The Big Question
How should we re-build
the United States after
the Civil War? Should
the South be punished or
forgiven? How shall
freed slaves be treated?
Presidential Reconstruction
Lincoln was looking for “malice towards none”
Lincoln’s 10% Plan & the Wade-Davis Bill
• Pardon all Southerners, except leaders,
if they would swear an oath to the United
States
• As soon as 10% of the voters in a state
had taken the oath, the state was back in the
Union
• All states must ratify the 13th
Amendment (abolishing slavery)
Republicans didn’t like the plan and submitted
the Wade-Davis bill (50%); pocket-vetoed by
Lincoln
13th Amendment
 Ratified in December, 1865.
 Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the
United States or any place subject to
their jurisdiction.
 Congress shall have power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.
Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)
•
Established to deal with
problems of freedmen and
war refugees
• set up schools and
hospitals
• supposed to help
freedmen find jobs and
protect them from
exploitation
• Major influence:
EDUCATION
Freedmen’s Bureau Seen Through
Southern
Eyes
Plenty to
eat and
nothing to
do.
President Johnson’s Plan (10%+)
Johnson’s plan — Lincoln’s assassination brings Johnson to the
presidency (white supremacy)
•
similar to Lincoln’s
•
Southern States had to write new state constitutions that voided
secession and ratified the 13th Amendment
•
By the end of 1865, white Southerners had re-established all but
one of their state governments.
Additionally, the states had passed “Black codes” to ensure that the freed
slaves would remain socially separate and economically dominated -- ensure
a labor force for the plantations.
1. Disenfranchised certain leading Confederates.
EFFECTS?
2. Pardoned planter aristocrats brought them back
to political power to control state organizations.
3. Republicans were outraged that planter elite
were back in power in the South!
Black Codes and Sharecropping
Examples of Black Codes: forbid
African-Americans to gather after
sunset, carry arms, marry whites or
be idle or unemployed.
• Tenant Farmer -- rent land
from former plantation owners;
buy goods on credit until harvest
comes in
• Sharecropper -- uses land,
gets supplies and other goods from
landowner, gives landlord 1/3 of
crop, usually former master
Congressional Reconstruction
“Radical” Republicans (led by Charles Sumner and
Thaddeus Stevens) — The Northerners in
Congress, however, did not approve of Johnson’s
Reconstruction plan. Congress refused to
recognize the delegation from the Southern
states and would not let them have their seats.
The Radical Republicans believed that
•
Only Congress should have the power to re-admit
states
•
The South had seceded and be conquered and should
be treated as a conquered province
•
Lincoln was too lenient
•
They would lose political power to the South AND so
Congress took over reconstruction
All of these acts were passed over Johnson’s veto.
Some of the Radicals were truly trying to help blacks
achieve equal rights; some were just trying to use the
political power.
Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the
14th Ammendment
Civil Rights Act of 1866 — declared African-Americans to be citizens &
authorized Federal troops to enforce the law
14th Amendment — submitted 1866, ratified 1868; made the Civil Rights Act
constitutional
•
All persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens
•
They can not be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process
•
They are entitled to equal protection under the law
More Results of Reconstruction
Military Reconstruction Act of 1867— all southern states must be
“reconstructed” again
•
South divided into 5 military districts -- each under control of army
•
States MUST ratify the 14th Amendment, to rejoin the union
Tenure of Office Act and Impeachment — Radical attempt to get rid of
Johnson
•
Tenure of Office act — President must have the approval of Senate to fire
appointees
•
Johnson fired his Sec of war (Edwin Stanton) and House impeached him;
He was acquitted in the Senate by 1 vote
15th Amendment — ratified 1870
•
No citizen will be denied the right to vote (suffrage) on the basis of “race,
color or previous condition of servitude” (upsets women because it
excludes them)
Retreating from Reconstruction
African American Polititicians
• Blanche K. Bruce and Hiram Revels
• Accused of corruption and ignorance; a reason for white
southerners to take back over
Carpet-baggers and Scalawags
•
Carpet-baggers — Northerners who come south to “profit of
the misery of the south” -- buy up plantations. etc.
•
Scalawags -- Southerners who supported Radical
Reconstruction -- also profited
Ku Klux Klan — started by Nathan Bedford Forest, to intimidate
blacks and white republicans and maintain the pre-war social status
Retreating from Reconstruction
Hayes-Tilden Election (or Florida causes an election
problem) — (1876)
-Samuel Tilden (Democrat) and Rutherford B.
Hayes (Republican) ran for the presidency.
-Tilden won the popular vote but the electoral
votes were contested in three states (oddly
enough, the only three states who still had
Reconstruction governments). One of those
states was Florida!
Compromise of 1877 — Hayes would become president
and remove the federal troops from the South;
Reconstruction would be over; Hayes was referred to
as “his fraudulency”