Reconstructing
America
1865-1877
Reconstruction
What will be done when the war is over?
Reconstruction - The period following the
Civil War in which Congress passed laws
designed to rebuild the country and bring the
Southern states back into the Union.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
Historical Look at Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address
Who Should Control Reconstruction—
Congress or President?
The Ten Percent Plan
Wade-Davis Bill
Pocket Veto
After the War
• South lay in ruins
(destroyed)
• Nearly 4 million
freedman (freed
slaves) needed
food, clothing, &
jobs
• President Lincoln
planned for
Reconstruction,
the rebuilding of
the South
President Abraham Lincoln
• Lincoln wanted the country to come back together
peacefully.
• Lincoln’s plan was created in 1863, about two years
before the end of the war.
• At the time of his death, the war was just ending and he
was not able to put his ideas into practice.
The Ten Percent Plan
• 10% of voters in the seceded states must swear loyalty
under oath to the Union.
• The seceded states must abolish slavery.
“Radical” Republicans in
Congress
• Wanted to be more strict with the States that had rebelled.
• Wanted a State to re-enter through a slower admission
process.
Wade-Davis Bill
• The majority of white men from formerly Confederate states
must swear loyalty to the United States.(Ironclad Oath)
• The seceded states must abolish slavery.
• Former Confederate soldiers or volunteers cannot hold office
or vote.
Wade-Davis Bill
• Ironclad oath- Required that the majority
in each Southern state had to take the
oath to the effect they had never in the
past supported the Confederacy, By
requiring officials and voters to swear they
had never supported the Confederacy, it
limited the political activity of exConfederate soldiers and supporters.
• Lincoln blocked this bill with a pocket veto.
April 14, 1865
Southern Whites and the
Problem of Defeat
• Assassination of Lincoln shocked the country in April 1865
• Some southerners realized this hurt their interest, others celebrated
• Several thousand southerners relocated to Brazil
• Most wanted easy readmission and to maintain authority over freed people
• Southern men struggled to explain defeat, failure of paternalism
• White women gave up wartime roles, advocated traditional gender
relationships
Emancipation in Comparative
Perspective
• Both Jamaica and South Africa championed
racial supremacy after sudden emancipation
• White elites in Jamaica abdicated local control
to London
• South African white elites retained economic
and social power, while allowing black voting
with property restrictions
• Rural whites worked with elites to establish
white supremacy
Shaping Reconstruction
1865-1868
President Andrew Johnson
• Wanted to be strict with the States that had rebelled,
but ended up making it relatively easy for them.
• Allowed for segregation of the races.
Johnson Plan
• The majority of white men from formerly Confederate
states must swear loyalty to the United States.
• Formerly Confederate states must ratify the 13th
Amendment.
• Former Confederate officials may hold office and vote.
Andrew Johnson’s
Reconstruction
•
Johnson allowed ‘self-reconstruction’
•
Repudiate secession and state debts
•
Ratify the Thirteenth Amendment
outlawing slavery
•
Extended amnesty to high ranking
Confederates
•
Southern states adopted “Black codes”
•
Johnson’s reconstruction angered
northerners, Congress
The Fight over Reconstruction
• Southern States met Johnson’s demands
• Republicans in Congress outraged because African Americans were not
allowed to vote & former Confederate Leaders were elected to Congress
• Republican Congress refused to seat new southern representatives
• Southern economy was devastated
• Freedmen’s Bureau was controversial
• Republicans sought to build a coalition of loyal voters
• Johnson vetoed the 1866 Civil Rights Bill, pushed moderate Republicans
closer to the radicals
The Civil War Amendments and
American Citizenship
• Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery & involuntary
servitude in the United States. (After the war most southern
states quickly ratified this…then passed Black Codes)
• Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed citizenship, equality
before the law. (Did not specifically protect the rights of
freed people)
• Fifteenth Amendment prohibited denying the right to vote
based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Radical Republicans: Thaddeus Stevens,
Charles Sumner, Ben Wade
Radical Republicans
• Radical republicans, often abolitionists, represented a
large part of Congress.
• These Congressmen wanted to be strict with the States
that had rebelled.
• They also wanted to protect the newly freed slaves.
Reconstruction Act
• Formerly Confederate
governments.
• Formerly Confederate
constitutions.
• Formerly Confederate
• Formerly Confederate
vote.
states must disband their state
states must write new state
states must ratify the 14th Amendment
states must allow African Americans to
Congressional Reconstruction
• Thaddeus Stevens led the radical Republicans
in Congress
• Wanted to subject the South to specific terms
before re-entry
• Protect freed people
• Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts
• Placed military governors in charge of southern
state
• Federal reconstruction took the vote away
from 10,000 to 15,000 white men who had
been Confederate officials or soldiers
President Andrew Johnson’s Senate trial
Thaddeus Stevens
• New York Times “Evil Genius of
the Republican Party”
• “The Old Commoner”
• Lawyer
• Dedicated Abolitionist
• Public Education
The South wasn’t interested…
• Elect ex-CSA leaders to Congress,
including Alexander Stephens
• Black Codes
• Race Riots
Black Codes
African American men who
were arrested for vagrancy
due to unemployment
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/civilwar/16/reconstruct
ion1.html
• Ways to control newly
freed African Americans
• Black Codes regulated
civil and legal rights,
from marriage to the
right to hold and sell
property
Sharecropping and Tenant
Farming
• Sharecropping – agreeing to
farm a portion of a white
landowners land in return for
housing and a share of the
crop.
