Reconstruction:
A Failed Revolution
Thesis Statement
During Reconstruction, the federal government
missed a unique opportunity to radically
restructure southern society along more
egalitarian lines. While conditions for AfricanAmericans began to improve during
Reconstruction, many of their gains were
quickly erased during the “Jim Crow” period
that followed.
Why Should You Care?
If you care about the Civil Rights Movement,
you should care about Reconstruction. If you
are concerned with racial equality in
America, you need to study Reconstruction.
President Lincoln’s Plan
 10% Plan
*
He didn’t consult Congress regarding
Reconstruction.
*
Pardon to all but the highest ranking
military and civilian Confederate officers.
*
When 10% of the voting population in the
1860 election had taken an oath of loyalty
and established a government, it would be
recognized.
Tennessee was one of the 1st states
accepted back into the union
Lincoln
vs.
Radical Republicans in Congress
The division
really never
occurred - they
just have to say
they are sorry
Need to
destroy the
political power
of former
slave holders!
AA need full
citizenship &
right to vote
THADDEUS STEVENS
Abolish slavery was one thing
But granting the right to vote
Was completely radical!
Radical Republicans in Congress
THADDEUS STEVENS
Need to destroy the political
power of former slave holders!
AA need full citizenship &
right to vote
They will create 5 military
districts in South to ensure
this happens!
Other people thought abolishing slavery was one thing
But granting the right to vote was completely radical!
Presidential Reconstruction
Johnson
Lincoln

10% Plan…
90% could
refuse loyalty
oath

No loyalty oath
required
Opposed helping
former slaves
Both

•Wanted to go easy on the South… heal the wounds of the war as
fast as possible.
•Supported the 13th Amendment… Ended slavery everywhere
•Liberally issued pardons to former Confederates
•Believed Southern states had NOT actually left the Union…
therefore Reconstruction was primarily a military endeavor, and
should be under the control of the executive branch.
Radical Reconstruction
•Harsh, punishing philosophy toward the South
•Wanted more help for former slaves
•50% Loyalty Oath
•Wanted to strictly exclude former Confederates
from political office
•Military Reconstruction Act of 1867 (5 Military
Districts)
•Believed that southern states had committed “state
suicide” and had to re-apply for statehood
(therefore Reconstruction should be in the hands of
the legislative branch).
Thaddeus Stevens
Charles Sumner
Of course, with Lincoln’s death
Andrew Johnson comes into office…
President Andrew Johnson
 Jacksonian Democrat.
 Anti-Aristocrat.
 White Supremacist.
 Agreed with Lincoln
that states had never
legally left the Union.
Damn the negroes! I am fighting
these traitorous aristocrats, their
masters!
President Johnson’s Plan (10%+)
 Offered amnesty upon simple oath to all except
Confederate civil and military
 Make new state constitutions, they must accept 13th and
14th Amendments
1. Disenfranchised certain leading Confederates.
EFFECTS?
2. Pardoned planter aristocrats brought them back
to political power to control state organizations.
3. Republicans were outraged that planter elite
were back in power in the South!
Help for Freedmen






Freedmen’s Bureau... Help w/ schools,
labor contracts, etc.
Civil Rights Act of 1866… Granted
African-Americans citizenship & all
rights of citizens
14th Amendment... Citizenship for
African-Americans, “Equal Treatment
under the Law
15th Amendment: Right to vote can't be
denied by race
Klan Acts (Force Acts) of 1870 &
1871… Gave military authority to
target the KKK… forced it to be more
secretive
BUT… No land redistribution
Republican Governments in the South




Freedmen: Freed slaves
“Carpetbaggers:” Northern
migrants who moved South
to help freedmen, or exploit
economic & political
opportunities
“Scalawags:” White
southern Republicans
How well did they do?...
Probably no better or worse
than Democratic
governments.
Racist Political Cartoon Depicted
Republican Governments in the South
Sharecropping



Sharecropping:
Landowner provided
land, seeds, tools, and
lent $ for expenses in
exchange for a portion
of the crop
Tenant Farming:
Renting land
Debt Peonage: Both
systems usually trapped
poor farmers (white &
black)
Race & Sharecropping
Percentage of Sharecropped Farms
Slavery vs. Sharecropping
The “New South”
•Some
industrialization
begins to take place in
southern cities like
Birmingham, AL
•Much of the
economic growth was
financed by investors
& entrepreneurs from
the North (a.k.a.
“carpetbaggers”)
A Steel Manufacturer in Birmingham, Alabama
Social Change in the South
Freedom Schools
Thousands of African-Americans (young and old) flocked to schools created by
the Freedmen’s Bureau and by Republican state governments.
Illiteracy by Race
The Ku Klux Klan
• Founded in Tennessee in
1866
• Terrorized southern
blacks, and whites who
sympathized with them
• Largely (but temporarily)
eradicated after the antiKlan Acts of 1870 &
1871
• It re-emerges after the
Union army pulls out in
1877
Lynching
The Jim Crow Laws


Jim Crow Laws:
Segregated Blacks
& Whites in Public
Places
Plessey v. Ferguson
(1896)... “Separate
but Equal” does not
violate the 14th
Amendment
Northern Support Wanes
 Grant becomes president and there is a lot of
corruptoin.
 Panic of 1873 [6-year
depression].
 Concern over westward
expansion and Indian wars.
A Political Crisis: The
“Compromise” of 1877
“Compromise” of 1877 and the
end of Reconstruction
Samuel Tilden and Rutherford B Hayes both claim to have won the election of
1876.
Election ties are settled by the House of Representatives.
The southern representatives agree to vote for Hayes if the federal govt will
remove the troops from the South
Reconstruction is over