Think about:
What lasting consequences
arose from the struggles
over Reconstruction?
Charleston, SC after the Civil War.
What does this picture represent?
Section 1: Rival Plans for
Reconstruction

 Focus Question: How did  African Americans – even
the Radical Republicans’
though emancipated, lacked
plans for Reconstruction
full citizenship and the
differ from Lincoln’s and
means to make a living
Johnson’s?
 Federal government
 PROBLEMS:
struggled with how to
return the Southern states
 At the end of the Civil War,
back to the Union, give
parts of the South lay in
rights to African Americans,
ruins – homes were burned,
and rebuild the South
businesses closed, and
property abandoned
How Will the Southern
States Rejoin the Union?

 One important issue, deciding
the political fate of the
Confederate states.
 Many questions arose as to what
should be done…
 The Constitution provided no
guidance on succession or
readmission of states.
 Some argued that it should be
done simply and quickly
 Others thought the Southern
states should satisfy certain
stipulations…
How Will the Southern
Economy Be Rebuilt?

 Between 1860 & 1870, the South’s
share of the economy fell from 30% to
12%
 The Union army had destroyed
factories, plantations, and railroads.
 Nearly ½ of the Region’s livestock
and farm equipment was gone.
 ¼ of Southern white men between 20
and 40 had died in the war.
 More than 3 million newly freed
African Americans were now
without homes and jobs.
 Arguments also rose over who
should control the South’s only
valuable asset – Land.
Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman

 Proposed that millions of acres
abandoned by planters or taken by
the federal government should be
given to former slaves.
 “Forty acres and a mule”
 Many northerners agreed and
thought this was the answer to
restoring the South’s productivity,
economy, and provide
employment and income to
former slaves
Not Everyone Agreed

 Southern landowners rejected
the idea that the government
could just give away their land.
 Many white Northerners
thought that this violated the
Constitution.
 Even some Southern African
Americans thought that the
white landowners should be
compensated for their land, and
then be able to sell it off
What Rights Will African
Americans Have?

 13th Amendment -- Abolishes
slavery and involuntary servitude
 13th granted freedom, but did not
grant privileges of full citizenship
 The dominating Republican Party
supported programs to extend
these rights to former slaves…
 Most white Southerners opposed
the idea because it would
undermine their own power and
status in society
Lincoln’s Course

 The President’s first major goal was
to reunify the Union
 In 1863, he issued a Proclamation of
Amnesty and Reconstruction
known as the “Ten Percent Plan”
 The plan stated that as soon as 10%
of a state’s voters took a loyalty of
oath to the Union, the state could
set up a new government
 Also, if the state’s constitution
abolished slavery and provided
education for African Americans,
the state would regain
representation in Congress
Lincoln’s Course (cont.)

 Lincoln was also generous in other
ways to white southerners.
 He was willing to grant pardons
to former Confederates, and
considered compensating them
for lost property.
 Lincoln did not require a
guarantee of social and political
equality for African Americans.
Radicals Oppose the
Ten Percent Plan

 Member’s of Lincoln’s own party
(Rep.) opposed the plan
 “Radical Republicans,” led by
Representative Thaddeus Stevens and
Senator Charles Sumner, in Congress
insisted that the Confederates had
committed crimes (?)
 The Radical Republicans advocated
full citizenship for African
Americans, including the right to vote
 They favored punishment and harsh
crimes for the South, and supported
Gen. Sherman’s “40 acres and a mule
plan.”
Thaddeus Stevens
Charles Sumner
Wade-Davis Bill

 Rejecting Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan,
Davis (left); Wade (right)
Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill
in 1864
 It required that a majority of a state’s
prewar voters swear loyalty to the
Union before the restoration process
could begin.
 The bill also demanded guarantees of
African American equality
 President Lincoln killed this plan with
a “pocket veto” by withholding his
signature beyond the 10-day deadline
at the end of the congressional session.
Government Aids Freedmen

 One Radical Republican plan did receive
Lincoln’s support
 The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and
Abandoned Lands known as the Freedmen’s
Bureau
 It’s goal was to provide food, clothing,
healthcare, and education for both black and
white refugees in the South.
 It helped reunite families separated by
slavery and war
 It also negotiated fair labor contracts
between former slaves and white
landowners
 And by representing African Americans in
court, it established a precedent that black
citizens had legal rights.
 Efforts were continued until 1872.
Lincoln’s Assassination

