Planning Reconstruction
Section 1 – 514-519
• Immediately following the Civil War, the South’s economy was in
ruins.
– Southerners faced:
• High food prices
• Worthless Confederate money
• Crop Failure
• Starvation
– The federal government addressed these problems through
reconstruction = Reuniting the nation and rebuilding the
southern states w/o slavery – 1865-1877
Planning Reconstruction
• Lincoln wanted to reunite the nation as quickly and
painlessly as possible.
– He proposed amnesty = an official pardon, for illegal
acts supporting the rebellion.
• For southerners to receive amnesty they had to:
– Swear an oath of loyalty to the U.S.
– Accept a ban on slavery.
Planning Reconstruction
• Once 10% of the voters in a state accepted the amnesty
requirements, they could form a new government.
– After the new government had been formed, the state could
be readmitted to the Union.
– Lincoln’s proposal became known as the Ten Percent Plan.
• Louisiana became the first state to accept Lincoln’s
proposal.
Planning Reconstruction
• Some members of Congress disagreed with Lincoln’s 10% Plan.
– Senator Benjamin Wade and Congressman Henry Davis
proposed an alternative known as the Wade-Davis Plan (WD).
• The W-D had two requirements:
– A complete ban on slavery.
– A majority (at least 51%) of the white males in the
state had to take the loyalty oath.
• W-D made it much more difficult for southern states to
rejoin the union
– Lincoln refused to sign the bill.
The Thirteenth Amendment
• The Emancipation Proclamation had freed slaves in
Confederate states, not in border states where slavery
continued.
– Lincoln urged Congress to make slavery illegal throughout
the U.S.
• December, 1865 Congress ratified the Thirteenth
Amendment which officially made slavery illegal in the
U.S.
The Thirteenth Amendment
• Many Abolitionists felt that the 13th Amendment was not
complete.
– African Americans still didn’t have the right to vote.
• However, the 13th did allow many freedoms such as:
– Legalized marriages
– The ability to move more freely and to search for relatives
The Freedmen’s Bureau
• In 1865 Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau (FB). Its
purpose was to provide relief for all people – black and white, in
the South.
• The FB was responsible for:
– Distributing food to the poor.
– Supervising labor contracts between freedpeople and their
employers.
– Assisting African Americans war veterans in receiving
veteran’s benefits.
– Promoting education
• Provided books and teachers
A New President
• On April 14, 1865 President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes
Booth while watching a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington
DC.
– President Lincoln died the next day.
• Vice President Andrew Johnson was sworn into office later
that morning.
President Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
• Johnson’s plan called for designing a system for setting up new
state governments.
– Each state was appointed a temporary governor.
– Each state’s citizens who had taken a loyalty oath would elect
delegates to a convention that would revise that state’s
constitution.
– Voters would elect new state officials and representatives to
the U.S. Congress.
– Declare that secession was illegal.
– Refuse to pay any Confederate war debts
President Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
• By the end of 1865 all southern states except for Texas had
created new governments.
– Johnson declared that the U.S. was restored.
– The newly elected congressional representatives travelled
to Washington, but Congress refused to allow them to take
their seats.
• Republicans complained that:
– Many of the southern representatives had been
military leaders and political leaders in the
Confederacy.
» Many Republicans felt that those reps. were not
loyal to the U.S.
» The U.S. was still divided.
The Black Codes
Section 2 – 520-526
• As southern states were readmitted to the Union, each state’s
legislature began creating Black Codes (BC)= laws that limited
the freedom of African Americans.
– BCs required African Americans to sign work contracts
• Working conditions were similar to those experienced
during slavery.
– African Americans had to prove they were employed or
they could be arrested.
– African Americans couldn’t own guns or rent property in
cities.
The Radical Republicans
• Most Republicans in Congress were concerned that the Black
Codes were an indication that the South was returning to its old
ways.
– They felt that the BCs were cruel.
