Stella Lindsey
 What is
going on in
Washington?
 What is going
on in the
South?
 Who is an American?
 What does freedom mean?
 What form should government
take? (States’ rights vs. federal
power)
 How do you reunite a divided
nation and who will take charge
of the process?

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
Two Reasons….
1. Constitutional Liberty (Contract
Theory)
2. Human Equality

In other words…..
1. States have no right to leave the
Union
2. Slavery must be abolished
Very lenient on the South
Southern states had to abolish slavery
10% had to take an oath of loyalty to the
U.S.
 Some blacks would be allowed to vote
 Three states said YES! (AR, LA, TN)
 (Lenient, Presidential, quick)
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 Wanted to punish the South
 South had to abolish slavery
 50% had to take loyalty oath
 States had to Deal with war
debts
 Confederate soldiers would not
be allowed to vote
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1861-1865 Civil War
1863 Gettysburg
Address
1863 10% Plan
1864 Wade-Davis Bill
1864 Lincoln reelected
1865-Feb House Votes
on 13th Amendment
1865 April 12 (9) Lee
surrenders to Grant
1865 WAR IS OVER!

Abolished Slavery in the US

Movie: Lincoln and the fight for the 13th
Amendment
WHAT DID THE WAR SETTLE?
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The Union had been
preserved
Slavery was
abolished
Federal
government had
more power than
the states
QUESTIONS LEFT
UNANSWERED…..
How will the nation
deal with 4 million
freedmen?
 How will the
Confederacy become
part of the United
States again?
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1. Perhaps the greatest political crisis in American
history
2. Social Crisis
3. Economic Crisis
4. Legal/ Constitutional crisis
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End of slavery and freedom from white
control
Hopes of owning land
Freedom to move around and look for loved
ones
Freedom to set up black schools, churches,
and clubs
Equal rights, the right to vote, citizenship
Legal protection
Freedom to work or not to work
African Americans
in the Union Army
African
Americans
fought in the
Civil War. The
movie, Glory,
featuring
Morgan
Freeman, tells
the story of a
black battalion.
 Freedom from Northern control
 Freedom to put their world back the
way it was
 Many embraced the “Lost Cause,” a
cult of mourning and romanticizing
the Old South
 Fought for local control and to
maintain white supremacy
Civil War Monument
Civil War
Monument,
Oxford, MS
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An agency of the army, the organization was
set up to aid 4,000,000 African Americans and
poor whites in the South
Distributed food, set up schools, and tried to
settle blacks on land
An example in unprecedented government
action to provide food, education, and
economic opportunities for Americans
Set up for only one year
It was too small and not very effective
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Start on Tuesday Period 1
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Both the Democrats and Republicans wanted
to gain more political power through
Reconstruction
4,000,000 free blacks could provide a boost
to the Republican Party
Lincoln’s 10% plan, 1863
Wade-Davis Bill, 1864
3. Johnson’s Restoration Plan, 1865
(Presidential Reconstruction)
4. Radical Reconstruction, 1866(Congressional Reconstruction)
1.
2.
Andrew
Johnson
Who was Andrew
Johnson and how did
he become Lincoln’’s
vice president?
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Take Loyalty oath
Wealthy landowners had to come to him for
pardon
Abolish slavery (ratify the 13th Amendment)
Johnson appointed provisional governors
Deal with war debts
Elect representatives to Congress
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President Johnson's Reconstruction Plan (6
Minutes)
By 1865, ALL the Southern states had formed new
governments and met the requirements of either Lincoln’s
or Johnson’s plan and were prepared to rejoin the Union,
but the Radicals in Congress would not agree these terms.
 Between 1866 and 1868 Johnson vetoed 15
Reconstruction bills presented by the Radical
Republicans—more than all previous Presidents put
together. Congress simply overrode his vetoes
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Radical Republicans, under Leaders Thaddeus
Stevens and Charles Sumner, passed a series of
Reconstruction Acts used to reconstruct the South
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Enacted Black Codes
Formed armed militias of former Confederate
soldiers
Electing former Confederate leaders to
Congress
Refusing to abolish slavery (ratify 13th
Amendment)
Race riots and violence in the South
1. Passed 14th Amendment, the first
constitutional definition of citizenship.****
2. Introduced a very strict plan for readmitting
the Southern states to the Union
3. Set up 5 military districts in the South with
military governors
4. Wanted to give freedmen land
4. Passed the 15th Amendment—which
declared citizens could not be denied the
right to vote based on “race, color, or
previous condition of servitude.”
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Stopped the Supreme Court from interfering
with their plans for Reconstruction.
In Ex parte Milligan, the Supreme Court ruled
that military tribunals were unconstitutional
in places where civil courts were functioning.
This interfered with the military governments
Congress had set up in the South.
Congress threatened to limit the authority of
the Court.
Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act which
stripped the President of some of his power. He
could not remove civil officials from office—even his
own cabinet—without consulting Congress.
 Johnson dismissed Secretary of War, Edwin
Stanton.
 In 1868 the House of Representatives brought
impeachment charges against Johnson, but the
Senate was ONE vote shy of a majority to convict
They failed to remove Johnson from office, but he
lost all political power.
 By 1869-1870 all former states had been
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What ‘s been going on in the South?
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For some time, the traditional view of
Reconstruction in the South was one of
failure and white subjugation to Republican
carpetbaggers, scalawags, and black
freedmen.
It is a view of government corruption and
incompetence. (Gone With the Wind and Birth
of a Nation have perpetuated this myth)
More recent research reveals a more accurate
account of the period.
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African Americans gained access to the ballot
box and elected offices, but they never
dominated southern politics.
16 African Americans elected to
Congress
None was ever elected governor
Blacks held 10-15% of state offices
Carpetbaggers and scalawags were not
particularly corrupt

