Standard USHC-3: The student will demonstrate an understanding of how regional and ideological differences led to the Civil War & an understanding of the impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on democracy in America.
USHC-3.3: Analyze the effects of Reconstruction on the southern states & on the role of the federal government, including the impact of the thirteenth, fourteenth, & fifteenth amendments on opportunities for African Americans.

-
Lincoln’s 10% Plan:
- Lenient on the South.
Gov’t pardon all Confederates except high-ranking officials & those accused of crimes against prisoners of war = swear allegiance to the
Union.
- 10% of states eligible voters had to vote to re-enter the Union.
- form new state government & get representation in Congress.
- Radical Republicans (Goals):
- Destroy power of former slaveholders.
- Give African-Americans right to vote & citizenship rights.
Wade-Davis Bill:
- Proposed Congress, not the president, be responsible for Reconstruction.
- Proposed a majority, not 10%, of 1860 eligible voters, required to establish a state government.
Lincoln “killed” it with a pocket veto.
Radical Republican Leader
Thaddeus Stevens (R.
– PA )

Pres. Johnson’s Plan (Presidential Reconstruction):
- Aim: to punish ex-confederate leaders (military & landowners):
- Remaining 7 Confederate states had to:
- 1.) Withdrawal secession, 2.) swear allegiance to the Union,
3.) annul Confederate war debts, & 4.) ratify the 13 th Amendment.
Failed (like Lincoln’s) to help ex-slaves: land, voting rights, legal protection.
Freedmen’s Bureau Act:
- Assisted ex-slaves & poor whites (clothing & food)
- Set up 40 hospitals, 4,000 schools, 61 ind. institutes, & 74 teachertraining centers.
- Civil Rights Act of 1866:
- African-Americans citizenship.
Banned discriminatory “black codes”.
Pres. Johnson vetoed both the Freedmen’s & Civil Rights Acts:

Radical Republicans override Johnson’s veto.
- Reconstruction Amendments:
- Thirteenth amendment (11.5)
- Formally abolished slavery.
- Fourteenth Amendment
- All persons born/naturalized in the U.S. are citizens.
- Entitled to equal protection of the law.
- Constitutional basis for Civil Rights Act of 1866.
- Fifteenth Amendment
- Extension of suffrage rights to African Americans (males).
Reconstruction Act of 1867 (Radical Reconstruction):
- 1.) Abolished governments formed in the former Confederate states, 2.) divided those states into 5 military districts, 3.) set up requirements for readmission to the Union

nd
Bell Ringer #6 (5 & 7 Dec)
6.) Despite the passage of the Reconstruction Amendments (13 th , 14 th , & 15 th ), why did African Americans experience continued discrimination?
a.) Southern governors declared the amendments null & void.
b.) Southern state legislatures passed a series of Jim Crow Laws..
c.) State governments were now aware these amendments were ratified.
d.) The amendments did not address political rights.
CORRECT ANSWER: B

Standard USHC-3: The student will demonstrate an understanding of how regional and ideological differences led to the Civil War & an understanding of the impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on democracy in America.
USHC-3.4: Summarize the end of Reconstruction, including the role of anti –
African American factions & competing national interests in undermining support for Reconstruction; the impact of the removal of federal protection for freedmen; & the impact of Jim Crow laws & voter restrictions on African
American rights in the post-Reconstruction era.

Republicans in the South : a.) Carpetbaggers – northern Republican missionaries, teachers, or entrepreneurs whom had moved to the South following the war.
b.) Scalawags – white southerners who did not participate in the Confederacy whom supported the Republicans views on economic growth & public schools.
c.) Freedmen – former slaves.
- Democrats in the South: a.) Redeemers (redemption): ex- planters/ exconfederates) who “redeemed” the
South by removing the Republicans & returning “home rule” .

Sen.
Hiram Revels ,
First African American Congressman
(Republican
– Mississippi)
First black Senator & Representatives:
Sen. Hiram Revels (R-MS), Rep. Benjamin S.
Turner (R-AL), Robert DeLarge (R-SC), Josiah
Walls (R-FL), Jefferson Long (R-GA), Joseph
Rainey and Robert B. Elliott (R-SC)

The Goals of the Ku Klux Klan, the Riflemen, & the Red Shirts
- Intimidate Republican carpetbaggers & freedmen = force them away from the voting polls & southern politics in the hope to go back to the North.
Forced the closing of freedmen’s schools through intimidation & violent tactics.
- Lynching, beatings, & cross-burnings were not uncommon means used to achieve the Klan’s objectives.
- Federal government passed the
Ku Klux Klan Act & sent troops to South to protect the freedmen. (weakly enforced).

Freedmen in the Post-War South
- Around 2.3 million slaves were freed with the ratification of the 13 th
Amendment in Dec 1865 (both displaced & liberated).
- Most freedmen (former slaves) could not read or write; jobs were scarce.
- Thousands left the plantations to start fresh in places like
Charleston, & look for former family members.
- Hunger, disease, & lack of shelter were problems.
- Some chose to remain on the plantations to work for wages
Freedmen in Post-Civil War
Richmond, VA

Creation of the Freedmen’s Bureau:
- Set up by federal government in 1865; operated by the US Army.
- Provided food, clothing, & medical supplies to needy blacks.
- Supervised work contracts & helped freedmen find jobs.
- Established schools & military courts, as needed.
Freedmen’s Bureau

Failures of the Freedmen’s Bureau:
- Over 2 million freed blacks in the South needed help, but resources were very limited.
- Working with resentful cash-poor planters proved challenging.
“Forty Acres & a Mule”
- The Bureau promised more than it could deliver.
“Freedmen’s Bureau”

Economic Changes in the South
Sharecropping became the dominant job & lifestyle for poor whites & blacks throughout the South.
- Allowed former planters to reestablish their former position as master through a new means.
- Poor blacks & whites were economically dependent on the land owner = cycle of debt.
- Sharecroppers worked the land in exchange for a share of the crop (landowner supplied land, tools & seeds).
- Some poor farmers relied on crop liens .

- Rutherford B. Hayes (Rep) v. Samuel Tilden (Dem)
Compromise of 1877: Deal is struck over 20 contested electoral votes.
Democrats cede the election to Hayes, in exchange…
…the last federal troops pulled out of the southern states in 1877 & the era of
Reconstruction ended (1865-1877)
- Power is returned to the Southern
Democrats (redeemers) .

- Blacks were allowed to play a role in government politics through the end of Reconstruction.
- Public schools established by the
Freedmen’s Bureau were open to all.
- Thousands of free blacks learned to read & write.
- Race relations did not improve.
(increased) black/white tensions.
- The Ku Klux Klan grew.
- Race riots took place across the
South.
- Government corruption increased during the period.
-
“Redeemers”
(Ex-Confederate
Democrats) regained control)

- 1877: Conservative-Democrats take control of the South.
- Moved to disfranchise (take away) the black vote.
Eight Box Law (1881) : had to put your vote in the right ballot box.
Poll Taxes : had to pay a tax to vote.
Literacy Tests : had to read part of the SC Constitution out-loud.
Poll Tax Receipt

- These tactics were designed to stop poor & illiterate blacks & whites from voting.
- 1876 = 90,000 people in SC voted Republican.
- 1888 = less than 14,000 voted Republican.
- Some states made you own land in order to vote
(kept away the poor).

- Grandfather Clause: If your grandfather could vote before the Civil War, then you could.
- Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896): Supreme Court case which established the principle of “separate but equal” facilities for blacks & whites
(rarely equal).
- All of these actions led to de jure segregation .