Reconstruction in the South:
1865-1877
GPS SS8H6c
Analyze the impact of Reconstruction on
Georgia and other southern states
emphasizing Freedmen’s Bureau,
sharecropping and tenant farming,
Reconstruction plans, 13th, 14th, and 15th
amendments to the Constitution, Henry
McNeal Turner and black legislators, and
the Ku Klux Klan.
The Reconstruction time period involved:
Conflict between US government and the South
on:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
How ex-Confederate states will be re-admitted into the Union
How the Southern economy will recover from the war
How the rights of Free Blacks will be protected
How Whites and Blacks will relate to each other
Whether the South will be transformed or back to the way it was
before the Civil War
Who will influence the future of the South
Timeline of Reconstruction In Georgia
1865
1865
1866
1866
1867
1867
1868
1868
1868
13th Amendment (abolishes slavery)
Passage of Black Codes
Civil Rights Acts of 1866
14th Amendment (grants citizenship)
Establishment of Military Rule in the
South after all southern states reject 14th
Amendment
Blacks allowed to vote for first time in GA
Capital moved from Milledgeville to
Atlanta
Republican, Rufus Bullock, elected governor
31 African-American elected to General
Assembly
1868
African-Americans expelled from GA
Assembly
1869 Ku Klux Klan at height of its intimidation
1869 15th Amendment (grants all males right to vote)
1869 Congress passes Georgia Act (GA under
military control again)
1870 GA Supreme Court rules in favor of Black
legislators
1870 Georgia readmitted into Union after approving
of 14th and 15th Amendments
1871 Democrat James M. Smith elected new
governor (all governor will be Democrats until
2003)
***Reconstruction Era in GA officially ends***
What Helped the
Freedmen?
What Hurt the
Freedmen?
President Andrew Johnson’s
Plan (1865-66)
To reenter the Union, states had to
• swear allegiance to the Union
• ratify the 13th amendment





Was willing to pardon high-ranking Confederate
officers
Favored states’ rights on issues such as giving African
Americans the right to vote
Did not support the Freedman’s Bureau
Took a conciliatory approach
Radical Republicans
Reconstruction Plan (1867-70)

Supported the Freedman’s Bureau
• Created schools (public and black colleges—Atlanta U., Morehouse
and Clark)
• Created hospitals
• Created Industrial Institutes
• Created teacher-training centers
• Distributed food and clothing




Supported Civil Rights Act of 1866, which outlawed Black Codes
Passage of 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments required to reenter
Union
Divided the South into five military districts
Supported equal rights for African Americans
Characters in Reconstruction Georgia
Carpetbaggers—Northerners who moved South
Scalawags—Southerners who supported the Republicans
Rev. Henry McNeal Turner—one of the first African
Americans elected to Georgia General Assembly
Ku Klux Klan—tried to frightened freedmen from voting
and pursuing their civil rights
Military Governor—Officer who rules each military
district in the South.
Differences of Sharecropping and Tenant Farming
1.
2.
3.
4.
Landowners provided
land, a house, farming
tools and animals, seed,
and fertilizer
Workers agree to give
share of crops to owner
During growing season,
landowners let farmers
food, medicine,
clothing, and other
supplies on “credit”
Left sharecroppers
deeper in debt year
after year.
1.
2.
3.
Tenant farmers owned
some agricultural
equipment and farm
animals
Tenant farmers paid in
set cash price or share
of crop
Tenant farmers made
“small” profit to live on
Similarities between Sharecropping and Tenant Farming
1.
Workers were Black freedmen and poor Whites
2.
Lives filled with hard work and hardships
3.
Kept landowners farm in operations without paying
for labor
4.
Landowners also risk increased debt
5.
Contributed to ruining soil by growing cotton or
tobacco continuously
Compare and Contrast the Two Farming Systems of Reconstruction
South
Land owners
Sharecropping
Tenant Farming
Compare and Contrast Matrix Chart on
The Farming System of Post Civil War South
(SS8H6c)
Trait
Owns
equipment/animals
Blacks and “poor”
Whites
Made “small”
profit
Contributed to soil
damage
No money payment
for work
Given equipment
and animals to
work with
Food ands meds on
credit
Hard work and
misery
Risked increasing
debt
Owned land but no
money to pay
workers
Paid use of land
with share of crops
Paid use of land
with set price
(rent)
Sharecroppers
Tenant
Farmers
Land Owners