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Chapter 15, Henretta
RECONSTRUCTION
Important strands in Chapter 15
1. How to Restore the Union?
A drama in three acts. The major players…
o Presidents Lincoln and Johnson, who wanted to make it
easy and quick for the South to rejoin the Union, while
protecting the Thirteenth Amendment
o Radical Republicans, who wanted to create real political
rights for former slaves however long it took (but didn’t
recognize that political power needed economic power to
make it effective)
o African-Americans, who were ready to take full advantage
of the implied promise of land, voting rights and education
o Ex-Confederates, who wanted by any means to restore the
power they’d lost in the Civil War
Important strands in Chapter 15
Act One: Presidential Reconstruction
Presidents Lincoln and Johnson welcome back Southern
states, who promptly enact Black Codes to restore slavery in
everything but name.
Act Two: Radical Reconstruction
Radical Republicans impeached President Johnson, pushed
through two more constitutional amendments and several civil
rights acts, and pushed aside the Southern governments
approved by Johnson. Stripping ex-Confederates of the vote
and enforcing black voting rights, they ensured the election of
reformist Republican governments throughout the South.
These governments extended black rights … and tried to bring
the North’s rapid economic development to the South.
Important strands in Chapter 15
Act Three: The Confederate Counterrevolution
Ex-Confederates take advantage of scandal and weariness in
the North to take back the governments of the South. The
Democrats become their party; the Ku Klux Klan and other
violent militias terrorize their opponents. A sympathetic U.S.
Supreme Court strips the Civil War constitutional amendments
of their power to protect black rights.
Important strands in Chapter 15
Epilogue: The Three Civil War Amendments
Even though they didn’t accomplish much after exConfederates took back Southern governments, they were the
later underpinning of most civil-rights gains in the 20th century
13th Amendment: abolishes slavery
14th Amendment: protects citizenship rights in several ways,
particularly by guaranteeing equal protection of the laws to all
citizens and forcing states to abide by the Bill of Rights (which
formerly restricted only the federal government)
15th Amendment: guarantees voting rights regardless of race,
color or previous condition of servitude
Important strands in Chapter 15
2. A new life for African-Americans
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Sharecropping and wage labor replace slave labor
Freedmen’s Schools and black colleges
Black-owned businesses for a black community
African-American churches
Briefly, political power in Congress and statehouses
3. An unchanged life for women
Abolitionists, the Supreme Court and the drafters of the
Fifteenth Amendment tell women to wait for their rights; it’s
not yet their time.