Reconstruction
1865-1877
Lincoln’s Reconstruction
• Was very Lenient
• All Confederates would receive pardon who
swore allegiance
– Exception for high-ranking officials & crimes
against POW
• Become a state once 10% of population take
oath
Wade-Davis Bill
• Congress opposed Lincoln’s Plan and created
their own
• Too lenient and didn’t protect former slaves
• Congress Wanted:
– Majority of population must take loyalty oath
– State must formally abolish slavery
– No Confederate officials can participate in Gov’t
• Pocket Vetoed by Lincoln
Johnson’s Reconstruction
• Sworn in after Lincoln’s assassination
• Announced in May 1865
• Largely followed Lincoln’s Plan except:
– Excluded high ranking officials AND wealthy plantation
owners from taking oath
– Personally pardoned more than 13,000 Confederates
• Felt that “white men alone must manage the South”
• States must abolish slavery to be readmitted
• States must repeal secession
Radical Reconstruction
• 1866 – voted to create the Freedman’s
Bureau
• 1866 – passed Civil Rights Act of 1866
– Granted citizenship to blacks and banned
discriminatory laws
• Johnson vetoed both bills
Radical Reconstruction cont.
• Congress overrode both vetoes
• Drafted 14th Amendment
– Prevented states from denying rights and privileges to any US
citizen
• Designed to overturn and Nullify Dred Scott decision of 1857
• Impeached President Johnson for violating Tenure of Office
Act when he removed Sec. of War Edwin Stanton. Senate
vote fell short of removing him from office
• Introduced 15th Amendment after US Grant elected
President in 1868
– Ratified in 1870 it prevented states from denying vote based on
“race, color, or previous conditions of servitude”
Reconstruction Act of 1867
• Divided Confederacy into 5 military districts
– Authorized use of military to enforce
• States required to give blacks the right to vote
• Required ratification of 14th Amendment
Johnson vetoed but Congress was able to
override the veto
Impact of Reconstruction
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Scalawags – Southerners who joined Republican Party
Carpetbaggers – Northerners who moved South after the war
Black voting rights – 90% supported Republican party (voted for Grant)
Freeman’s Bureau – helped create and run schools for ex-slaves
16 blacks elected to Congress from South
– Hiram Revals the first
• Sharecropping – former slaves provided a few acres, seeds and tools to
work land owned by others. Paid with portion of their crops
• Rise of the KKK lead to Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871
– Provided Federal supervision of elections and Use of troops in Klan controlled
areas
• 1872
– Amnesty Act returns right to vote and hold public office to 150k former
Confederates
– Freedman’s Bureau allowed to expire
– Leads to growth in power of Southern Democrats
Election of 1876
• Democrat – Samuel Tilden
• Republican – Rutherford B Hayes
• Tilden wins Popular Vote but doesn’t earn enough Electoral Votes
• Southern Democrats agree to support Hayes in return for removal
of Federal troops
• Hayes becomes President and reconstruction officially ends