List three ways you would
rebuild the South after the
Civil War.
Instructional Objectives:
Explain the concepts of Reconstruction
Identify the life of African Americans after
the Civil War
Explain the Fourteenth Amendment and who
it gave rights to.
Chapter 18
Reconstruction
Reconstruction Begins
 Occurred between 1865 to
1877
 Readmitting the
Confederate states to the
Union
 Lincoln promised no harm
to anyone and charity for
all
 Pardoned Confederate
officials
Freedmen’s Bureau
 Helped African
Americans by:
 Schools
 Hospitals
 Distributed clothes,
food, and fuel
Andrew Johnson
 Lincoln assassinated April,
1865
 Johnson believed
Reconstruction was
the Job of the
President
 Offered pardons to
white southerners
 In return, they had to
pledge loyalty to
America
Rebuilding Conflicts
 South formed governments much like they had before
the War
 Black codes restricted African American rights in the
South
 Congress decided which Southern States should have
representation
 Congress taking action into their own hands
Civil Rights Act
 Civil Rights Act of 1866
 Give all US born people
(except Native
Americans) full
citizenship
 Johnson’s reaction:
 Johnson felt groups
would conspire against
the rest of America
Fourteenth Amendment
 Republicans unhappy with Johnson’s veto, so they
proposed the Fourteenth Amendment.
 All people born in the US were citizens and had the
same rights
 Granted “equal protection of the laws.”
 Did not establish black suffrage
 Any state that kept African Americans from voting lost
representations in Congress.
 Johnson refused support it.
Reconstruction Act of 1867
 Moderate and Radical Republicans joined sides.
 Congress now controlled reconstruction
 Southern states could rejoin the Union if:
 They approve state constitutions that gave vote rights to
all
 Ratify the 14th Amendment
Johnson Impeached
 Congress was angered at
Johnson and his
Reconstruction efforts.
 House voted to impeach
Johnson for improper
conduct while in office.
 Strengthened Congress’s role
in Reconstruction
 Johnson was acquitted by a
single vote.
Life after Slavery
 Slaves left plantations for:




Searching for families
Looking for economic opportunity
To find family members
Because they could
 Freedmen’s Bureau helped to united families
Freedmen’s schools
 Taught in warehouses, billiard rooms, former slave
markets, churches, and houses
 150,000 students attended 3,000 schools by 1869
 White racists protested the schools
Work

Some freedmen returned to
plantations as waged workers
earning a living.

Got to choose of who to work for
and how much they would get
paid

Was called the Contract system.
Contracts with each plantation
owner

Plantation owners would violate
the contracts and workers would
be punished for leaving.
Land is given to a
sharecropper in
exchange for half the
crops
Buy food and
clothing on credit
Settle up the debt
To pay debt,
sharecropper
must give more
next time
Plant and Harvest
Crops
Crops are sold by
landowner and
Sharecropper gets
half the earnings
Ku Klux Klan
 Formed in 1866
 Goals: Keep Democratic control of the South and keep
former slaves powerless
 The Klan attacked African Americans and Republicans
 Little protection for victims
 Served the Democratic Party and kept Republicans
away from polling places. Increased Democratic Power
The Next President
 Election of 1868.
 The winner was….
Ulysses S. Grant
Fifteenth Amendment
 Stated that people could not be stopped from voting
“on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.”
 Did not apply to white women. Lead to Suffragettes
like Elizabeth Cady Stanton
 Until this point, African-Americans could not vote in
16 states
Grant vs. the Klan
 Grant wanted stricter laws against the Klan.
 Congress approved the anti-Klan bill.
 The result was Federal Marshalls arresting thousands
of Klansmen.
 Attacks on African-American voted declined and
Grant won his second term.
Political Scandal
 Grant’s administration was
full of corruption
 He appointed army friends
and his wife’s relatives to
office
 Split the Republican party
 Tough reconstruction laws
were not getting passed
Panic of 1873
 A 5 year economic depression in America.
 The Republican party was blamed
 People no longer wanted to hear about problems in the
south and lost interest in Reconstruction.
Supreme Court Cases
 US vs. Cruikshank: The federal
Government could not punish
individuals who violated the
civil rights of African
Americans.
 US vs. Reese: the Court ruled in
favor of white Southerners who
barred African Americans from
voting.
Compromise of 1877
 The South would give Rutherford B Hayes the
Presidency under the following conditions:





No more federal troops in the South
Railroad grants
Federal funds for southern projects
Democratic cabinet
Respect African American Civil Rights
 Reconstruction governments in the south collapsed.