– Some of these Republicans became known as Radical
Republicans (RR) b/c they wanted the southern states to
change much more.
• RRs feared that too many southern leaders were still loyal
to the former Confederacy.
• RRs wanted economic and political justice for African
Americans and poor white southerners.
Johnson versus Congress
• In early 1866 Congress proposed a bill to give the Freedmen’s
Bureau more power.
– Johnson vetoed the bill and insisted that Congress could not
pass any new laws until southern states were represented in
Congress.
• Congress responded with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 =
African Americans were to have the same legal rights as
white Americans.
– Johnson vetoed this bill as well, claiming that it would
give too much power to the federal government.
» Johnson also rejected the idea of equal rights for
African Americans. He said that they didn’t
understand how our country and government was
run.
» Congress overrode his veto.
The Fourteenth Amendment
• The Republicans in Congress wanted to protect civil rights
from hostile presidents, courts, and/or future legislators.
– In the summer of 1866, Republicans proposed the
Fourteenth Amendment. Its main provisions are:
• U.S. citizenship = born or naturalized w/in the U.S.
– American Indians were not considered citizens.
• Citizens would receive equal protection of law.
• All states must provide due process of law.
Congress Takes Charge
• In the spring of 1867, Congress passed the first of several
Reconstruction Acts (RA).
– These laws divided the South into five districts with a military
commander in charge of each district.
• The military would remain in the South until the southern
states rejoined the Union. The requirements to rejoin
were:
– Write a new constitution supporting the 14th
Amendment.
– Give African American men the right to vote.
Congress Takes Charge
• President Johnson disagreed with the RA.
– He argued that African Americans did not deserve the
same treatment as white people.
– Since the Republican party held a two-thirds majority in
both houses of Congress, they were able to override
Johnson.
• The Republican majority also passed a law to further
limit the president’s power by not allowing him to
remove cabinet officials w/o the Senate’s approval.
– Johnson broke the law by firing his secretary of war.
Congress Takes Charge
• The HOR responded to Johnson’s action by voting to impeach
him.
– The Senate still needed to have a two-thirds vote for Johnson
to be removed.
• Although Johnson was unpopular with many Republicans,
some thought he was being treated unfairly.
– By a single vote, the Senate failed to convict Johnson;
though his career in politics was ruined.
The Election of 1868
• Republican candidate Ulysses S. Grant won the 1868
presidential election.
– He supported the congressional reconstruction plan and
ran under the slogan “Let us have peace.”
– Shortly after Grant’s nomination, Congress readmitted
seven southern states.
• These states approved the 14th Amendment and agreed
to allow African American men the right to vote.
– Many white southerners used violence to keep
African Americans away from the polls.
» Still, hundreds of thousands of African
Americans voted for Grant.
The Fifteenth Amendment
• Many Republicans in Congress wanted to protect their
Reconstruction plan.
– They were concerned about future Congresses trying to change it.
– They felt it was not fair that many northern states had laws that
prevented African Americans from voting.
• All southern states were required to allow African Americans
to vote if they wanted to be readmitted to the Union.
– Congress proposed the Fifteenth Amendment in 1869.
• All African American men throughout the U.S. had the right
to vote.
– Women, whatever their race, still could not vote.
Reconstruction Governments Section 3 – 527-532
• After the war, some northern-born Republicans moved to the
South.
– Southerners called these people carpetbaggers b/c many
carried their possessions in bags made from carpeting.
• Many southerners resented the carpetbaggers b/c they felt
that they had moved south to profit from the
Reconstruction.
• Some northerners wanted to help former slaves while
others were there to make money.
• Southern Democrats referred to southern Republicans as
scalawags = mean fellows, b/c they believed the scalawags had
betrayed the South by supporting the Republicans.
Opposition to Reconstruction
• Most white southerners opposed Reconstruction.
– Southern Democrats claimed that Reconstruction
governments were corrupt.
