Reconstruction Debate
 Although the Union was saved, the nation shook in its roots
 There were many difficult questions to answer:
 Should the slaveholding Southerners be punished or
forgiven?
 What rights should be granted to the free African
Americans?
 How could the nation be brought back together?
Reconstruction Debate
 Most of the fighting took place in the south therefore towns,
cities, plantations, roads, bridges, and railroads had been
destroyed
 More than 258,000 Confederate soldiers had died while
families had to rebuild their lives with very few resources
 Everyone agreed that these problems needed to be fixed but
they could not agree on how to fix it
 This was known as the period of Reconstruction
Lincoln’s Plan

December 1863 he announced the 10 Percent Plan

10% of voters of a state took an oath of loyalty to the Union, the state could form
a new government and adopt a new constitution (banning slavery)

Punishing the south would serve no useful purpose and only delay the healing
process

He also offered amnesty – a pardon – to all white southerners, except Confederate
leaders, who swore loyalty to the Union

He also supported granting the right to vote to A.A. that were educated or had
served in the Union army

However did did not force southerners to give these “white” rights to A.A.
Rival Plan
 One group of Republicans in Congress considered the
Lincoln Plan to be too mild; not harsh enough
 They said: Congress should control the Reconstruction
policy, not the president
 They held a radical (extreme) viewpoint and were
known as Radical Republicans
 A leading figure of that party was Thaddeus Stevens
Wade-Davis Bill
 This was much harsher than Lincoln’s Plan
 A majority of white males in a state had to swear
loyalty to the Union
 A state constitutional convention could be held but
only white males who had never taken up arms against
the Union could vote for delegates to this convention
 The convention had to adopt a new state constitution
that abolished slavery
Freedmen’s Bureau
 This was the other issue of Reconstruction – helping
African Americans freed from slavery
 The Freedmen’s Bureau was created and helped distribute
food and clothing, and provide medical services
 It also established schools and gave aid to new A.A
institutions of higher learning
 They also helped people acquire land, offered free
transportation, and helped obtain fair wages
The Assassination…
• Night of April 14, 1864 President and Mrs. Lincoln attended the play “Our
American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C.
• This was only 5 days after the surrender of Lee’s army
• John Wilkes Booth (an actor and Confederate sympathizer) enters the box
without anyone seeing him
The Assassination…
• Wilkes Booth shoots the president in the back of the head
• He the leaped to the stage and escaped during the chaos that unfolded
• Lincoln was carried to a nearby house but died a few hours later
The
Assassination…
• Booth fled on horseback to
Virginia as he was being tracked
by Union troops
• April 26: the troops cornered
Booth in a barn near Port Royal,
Virginia
• He refused to surrender and was
shot to death
New President
• Vice President Andrew Johnson
took the post after Lincoln’s
death
• He also revealed his own plan
for Reconstruction
• He resented the slaveholders and
wished to punish them
• Radical Republicans thought
he’d create a very harsh plan
which they could accept
• Johnson believes giving the
states control over many
decisions and he had no desire
to help the African Americans
“Restoration”

He preferred to call the Reconstruction, a period of Restoration

Under this plan: most southerners would be granted amnesty once they swore an
oath of loyalty to the Union

High-ranking Confederate officials and wealthy landowners could be pardoned

He appointed governors to southern states and required them to hold elections for
state constitutional conventions

