RECONSTRUCTION
1865 - 1877
The 12 years of readjustment following the Civil War when the nation faced the problems of rebuilding and
reuniting the country, while also ensuring the protection of newly freed African Americans.
1863 - 1865
Lincoln's 10 % Plan or Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
http://www.american-historama.org/1860-1865-civil-war-era/ten-percent-plan.htm
GOAL: restore the Union quickly
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10% of state voters must take an oath of loyalty to rejoin the Union Form new state governments
(1/10th of number of voters who participated in the 1860 election)
Amnesty for Confederates, Restore property (except slaves) EXCEPT for the highest Confederate officials and military leaders
Accept abolition of Slavery (1865 - 13th Amendment)
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CRITICS:
Republicans in Congress felt Lincoln's plan was not tough enough and didn't protect the newly freed
slaves properly
1864
Wade-Davis Bill
GOAL: create a Reconstruction plan that would penalize Confederates more and better protect blacks
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created by Radical Republicans, Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio and Representative Henry
Winter Davis of Maryland
Majority of state's white males must pledge loyalty to the Union and Constitution
Guarantee black equality before the law (but not the right to vote) - abolish slavery
Elections would create a new state constitution
Conventions would be restricted to those who swore an Ironclad oath (never aided the
Confederacy)
No Confederate officials could participate in the new governments
Lincoln used pocket veto and bill FAILED
AP Study Notes: http://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/topics/presidential-and-congressional-reconstruction-plans/
1865 March
Freedman's Bureau - agency to help former slaves transition to freedom
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O.O. Howard – commissioner
Succeed in establishing education and healthcare
Help slaves find work, get educated, and medical aid
Fail to distribute land – Johnson takes back land and returns to former owners
Program ended by 1870
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William T. Sherman's Special Field Order 15 set aside the Sea Islands and 40 acres for black
families in SC and GA http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/40acres/ps_so15.html
Johnson ends up evicting freedmen off of Sherman land to return it to former owners
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1865 April 14th
Lincoln is Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
Background of Assassination: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alrintr.html
Timeline: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/assassination/
1865 May 29
Andrew Johnson assumes the Presidency - Presidential Reconstruction
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Confederates take an oath of loyalty to the Union
Exclude Confederates with property worth over $20,000,
But Pardon individual Confederates (13,000 pardons)
(felt wealthy Southerners led the South into secession)
State Conventions repeal ordinances of secession
Ratify 13th Amendment - abolish slavery
State's Rights - allowed new state governments freedom to manage their affairs
CRITICS: Confederacy back to same old ways. Prominent Confederate leaders returned to power.
AP Study Notes: http://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/topics/presidential-and-congressional-reconstruction-plans/
1865
Black Codes
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Freedmen made up 40% of population in former slave states; Southern Legislators feared their
voting power, passed several 'Black Codes' creating barriers to voting: literacy requirements, poll
taxes, residency requirements
Southern states pass repressive "Black Codes" to preserve something close to slavery
Created a separate class for blacks: (vary state to state)
Can: black marriage recognized, testify in court with other blacks, own certain property
Cannot: travel without permits, serve on a jury, vote, carry firearms, marry whites, testify against
whites
Arrested on vagrancy charges if former slave failed to sign yearly labor contracts
(assigned to gang labor if don't sign a contract)
CRITICS: Republicans felt that free labor principles were violated and former slaves not truly freed.
Sharecropping
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/reconstruction/timeline-terms/sharecroppers
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was preferred to gang labor (heavy supervision), but wasn't a means to betterment
a system where black families and poor whites would rent part of a plantation, raise a crop and
divide it with the owner
dominate in the Cotton Belt and Tobacco Belt of NC and VA
Crop-lien system
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farmers didn't own land, so put their crop up as credit to purchase supplies for cultivation
crop was collateral if farmer couldn't pay merchant for supplies later
Debt - cotton prices decreased, couldn't pay back loan, so grow more cotton to pay
Page 298 Case Study of Matt Brown
1865 December
Congress Reconvenes
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Reconstituted southern states sent representatives to the Capitol and Congressional Republicans denied
seats to all members of the eleven former Confederate states
AP Study Notes: http://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/topics/presidential-and-congressional-reconstruction-plans/
1866
Civil Rights Act
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1st major law to be passed over a Presidential veto (2/3rds vote in Congress)
defined rights of citizens regardless of race
Equality before the law
No state could deprive a citizen the right to make contracts, bring lawsuits, enjoy equal
protection
1866 June
14th Amendment (proposed by Congress, ratified in 1868)
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empowered the federal government to protect rights of all citizens
provided for equal protection under the law regardless of race (guarantee legal equality)
most important change in the U.S. Constitution since the Bill of Rights
1867 March
Reconstruction Act
Congressional Reconstruction
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OR
Radical Reconstruction ends 1877
Reconstruction Act passes over Johnson's veto
South divided into 5 military districts, occupied by Union troops
Create new state governments - grant black men right to vote (suffrage)
Ratify 14th Amendment
1877, last federal troops left the south
15th Amendment - ratified in 1870 guaranteed black suffrage and ensured states couldn't remove this
from their new state constitutions later
Tenure of Office Act - bar President from removing officeholders / cabinet members without Senate
consent
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1868, Andrew Johnson removed Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Radical Republican) and the
House of Representatives impeached him for violated the Tenure of Office Act
Senate acquitted him because his lawyers promised Republicans he would behave and stop
interfering in the Reconstruction policy.
AP Study Notes: http://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/topics/presidential-and-congressional-reconstruction-plans/
1868
Election of 1868 - Ulysses S. Grant (Civil War hero) elected as President
1870 - 1871
Enforcement Acts
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stop the activities of terrorist groups - Ku Klux Klan
KKK - terrorist organization founded in Tennessee in 1866
Grant sent federal marshals and troops into southern areas to arrest Klansmen
1873 - Colfax, Louisiana
bloodiest act of violence where armed whites killed hundreds of former slave
1870's
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Reconstruction fades
Republicans become more complacent about Reconstruction due to the loss of Radical
Republicans like Thaddeus Stevens http://www.biography.com/people/thaddeus-stevens21011351
Redeemers (Democrats of the South who "redeemed" the white South from corruption,
misgovernment, and northern and black control)
Grant Administration became complacent about enforcing maintaining Reconstruction in South
Example - Governor Adelbert Ames of Mississippi asked Grant for help when white rifle clubs
drilled in public and assaulted and murdered Republicans - Grant responded that the northern
public was "tired out" by southern problems
1875
Civil Rights Act
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prohibit discrimination in jury selection, transportation, restaurants, and other public areas
(didn't have enforcement for 90 years)
1876 - 1877
Presidential Election of 1876 / Bargain of 1877 
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Republicans nominate Governor Rutherford B Hayes (OH)
Democrats nominate Governor Samuel J. Tilden (NY)
Republicans still in control of SC, FL, LA
Bargain of 1877 brings Hayes in as President, led to the appointment of a southern postmaster
general https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/reconstruction-1865-1877/the-grant-presidency/the-compromise-of-1877/
AP Study Notes: http://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/topics/presidential-and-congressional-reconstruction-plans/
Compare and contrast the efforts for and against the increasing of guarantees for equal rights for all during
Reconstruction. To save time, write a thesis statement then write only the body of an essay. Use example
from above to reflect the varied efforts for equality during Reconstruction.
THESIS:
BODY:
AP Study Notes: http://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/topics/presidential-and-congressional-reconstruction-plans/