USA Studies Weekly
Week 2
First Quarter
Reconstruction: What is the Best Way
to Heal the Wounds of War?
• Civil War ended on April 9, 1865
• Lincoln’s goal was to save a nation – NOT to
end slavery.
• Lincoln did not wish to punish the South, but
to heal as a nation.
• Lincoln was assassinated.
Andrew Johnson
• President Andrew Johnson elected after
Lincoln’s assassination
• Wished to follow Lincoln’s
policy about slavery. He felt
making former slaves citizens
would only increase the anger
between the North and the
South.
• He believed in leniency
toward the South but lacked
diplomacy.
Radical Republicans
• A group of politicians who wanted
the emancipation of slaves to be the
main goal of the Civil War.
• Supported Lincoln until they
discovered that slavery was not his
main goal.
• Supported Johnson until they discovered that he
planned to follow Lincoln’s reconstruction plans.
• Worked with Congress to keep all of Johnson’s
legislation from passing. Passed their legislation
despite Johnson’s vetoes.
The Reconstruction Period –
Lasted for 10 years after the
Civil War
• A tug of war between Congress and the President took place.
• The Radicals divided the South into five military districts ruled
by the U.S. Army.
• Tennessee was readmitted into the Union in 1866.
• The remaining 10 rebel states had to formally accept the 14th
and 15th amendments in order to be readmitted.
• These amendments allowed blacks to become citizens with
the right to vote and hold office.
• The new governments in the states were a combination of
blacks, “carpet-baggers" (northerners who had moved to the
South for investments or political opportunities), and
“scalawags” (southerners who embraced the cause of the
Radical Republicans).
Six Viewpoints on How to Rebuild the
South
White southerners began to use fraud,
intimidation, and violence to get back the
control of their own state governments. By
the time the last US army troops were
withdrawn from the South in 1877, the
Democratic party was back in control. There
was terrible bitterness in both the North and
the South.
President Andrew Johnson’s Viewpoint
•
•
•
•
Follow Lincoln’s policy.
Be lenient to the South.
Do not make blacks full citizen
Let’s try to get along and rep
our relationships.
Radical Northern Republican
Viewpoint
• Thaddeus Stevens was the
leader of the Radical
Republicans.
• Pass the Reconstruction Act so
that blacks have the right to
vote and may run for office.
• Punish rebel leaders.
• Put the South under military
rule to enforce the
Reconstruction Act.
Southern White Democratic Viewpoint
• The governor of South
Carolina refused to
ratify the 13th
Amendment.
• Southerners felt the
government was meant
for whites only.
• They began to pass
“Black Codes” aimed at
returning blacks to
their former slave labor
on the plantations.
Carpetbaggers’ & Scalawags’
Viewpoint
• Carpetbaggers were Northerners who came to the South to
invest in rebuilding the South.
• They also felt that they should be able to be in Congress in
the South.
• Some came for good reasons – to actually help the South and
the newly freed blacks.
• The carpetbag, however, was a symbol of opportunists who
were filling their “bags” at the expense of the South.
• Scalawags were influential Southerners who supported
Radical Republicans and carpetbaggers. Scalawags means
“worthless person” or “scoundrel”. They were considered
traitors by most white southerners.
Former Slave
Viewpoint
• Most backed the
Republican point of
view allowing blacks to
become citizens and
vote.
• Blanche Kelso Bruce
was born as a slave
and served a full term
in the Senate.
What Went Wrong with
Reconstruction?
• No way for southerners to
earn and circulate money.
• Blacks had no money or
land.
• Plantations were too large
for white southerners to
run by themselves.
• Socially the white
southerners did not change
their attitudes about
African Americans.
Robert E. Lee
• April 9, 1865, the Confederacy surrenders.
• Was the Commander-in-chief of the
Confederacy.
• Graduated from the US Military Academy
at West Point with honors
• Fought in the Mexican-American War
• Originally asked to be the leader of the
Union
• His home state was Virginia and he could
not bring himself to fight against it.
• Spent his last years as president of
Washington College in Lexington, Virginia,
in the hopes that he could inspire some
young men into helping recover the
country from the horrors of the war.
• His birthday is a legal holiday in most
Southern states today.
American Character -- Ingenuity
George Washington Carver
• Former slave on the Carver
farm
• Taught at a college and
experimented with plants
• Invented chili sauce,
Worcestershire sauce, dried
milk, paints, ink dyes,
bleach, shoe polish, peanut
butter
• Encouraged southerners to
plant crops of peanuts
• Invented 324 uses for
peanuts
The Gasoline Engine
• Nikolaus August Otto obtained a patent on his
new gasoline engine in 1866.
Freedmen’s Bureau
• Was a federal agency set up
near the end of the Civil War to
distribute clothes, food and fuel
to the poor of the South
• Ran schools for black children
• In charge of land abandoned or
taken away from the
Confederacy
• Lands were to be rented to
freedmen
• Lands were returned to
Confederate landowners
Laws of Reconstruction
• 13th Amendment –
Abolished slavery
• 14th Amendment –
Gives former slaves
citizenship
• 15th Amendment –
Allows black the
right to vote