Only whites who had sworn loyalty and pardoned could be allowed to vote

He opposed granting all freed A.A equal rights or letting them vote

“white men alone should manage the south”
The
th
13
Amendment
 Before states could reenter the Union they had to
denounce slavery at their constitutional conventions
 They had to ratify the 13th Amendment
 End of 1865: all former Confederate states except
Texas had formed new governments and were ready to
rejoin the Union
 “Restoration” was almost complete
Southerners in Congress
 Southerners made their way to Congress as they sent
their representatives there
 When they got to Washington DC many Republicans
refused to seat them or acknowledge them
 They believed that these southerners had been let off
loosely by President Johnson
Black Codes
 Between 1865 & 1866: new Southern states passed a
series of laws called the black codes
 They were aimed to control freed men and women and
to enable plantation owners to exploit African
American workers
 These laws were terrible; they arrested and fined any
A.A who was unemployed
 Then forced him/her to work to pay off their fines
Black Codes
 In other cases A.A were banned from owning or
renting farms
 Whites were allowed to take orphaned A.A children as
unpaid apprentices
 These Black Codes were reestablished slavery in
disguise
Challenging Black Codes
 1866: the Freedmen’s Bureau was granted more power
to set up special courts to prosecute individuals
charged with violating A.A rights
 A.A were provided with a form of justice where they
could serve on juries
Civil Rights Act of 1866
 It granted full citizenship to A.A and gave the federal
government the power to intervene in state affairs to
protect their rights
 It overturned Black Codes and also contradicted the
Dred Scott decision
Johnson’s Reaction
 Johnson vetoed both bills because he felt the federal
government was overstepping its boundaries
 He also said that they were unconstitutional because
they were passed by a Congress who did not include
representatives from all the states
Republican’s Reaction
 They enough votes to override (defeat) both vetoes set
by Johnson
 The bills became law
 It also split Congress and the President possibly
threatening the relationship in the future
th
14
Amendment
 In 1866: Congress passed a new amendment to make sure
no one took the rights of A.A
 The 14th Amendment granted full citizenship to all
individuals born in the US
 It also stated that no state could take away a citizen’s life,
liberty and property “without due process”
 Everyone is entitled to “equal protection of the laws”
 Whoever refused to follow would lose their representatives
in Congress
Interpretation of the
Amendment
 It did not include Natives Americans and it wouldn’t
until 1924
 It barred former Confederates from holding national or
state office unless they were pardoned
 To be readmitted to the Union the states had to ratify
the amendment
 Tennessee was the first and only to ratify until 1866
Johnson’s Reaction to Am.
 Johnson reaction harshly towards the 14th Amendment
 He campaigned vigorously against Republican
candidates
 He even urged all the state legislatures to reject it
Republican Victory
 People were worried what effects this would have
between the races
 There was fear that clashes would erupt such as in
Memphis, TE & New Orleans, LA
 Eventually the Republicans gained control of the
governments in every northern state
 This gave Congress the signal to take Reconstruction
into its own hands
Radical Reconstruction
 Reconstruction Act of 1867 called for the creation of
new governments in the 10 southern states that did not
ratify the 14th Am.
 These 10 states were divided into 5 districts and placed
under military authority
 It guaranteed A.A males the right to vote in state
elections and prevented former Confederate leaders
from holding political office
Radical Reconstruction
 The Second Reconstruction Act was passed a few
weeks later and required the military commanders to
being registering voters and to prepare for new state
constitutional conventions
 This was introduced to get southern states to regain
admission into the Union
Readmission of States
 1868: seven states were readmitted
 Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North
Carolina, and South Carolina
 1870: Mississippi, Virginia, and Texas were readmitted
Challenging Johnson
 Congress had passed several laws to limit the powers of
the president to prevent him from redirecting the
military during their occupation of southern states
 Tenure of Office Act prohibited the president from
removing government officials, including members of
his own cabinet, without the Senate’s approval
Impeachment
 Conflict became worse
 1867: while Congress wasn’t in session, Johnson
suspended Secretary of War Edwin Stanton without
the Senate’s approval
 The Senate came back and refused to obey Johnson’s
decision, so he removes Stanton from office anyway
 This violated the Tenure of Office Act
Impeachment
 The House of Representatives were outraged so they
voted to impeach – formally charge with wrongdoing –
the president
 They accused him of misconduct
 The trial began in March 1868 and lasted almost 3
months
The Case
 Johnson’s defenders claimed that the president was
exercising his right to challenge laws
 They also argued that the impeachment was politically
motivated and contrary to the spirit of the Constitution
 His accusers said that Congress should retain the
supreme power to make the laws
Verdict
 Senators casted 2 votes and in both cases the result was
35 to 19 to convict the president
 This was 1 vote short of 2/3 of the majority required to
convict the president
 Other Republicans casted a no vote because they
believed a president should be removed from office
Election of 1868
 Republicans abandoned Johnson and chose General
Ulysses S. Grant as their presidential candidate
 Democrats chose Horatio Seymour of New York
 Grant won with 214 of the 294 votes
th
15
Amendment
 This was the last and major piece of Reconstruction