 Lincoln was assassinated on
Good Friday, April 14, 1865, just
5 weeks after his 2nd inaugural
address
 Lincoln was the first American
president to be assassinated
 The assassination of Lincoln was
planned and carried out by the
well-known stage actor John
Wilkes Booth, as part of a larger
conspiracy in a bid to revive the
Confederate cause.
Andrew Johnson
Becomes President

 Lincoln’s VP, became President after






Lincoln’s assassination
Did not have formal schooling
Became a skilled public speaker
Entered Tennessee politics as a
Democrat
When TN seceded in 1861, Johnson was
the only southern senator who refused to
join the Confederacy
Lincoln appointed him military
governor in 1862, hoping to attract
Democratic voters
Chosen as VP in 1864
Johnson’s
Reconstruction Plan

 Like Lincoln, Johnson wanted to
restore the political status of the
southern states as quickly as
possible
 He offered pardons and the
restoration of land to almost any
Confederate who swore allegiance
to the Union and the Constitution.
 His main requirement was that each
state ratify the 13th Amendment and
draft a constitution that abolished
slavery
Johnson’s Reconstruction
Plan (cont.)

 However, Johnson resented
wealthy planters and required
that they and other Confederate
leaders apply for pardon by
writing him personally
 He also did not desire to elevate
African Americans and did not
want them to have the right to
vote and showed them little
sympathy
 Believed in “government for
white men.”
Johnson’s Reconstruction
Plan (cont.)

 Johnson supported states’ rights,
which would allow the laws and
customs of the state to outweigh
federal regulations.
 This would limit freedoms to
former slaves
 How did Johnson’s attitude
toward African Americans affect
his approach to Reconstruction?
Southerners Aim to
Restore Old Ways

 Southern leaders proceeded to
rebuild their prewar world
 Many states limited the right to vote
to white men.
 All of the states instituted black
codes – laws that sought to limit the
rights of African Americans and
keep them as landless workers
 The codes required African
Americans to work only in a limited
number of occupations, most often
servants or farm laborers.
Southerners Aim to
Restore Old Ways (cont.)

 Some states prohibited African
Americans from owning land,
and all set up vagrancy laws
 Vagrancy laws stipulated that
any black person who did not
have a job could be arrested and
sent to work as prison labor.
 Even though the South remained
under Union military
occupation, white southerners
openly used violence and
intimidation to enforce black
codes.
Congress Fights Back

 Both Radical and moderate
Republicans were mad about the
South’s disregard of the spirit of
Reconstruction
 Southern representatives were
denied their seats by Congress in
Washington D.C.
 Congress also created a committee
to investigate the treatment of
former slaves
Political Situation
Grew Worse

 While the Radicals claimed that
federal intervention was needed
to advance African Americans
rights, President Johnson accused
them of trying to “Africanize the
southern half of our country.”
 When Congress passed a bill to
allow the Freedmen’s Bureau to
continue its work and provide it
authority to punish officials who
failed to extend rights to African
Americans, President Johnson
vetoed it.
Civil Rights Act of 1866

 Created to try to overturn the
black codes
 Created federal guarantees of
civil rights and superseded any
state laws that limited them.
 Once again, Johnson used his
veto power to block the law.
 Johnson was now openly defying
Congress
Congressional
Reconstruction

 As violence against African Americans
increased in the South, both moderate
and Radical Republicans blamed it on
the lawlessness and leniency of
Johnson’s policies
 Congress then did something
unprecedented
 For the first time ever, Congress passed
major legislation over a President’s veto
with the required two-thirds majority
vote.
 The Civil Rights Act of 1866 became a
law.
Radical Reconstruction
Begins

 With their strength in Congress,
Radical and moderate Republicans
spent nearly a year developing a
Reconstruction program
 They passed the 14th Amendment,
which guaranteed equality under the
law for all citizens.
 Under this Amendment, any state that
refused to allow black people to vote
would risk losing seats in the House of
Representatives, and it counteracted
the presidential pardons by barring
Confederate officials from holding
federal or state offices
Radical Reconstruction
Begins (cont.)

