CHAPTER 13
Reconstruction and the New South
SECTION 1
PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION
A. Old South Destroyed
Mass destruction on the South, many
buildings in ruins
2. Southern economy –
1.
Tens of thousands of Confederate
veterans looking for jobs and
4 million freed slaves were jobless and
homeless
a)
b)

“40 acres and a mule”
B. Lincoln and Reconstruction
What was Reconstruction?
1.
Plan to rebuild the former Confederate states
and reunite the nation

2.
Beginning of Reconstruction
Amnesty – Full pardon for a crime
a)

Lincoln would give amnesty to almost all
southerners who would swear allegiance to U.S.
10-Percent Plan (Lincoln’s Plan) – Would allow
states to rejoin the Union when 10 percent of its
residents swore loyalty to U.S.
b)

Said nothing about African American rights
except for outlawing slavery
B. Lincoln and Reconstruction
c)
Wade-Davis Bill (July 1864) –
 Congress’ response to 10-Percent Plan
 States readmitted when a majority of white males
in each state took loyalty oath
 Called for Confederate states to abolish slavery
 States to form new governments after readmitted
 Vetoed by Lincoln – Why?
 “With
malice toward none, with charity for all… let us
strive on… to bind up the nation’s wounds… to do all which
may achieve… a just and lasting peace.” – Abraham
Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address – March 4, 1865
B. Lincoln and Reconstruction
3. Lincoln’s assassination
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
John Wilkes Booth
April 14, 1865
Watching British play “Our
American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre
Died the next morning
Conspiracy – Johnson, Seward and
Stanton also targeted
Booth killed two weeks later
Country mourns Lincoln’s death
Why did Booth do it? Reaction?
C. Johnson and Reconstruction
1. The New President – Andrew Johnson –
a)
b)
Democrat, former slaveholder and senator from
Tennessee
Thought he would appeal to North and South
2. Immediately proved unpopular – racist,
wouldn’t compromise
3. May 1865 – Johnson gives complete pardon to
almost all former Confederates

Would leave out more ex-Rebels than Lincoln
C. Johnson and Reconstruction
4. Johnson’s readmission plan – much more lenient
than people were expecting
a)
b)
c)

Each state had to nullify its acts of secession
Refuse to pay Confederate government debts
States had to abolish slavery
No punishment, few restrictions
5. Confederate leaders take charge in the South
6. New state constitutions continued to discriminate
against blacks
7. 13th Amendment (Jan. 1865) –
CHAPTER 13
Reconstruction and the New South
SECTION 2
CONGRESSIONAL
RECONSTRUCTION
A. Moderates vs. Radicals
Moderates (most Republicans)
1.
a)
b)
c)
Wanted to reunite the Union
Keep former Confederates out of government
Favored giving African Americans some rights but not the
right to vote
2. Radical Republicans
a) Wanted to punish the South for the Civil War
b) Give African Americans equal rights, including the right
to vote
c) Also wanted to give land to former slaves
d) Frederick Douglass –
B. Congress vs. Johnson
Race Riots –Memphis and New Orleans
1.
a)
b)
Furthered highlighted the divide between whites and blacks
Moderates and Radical Republicans to join forces after
2. Freedmen’s Bureau
a)
b)
Created to aid the millions of former slaves left homeless and
hungry by the war
Gave out food and clothing, served as an employment agency,
set up hospitals and ran schools
Originally approved for one year, Johnson vetoed the extension
saying “it was never intended that the Freedmen should be fed,
clothed, educated and sheltered by the United States”
 Veto was overridden by Congress

C. Congress vs. Johnson
1. Civil Rights Act of 1866 (1st Civil Rights law)
a)
b)
c)
Said everyone born in the U.S. was a citizen
with full civil rights
Did not guarantee voting rights
Vetoed by Johnson, but overridden by Congress
C. Congress vs. Johnson
2. 14th Amendment (June 1866)
a) Required states to give equal citizenship to African
Americans and all people “born or naturalized in the
United States”
b) Denied states the right to deprive anyone of “life, liberty
or property without due process of the law”
c) Promised all citizens “equal protection of the laws”
D. Radicals Come to Power
1. Election of 1866 and Reconstruction Acts
a)
b)
c)
d)
Johnson called Radicals traitors
People voted overwhelmingly Republican
Radicals took control of Reconstruction
Reconstruction Acts of 1867 –




Ex-Confederate officials and army officers couldn’t vote
States couldn’t be readmitted until the 14th Amendment
was ratified and showed that African Americans had the
right to vote
Blacks right to vote, 14th and 15th Amendments
Divided the former Confederate states into five military
districts, new state Constitutions approved by Congress
E. Presidential Impeachment
Relationship btw Johnson and Congress bad
2. Tenure of Office Act (1867) –
1.

