Reconstruction – Program put in place by the federal government to repair damage to the South and restore the southern states to the Union.
Simply speaking, it’s putting the pieces of the puzzle back together.
How will southern states rejoin the Union?
How will the southern economy be rebuilt?
What rights will African Americans have?

“Ten Percent Plan” took a loyalty oath to the Union, the state could set up a new government.
I am even willing to consider the following:
1.
Grant pardons for former Confederates
2.
Compensate them for lost property
3.
Not requiring a guarantee of social or political equality for African Americans
If the state’s constitution abolished slavery and provided education for
African Americans, the state would regain representation in Congress.

Lincoln’s Plan
“Ten Percent Plan” party who wanted to punish the South as well as having full rights for African Americans.
Led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, these “Radical Republicans” in Congress insisted that the Confederates had committed high crimes.
The Radical Republicans passed the
Wade-Davis Bill that required:
1.
A majority of a state’s prewar voters swear loyalty to the Union
2. Guarantees of African American equality

The Freedmen’s Bureau’s goal was to provide food, clothing, healthcare, and education for both black and white refugees in the South.
The Bureau also helped to:
1.
Reunite families that had been separated by slavery and war.
Historical Significance: Established the precedent that black citizens had legal rights.
2.
Negotiate fair labor contracts between former slaves and white landowners.
3.
Helped represent
African Americans in courts.

Johnson’s
Plan
V.P. Andrew Johnson became President after
Lincoln’s death. He intended to follow the broad outline of Lincoln’s Plan.
Johnson’s Plan included:
1. States were to withdraw secession.
2. Swear allegiance to the Union.
3. Ratify the 13 th
Amendment & draft a constitution that abolished slavery.
What does
Johnson mean by this quote?
Historical Significance: He did not want A.A. to have the right to vote
. He supported states’ rights over federal regulations, therefore, allowing states to be able to limit the freedoms of former slaves.

Black Codes – Similar to
As southern states were restored to the Union under President
Slave Codes, which restricted the freedom of movement and
Johnson’s plan, they began to enact black codes.
limited African American rights as free people.
The Black Codes established virtual slavery with provisions such as:
• Curfews : Generally, black people could not gather after sunset.
• Vagrancy Laws : Freedmen convicted of vagrancy
– that is, not working – could be fined, whipped, or sold for a year’s labor.
• Labor Contracts : Freedmen had to sign agreements in January for a year of work. Those who quit in the middle of a contract often lost all the wages they had earned.
• Land Restrictions : Freed people could rent land or homes only in rural areas. This restriction forced them to live on plantations.

Johnson’s
Plan
The Radical Republicans that controlled Congress did not approve of Johnson’s lack of support for
African Americans’ rights.
Congress responds by:
• Expansion of Freedmen’s Bureau to include punishing state officials who fail to extend civil rights to African
Americans.
• Civil Rights Act of 1866 – Ending of
Black Codes by creating a federal guarantee of civil rights to African
Americans.
Andrew Johnson would use his veto power to block these laws. Johnson was now openly defying Congress.

Congress believed Johnson was working against Reconstruction and overrode his veto.
Congress did something unprecedented. With the required
2/3rds majority, it passed major legislation over a President’s veto.
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 became law.
Congress begins its Reconstruction
Plan, but first they need to take care of something…
President Johnson is impeached &
14 th Amendment passed. (Citizenship)
An inflexible President, 1866: Republican cartoon shows Johnson knocking Blacks of the
Freedmen’s Bureau by his veto.

Impeachment
– Accusation against a public official of wrongdoing in office. Bringing charges against the President.
Involves two steps…
st
: U.S. House of Representatives hold hearings to decide if there are crimes committed. They then vote on the charges and if there is a majority, then, charges are brought against the President.
nd
: U.S. Senate becomes a courtroom.
The President is tried for the charges brought against him. The Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court is the judge. Once trial is completed,
Senators must vote to remove President with a
2/3rds vote.

• Brought up on 11 charges of high crimes and misdemeanors.
•
Tenure in Office Act:
Law Congress passed.
President can’t fire any of his cabinet members without consulting
Congress.
• Fired Edwin Stanton
• Missed being removed from office by 1 vote.
• The Presidency would suffer as a result of this failed impeachment.
• President would be more a figurehead.
• Saved the separation of powers of
3 branches of government.

Congressional
Reconstruction
Congress overturned Johnson’s vetoes and enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the
Freedmen’s Bureau.
Congress passed the 14 th Amendment, which guaranteed equality under the law for all citizens.
Congress passed the
Reconstruction Act of 1867, which divided the 10 southern states into 5
military districts governed by former Union generals.
The South would be reconstructed under the
Radical Republicans plan.

