Bellringer 36
SSUSH10
SSUSH 10 The student will identify legal, political,
and social dimensions of Reconstruction.
5 days after the Civil War ends President
Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes
Booth!
Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
 Vice President Johnson
became President after
Lincoln’s assassination in
1865
 He was sympathetic to
the South.
 Southern slave owner!
Reconstruction
 After the war, the South needed to be rebuilt physically, economically,
and politically.
 Reconstruction was the rebuilding of the South after the war
 Three Plans: Lincoln’s Plan, Johnson’s Plan, and
Republican/Congressional Plan
Lincoln’s Plan
 Goal: Heal the South & Reunite the Union
 Appointed temporary governors to run Southern States
 Southern states had to:
1-declare secession null and void
2-abolish slavery
3- 10% of population had to declare allegiance to the US
4-cancel all war debts
Johnson’s Plan
•Very Lenient on the South!
•Followed Lincoln’s Plan, but pardoned
many Confederate leaders and officials
Georgia is Readmitted!
 Held a new constitutional convention
 Repealed the Ordinance of Session and passed the 13th
amendment.
 Constitution was very similar to the old one!
 Georgia was readmitted into the Union in December of
1865. This proved to be temporary.
The Radical
Republicans/Congressional Plan
 Republicans in Congress offered their own plan for
Reconstruction:
1. The southern states were put under military rule
2. Southern states had to hold new constitutional conventions.
3. African Americans were allowed to vote.
4. Southerners who had supported the Confederacy were not
allowed to vote (temporarily).
5. Southern states had to guarantee equal rights to African
Americans.
6. Southern states had to recognize African Americans as citizens.
The Radical Republican plan was much harsher on the
South!
Military Rule in the South
 In 1867 Congress divided the South into military districts:
Southern states had to redesign their state constitutions to the
approval of Congress
Freedman’s Bureau
 General Sherman set aside all abandoned land along the coast for
use by former slaves
 Congress formed the Freedmen’s Bureau to help freemen and
poor whites.
 The Bureau was in charge of feeding, clothing and finding jobs,
and establishing school for the former slaves
Morehouse College
 Founded in 1867 by a former slave with the purpose of training
freed slaves how to read and write
Henry McNeal Turner
& Black Legislators
 32 black men were elected to the Georgia General Assembly
in 1867.
 Henry McNeal Turner: Helped organize the Republican party
during Reconstruction
 South Carolina preacher/chaplain during the war
 One of the many black legislators expelled from the Gen.
Assembly by whites
 Led a “Back to Africa” movement
Life in the South
 Sharecropping: a family farmed a portion of a white
landowner’s land in return for housing and a portion of the crop.
 Tenant Farming: farming- a step up from sharecropping, the
tenant uses the land and pays rent, whether in cash or crop
 Example: landowner gets $50 or $50 worth of crop
 Tenant Farmer brings more to the table than just labor (tools,
fertilizer, etc.)
Cycle of Sharecropping
The North Benefits from
Reconstruction
 Carpetbagger: Northerners who came to the
South to do business (get rich).
 The South despised them because they thought they
were being used!
 Scalawag: Poor “white trash” Southerners who
supported Republicans and Reconstruction. (Hated
by the South!)
Amendments
 13th Amendment: Banned slavery and granted full
emancipation to all slaves (ratified by a majority in 1865)
 14th Amendment: provided citizenship and equal
rights to of the law to all persons born in the United States
(except Native Americans)(1868)
 15th Amendment: Protected the voting rights of
African-Americans (and all other males) (1870)
African America Rights in the South
 Desire for freedom and community led to the growth of
AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCHES
 500 freedmen served in State Legislatures during Reconstruction
 Jim Crow Laws: AKA Black Codes. An attempt to control
former slaves
 Attempts to keep freedmen out of politics:
 Polltax: fee applied to voting
 Literacy Tests: test to prove literacy before freedmen could vote
Ku Klux Klan
 Secretive organizer
 Create to resist the equal right to African Americans
 Used violence to intimidate
freedmen and minorities (Catholics,
scalawags, Jews)
 ex) Lynching, burning crosses
 Leader was called Grand Wizard
The End of Reconstruction
 In 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes was elected President in a
highly contested race.
 Hayes ordered the withdrawal of all Union troops in the
South as part of the Compromise of 1877
 After the troops left white Southerners regained control and
worked to strengthen segregation
Questions?????
 What were some of the main differences between the
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Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction plans?
What was the purpose of the Freedman’s Bureau?
Why was Andrew Johnson impeached?
What was the purpose of the black codes?
How did the Compromise of 1877 end Reconstruction?