Required Senate OK before President could fire a Cabinet
member
3. February 1868 – Johnson fires Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton without Senate approval
4. House impeaches Johnson

Charged with violating the Tenure of Office Act, making
“scandalous” speeches and bringing Congress into “disgrace”
5. Result – Johnson acquitted by only one vote
despite weak case (35-19 in favor of conviction)
Key: Red = both senators voting to acquit; Orange = senators split 1-1;
Yellow = both senators voting to convict; Gray = unrepresented in the Senate in 1868;
White = states were not yet admitted.
F. More Issues
1. Radical Republicans too radical
2. Election of 1868
a)
b)
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (R) vs. N.Y. Gov. Horatio Seymour (D)
Result – Grant beats Seymour in popular vote, 214-80 in
electoral vote
3. 15th Amendment


What did it say?
Citizens could not be denied right to vote


“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of
race, color or previous condition of servitude”
What groups were not included?
CHAPTER 13
Reconstruction and the New South
SECTION 3
RECONSTRUCTION IN THE
SOUTH
A. African American Activism
After the passage of Congressional
Reconstruction, African Americans hoped for
further equality
2. Politics
1.
a)
b)
African American delegates made up the largest
percentage of Republicans in the South
Hiram Revels – elected to U.S. Senate in Mississippi to
fill Jefferson Davis’ seat, first African American
 More
than 600 African Americans elected to state
legislatures, 16 to Congress
B. Reconstruction Govt.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Carpetbaggers – insult given to northern
Republicans who moved to the South
Scalawags – insult given to southern whites
who supported the Union during the Civil
War and now supported Reconstruction
Republican alliance – supporters of
Reconstruction who wanted to take control
from rich planters and rebuild the South
What do you think was the bigger insult?
Carpetbagger or scalawag?
C. Ku Klux Klan
1. Greek for “Circle” and Scots-
Gaelic “Brothers”
2. Secret group formed to prevent
African Americans from voting
3. Nathan Bedford Forrest – “Grand
Wizard”
a)
b)
Klan tactics – murder, assault,
harassment, burning houses, churches,
schools, stealing cattle
Forrest resigns in 1869 after KKK gets too
violent
C. Ku Klux Klan
4. Steps against the Klan
a)
b)
c)
d)
African Americans started standing up to
Klansmen and even burned their barns
Enforcement Acts (1870-71) – empowered the
federal government to combat terrorism with
military force and to prosecute guilty individuals
Democrats called them the Force Acts and said
they threatened individual freedom
Overall result
D. Violence - lynching
1. Illegal seizure and
execution of a
suspected
troublemaker or
criminal
2. Often the victims
were just someone
who was in the
wrong place at the
wrong time
D. Lynchings
•Public and
sadistic murders
•1882-1968 –
4,730
•3,440 Black men
and women
•Intimidation –
keep freedmen
“in their place”
E. Reconstruction Changes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Government involvement led to a decline in KKK
violence
Panic of 1873 – severe depression
Panic means the end of the Republican Alliance
Thousands of immigrants joined the Democratic
party
Civil Rights Act of 1875 – made it illegal for
businesses that served the public such as hotel and
trains to discriminate against African Americans
Redeemers – Democratic supporters of whitecontrolled government, used violent tactics
E. Reconstruction Changes
7. Election of 1876
a) Samuel Tilden (D-NY) vs. Rutherford B. Hayes (R-OH)
b) Result –
 Tilden
beat Hayes by 250,000 in popular vote
 Results in four states were disputed (3 were Southern states
with split governments)
 A commission gave the election to Hayes by one electoral vote
c)
Compromise of 1877 –
 Democrats
accepted Hayes as President in return for
Republicans agreeing to pull remaining troops out of South
d)
Redeemers finished off their takeover of Southern
government
CHAPTER 13
Reconstruction and the New South
SECTION 4
THE NEW SOUTH
A. Changing Economies
Sharecropping
1.
a)
b)
c)
d)
Planters faced labor shortages, former slaves needed jobs
What was sharecropping?
 System where a farmer worked a section of land in
return for a share of the crop, shelter and tools
Problem for sharecroppers – No income during the year
until harvest time, keeps them in a cycle of debt
Effect of sharecropping – No way out of poverty for
sharecroppers, merchants turn huge profit
A. Changing Economies
2. Industrial Growth
1. New South – belief that the South should manufacture
its own goods to get out of poverty
2. Projects –
 Build
factories, ironworks, textile mills and other businesses
 Railroads were rebuilt and integrated with the North
3.
Effects –
 Factory
owners and investors were the only ones to benefit
 Industrial workers worked for lower wages than those in
North and were almost all white
 Some workers were stuck in same cycle of debt as
sharecroppers
B. Black Codes
What were they? Laws passed after the Civil War
that limited African Americans from achieving
social, political and economic equality
2. Examples
3. Re-established white control over African
American labor
4. Reaction
1.
Today’s Essential Question
What were Jim Crow laws
and how did they affect
America?
C. Voting Restrictions
1. Poll tax
2. Property qualifications
3. Literacy test
4. Grandfather clause – groups exempted
from a law if they met certain conditions
before the law was passed
Who would
benefit from
African
Americans
not voting?
Why?
How the colored voter is allowed to cast
his ballot in a state where Democrats
control the election. (1899)
D. Jim Crow Laws
Segregation – separation of the races
2. Jim Crow laws – A system of legal segregation
that further degraded African Americans
3. Places that were segregated – schools, parks,
public buildings, hospitals, transportation, movie
theaters
1.

