Aftermath of the Civil War:
Reconstruction
• Human toll of the Civil War: The North lost 364,000
soldiers. The South lost 260,000 soldiers.
• Between 1865 and 1877, the federal government carried
out a program to repair the damage to the South and
restore the southern states to the Union. This program
was known as Reconstruction.
• Black Southerners were starting out their new lives in a
poor region with slow economic activity.
• Plantation owners lost slave labor worth $3 billion.
• Poor white Southerners could not find work because of
new job competition from freedmen.
• The war had destroyed two thirds of the South’s shipping
industry and about 9,000 miles of railroad.
Presidential Reconstruction
• Now that the Union had been preserved, Lincoln came up with a
plan for rebuilding rather than punishing the South.
• Sadly, Lincoln would not live to see his Reconstruction plan
enacted. 5 days after the surrender at Appomattox, Lincoln was
killed.
• The presidency now fell to VP Andrew Johnson. Johnson was a
Southerner and former slave owner who had remained loyal to the
Union.
• He was sympathetic toward the South and formed his own plan of
Presidential Reconstruction. Under Johnson’s Presidential
Reconstruction:
– Southerners who swore allegiance to the Union were pardoned (forgiven)
– Former Confederate states could set up state govts
– States had to void (cancel) secession and ratify (approve) the 13th Amendment ,
which ended slavery.
– Once they met these requirements, Southern states could re-join the Union.
Black Codes
• As southern states were restored to the Union, they began to enact
black codes, laws that restricted freedmen’s rights. The black codes
established virtual slavery with provisions such as these:
– Curfews: Generally, black people could not gather after sunset.
– Vagrancy laws: Freedmen convicted of vagrancy– that is, not
working– could be fined, whipped, or sold for a year’s labor.
– Labor contracts: Freedmen had to sign agreements in January
for a year of work. Those who quit in the middle of a contract
often lost all the wages they had earned.
– Land restrictions: Freed people could rent land or homes only in
rural areas. This restriction forced them to live on plantations. As
a result, most former slaves became sharecroppers or tenant
farmers.
Black Codes
 Purpose:
*
*
Guarantee cheap labor
supply now that blacks
were emancipated.
Restore pre-emancipation
system of race relations.
 Forced many blacks to
become sharecroppers
[tenant farmers].
Radical Republicans &
Radical Reconstruction
• Radical Republicans who had gained the majority in Congress,
were outraged at the black codes Southern states were passing. In
response, they started Radical Reconstruction.
• Radical Republicans thought Johnson was too lenient on the South,
and his Reconstruction plan failed to offer African Americans full
citizenship rights.
• The Rad Repubs pushed the 1867 Reconstruction Act through
Congress, which established much stricter guidelines on the South.
• Under Radical Reconstruction:
–
–
–
–
The southern states were put under military rule.
Southern states had to write new constitutions.
African Americans were allowed to vote (15th Amendment).
Southern states had to guarantee equal citizenship rights to African Americans
(14th Amendment).
Reconstruction Legislation
14th Amendment
13th Amendment
(1865): ended slavery
in the U.S.
15th Amendment:
(1866): along with
Gave voting rights to
Civil Rights Act of
black males.
1866, it gave
Guaranteed that no
citizenship rights to
citizen may be denied
freed slaves.
the right to vote on
Guaranteed that no
any account of “race,
person, regardless of
color, or previous
race, would be denied
condition of servitude.”
life, liberty or property.
Johnson’s Impeachment
• President Johnson opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which
would give citizenship rights to freed slaves. Congress overrode his
veto, and passed the 14th Amendment.
• Angry that Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act, and fired Secretary
of War Edwin Stanton (a Radical Republican), the Radical
Republican Thaddeus Stevens voted to impeach (charge with
wrongdoing in order to remove from office) President Johnson.
• Johnson escaped removal from office by just one vote. He was one
of only 2 presidents to be impeached.
• Gold star if you can name the other president who was impeached!
The Freedmen’s Bureau
• In an effort to help freed slaves, Congress
created the Freedmen’s Bureau in 1865.
• As the 1st federal relief agency in US
history, the Freedmen’s Bureau provided
clothes, medical services, food, education
land, and job placement services to
African Americans coming out of slavery.
• It helped many slaves transition to
freedom in the South, but was met with
resistance fro southern whites.
Freedmen’s Bureau School
Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)
 Bureau of Refugees,
Freedmen, and
Abandoned Lands.
 Many former northern
abolitionists risked their
lives to help southern
freedmen.
 Called “carpetbaggers”
by white southern
Democrats.
Education for Freedmen
• With the help of the Freedmen’s Bureau,
newly freed African Americans established
the first historically black churches and
schools during Reconstruction.
• Atlanta Baptist Seminary, Morehouse
College, etc.
• Morehouse College = “black Harvard”
Establishment of Historically
Black Colleges in the South
Hotlanta
• Prominent Morehouse
grads.
African Americans in Politics
• Radical Reconstruction gave African
Americans access to political involvement600 blacks served in southern state
legislatures, and 1 served as governor of
LA. Several blacks were elected to
Congress.
• Political opportunities for blacks led to
conflicts with southern white Democrats.
Black Senate & House Delegates
Chapter 12, Section 4
1860s
Reconstruction
begins.
1900s-1940s Jim Crow
laws prevent African
Americans from voting
1870s
Reconstruction
ends.
1950s-1960s
Civil Rights
movement begins.
The Ku Klux Klan
•
•
•
•
•
The Klan sought to eliminate the
Republican Party in the South by
intimidating voters.
They wanted to keep African
Americans as submissive laborers
and prevent them from voting.
