Download Reconstruction Section 3.3 Notes

OR?

What needs to be fixed
anyway?

 The South is devastated.
 Freed blacks need help.
Towns gutted
Plantations burned
Fields neglected
Bridges and railroads
destroyed
 Landowners stripped of
slaves and money
 Starvation &
homelessness




 3,500,000 men and
women freed
 Searching for new life,
freedom, education,
citizenship, and equality
 Nowhere to go, mostly
with only the clothes on
their backs
Current Issue(s): Equality, Racism, Affirmative Action

RECONSTRUCTION
Chapter 3, Section 3 (pgs. 140-149)

GOALS:
 Compare and contrast various government plans for Civil
War Reconstruction
 Evaluate the effectiveness of Reconstruction legislation in
enforcing the rights of citizens and equalizing opportunities
3 Plans for Reconstruction

1. President Abraham Lincoln’s Plan
 Dad
2. Congress’ Plan (Radical & Moderate Republicans)
 Grandparents
3. Vice President/President Andrew Johnson’s Plan
 Mom
Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan:
 Grants amnesty to Confederates who take an oath of
loyalty
 Requires 10% of a state’s voting population to take an
oath of allegiance before being readmitted to the Union
- Lincoln’s “10% Plan”
 Requires all states to ratify the 13th Amendment before
being readmitted to the Union
 Wants to reconcile with the South rather than
punishing it
Congress’ Plan (i.e. Radical Republicans):
Harshest on former Confederates/Southerners
Did NOT want to grant amnesty to all former
Confederate citizens
Requires all states to ratify the 13th Amendment
before being readmitted to the Union
 Wanted the Federal government to be responsible for
ensuring political equality (voting rights) for African
Americans because they feared that state
governments would not help at all
Johnson’s Plan:
Andrew Johnson – Lincolns’ VP; takes over
presidency after Lincoln’s assassination;
member of democratic party from Tennessee
 Most forgiving to former
Confederates/Southerners
 Grants amnesty to Confederates who take an
oath of loyalty
 Requires all states to ratify the 13th Amendment
before being readmitted to the Union
SO, THOSE WERE THE PLANS ON
HOW TO “REBUILD/RECONSTRUCT”
THE U.S.A.
-BUTWHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED???
Reconstruction Begins
March 1865 – Lincoln & Congress establish the
Freedmen’s Bureau
Freedmen – newly freed slaves
Freedman’s Bureau - created to help newly freed
slaves in the South start a new life
Johnson Takes Office
April 1865 – V.P. Andrew Johnson takes over
presidency after Lincoln’s Assassination
 Johnson begins to implement his “most forgiving”
Reconstruction plan:
 This results in the newly established Southern state
legislatures being allowed to pass laws known as Black
Codes
 Black Codes – laws passed by Southern legislatures
aimed at controlling freedmen and enabling plantation
owners to exploit Black workers
Congress’ Reconstruction
December 1865 – Congress returns back to work for its next
session and is furious over what Johnson has allowed to
happen
 Congress attempts to “right the ship” by implementing its
“harshest” Reconstruction plan:
 14th Amendment: declared that no state could deny any
person “equal protection of the laws” (designed to override
Black Codes)
 Military Reconstruction Act: divided the former
Confederacy, except for Tennessee, into 5 military districts
 15th Amendment: declared that the right to vote, “shall not
be denied…on account of race, color, or previous condition
of servitude” (but denies Native Americans & women)
 Command of the Army Act & Tenure of Office Act
(Johnson fires Stanton, leads to his impeachment)
Blacks make gains in the South
Reconstruction “going well” in terms of AfricanAmerican rights and opportunities due to
implementation of Congress’ Reconstruction
plan:
 Blacks enter politics as legislators and administrators:
 Delegates for new state constitutions
 Mayors, police chiefs, House of Representatives (14) and Senate
(2)
 Gained control of the South Carolina legislature for one term
 Freedman’s Bureau creates schools and churches which
serve as the center of communities
Republican Rule
November 1868 – Republican candidate and former
Union Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant elected President
 Although a Republican, Grant won several southern
states because Union troops in the South enabled large
numbers of African Americans to vote
 Carpetbaggers – Northerners who travel South to be
elected in new state governments
 Scalawags – Southerners who supported Reconstruction,
usually small businessmen and farmers against
plantation control
 Republicans have support of poor white farmers, blacks,
and carpetbaggers
 Republicans created state hospitals, rebuilt roads,
railways, and bridges, and industries
Southern Resistance
Southern Resistance to Republican Reforms in the
South:
 Opponents of Reconstruction unable to openly fight
Republicans
 Former Confederate soldiers start secret societies like the Ku
Klux Klan to fight back (1866)
 American terrorism – harass, murder African Americans, white
Republicans, carpetbaggers and teachers in black schools
 Enforcement Acts outlawed activities of KKK (3,000 arrested,
600 convicted, few served time in prison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CTG58jIlNA
“The Wizard of the Saddle”
 Nathan Bedford Forrest killed
31 men and had 30 horses shot
from under him
AGREE:
 General in the Confederate
Army
 Massacred 300 black men,
women and children at Ft.
Pillow in 1864.
 After the war, he became the
first Grand Wizard of the Ku
Klux Klan
Billie Holiday
Released 1939


Without Sanctuary

Link to lynching history
site
Strange Fruit – Song Link
Grant’s Second Term
November 1872 – Ulysses S. Grant reelected to 2nd
term as president
Grant’s failed Presidency:
 Grant reelected (1872) but during his 2nd term
Republicans suffered politically due to scandals
and the nation’s deepening economic depression
 Overall, Grant believed that the president’s
primary role was to carry out the laws and leave
the development of policy to Congress
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCZLae7kuTI
Reconstruction Ends
Due to Republican political failings, Democrats
regain political power in the South

Compromise of 1877:
 Disputed presidential election of 1876 between
Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) and Samuel
Tilden (Democrat)
Historical Significance:
 “Under the table” deal made between Congress &
Republican Party that, if Hayes is elected President,
the Republicans will pull federal troops out of the
South and end military reconstruction
The Failure of Reconstruction
Reconstruction was ineffective at ensuring the
rights of all citizens:

 As federal troops are removed from the south (ending
military reconstruction) Southern Democrats regain
political power and control of the South
 This results in Sharecropping, Black Codes & the
continued discrimination of African Americans
 This would cause the need for a Civil Rights
Movement nearly 100 years later
 A little more industrialism but still mainly
agriculturally-based
 “the more things change, the more they remain the
same”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn23FIhUHQc Reconstruction in 10 minutes
Tell the story of the chronological progression of
Reconstruction by making connections between the
following items:
1. Lincoln’s Assassination
2. Johnson takes over as President
3. Congress Implements its own Reconstruction Plan
4. Grant’s Failed Presidency
5. Compromise of 1877
6. Reconstruction Ends/The Failure of Reconstruction