Chapter
16 Section 1
Objectives:
• Describe the postwar challenges that faced the
nation.
• Compare and contrast President Lincoln’s plan
for Reconstruction with the plan proposed by
Congress.
• Identify the goals of the Freedmen’s Bureau.
• Describe the immediate impact of Lincoln’s
assassination.
Rebuilding the Nation
Chapter
16 Section 1
Terms and People
• Abraham Lincoln – president who wanted to
bind up the wounds of the Civil War as quickly
as possible
• amnesty – a group pardon
• freedman – a man or woman who was legally
freed from slavery after the Civil War
• John Wilkes Booth – a Confederate
sympathizer who shot President Lincoln
Rebuilding the Nation
Chapter
16 Section 1
How did the government try to solve key
problems facing the nation after the Civil
War?
After the Civil War, enormous problems faced
the nation, especially the South.
The government developed a plan for states to
return to the Union and created an
organization to help people freed from slavery.
Rebuilding the Nation
Chapter
16 Section 1
After the Civil War, vast stretches of the
South lay in ruins.
Americans had to
bring the North
and South
together again.
This process was
known as
Reconstruction.
Rebuilding the Nation
Chapter
16 Section 1
Americans were forced to consider difficult questions
during Reconstruction.
What plans would
be made for
people who had
been freed from
slavery?
Rebuilding the Nation
Who would help
the homeless
refugees who
needed food,
shelter, and work?
Chapter
16 Section 1
President Abraham Lincoln and Congress
proposed different plans for Reconstruction.
President
Lincoln’s
plan
Ten
Percent
Plan
Congress’s
plan
WadeDavis Bill
Rebuilding the Nation
When 10% of a state’s
voters swore an oath of
loyalty, they could
organize a new state
government.
When 50% of a state’s
voters swore loyalty, they
could organize a new
state government.
Chapter
16 Section 1
Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan made it easy for
southern states to rejoin the Union.
If…
Then…
10% of a state’s voters
swore loyalty to the
U.S.
That state could form a
new state government.
That government
declared an end to
slavery.
The state could take part
in national government
again.
Rebuilding the Nation
Former Confederates
would receive amnesty.
Chapter
16 Section 1
The Wade-Davis Bill was much stricter.
If…
Then…
50% of a state’s
voters swore loyalty to
the U.S.
That state could rejoin
the Union.
People in that state
had voluntarily fought
for the Confederacy.
They would not have
voting rights.
Lincoln refused to sign the bill, so it was
never passed.
Rebuilding the Nation
Chapter
16 Section 1
Republican leaders had different ideas about how
to keep their party strong in the new South.
Lincoln believed that
a “soft” policy would
help him win support
from influential
southerners.
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Others argued that a
strict plan would
keep the South from
regaining power and
weaken their control.
Chapter
16 Section 1
The government also had to deal with the needs of
freedmen.
In 1865, Congress
established the
Freedmen’s Bureau.
The Bureau’s first duty
was to provide
emergency relief to
people displaced by
the war.
Rebuilding the Nation
Chapter
16 Section 1
The Freedmen’s Bureau set up schools in the South.
Many southern
states lacked public
education before the
war.
Now, public
schools began to
educate both
blacks and whites.
Rebuilding the Nation
Chapter
16 Section 1
The Freedmen’s Bureau defended the freedom of former
slaves in several ways.
It helped
freedmen
find jobs.
It resolved
disputes
between
white
Americans
and
freedmen.
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It set up its
own courts to
deal with
some
disputes.
Chapter
16 Section 1
President Lincoln did not live to put his plans into
practice.
Lincoln was shot by
John Wilkes Booth,
a Confederate
sympathizer, while
attending a play.
Booth was captured and killed, but Americans
remained stunned by Lincoln’s death.
Rebuilding the Nation
Chapter
16 Section 1
Lincoln’s successor was Vice President Andrew
Johnson, a southern Democrat who had remained
loyal to the Union.
Johnson had shown bitterness toward the
Confederates.
Many Americans expected him to take a strict
approach to Reconstruction.
Rebuilding the Nation
Chapter
16 Section 1
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