They planted burning crosses on
the lawns of their victims and
tortured, kidnapped, or murdered
them.
Prosperous African Americans,
carpetbaggers (northerners who
came to the South to do business
or help blacks), and scalawags
(southern republicans who
supported Reconstruction)
became their victims.
Racial hatred fueled by the
American media
The Federal Response
• In 1870 and 1871, Congress
passed a series of anti-Klan
laws.
• The Enforcement Act of 1870
banned the use of terror, force,
or bribery to prevent people
from voting.
• Other laws banned the KKK
and used the military to protect
voters and voting places.
• As federal troops withdrew
from the South, black suffrage
all but ended.
The “Invisible Empire of the
South”
Assessment
What was the first major federally funded relief agency in the
United States?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
The Red Cross
The Freedmen’s Bureau
The United Hospital System
The Agency for Public Schooling
What did the Fourteenth Amendment Guarantee?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Voting rights for African Americans
The rights of white planters to keep their land
Civil rights for all citizens of the United States
Congress’s right to amend the Constitution
Sharecropping & Tenant Farming
• Although Southern blacks now had freedom, most had no land or
money.
• Many freed black turned to sharecropping or tenant farming to
survive.
• Under sharecropping, a family farmed a portion of a white
landowner’s land in return for housing and a share of the crop.
• Many sharecroppers fell victim to dishonest landowners who
cheated them of their fair share at settle.
• Tenant farmers paid rent to farm the land and owned the crops that
they grew. They could choose what to grow, while sharecropper
couldn’t.
• Both systems were designed to keep African Americans working on
white-owned land. And it went on this way until WWII.
Sharecropping and the Cycle of
Debt
Chapter 12, Section 3
5. Sharecropper
cannot leave the
farm as long as he
is in debt to the
landlord.
4. At harvest time, the
sharecropper owes
more to the landlord
than his share of the
crop is worth.
1. Poor whites and
freedmen have no
jobs, no homes, and
no money to buy land.
2. Poor whites and
freedmen sign contracts
to work a landlord’s
acreage in exchange for
a part of the crop.
3. Landlord keeps track of
the money that
sharecroppers owe him
for housing and food.
Rebuilding the South
• Atlanta, the city that had been burned to the ground by Sherman’s
army, began to rebuild and was becoming a major metropolis of the
South.
• One problem with the industrialization of the South was that most
southern factories handled the earlier, less profitable stages of
manufacturing. The items were shipped north to be made into
finished products and sold.
• Rebuilding the South’s infrastructure, the public property and
services that a society uses, was one giant business opportunity.
• Roads, bridges, canals, railroads, and telegraph lines had to be
rebuilt.
• Funds were also needed to expand services to southern citizens.
Following the North’s example, all southern states created public
school systems by 1872.
Chapter 12, Section 3
How was sharecropping different from tenant farming?
(A) Tenant farmers were promised a share of the crop at harvest time.
(B) Tenant farmers could not leave the plantation if they owed money
to the planter.
(C) Tenant farmers could choose which crops to plant.
(D) Planters usually provided housing for the tenant farmers.
Why was industrialization more successful in the North than in
the South?
(A) Southerners did not put emphasis on rebuilding their infrastructure.
(B) Southern industrial growth came from cotton mills.
(C) Southern factories handled the earlier, less profitable stages of
manufacturing.
(D) Southern states spent too much money on building public schools.
The End of Reconstruction
• The presidential election of 1876 was disputed. Rutherford B. Hayes
lost the popular vote, but the electoral vote was contested.
• Democrats submitted a set of tallies showing Samuel Tilden, who
had the support of the Solid South, as the winner.
• Finally, the two parties made a deal. In what became known as the
Compromise of 1877, the Democrats agreed to give Hayes the
victory. In return, the new President agreed to support
appropriations for rebuilding the levees along the Mississippi River
and to remove the remaining federal troops from southern states.
• The compromise opened the way for Democrats to regain control of
southern politics and marked the end of Reconstruction.
The End of Reconstruction
• There were four main factors that contributed to the end of
Reconstruction.
– Corruption: Reconstruction legislatures and Grant’s
administration came to symbolize corruption, greed, and poor
government.
– The economy: Reconstruction legislatures taxed and spent
heavily, putting the southern states deeper into debt.
– Violence: As federal troops withdrew from the South, some white
Democrats used violence and intimidation to prevent freedmen
from voting. This tactic allowed white Southerners to regain
control of the state governments.
– The Democrats’ return to power: The pardoned ex-Confederates
combined with other white Southerners to form a new bloc of
Democratic voters known as the Solid South. They blocked
Reconstruction policies.
Successes
Failures
Union is restored.
Many white southerners remain bitter
toward the federal government and the
Republican Party.
The South’s economy grows and new
wealth is created in the North.
The South is slow to industrialize.
Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments
guarantee African Americans the rights
of citizenship, equal protection under the
law, and suffrage.
After federal troops are withdrawn,
southern state governments and terrorist
organizations effectively deny African
Americans the right to vote.
Freedmen’s Bureau and other
organizations help many black families
obtain housing, jobs, and schooling.
Many black and white southerners
remain caught in a cycle of poverty.
Southern states adopt a system of
mandatory education.
Racist attitudes toward African
Americans continue, in both the South
and the North.
Chapter 12, Section 4
What were the four factors that contributed to the end of
Reconstruction?
(A) Corruption, the economy, violence, and the return of the Democrats to
power
(B) Sharecropping, industrialization, violence and the Fourteenth
Amendment
(C) Tenant farming, corruption, violence and the Democratic return to
power
(D) Increased military presence in the South, sharecropping, the
economy, and violence