 February 1869: Congress passed the 15th Amendment
 It prohibited the state and federal governments from
denying the right to vote to any male citizen because of
“race, color, or previous condition of servitude”
New Groups
 Support for the Republican Part came from:
 African Americans
 White Southerners
 White Settlers from the North
African Americans
 They played in important role as voters and elected
officials
 They did not control the government of any state but
held important positions
 At least 16 A.A served in the H.o.R and 2 in the Senate
Hiram Revels
• Senator and ordained minister
• He recruited A.A during the
Civil War
• Started a school for freed A.A in
St. Louis
• Served as chaplain of an A.A
regiment in Mississippi
• Served a year in the Senate and
declared that he received “fair
treatment”
Blanche K.
Bruce
• Senator from Mississippi and
former runaway slave
• Taught in a school for A.A in
Missouri
• Entered politics and became a
superintendent of schools
• Elected to the Senate and served
for 6 years
Scalawags
 These were southern whites who supported
Republicans
 They were nonslaveholding farmers or business leaders
who opposed secession
 They were called scalawags by Confederates
 It means “scoundrel” or “worthless rascal”
Carpetbaggers
 These were northern whites who moved to the south
after the war
 They supporter Republicans and served as leaders
during the Reconstruction
 They were called carpetbaggers because when they
moved they brought everything (all of their belongings)
with them in cheap suitcases made of carpet fabris
Carpetbaggers
 Most were greedy but some were not
 Most were former Union army soldiers or members of
the Freedmen’s Bureau
 Others were reformers from the north such as lawyers,
doctors, teachers
Corruption
 Many southerners accused Reconstruction leaders as
being corrupt – dishonest or illegal in action
 Some official made money illegally but this practice
was not widespread
 Interestingly, there were less corrupt leaders in the
south than in the north
Resistance to
Reconstruction
 Most southern whites opposed these efforts
 Plantation owners tried to maintain control over freed
people in away way
 Most whites refused to rent land to A.A
 Store owners refused them credit
 Employers refused to hire them
 Some whites used fear to keep freedmen in line
Ku Klux Klan
• Much violence against A.A were carried out by secret societies organized to
prevent freed men from exercising their rights
• The KKK was the most terrifying group who wore white sheets and hoods
• Their members launched “midnight rides” burning homes, churches, and
schools
• They murdered more than 150 people over a 3 year period
Action Against Violence
 Those against violence appealed to the government to
do something about it
 Congress passed laws to try to stop the growing
violence
 However most white southerners refused to testify
against those who attacked A.A
Improvements
 Education improved for both A.A and whites
 A.A saw education as a step to a better life and in many
regions they created their own schools
 Northern women and free A.A came to teach in the south
 More than half the teachers in these schools in 1870 were
A.A
 There were 4,000 schools with 200,000 students
Public Schools
 1870: Reconstruction governments began creating public
school systems for both races which did not exist in the
south before
 More than 50% of white children and about 40% of A.A
children in the south were enrolled in public schools
 Missionary societies established academies such as
Morehouse College & Atlanta University
 Schools were starting to be integrated – include both races
Farming the Land
 Most free people wanted land along with education
 Some were able to buy land because of the Freedman’s Bank
 But the most common form of farmwork was through
sharecropping
 This was a system where a landowner rented a plot of land to a
sharecropper (farmer) along with some seeds, tools, and maybe a
mule
 In return the sharecropper shared a percentage of their crop with
their landowner
Sharecropping
 After paying the landowners, the sharecroppers had
very little to sell
 Sometimes there was barely enough to feed their
families
 But for many sharecropping was still better than
slavery
Reconstruction Declines
 During the Grand administration, northerners began
losing interest in Reconstruction
 They felt that it was time for the south to solve its own
problems
 Southern Democrats were regaining control in the
south
 Even freed people went back to work for landowners
because they had no other way of making a living
Reasons for Decline of
Reconstruction
 Radical leaders began to disappear
 Racial prejudice was exploited in the north by
opponents of Reconstruction
 Fate of the freed should be in the south
 Southern protest of the “bayonet rule” – the use of
federal troops to support Reconstruction governments
Republican Revolt
 1870s: reports of corruption in Grant’s administration
 The Republicans split the party over corruption
 Another group of them broke over Reconstruction
 They proposed reconciliation – coming together again
 These 2 groups who split called themselves Liberal
Republicans and they nominated Horace Greeley for
president in the election o f 1872
Amnesty Act
 May 1872: Congress passed the Amnesty Act which
pardoned most former Confederates
 Now nearly all white southerners could vote and hold
office again
 This changed the political balance in the south
Democrats Regain Power
 In states where whites were the clear majority, the
Democrats quickly gained control of the state
government
 In states where A.A were the majority or the
population was equal, the KKK helped the Democrats
gain control
 They did it by terrorizing any opponents
Democrats Regain Power
 Democrats used threats to pressure Republicans to
become Democrats
 They also used violence to pressure A.A to not vote
 By 1876: Republicans were only able to hold a majority
in 3 southern states
 Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana
Republican Issues
