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Reconstruction
1865-1877
Reconstruction
•The federal government’s
controversial effort to repair the
damage to the south and restore
the southern states to the Union
•Carried out from 1865 to 1877 and
involved three US presidents:
Lincoln, Johnson, and Grant
• War destroyed 2/3 of southern shipping
and 9,000 miles of Railroad.
• Farms were destroyed
• property prices dropped 70% The war
destroyed a generation of young,
healthy men
• 364,000 Northern soldiers died
• 260,000 Southern men died (1/5 of
adult white men)
Postwar south was made up of 3
groups of people
Black southerners: 4 million freed people were
starting their new lives in a poor region with
little economic activity
Poor White Southerners: The war cost them
their lives and gave them nothing
Plantation Owners:
lost slave labor worth $3 billion
couldn’t afford to hire workers
often had to sell property to cover debts
Lincoln’s Plan for
Reconstruction
Called the 10% Plan
of Reconstruction
1. Offered pardons to Confederates
who’d take an oath of allegiance to the
Union
2. Denied pardons to confederate military
and government officials
3. Permitted states to hold a constitutional
convention only when 10% of voters
swore allegiance to the Union States
Could then hold elections to resume full
participation in the government
-Radical Republicans viewed
Lincoln’s plan as too lenient.
-Congress passed its own stricter
reconstruction laws
-Lincoln let the bill die in a pocket
veto and died 1 month later
Johnson’s Plan:
• Pardoned southerners who
swore allegiance to the union
• permitted each state to hold a
constitutional convention
• required states to void
secession, abolish slavery, and
ratify the 13th amendment
• States could hold elections and
resume participation in the
Union
Andrew
Johnson
• Freedom to learn
• freedom to
worship
• Freedom of
movement
• Freedom to own
land
Freedmen’s Bureau
• Created by Congress to help black
Southerners adjust to freedom
• First major federal relief agency in
US history
• 250,000 African American students
got their education in a Freedmen’s
school
Black Codes
Post war south set-up
laws that restricted
the freedmen’s rights
Included: curfews,
vagrancy laws, labor
contracts, limits on
women’s rights,
and land
restrictions
• Civil Rights Act ( personal
1868
liberties guaranteed by law)
attempted by Congress in
1866
th
14 Amendment
ratified
• All people born or naturalized
in the United States are citizens
of the US and the state in which
they live
Radical Reconstruction
• Radical Republicans opposed
Johnson’s plans
• Opposed the spread of black codes
• Brutality against blacks caused
them to put their plan for
reconstruction into action
Reconstruction Act of 1867
• Put the south into five military
districts which would be
governed by a Northern general
Reconstruction Act of 1867
• Ordered Southern states to hold new elections
for delegates to create new state constitutions
• Required states to allow ALL qualified male
voters to vote in the elections
• Temporarily barred Southerners who had
supported the Confederacy from voting
• Required Southern states to guarantee equal
rights to all citizens
• Required states to ratify the 14th amendment
Radical Republicans
Massachusetts
Senator Charles
Sumner
Pennsylvania
Congressmen
Thaddeus Stevens
Radical Republicans
Struggled with
Johnson over
the firing of
Secretary of
War Stanton
February 24 1868, the
House voted to impeach
(charge him with
wrongdoing) Johnson
May 1868, Senate tried
Johnson for “high
crimes and
misdemeanors”
2/3 of Senate needed to vote
to convict Johnson
He escaped by 1 vote!
Impeachment
Election of 1868
• Ulysses S. Grant beat Democrat
Horatio Seymour, former
Governor of New York
th
15 Amendment
• Feb. 1869, Congress passed the
15th Amendment
• No citizen could be denied the
right to vote based on race, color,
or previous condition of servitude
PBS Pinchback
• First African
American
elected
Governor of
Louisiana
Blanche Bruce
• First African
American
elected
Senator in
Mississippi
Carpetbaggers
• Northern
Republicans
who moved
South
Scalawags
•White
Southern
Republicans
Sharecropping
• Freed people
needed jobs
• Plantation owners
needed workers
• A new farming
system developed
in the South
Sharecropping
• Workers farmed
some portion of the
land in exchange for
a share of the crop
at harvest time
• The planter
provided housing
for the family
Tenant Farming
• Workers paid to rent the land
• Could choose what to plant and
when to work
• Of higher social status than the
sharecroppers
Changes in Farming affected the
Southern Economy
• Change in labor force: 90% black
before the war- 40% white laborers
in 1875
• Emphasis on cash crops: had to
import much of its food
Changes in Farming affected the
Southern Economy
• Cycle of debt caused rural poverty
among blacks and whites
• Rise of a merchant class: stores
provided plantation supplies on
credit
• The rebuilding and extension of the
Southern railroads turned Southern
villages into towns, villages into cities
• Big cities included:
Atlanta, Richmond, Nashville, Memphis,
Louisville, Little Rock, Montgomery,
Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, and Fort
Worth
•Reconstruction didn’t turn the
South into the industrialized
center like the North
Most industrial Growth came
from Cotton Mills
Infrastructure
• Public property and services
a society uses
• Had to be rebuilt in the South
• Created public school
systems by 1866
Ku Klux Klan
Formed as a Southern social
club in Tennessee in 1866
Evolved into a terrorist
organization
Sought to eliminate
Republican party in the
South
Force Act
Encouraged by
President Grant
Banned the use of
terror, force, or
bribery to prevent
people from voting
because of their race
Election of
1872
• Grant
reelected
Election of 1876
• Hayes did not
win a clear cut
victory of
Electoral votes
Compromise of 1877
Democrats agreed
to give Hayes the
victory in the
1876 election
Successes of Reconstruction
• Rebuilt the Union and repaired the
war-torn South
• Stimulated economic growth in South,
new wealth in the North
• passed the 14th and 15th Amendments
• Established the Freedmen’s Bureau
• Established public schools in the
South
Failures of Reconstruction
• most blacks remained in poverty
• KKK denied blacks the right to
vote
• Racist attitudes continued
• Bitterness in South towards
Federal government and
Republicans
• South was slow to industrialize