African Americans help republican candidate and former Union general, Ulysses S. Grant elected
President.
Republican leaders now had another reason for securing a constitutional amendment that would guarantee black suffrage throughout the nation.
In 1869, Congress passed the 15 th
Amendment forbidding any state from denying suffrage on the grounds of race.

13th Amendment
Abolished slavery
(1865)
14th Amendment
Provided citizenship & equal protection under the law. (1868)
15th Amendment
Provided the right to vote for all men which included white and black men. (1870)
Giving the Black man the right to vote was truly revolutionary……..
A victory for democracy!

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Republicans dominated their newly established state governments.
90% of all African Americans voted when they had the opportunity .
Carpetbaggers –
Northerners who came
South after Civil War. Voted
Republican; viewed negatively by southerners; held high offices.
Scalawags – White southerners who joined blacks and carpetbaggers in the Republican Party.
Viewed as traitors by most southerners.

Republicans dominated their newly established state governments.
90% of all African Americans voted when they had the opportunity .
Carpetbaggers –
Northerners who came
South after Civil War. Voted
Republican; viewed negatively by southerners; held high offices.
Scalawags – White southerners who joined blacks and carpetbaggers in
Republican Party. Viewed as traitors by most southerners.

Who was
Hiram Revels?
Hiram Revels was the first African American elected to the Senate.
In 1870 he replaced the seat vacated by
Jefferson Davis.

40 Acres & awarded to freed slaves after the a Mule
Civil War by Gen. Sherman.
President Johnson ordered that the original landowners be allowed to reclaim their land and evict the former slaves.
Congress passed the 1866 Southern
Homestead Act. This set aside 44 million acres in the South for freed blacks, but the land was swampy and unsuitable for farming.

Farming in the South created a cycle of debt, which began with sharecropping.
At harvest time, each worker gave a share, usually half, to the landowner.
In theory, “croppers” who saved a little and bought their own tools could drive a better bargain with landowners.
Sharecropping – A system in which landowners give farm workers land, seed, and tools in return for a part of the crops they raise.
They might even be able to become a tenant farmer.
Tenant Farming – A system in which farm workers supply their own tools and rent farmland for cash.

During the war, the demand for Southern cotton had begun to drop as other countries increased their production.
As a result, prices plummeted after the war.
1869 17 cents per pound
1879 8 cents per pound
You decide! What would you do as a southern farmer?
Southern planters tried to make up for the lower prices by growing more cotton – an oversupply that only drove down prices even further.
What should’ve the farmers tried instead of growing more cotton?

Some bitter Southern whites relied on violence to keep African Americans from participating in politics.
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was founded as a social club for Confederate veterans.
Soon the Klan turned into a violent organization.
The KKK practiced domestic terrorism.
Its major goal was to restore white supremacy and prevent African Americans from exercising their political rights.

NC Senator
John Stephens
Stephens, a white republican, stated that
3,000 A.A. voters had supported him and he would not abandon them.
Stephens was assassinated by the KKK in 1870.
KKK mask from the
Reconstruction Era –
N.C. Museum of
History

Grant’s strength, however, were those of a military leader, not those of a politician or government leader.
Scandals and corruption damaged Grant’s administration, which diverted attention away from the conditions in the south.
Among the most notorious scandals were: i.
Credit Mobilier Scandal : Railroad officials impoverished the railroad, then bribed members of Congress to block any investigation. ii.
“Whiskey Ring”
: Internal Revenue collectors accepted bribes from whiskey distillers who wanted to avoid paying taxes on their product.

As the evidence mounted, there was increasing disgust with the blatant corruption in Grant’s administration.
Grant did not seek reelection in 1876.
See you all later. I need to go back in time and fight in the Civil War. I’m not too good at this new job.

Election of 1876
Tilden (D) v. Hayes (R)
Tilden won the popular vote, but needed one more electoral vote to win the presidency.
A deal was made called the
Compromise of 1877.
Democrats Get
1.
Withdraw remaining federal troops from the South, thus ending Reconstruction.
2.
Name a southerner to his cabinet.
3.
Support federal spending on internal improvements in the
South.
Republicans Get
1.
Hayes becomes President.
Historical Significance:
Democrats now had Home Rule – the ability to run state governments without federal intervention.

These so called redeemers set out to rescue the South from what they viewed as a decade of mismanagement by northerners, republicans, and African Americans.
The withdrawal of federal troops enabled white southerners to eliminate any political advances
A.A. had made during
Reconstruction.
Various methods were used to curb the rights of African
Americans, and by
1900, their civil rights had been sharply limited.

1.
Union is restored.
2.
A.A. gain citizenship & voting rights.
3.
South’s economy and infrastructure are improved.
4.
Southern states est. public school system.
5.
K.K.K. & other groups terrorize A.A.
6.
Sharecropping system takes hold in the South.