were called
“carpetbaggers”;
southerners who aided
them were called
“scalawags”
Freedmen’s Bureaus and Black Colleges in the South

The emphasis on
education led to the
creation of black
universities, such as
Morehouse College
in Atlanta
 Reconstruction: 1865-1877

Even with the Freedman’s

Bureau, Radical Republicans
feared that Johnson’s lenient
Reconstruction Plan would
violate blacks’ civil rights
Congress drafted the
14th Amendment that included
former slaves as citizens and
guaranteed all citizens equal
protection under the law
 President Johnson thought
that these new protections
would anger Southerners and
slow down Reconstruction
Johnson opposed the
Freedman’s Bureau and
tried to convince states not
to ratify the 14th Amendment

By 1867, moderate and

radical Republicans
realized that they
needed to take control
of Reconstruction
from the president
 Reconstruction: 1865-1877

Radical Republicans in Congressional

Congress created their own Reconstruction was
plan called Congressional strict, protected
Reconstruction (1867-1877) the rights of former
slaves, and kept
Confederate leaders
from regaining
power in the South
 Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867
The South was divided into Ex-Confederate states
5 military zones with US troops were required to give
to enforce Reconstruction black men the right to
vote at the state level
To be readmitted, states had
to ratify the 14th Amendment
protecting black citizenship
Reconstruction: 1865-1877

President Johnson obstructed

Congressional Reconstruction
by firing military generals
appointed by Congress to
oversee Southern military zones
He violated a new law called the
Tenure of Office Act when he
tried to fire his Secretary of War
who supported Congress’ plan
Radical Republicans used The House of Representatives
this as an opportunity to voted 126-47 to charge
impeach the president Johnson with a crime
After an 11 week trial, the Senate fell 1 vote
short of removing the president from office
Johnson successfully argued
that he had not committed a
“high crime or misdemeanor”
In 1868, Civil War hero Ulysses Grant won
the presidency as a Republican candidate
President Grant (1869-1877) worked
with Congress to enforce Reconstruction;
Force Acts allowed military action against
KKK
By 1870, all the ex-Confederate states
were readmitted to the United States
President Ulysses S. Grant
 During Congressional Reconstruction,
African Americans experienced unprecedented rights
The 15th Amendment
gave black men the
right to vote in 1870
The 1st black politicians
were elected to state
and national offices
 During Congressional Reconstruction,
a. ________________________________
_________________________
African Americans experienced unprecedented rights
b. ________________________
Literacy and education
________________________
_________ increased among blacks
Black families were
reunited, marriages
were legally recognized,
and black workers could
make their own money
 During Reconstruction,
all eleven Southern states
were re-admitted
into the Union
The 13th, 14th, and 15th
Amendments guaranteed
rights and equality for
blacks in the South
 Southern governments resisted Reconstruction
by passing more discriminatory black codes
Black codes restricted
blacks from serving on
juries, testifying against
whites in court, marrying
whites, or owning land
These laws often restricted
black workers from gaining
skilled jobs or competing
against white workers
Black men could be
forced into slavery as
punishment for a crime or
for not paying back debts
 Southerners used violence and intimidation
to keep blacks inferior to whites
The Ku Klux Klan was Lynching became
first formed during more common
Reconstruction to attack
blacks who tried to vote or
challenge white supremacy
 Southerners supported the return of the
Democratic Party to state governments
Black voting was Federal troops in Southern
almost eliminated military districts had
by the black codes, difficulty protecting blacks
intimidation, the
poll tax, the literacy
test, and the
grandfather clause
The Civil War ended slavery, but African-Americans
had little job training or money for farm land
With few other options, most ex-slaves
returned to the plantation to work
 After the Civil War, slavery was replaced by
sharecropping, also known as the tenant farming
White land owners would rent parcels of their fields to
blacks and poor whites in exchange for ½ to ¼ of the
cotton they produced
 But, tenants had no money for tools or seeds so
they used lines of credit from the land owner in exchange
for more of their cotton (crop lien system)
 By the end of 1865, most freedmen had
returned to work on the same plantations
on which they were previously enslaved

Sharecropping remained
in place until late in the
20th century
 By the mid-1870s,
the Democratic Party
returned to power in
most Southern states
The only thing
protecting blacks
were federal troops
In the 1876 election, neither Democrat Tilden nor
Republican Hayes won a majority of electoral vote
Republicans and Democrats in Congress agreed to
the “Compromise of 1877” in which Democrats
agreed to vote for Hayes as president if federal
troops were removed from the South
When President
Hayes removed
federal troops
in 1877,
Reconstruction
officially ended
When Reconstruction ended, the Jim Crow laws
Jim Crow era began (1877-1954) segregated
Southern society
and restricted
blacks from
voting with
poll taxes and
literacy tests