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United States faced serious problems
after the Civil War. Much of the South had
been destroyed. During the years known as
Reconstruction, Southern states would
rebuild their economies and become part
of the United States again.
Planr for Reconstnuction
Lincoln's goals for Reconstruction were
to reunite all of the states and to rebuild the
country. Lincoln planned to allow Southern
states to rejoin the Union if one tenth
of
their voters would take an oath to be loyal
to the Union. One group in
Congress,
which became known as the Radical
Republicans, disagreed with Lincoln,s
plan. They believed that the South was to
blame for the war and should be punished.
Lincoln vetoed the harsh Reconstruction
plan passed by Congress. Before Lincoln
and the Congress could compromise on a
plan, Lincoln was assassinated.
Vice President Andrew Iohnson became
President. Johnson had a Reconstruction
plan that was like the plan
Congress
had passed, but the Radical Republicans
rejected it. The Radical Republicans believed
that Iohnson's plan did not punish the
South enough.
225
The Radical Republicans became
furious when people who had been
Confederate leaders were elected to
congress and to state governments. They
were also furious when Southern states
passed laws called Black Codes. These laws
treated African Americans as if they were
still slaves. Congress created an agency
called the Freedmen's Bureau to help the
freedmen, slaves who became free after the
Civil War. The Black Codes in the South
said freedmen could only work as farmers
or house servants. Freedmen had to carry
special passes when they traveled. They
could not serve on juries or vote. Since the
Republicans controlled Congress, they
decided to use their power to change what
was happening in the South.
Gongress and Reconstruction
The Radical Republicans created their
own Reconstruction plan. Their first action
was to pass a Civil Rights Act in 1866. This
law said that African Americans were
American citizens and had equal rights
under the law Next the Republicans wanted
to add the Fourteenth Amendment to the
Constitution. President Iohnson campaigned
against the amendment and the Radical
Republicans. Despite fohnson's efforts,
Republicans won control of Congress in
By lhe end of the CivilWor, much of the the South looked like the photogroph below of Richmond,
Virginio. Mony soldiers relurned to their homes to find thot they hod been destroyed. Throughout the
roilroods, bridses ond bu ld nss would hove ro be rebuih.
^r:,*', t:.,,"',
@or-
the election of
tAOe . The Fourteenth
Amendment was ratified in i868.
The Fourteenth Amendment has been
called the Equal Rights Amendment. The
amendment said that all people born in
the United States were citizens of their
state
and the nation. This included African
Americans. The amendment also said that
states could not make laws that took
away
the rights of citizens. States had to give all
people due process under the law.
In 1867 the Republicans passed the
Reconstruction Act. The act had five parts.
First, any state governments in the south
that had been created under Lincoln,s plan
or lohnson's plan were not recognized by
Congress. Instead federal rroops would be
sent to rule the South. Second, people who
had been Confederate soldiers or leaders
could notvote or hold public office. Third,
all other white men and all African
American men could vote and be elected
to public office. Fourth, Southern stares
had to write new state constitutions that
guaranteed AfricanAmerican men the right
to vote. Fifth, all Southern states had to
ratifi/ the Fourteenth Amendment before
they could rejoin the Union.
Iohnson vetoed Congress,s plan for
Reconstruction, but Congress passed it
again and the Reconstruction Act became
law. By i870 all Southern stares had ratified
the Fourteenth Amendment and had
rejoined the Union.
The lmpaachmcnt of Johnron
The Radical Republicans
disliked
Andrew Iohnson because he opposed their
Reconstruction plans. They wanted to
After the CivilWor, Africon Americans
hod the right to vote. Their votes helped to
elecl Africon Americon leoders during the
yeors
of
Reconstruction.
remove Iohnson from the job of president.
According to the Constitution, the House
of Representatives can impeach a president
who commits crimes. Then the president is
put on trial in the Senate. If two thirds of
the senators find the president guilty, the
President loses his job.
In 1868 the House
of
Representatives
voted to impeach Iohnson. Congress had
never before voted to impeach a president.
Iohnson was accused of not carrying out
the Reconstruction plan of Congress and of
breaking the Tenure in Office Act. Congress
had passed the Tenure of Office Act to have
power over the President. This law said that
he could not fire anyone without the Senate,s
approval. When the president fired Edwin
Stanton, the secretary of war, Iohnson had
broken the Tenure of Office Act.
After Iohnson was impeached, he had a
trial in the Senate that lasted three months.
227
The Senate needed 36 vores to find
Iohnson guilty. Only 35 senators voted
against him. The other senators correctly
believed that Iohnson was a poor leader
and a poor President, but he had not
committed crimes. Iohnson finished his
term as President.
In November 1868 the popular Union
war hero, General Ulysses S. Grant, was
elected President. For the first time, African
Americans were able to vote in an election
for President. They helped Grant win.
Crant did a poor job as President. Many of
the people whom he appointed stole money
from the government. Still, in 1872, Grant
was reelected to a second term.