– They disliked having federal troops in their states.
– They disapproved of African American social, working, and
political freedoms.
• Tennessee, 1866 – Ku Klux Klan (KKK)= A secret society
opposed to civil rights, particularly suffrage for African
Americans.
– The KKK used terror and violence against African
Americans, and their white supporters.
The End of Reconstruction
• Actions that challenged Reconstruction:
– General Amnesty Act of 1872 = Former Confederates were
allowed to hold public office.
• Most were Democrats who opposed Reconstruction.
– The Republican party lost its majority control of Congress
in 1874.
– Panic of 1873 = A severe economic depression in which
two million Americans were out of work.
• The Republicans were blamed for that depression.
The End of Reconstruction
• Rutherford B. Hayes was elected as president in 1876.
– Hayes and the Republicans decided that it was time to end
federal support of reconstruction.
• In 1877, the last of the federal troops were removed
from the South.
Jim Crow and Plessy v. Ferguson
•
After the Reconstruction period, Democrats began to gain control of
state governments in the South.
– These Democrats became known as Redeemers.
• Goals of the Redeemers:
– Reduce the size of state government, social programs, and
public funding for schools
– Limit African American rights
» Poll Tax = a tax people had to pay b/f they could vote.
» Literacy Test = a test that required a certain reading
ability b/f they could vote.
– Cut property taxes
Jim Crow and Plessy v. Ferguson
• The Redeemers also introduced legal segregation = the forced
separation of whites and African Americans in public areas.
– Jim Crow Laws = Laws that required segregation and were
common in the southern states from the 1880’s – 1964.
• Early examples of Jim Crow segregation:
– Hotels, Trains, Theaters, Places of employment
• Later examples:
– Water Fountains and Restrooms, Public
Transportation, Restaurants, Stadiums
Jim Crow and Plessy v. Ferguson
• In 1896, the case of Plessy v. Ferguson was heard by the
Supreme Court.
– Homer Plessy, an African American, was arrested after he
refused to leave the white-only section on a Louisiana train.
• LA’s Jim Crow laws did not allow African Americans to
ride in train cars with whites.
• The Supreme Court ruled that segregation was allowed if
“separate-but-equal” facilities were provided for African
Americans.
– In practice, separate-but-equal facilities were separate
and unequal.
Sharecropping Section 4 – 533-537
• Few African Americans in the South could afford to buy or rent
farms.
– Many remained on the same plantations where they were
once slaves.
• They worked for much less pay than whites did and were
treated harshly.
• The landowner provided the land, tools, and supplies
while the sharecropper provided the labor.
– Most of the crop went to the landowner and the
sharecropper got whatever was left.
Sharecropping
• Most sharecroppers hoped to earn enough money from the sale
of their share so that they could buy their own land.
– Few ever did and sunk deeper into debt with each passing
season.
Southern Industry
• The southern economy prospered and declined as the price of
cotton rose and fell.
– Southern business leaders felt that creating industry would
strengthen the South’s economy.
• The South had an abundance of two resources – cotton
and cheap labor.
– Textile mills were built and in turn helped boost the
southern economy.
Southern Industry
• With the creation of southern textile mills came the creation of
jobs.
– Many people from rural areas came to work in the mills,
however most mills would not hire African Americans.
• Often, entire families worked in the mills including
children by the age of 12.
• Mills offered:
– Steady pay and steady work.
– Six day work weeks, 12 hours/day.
– Cotton dust and lint filled air = asthma and brownlung disease.
Southern Literature and Music
• As the South began to modernize, many southerners looked to
the arts to preserve their longstanding traditions.
– Authors such as Mark Twain and Mary Murfree wrote short
stories and novels about southern people and places.
– Musicians played the fiddle, banjo, and guitar.
• These instruments were and are still especially popular for
square dancing and Bluegrass music.
• All information for this PowerPoint taken
from Holt “Call to Freedom” 2004