Black facilities were always inferior
4. Second class citizens, legitimized anti-black
racism

Belief – blacks were inferior and should be kept
separate
Images of Jim Crow - Minstrel Shows
Images of Jim Crow - Minstrel Shows
Images of Jim Crow
Images of Jim Crow
Images of Jim Crow
Images of Jim Crow
Images of Jim Crow
What images
in the cartoon
stand out to
you?
Was this an
accurate
portrayal of
life in the
South at the
time?
Etiquette norms under Jim Crow
 A Black male could not offer his hand to a White male






– and definitely not to a female
Blacks and Whites could not eat together
A Black male could not light the cigarette of a White
female
No PDAs
Whites did not use courtesy titles of respect (Mr., Mrs.,
Miss, Sir, Ma’am, etc.) when referring to Blacks
A Black person who rode in a car driven by a white
person – rode in the back
White motorists had right of way
From: Jim Crow Guide
 Never assert or intimate that a White person is
lying
 Never impute [give away] dishonorable intentions
to a White person
 Never suggest that a White person is from an
inferior class
 Never lay claim to, or demonstrate, superior
knowledge
 Never curse or laugh at a White person
 Never comment on the appearance of a White
female
Laws
 No black barber shall serve white girls or women
(GA)
 Separate buildings/wards for the blind (LA)
 Buses: separate waiting rooms and ticket windows
(ALA)
 Custody of a white child should not fall to a black
adult (SC)
 Education: separate
Laws
 Libraries: separate (NC)
 Militia: white and black separately enrolled
 Nurses: white female nurses could not care for
black males (ALA)
 Prisons: separate sleeping and eating
 Teaching- fined for teaching in an integrated
school (OK)
 Serving of wine and beer - separate
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/geography/geography.htm
Jim Crow quotes
"In this perilous world, if a
black boy wanted to live a
halfway normal life and
die a natural death he had
to learn early the art of
how to get along with
white folks."
- Benjamin Mays, recalling
his childhood in rural
South Carolina
"My object is to teach the North,
the young North, what it has
never known—the awful suffering
of the white man during the
dreadful Reconstruction period. I
believe that Almighty God
anointed the white men of the
South by their suffering during
that time immediately after the
Civil War to demonstrate to the
world that the white man must
and shall be supreme."
- Thomas Dixon, Jr., author of The
Clansman, later became a movie
called The Birth of a Nation
Questions
 How did Jim Crow laws affect America?
 What methods did whites use to keep
African Americans separate and inferior?
 How did African Americans try to fight
against segregation?
 Why were African Americans unable to
resist segregation?
E. Reinforcing Jim Crow
Civil Rights Case of 1883 –
1.
Overturned Civil Rights Act of 1875
Supreme Court ruled that 14th Amendment did not
prevent private businesses from discriminating
a)
b)
2. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) –
a) “separate but equal” facilities did not violate 14th
Amendment

b)
c)
“We cannot say that a law which authorizes or even requires
the separation of the two races in public conveyances is
unreasonable.”
Henry Brown – Blacks assume they are inferior
John Marshall Harlan – Constitution is color-blind
F. African American Response
1. Booker T. Washington: economic
independence was the key to political and
social equality

Many African Americans of the time disliked
Washington, they thought he gave in to whites
too often
2. Ida B. Wells: focused on lynchings and
urged African Americans to leave the south
G. African American Response
3.
WEB DuBois – Niagara Falls – 1905
Booker T. Washington’s greatest black
critic

a)
b)
c)
denounced all political, civil, and economic
discrimination
vowed never to accept inferiority
formed a nucleus group who joined with
concerned whites for a national conference
on the “Negro question”
H. NAACP
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People
Formed in 1909 by an interracial group
led by W.E.B. DuBois
By 1914 – there were 50 branches
Worked to achieve equality through the
courts
1st victory: Supreme Court declared
grandfather clauses unconstitutional