Most Africon Americons
Under President Crant, the Fifteenth
Amendment became part of the Constitution
in 1870. This amendment said citizens
cannot be denied the right to vote because
of their race. Therefore, African American
men had the right to vote. Women were not
yet allowed to vote in any state, but they
could vote in the Territory of Wyoming.
The South During Reconstruction
During Reconstruction the South
was
controlled by three groups-carpetbaggers,
scalawags, and African Americans.
Carpetbaggers came from the North. They
were called carpetbaggers because travelers
who had been s/oves remoined in the South as formers. They storted
small forms on lond thot they rented from the plontotion owners They poid for the use of the lond by
giving the owner port of the crops they roised.
228
carried their clothing in bags made of
carpet material. Some carpetbaggers
really
tried to help the South, but many used
th.eir power to get rich. Scala*rg, *...
white Republican Southerners. They
became the largest group in Reconstruction
governments. Before the wa, most
scalawags had been small farmers.
After the
war they wanted the power that had
belonged to rich plantation owners. Most
former Confederates hated the scalawags.
African Americans had a small role in
govemment while the Union Army controlled
the South. During Reconstruction many
African Americans were elected to public
office in state govemments. AIso, 22 African
Americans were elected to Congress. Two
of
these men became senators. One of
these
two senators was Blanche Bruce from
Mississippi. In the Senate, he worked to
help African Americans, Indians, and
they did not have money to buy land,
seeds, tools, and farm animals, they were
forced to become sharecropp..., th.y
rented farmland by giving landowners a
share of their crops. They paid for the use
of their tools, seeds, and farm animals with
another share of their crops. This system
forced sharecroppers to give more than
half of their crops to the landowners.
They had few crops left to sell or to use for
themselves, so sharecroppers remained very
poor year after year.
In
1866 white Southerners started a
secret organization in the South called the
Ku Klux Klan. Members wore white hoods
and white robes. Their goal was to srop
freedmen from using the new rights they
had won. Many freedmen were beaten and
many others were killed by the Klan.
Tha End of Reconstruction
Chinese immigrants
win equal rights. Bruce
was respected because he was an honest
senator who cared about helping different
groups of Americans.
Africen Amenicans in the South
After the Ciuil War
After the Civil War, there were four
million freedmen who had no moneyr no
land, no jobs, and no education. The
Freedmen's Bureau gave African Americans
and poorwhites food, dothing, and medical
care. It started new hospitals and more
than
4,000 public schools. The Bureau also started
several universities for African Americans.
Freedmen needed jobs after the war,
but there were few kinds of work besides
farming that they knew how to do. Since
ln
7872, while Grant was president,
Congress passed a law that allowed most
Confederates ro vote and hold public
office. Once that happened, Democrats
slowly won control of the South just as
they had before the Civil War.
During the election of
tg7 6,
Democratic Governor Samuel Tilden of
New York ran against Republican Governor
Rutherford Hayes of Ohio. To win the
election, one candidate needed a majority
of electoral votes. Each side said it had won
a majority of electoral votes. Each side also
said there had been cheating during the
election. Since it was hard to decide which
candidate was the real winner, Congress
created a special committee to choose
the President. That committee chose Hayes
,rq
The decision
of the Supreme Court
in the I 896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson kept
segregotion in the United Stotes until the l95Os.
as the winner of the election
after
Democrats and Republicans worked out
a compromise.
Under this Compromise of 1877, Hayes
promised to remove all federal troops
from the South. He also promised that
federal money would be used to build
southem railroads. The Democrats accepted
this compromise.
In March 1877, Hayes became the new
President. He ordered federal troops to leave
the South. Reconstruction had ended.
The South
After Beconstruction
The Fifteenth Amendment was supposed
to protect the right of African Americans to
vote. When federal troops left, Southern
governments passed laws that took away
230
that right. One law required voters to pay a
special poll tax in order to vote. Most
African Americans were too poor to pay the
tax. Another law required people to pass a
difficult literacy test. In order to allow
poor whites to vote, these laws had grandfather clauses. These clauses said that people whose grandfather had voted in 1867
did not have to pay poll taxes or pass literacy tests to vote. These laws allowed poor
whites to vote but made it impossible for
most African Americans to vote.
Covernments throughout the South
also began to pass segregation laws called
|im Crow laws. These laws kept African
Americans and whites apart in public
places, such as schools, hotels, beaches,
churches, and restaurants.
In 1896 the Supreme Court protected
segregation in a case called Plessy v.
Ferguson. Homer Plessy, an African
American, wanted to ride in the same railroad
cars as white people. The Court ruled
against Plessy and said that states could
pass segregation laws to keep African
Americans and white people apart.
However, the public places for African
Americans had to be equal to those for
whites. Whites used this decision to carry
out segregation until the 1950s.
In I776 the United States had started
with the goal that this nation would allow
all people to have freedom and equality.
The years after Reconstruction proved that
this goal had not been reached. But the
Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth
Amendments gave the nation better tools
for reaching its goal. Many years later,
those amendments would finally allow all
Americans to have equal rights.