• Tenant Farming – rented a
portion of the land from
white landowners and owned
the crops they grew.
Reconstruction in the South
1866-1876
Radicals on a Roll—March 2,
1867
• Military Reconstruction Act
• Command of the Army Act
• Tenure of Office Act
Military Reconstruction Act-1867
• Divided South into Military District
• Southern States—Tn. Excepted—would write new
constitutions w/ Universal Adult Male Suffrage
• States had to ratify 14th amendment
• Subsequent legislation gave Army power to register voters
and to disqualify “disloyal persons” from registering.
Military Districts Established by the Reconstruction Acts, 1867
Freedman’s Bureau
Freedman’s
Bureau was
created by
Congress and
established
March 1865
It gave food,
clothing, & other
kinds of help to
the freedman.
African American Life in the
Postwar South
• Churches and schools were at the heart of communities
• Public celebrations: Emancipation Day, Fourth of July
• Some leaders preached accommodation, some self-help
• Martin Delaney
•
Political organizations
•
The end of slavery did not create economic
equality
•
Sharecroppers
•
Cotton continued to dominate
Republican Governments in the
Postwar South
✤
Republican state gov’ts established in 1867-68 were fragile
• Black southerners: split between
middle class and former slaves
• White “carpetbaggers”: despised
by southerners
• Prewar Whigs and Unionists:
rarely interested in black voting
or civil rights
✤
White conservatives used corruption in the Republican Party,
white supremacy to retake state governments in the 1870s
Republican Party in the South
Relied on 3 groups during
reconstruction
• African Americans – right to
vote guaranteed by 15th
Amendment
• Scalawags – Southerners who
became Republicans
• Carpetbaggers – Northerner
Republicans who moved to the
South
Reconstruction Under Grant
• 18th President of the
United States and
served two terms
from March 4, 1869,
to March 4, 1877.
• In the 1872 election
he won by a landslide
against Horace
Greeley.
• Grant presided over
the last half of
Reconstruction.
Reconstruction Under Grant
• He supported amnesty (pardon) for Confederate leaders and
protection for the civil rights of African-Americans.
• He favored a limited number of troops to be stationed in the
South to protect rights of Southern blacks, and suppress the
violent tactics of the Ku Klux Klan.
• In 1869 and 1871, Grant signed bills promoting voting rights
and prosecuting Klan leaders.
• Panic of 1873- Promoted scores of smaller banks to close and
caused the stock market to plummet.
The End of Reconstruction
1877
The Collapse of Reconstruction
•
•
•
•
Anti-Black Violence
Election of 1876
Compromise of 1877
Indifference of the
North
Reconstruction Violence
• Anti-Black Violence-Goal was to prevent African Americans
from voting
• Birth of the Ku Klux Klan…organized in 1865
• Tried to deny African Americans any legitimate public role
in society
White violence became an important
part of politics in the South
Election of 1876
• Rutherford B. Hayes
(Republican) vs. Samuel
Tilden (Democrat)
• Tilden won the
popular vote, Hayes
won the electoral
college
• South upset and
disputed the election
President Rutherford Hayes
1876 Presidential Election, by State
Compromise of 1877 –
Agreement to settle the disputed
election
• Hayes (Republican) = president
• Republicans would end military
occupation of the South ended
• White Democrats took control of
southern state governments =
“Redemption”
• “Redemption”- the overthrow or
defeat of Radical Republicans
(white and black) by white
Democrats, marking the end of
the Reconstruction era in the
South.
Northern Weariness and
Northern Conservatism
• Federal gov’t support was necessary to keep
Republicans in power in the South
• Northern voters lost interest in southern
politics
• Colfax Massacre
• US v. Cruikshank
• Homestead Act
The End of Reconstruction
• Reconstruction ended after presidential
candidate Rutherford B. Hayes made a private
deal with southern politicians.
• After Reconstruction, a new industrial economy
began to emerge in the South.
• Southern whites pass new laws to deny African
Americans equal rights.
• Poll Taxes, Literacy Tests, & Grandfather Clauses
• Segregation, Jim Crow Laws, Lynching
• Civil Rights Movement (100 years later)
Legacies of Reconstruction
• Southern whites ended Reconstruction bitter against AfricanAmericans, the federal gov’t
• Unwillingness of the federal gov’t to enforce civil rights laws left
southern African Americans isolated
• Many Southerners refused to accept their defeat as divine
judgment and believed that God had spared the South for a
greater purpose; they came to view the war as The Lost Cause.
https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/video/part-six-legaciesreconstruction
Black Population of the United States, 1880