 Republicans had other problems they could not blame on
Democrats
 There were reports of corruption, officials making unfair
business deals, scheming to withhold public tax money,
accepting bribes, etc.
 It damaged the Grant administration and the Republicans
 The nation was also going through an economic depression
which was blamed on the Republicans
End of Reconstruction
 Grant considered running for a 3rd term but most
Republicans wanted a new candidate
 Someone who could win back the Liberal Republicans
and unite the party
Election of 1876
• Republicans nominated
Rutherford B. Hayes
• He was governor of Ohio
• A champion of political reform
• Had a reputation for honesty
and held moderate views on
Reconstruction
Election of 1876
• Democrats nominated Samuel
Tilden
• He gained national fame for
fighting political corruption in
NYC
Election of 1876
 It seemed that Tilden would win the election
 Except for that some states votes were disputed
 These 20 electoral votes from Florida, Louisiana,
South Carolina, and Oregon were all that Tilden
needed to win the election
Election of 1876
 Congress creates a commission (group) of 7
Republicans and 7 Democrats and 1 independent to
review the election results
 The independent resigned, so a Republican took his
place
 After review, the commission voted that Hayes was the
new president
Reaction to Election
 Democrats were angry and threatened to fight the
verdict
 Republicans and southern Democrats tried to work out
an agreement
 March 2, 1877: Congress confirmed that the winner
would be Hayes
Compromise of 1877
 This compromise included favors for the south
 Give more aid to the south
 Withdraw all remaining troops from the south
 Democrats promised to maintain A.A rights
 Hayes went on to say that the south needed honest men to
self-govern the region
 His stance was that the federal government would no longer
interfere or reshape southern society or help southern A.A
A New Ruling Party
 When Reconstruction ended in the south, the shift in
power went from the Republicans to the Democrats
 Democrats in the south: large landowners that held
power before the War
 Redeemers were a group of Democrats who were
merchants, bankers, industrialists, and other business
leaders who wanted to save the south from Republican
rule
Redeemers
• They adopted conservative
policies such as:
• Lower taxes
• Less public spending
• Reduced government services
• The cut many social services
including public education
Rise of the
“New South”
• Southerners were convinced that
the reason they lost the war was
because their industry and
manufacturing did not math the
north’s
• Henry Grady headed a group
that urged southerners to “outYankee the Yankees” & build a
“New South”
• They would have industries
based on coal, iron, tobacco,
cotton, lumber, etc.
Southern Industries
 Some of the strongest advances were in the textile
industry, in lumbering, and in tobacco processing
 James Duke’s American Tobacco Company controlled
almost all tobacco manufacturing in the nation
 William Kelly & Henry Bessemer helped push the
iron and steel industry as well
 By 1890: the south produced nearly 20% of the nation’s
iron and steel
Factors in Growth
 Workers in the south worked long hours for low wages,
sometimes with their entire families in the factories
 Rail-road building boomed as it was being rebuilt after
the war
 African Americans got fewer opportunities in industry
except in the lowest-paying jobs
Rural Economy
 Debt caused a lot of problems where poor families had
to buy the things they needed on credit
 Cash Crops – crops that could be sold for money
 This was the quickest way to make money and selling
cotton brought the biggest profit
Dividing Society
 African Americans continued to dream for justice but
that all faded away
 Racism became entrenched in southern life
 Individuals took steps on their own to keep African
Americans separated from whites and deny them basic
rights
Voting Restrictions
 15th Amendment prevented anyone from being denied
the right to vote because of race
 Southerners found loopholes around this however
Poll Tax
• This was a fee that people had to pay before voting
• Many A.A could not afford this tax so they could not vote
• Evidently it also prevented poor white families from voting too
Literacy Test
• A person had to read and explain difficult parts of state constitutions or the
federal Constitution
• Most A.A had very little education therefore they, too, were prevented from
voting
• However this also kept some whites from voting
Grandfather Clause
• This allowed individuals who did not pass the literacy test to vote if their
fathers or grandfathers had voted before Reconstruction
• A.A could not vote until 1867, therefore they were excluded
Jim Crow Laws
• Segregation (separation of the
races) was also prominent in the
southern culture
• The Jim Crow laws required
A.A and whites to be separated
in almost every public place
where they might come in
contact with each other
Plessy vs Ferguson
 This was a case which involved a Louisiana law that
required the separation of whites and A.A on trains
 Homer Plessy challenged the law by sitting in the
whites only section of the train
 He lost the case in the Supreme Court which ruled that
it was legal as long as AA had access to facilities or
accommodations equal to those of whites
Problem w/ Separate but
Equal
 Facilities were separate but in no way were they equal
 Southern states spent much more money on white only
facilities than those for AA
Violence
Against AA
• Lynching was prominent in the
south
• Angry mobs killed AA by
hanging them because they were
suspected of committing crimes
or because they did not behave
as whites thought they should
Impact of Reconstruction
Success
Failure
 Helped the south recover
form the war
 Still had a poor rural
economy
 Began rebuilding the
southern economy
 It did not make good on the
promise of true freedom for
freed AA
 AA gained greater equality
and joined with whites in
new governments
 Segregated society