The Reconstruction Period
1865-1877
Reconstruction
• What is Reconstruction?
– Write 4-5 observations from the video.
Reconstruction Begins
• Reconstruction-process of
Fed. To RE-admit former
Confederate states.
• After the Civil War, debate…
– How to bring back the
South.
– What to do with freed
slaves.
– Could the Southern
economy survive without
slavery?
From Lincoln to Johnson
• Lincoln assassinated at
Ford’s Theatre 1865.
• VP Johnson takes office,
Southern Democrat and
slaveholder
• Stubborn and
uncompromising, continued
Lincoln’s policies
Who’s Involved?
• Radical Republicans: create new order in
the south, full citizenship for former slaves.
• Freedmen’s Bureau: set up schools and
hospitals for freed slaves, distributed food
and clothing.
“Reconstruction Amendments”
• 13th Amendment:
officially outlaws slavery
in all states.
• 14th Amendment: all
people born in the
United States are
citizens, have the same
rights. “Equal protection
under law”
• 15th Amendment:
Cannot deny the right to
vote based on race,
color or previous
servitude.
Southern Response
• Jim Crow Laws:
enforced segregation.
• Examples…
• Plessy v. Ferguson:
Supreme court
upholds Jim Crow
“separate but equal”
• Prevented blacks from
voting with literacy
tests, grandfather
clauses
• Scare tactics, KKK
Remembering Reconstruction
• Tonight, you’ll be asked what you know
about the Reconstruction Era. You will tell
your parents/friend/grandma that it
was…(use your notes).
Radical Reconstruction
South divided into 5 military districts to supervise Reconstruction.
Radical Reconstruction
• Southern voters choose new state reps.
• Active confederates no-vote unless they
pledge loyalty.
• Republicans rule state legislatures.
– “Scalawags”-poor white farmers
– “Carpetbaggers”-white Northerners who’ve
come to the South.
– “Freemen”-African-American men.
New State Legislatures
Johnson Impeached
• Johnson fought many
reforms of Republican
congress
• Vetoed freedmen’s bureau
and Civil Rights Act
(Congress able to override)
• Congress created the
“Tenure of Office Act”.
– Pres. cannot fire gvt. officials
without permission
• Johnson fires his Secretary
of War, HofR voted to
impeach
• Johnson acquitted by a
single vote
Hardships of former slaves
• Former slaves leave
plantations-reunite with
family.
• Rumor-Freemen will
get “40 acres and a
mule”
• Congress votes
against. Freedom and
Voting Rights were
enough.
Sharecropping
• Many returned to
work on plantations
as “sharecroppers”
• Ended up in debt to
landowners, was
often de-facto slavery
Sharecropping Explained