Reconstruction Legislation

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(1865)
• Abolishes Slavery
• Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
• Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation

• Provides services to former slaves
– Food
– Clothing
– Medicine
– Education
– President
Johnson
Vetoes the bill
• Congress overrides

Southern View of the Freedmen’s Bureau

• Provides citizenship for African-
Americans
• Government could protect African-
Americans civil rights
• Vetoed by President Johnson
– Congress overrides the veto

• Divided the South into 5 military districts; each district was controlled by a
General. States would be under military control until they ensured rights of African-
Americans

• Tenure of Office Act
– The President could not remove any officials (especially cabinet members) without the consent of the Senate if the position originally required Senate approval
• Designed to protect radical members of Lincoln’s government from being removed by President
Johnson
Edwin Stanton
Sec. of War

• Defined the rights of citizens
– Due process and equal protection under the law regardless of race
– Reduced the number of
Representatives if a state denied the right to vote to
African-Americans the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any
State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

• Voting rights could not be denied due to race
• Section 1. The right of citizens of the United
States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
• Section 2. The
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation

• Radical Republicans gained control of
Congress in 1866
• By 1868 Republicans had gained control of many southern state governments
• Had support of African-American voters
• Southern states began to re-enter the Union
• Radical Republicans were angry at Johnson because he was opposed to their reconstruction plans
• Johnson suspended Secretary of War
(Edward Stanton) without Senate approval

• Congress impeached
Johnson on charges of misconduct
• Johnson was found not guilty in the trial held by the Senate

•
–
Black Codes
Laws that were passed in southern states that aimed to control African
Americans
• Banned African-Americans from owning land
• Arrested and fined unemployed
– People were then forced to work off fines for white employers
• Kept African-Americans from owning or renting farms
• These laws were seen as another way of imposing slavery
• Congress made a number of laws that were designed to fight the
Black Codes:
– Civil Rights Act of 1866
– 14th and 15th Amendments

• Land owner gives part of his/her land to someone to farm
• The tenant pays the landowner with part of the crop he grows
• Tenant also must buy seeds and tools from landowner
• % of crop paid to land owner often left tenant with just enough to feed their families

(1866)
• organization that was created to threaten and intimidate African-
Americans from exercising their rights.
– wanted to keep African-
Americans from voting and attacked white supporters of the reconstruction
– KKK had support of many southerners who wanted to see the Republicans defeated and a return to
Democratic rule in the
South
.

• Laws which kept African-Americans and
Whites separated in the South
– Created a segregated society in the South based on race
– Separate public facilities for Whites and
African-Americans

• 15th amendment stated that the right to vote could not be denied due to race. Southerners found ways around this amendment
• Poll Taxes
• Literacy Tests
• Grandfather Clauses

• Carpetbaggers
– term used by southerners to describe Northerners who moved to the
South during reconstruction
• Took advantage of opportunities created by the South’s defeat in the war.
• Support Republican reconstruction
• Were resented by southerners

• Scalawags
– Term that was used by Southerners to describe other southerners who supported
Republican policies