 Congress again passed
each state could create their
legislation over Johnson’s
new state government and
veto with the ratification of
receive congressional
the Military Reconstruction
recognition.
Act of 1867.
 In each state, voters were to
 This act divided the 10
elect delegates to write a new
southern states that had yet to constitution that guaranteed
be readmitted into the Union
suffrage for African American
into 5 military districts
men.
governed by former Union
 Once a state ratified the 14th
generals. (map)
Amendment, it would then
 The act also outlined how
re-enter the Union.
Congress Impeaches the
President

 The power struggle between the President





and Congress reached a crisis in 1867.
To limit the President’s power, Congress
passed the Tenure of Office Act. Under its
terms, the President needed Senate
approval to remove certain officials from
office…
After the incident, the House voted to
impeach Johnson.
The trial in the Senate ended with one
vote short of the required two-thirds
majority
During the trial, Johnson promised to
enforce the Reconstruction Acts.
In his remaining time in office, he kept
that promise.
th
15
Amendment

 In 1868, former Union general, Ulysses

Ulysses S. Grant



S. Grant was elected President
In 1869, Congress passed the 15th
Amendment which forbid any state
from denying suffrage on the grounds
of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.
Unlike before, this guarantee applied to
northern and southern states
Both the 14th and 15th Amendments
were ratified by 1870, but contained
loopholes for evasion.
States could still impose voting
regulations based on literacy and
property qualifications which still
would exclude most African Americans.
Questions

 Did southerners of various social classes experience war differently?
 Why did the federal government have difficulty in formulating its
Reconstruction policies?
 How did the South’s share of the nation’s wealth change from 1860 to
1870?
 How did the Radical Republicans‘ plans for Reconstruction differ
from Lincoln’s and Johnson’s?
 What made Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, and their followers
radical?
 What was Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan?
 How did the Wade-Davis Bill differ from the Ten Percent Plan?
 Why did Lincoln support the Freedmen’s Bureau while rejecting
other initiatives of the Radical Republicans?
Questions

 When was Lincoln assassinated and who succeeded him as
President?
 How did the southern states try to reestablish conditions before
the war?
 How did Johnson’s attitude toward African Americans affect
his approach to Reconstruction?
 How did the 14th Amendment penalize states that refused to
allow citizens the right to vote?
Section 2: Reconstruction in
the South

 Almost 1500 black men – some born free and some freed slaves
helped bring the Republican Party to the South
 New black citizens served the South as school superintendents,
sheriffs, mayors, coroners, police chiefs, and state representatives
 6 served as lieutenant governors
 2 state legislatures (MS, SC) had black Speakers of the House
 Between 1870 & 1877 – 2 African American senators and 14 African
American congressmen served in the U.S. Congress.
 Millions of southern African Americans were now voters.
Reconstruction in the South

 Since the Radical Republicans




required a loyalty oath, many
white southerners were now not
eligible to vote
Many chose to stay away from the
elections
Black men lined up to use their
new right of suffrage
By 1868, many southern states had
both black officials and a strong
Republican Party
SC (the state that started the Civil
War) became the one state where a
black majority ruled the legislature
Scalawags & Carpetbaggers

 Scalawags – a white Southerner
who supported Republican policy
during Reconstruction, often for
personal gain. (?)
 Found allies in northern white or
black men who relocated in the
South
 Many southern whites resented
this “invasion” of people seeking
opportunity
 Southerners called these men
carpetbaggers after the cheap
carpet suitcases they carried
Opportunities

 New land to be purchased
 New career opportunities
 Comparable to “Westward
Expansion”
 Offered northern women (white
and black) opportunities in
medical facilities, orphanages,
and other relief agencies
 Women also participated in the
shaping of a public school
system
Schools System

 Public schools grew slowly
 Only half of the southern children
attended by the end of the 1870s
 Expensive
 Southerners opted for segregation –
operating two school systems
severely strained the economy
 Radical Republicans suggested
integration – unpopular with most
Republicans
 Considered a major Reconstruction
success
South’s Challenges

 Many southerners remained illiterate
 Quality of medical care, housing, and economic production
was far behind the North
 Legal protection for blacks was limited
 Racial violence remained a problem
Across the Country

 New reality – political offices were now a road to wealth and
power
 People everywhere were willing to bribe politicians in order to
gain access to things like loans or contracts
 Developing railroads attracted corruption
Railroads