Southern governments were no more corrupt
than governments in the North
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Taxes rose and debts increased because the
Republican governments had to fund schools,
rebuild infrastructure, and deal with debt
after the war
Hiram Revels
United States
Senator from
Mississippi
during
Reconstruction
Blanche K.
Bruce
African American
US Senator from
Mississippi during
Reconstruction.
Lived and farmed
in Bolivar County
near Rosedale,
MS.
1.
2.
3.
Said they were being governed by
incompetent blacks
Argued that Reconstruction governments in
the South were corrupt and state debts were
soaring
Felt they had been denied their rights as
citizens.
 Argued that the state and federal
governments had not acted to
guarantee their basic rights of
citizenship.
 They had not gained access to
land
 South’s agricultural economy
changed dramatically.
 Tenancy and sharecropping
emerged in place of slavery
 Global changes in the cotton
market had negative impact on
the South
 Small farmers lost land
Sharecropping
System in 1880
Why did the
Mississippi
Delta have a
lower rate of
sharecropping
than other
areas of the
South in 1880?
African American
Sharecroppers
Tenant farming
or
sharecropping
increased
dramatically in
the South
during
Reconstruction
and the years
that followed.
Sharecroppers
Poor whites
and African
Americans
turned to
sharecropping
during
Reconstruction.
General Ulysses
Grant
A general for
the Union
army during
the Civil War,
he is
considered a
military
genius by
many
historians.
Ulysses S. Grant
Republican
1869-1877
Grant’s
Presidency
was riddled
with scandals.
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Reconstruction against increasing resistance
and violence in the South, rise of the KKK
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Scandals in his own administration: Credit
Mobilier, Whiskey Ring, Indian Affairs
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Economy: Panic of 1873 and monetary policy
(gold standard and the greenback question)
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Loss of Northern support for Reconstruction
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The nation entered a financial depression that
lasted 4 years.
The Greenback Question: What will we base the
value of our currency on? Gold? Government
authority? ***This is one of the most enduring
political issues of the era.
Specie Resumption Act-”greenbacks” or paper
money issued during the Civil War would be
redeemed and new certificates would be backed by
gold.
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Secretary of State William Seward purchased
Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million dollars—
“Seward’s Folly”
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Hamilton Fish struck a deal with England over
the “Alabama claims.”
Ulysses S.
Grant
A bankrupt
and dying
Grant writing
his memoirs.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Loss of interest in the North
Financial crisis –the Panic of 1873
Organized and often violent resistance
by white Southerners
The Compromise of 1877-Hayes –Tilden
Election
The widespread belief that blacks were
inferior=racism (Social Darwinism)
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Reconstruction failed to resolve the problem
of racism
Government did not protect the rights of
freedmen
A divided racially, economically, and
politically divided nation emerged from
Reconstruction.
Delayed dealing with constitutional rights for
all Americans for almost another century:
1950s, 1960s, 1970s
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Gave some dignity and equality to African
Americans
The three Civil War Amendments laid the
legal foundation for the Civil Rights
Movement
13th Amendment—Abolished Slavery
14th Amendment-Who is a citizen? Due
Process and equal protection
15th Amendment—Guaranteed the right to
vote
 Who is an American?
 What does freedom mean?
 What form should government
take? (States’ rights vs. federal
power)
 How do you reunite a divided
nation?


The Presidents: Grant
11:22
Pick up 2 handouts on the
book case at the front of
the room
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White democrats took control of state
governments in all 11 former Confederate states.
The South had been “redeemed” according to
white Southerners
Free blacks were disenfranchised: Literacy tests,
grandfather clauses, poll taxes, gerrymandering,
and intimidation
KKK grew in number and violence increased:
lynching
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New South boosters including Henry O Grady
promoted industrialization and
modernization in the South with only limited
success
Legalized segregation was adopted across
the South: Jim Crow, Plessy v Ferguson
Black leaders emerged including Booker T
Washington –who promoted education, job
training and the growth of a black middle
class
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Agricultural labor system underwent a
transformation from slave labor to tenant
farming and sharecropping which led to a
form of debt peonage.
Lynching in
the South
In 1890s
there was
an average
of 187
lynchings
each year.
80% took
place in the
South.
1. Founder and president of Tuskegee Institute
in Alabama
2. Embraced education and vocational training
as the path for black improvement
3. He delivered a speech in Georgia in 1895 in
which he said blacks should not “agitate for
their rights.” He supported self improvement,
education, and economic gains (jobs) as way to
gain social, political and economic power in
society.
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Read: Plessy v Ferguson: The Shaping of Jim
Crow
Answer the questions
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Reconstruction: America's Second Civil War
1:30:00