 Building railroads had two big
advantages – created jobs and
provided a means to transport
goods to expanded markets
 Many states gave public land or
loans to the railroad speculators
 Southern leaders found that a
number of their loans were stolen or
mismanaged
 Fewer resources and less expertise
than Northern counterparts
 North defaulted also though
Freed People Build
New Communities

 “As long as the shadow of the
great house falls across you, you
ain’t going to feel like no free man
and no free woman.”
 For the first time, black men and
women could legalize and
celebrate their marriages, create
homes for their families, and
choose where they would live.
 Still limited by black codes on
where they could work
Freed People Build
New Communities

 Many blacks headed south where
they could develop churches and
schools
 Hoped to find work
 Skilled men as carpenters,
blacksmiths, cooks, servants
 Women often worked in childcare or
domestic work
 Still sometimes settled for
substandard housing and poor food
in exchange for hard labor
 If settled in rural areas – worked in
lumbering, railroad building or
farming for whites or blacks and
were usually also poor
Schools

 Freed people quickly realized the
value of learning to read and do
basic arithmetic
 Freedmen’s Bureau schools filled
quickly – 150,000 students (adult &
children) by 1866 and quickly grew
 FB also aided black colleges and
encouraged churches and
organizations to support schools
 Taught basics and skills like health,
nutrition, and how to look for a job
Churches

 Black church was an important
component of education
 Established throughout the South
and often served as schools,
community centers, employment
agencies, and political rallying
sites
 Helped develop black leaders
 A number of black politicians
began their careers as ministers
Remaking the
Southern Economy

 Many of South’s problems resulted from an uneven
distribution of land
 Ag region – wealth determined by landownership
 1860, wealthiest 5% owned almost half of Region’s land
 Before war had a large number of white citizens with no
land
 Postwar – many white and black people were now
competing for land and jobs
Systems For
Sharing the Land

 Large land owners had little
or no money to purchase
supplies or pay workers
 Many southerners adopted
one of three arrangements
 Sharecropping
 Share-tenancy
 Tenant-farming
Sharecropping

 Could be done without cash
 Helped most of the South’s black and
white poor
 How it worked: a landowner dictated
the crop and provided the sharecropper
with a place to live, seeds and tools in
return for a “share” of the harvested
crop
 Landowners often bought these supplies
on credit with high interest and this cost
was passed down to the sharecropper
 Sharecroppers were in debt to
landowners; landowners were in debt to
supplier
Share-tenancy

 Could be done without cash
 Helped most of the South’s black and
white poor
 Similar to sharecropping
 The farmworker chose what crop he
would plant and bought his own
supplies
 The farmworker then gave a share of
the crop to the landowner
 Farmworker had more control and
could grow food for his family
 Able to save more money
Tenant Farming

 Most independent arrangement
for farmer and landowner
 The tenant paid cash rent to
landowner and then was free to
choose and manage his own crop
 Free to choose where he could live
 Only viable for a farmer who had
good money management skills
Violence

 KKK – Formed in TN in
1866, mostly in the South
 Racial violence eventually
spread through the north
and south
 Arkansas – legislators were
murdered
 New Orleans – riots
Enforcement Acts

 Congressional response to violence
 Also known as KKK Acts
 1870 & 1871
 Made it a federal offense to interfere with a citizens right to
vote
 Congress held hearing asking black politicians and other
observers to describe the situation in the south
 But also present in north
 Hundreds were indicted because of acts and violence declined
Questions

 What were the immediate effects of Reconstruction?
 How did southern literacy rates benefit carpetbaggers?
 How did Reconstruction affect women?
 How did the school system in the south represent the successes
and failures of Reconstruction?
 Why might the south have less financial expertise than the
north?
 What new groups were active in politics under Republican
government?
 How did the South's African American population change after
the war?
Questions

 What institutions helped promote education in African
American communities?
 Why were schools and churches important to freed people?
 What was the distribution of land in the south?
 Which of the three systems for sharing land described offered
the most independent arrangement for the farmer and
landowner?
 When and where did the white southerners organize the Ku
Klux Klan?
 How did the federal government respond to the acts that the
Klan committed?
End of Reconstruction

 Northerners came to realize what
many in the South already knew –
rebuilding the politics, economy,
and society of the South would not
be easy or happen quickly
 Focus had been on the North and
South for nearly 2 decades
 New issues now needed attention
 European Immigration
 Corruption in politics
 Growth of Industry
Corruption in Grant’s
Administration

Popular war hero –
disappointing President
Radical Republican
Promised to take a strong
stand against the southern
resistance to
Reconstruction
His ability to lead was
overshadowed by scandal
Corruption in Grant’s
Administration

 He gave high-level advisory
positions to untrustworthy friends
and acquaintances who used their
positions to line their own pockets
 VP was investigated and
implicated in a scheme to steal
profits from Union Pacific
Railroads
 Grant ran for re-election in 1872
and easily won
 Not long after, greed surrounded
American politics
Corruption and Scandal

 Now scandal involved Grant’s
private secretary, the Secretary of
War, and member of Congress –
Grant ignored
 Public approval plummeted
 Local scandals also came to light
 Most notorious – NYC Democrats
led by Senator William “Boss”
Tweed – “Tweed Ring” plundered
millions of $$ from the city’s
treasury
Economic Panic

 Fall 1873 – one of nation’s most
prominent banks failed b/c of
overextending loans to the
railroad industry
 Across country – bank failures, job
losses, uncertain economy
 Led to Depression
Northern Support
Evaporates

 Voters and politicians (outside the
South) were focused on more
pressing issues – reforming politics
and the economy
 The continued costs of military
operations in the South had people
worried
 Beginning in 1871 – troops were
withdrawn from the South
 1872 – the Freedmen’s Bureau was
dissolved
 Northern prejudice reemerged
Supreme Court
Decisions

 13 , 14 , & 15 Amendments – was left to the courts to
th
th
th
interpret how they would be applied
 Cases:
 Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) – restricted the 14th – stated that
though a citizen had national rights, the federal government
would have no control over how a state chose to define these
rights.
 United States v. Cruikshank – white mob in Louisiana killed a
large group of African Americans at a political rally, court ruled
that the due process and equal protection clauses of 14th
protected citizens from action of the state and not action of other
citizens
Southern Whites
Gain Power

 Southern Democrats came up with
a subtle strategy for suppressing
black rights
 Coalition to return the South to
the white men
 Ultimately agreed that racial
segregation should be the rule of
the new South
 Called Redeemers – described as
being designed to redeem or
reclaim the South from northern
domination
Southern Whites
Gain Power

 By 1870, VA, NC, TN had
reinstated wealthy white
southern men as governors
 Also sent Confederate leaders
back to the United States
Congress
 Other states soon followed
 1874 congressional elections –
Republicans lost their control
over the House of
Representatives
Reconstruction
Officially Ends
 Election of 1876 –
Republican Rutherford B.
Hayes and Democrat
Samuel Tilden
 Tilden won 51% of popular
vote and carried all
southern states
 Republicans demanded a
recount and found mistakes
– Hayes won by 1 electoral
vote
 Democrats then protested
the results
Compromise of 1877

 Rutherford B. Hayes would become the next president
 Under the terms of this agreement, the Democrats agreed to accept
the Republican presidential electors provided the Republicans would
agree to the following:
 To withdraw federal soldiers from their remaining positions in the
South
 To enact federal legislation that would spur industrialization in the
South
 To appoint Democrats to patronage positions in the South
 To appoint a Democrat to the president’s cabinet.
 Once the parties had agreed to these terms, the Electoral Commission
performed its duty. The Hayes’ electors were selected and Hayes was
named president two days before the inauguration.
Women’s Suffrage

 AWSA
 NWSA
 Some people thought that the
15th Amendment could not be
ratified if women’s suffrage was
included
 Women were supportive of
African American rights
 Created because of the
disagreements about the 15th
Amendment
 Later – Colored Women’s
Progressive Franchise association
Republican Party After
Reconstruction
 Originally “the party of
Lincoln, that freed
slaves”
 After Reconstruction –
party of big business
 Still remains today

State & Federal
Power
 American voters and
representatives opted
for a balance of power
between the state and
federal governments
Evaluating
Reconstruction

Successes
Failures
 Introduction of school system  Still bitterness between the
 Modernized railroads and
North and South
other ports (federally funded)  No unifying desire to
 South’s economy expanded
provide lasting protection
from one crop (cotton) to a
for freed people
range of agricultural and
industrial products
 Raised awareness for African
Americans about rights
 Gave value and meaning of
the right to vote