Download Reconstruction Powerpoint

1865-1876
Reconstruction Period
• The biggest issue
facing the nation after
the war was how to
best repair the damage
done throughout the
country.
• Many southern cities
were completely
destroyed during the
war.
Total War
• The idea of Total War
was to defeat the
enemy completely.
• Leave no doubt in the
minds of your
opponents that you
have won.
• Complete destruction.
Charlestown, SC
Charlestown, SC
Charlestown, SC
Richmond, VA
Richmond, VA
Richmond, VA
Richmond, VA
Richmond, VA
Harper’s Ferry, VA
Reconstruction Plans
Presidential
Reconstruction
• Lincoln’s Plan
• “With malice towards none”
• 10% Plan – Ten percent of
Southern voters in each
state had to swear loyalty
to the United States
before that state could be
re-admitted to the Union
• Each southern state had to
ratify the 13th and 14th
amendments
Congressional
Reconstruction
• Radical Republican Plan
• Punish the South
• Majority Plan- A majority
of southern voters in each
state had to swear
loyalty to the United
States before that state
could be re-admitted to
the Union
• Each southern state had
to ratify the 13th and
14th amendments
Reconstruction Act
of 1867
Passed by the Radical
Republicans in 1867
 Divided The South into 5
military districts
 Each “sector” was controlled
by a Union general
 Congress wanted to make
sure that the southern
states were not depriving
freedmen of their rights
The Civil War Amendments
• The 13th Amendment
• The 14th Amendment
• The 15th Amendment
The
th
13
Amendment
“Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude…..shall exist within the
United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.”
-ratified December 6, 1865
The
th
14
Amendment
“All persons born or naturalized
in the United States…are
citizens of the United
States…No state shall make or
enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges or
immunities of citizens of the
United States; nor shall any
state deprive any person of
life, liberty or property
without due process of law.”
- ratified July 9, 1868
The
th
15
Amendment
“The right of citizens
of the United
States to vote shall
not be denied or
abridged by the
United States or
any state on account
of race, color, or
previous condition of
servitude.”
-ratified February 2, 1870
Freedmen
Men and women living in the South
who had once been slaves
 there were four million freedmen
 as slaves they were not permitted
to own property or read and write
What would become of them???
The Freedmen’s Bureau
The Freedmen’s Bureau was
created to help ex-slaves
and poor whites after
the Civil War
 gave food and clothing
 provided medical care for
over 1 million people
 tried to help freedmen
find jobs
 set up schools for over
300,000 ex-slaves
The Freedmen’s Bureau
was the most important
accomplishment of the
Reconstruction period
Segregation
Segregation is the separation of people
of different races in public places. After
1877, segregation became a way of life
for southern Blacks
Legalizing Segregation
Black Codes
Laws which severely
limited
the rights
As a result
of theof
Blacks
14th Amendment,
 Blacks
own
Black couldn’t
Codes were
guns
declared
 Blacks
couldn’t vote
Unconstitutional.
 Blacks couldn’t serve
on juries
“Jim Crow” Laws
Laws which legalized
segregation – This was
not yet illegal under
the 14th Amendment.
 Separate schools
 Separate churches
 Separate hospitals
 Separate parks
 Separate cemeteries
 Separate restaurants
SEPARATE
EVERYTHING
Jim Crow
The KKK
(Ku Klux Klan)
A secret society founded in 1869 whose
purpose was to restore “white Christian
supremacy” in The South. Members used
terror and violence to keep Black men
from voting.
Their “calling card”
was a burning cross;
their “signature”
method of punishment
was “lynching”
Sharecropping
Freedmen had very few opportunities after
The Civil War, so many became sharecroppers.
Sharecroppers lived and farmed the land
provided by “planters.” They were given seed,
fertilizer and tools. In return, the “planters”
received a share of the crops at harvest time.
Sharecroppers barely had enough
food for their own families and
often became locked in a “cycle
of poverty”
Carpetbaggers
Carpetbaggers were northerners who went
to the South after the Civil War hoping to
profit from the South’s misery
These “fortune hunters”
were called carpetbaggers
because they carried their
belongings in cheap
suitcases. These individuals
became a hated symbol of
Reconstruction
Scalawags
Scalawags were white southerners who
supported the new Republican governments
in the South. Many ex-Confederates
considered them “traitors” because they
wanted to forget the war and go on with
rebuilding the South
Scalawags were named
after small, scruffy
horses
Amnesty
Government “pardon” (forgiveness)
to those who swore loyalty to
the United States
Lincoln wanted
to make it
easy for The
South
The “Radical
Republicans”
wanted to
punish The
South
What If????
Would life in The South have been
different if Abraham Lincoln had
lived????
Andrew Johnson,
Lincoln’s vice
president, was not
well liked and
couldn’t carry out
Lincoln’s plan for
Reconstruction
Impeach
Impeach- to bring charges
against
 The Constitution states that
a president can be
impeached for “high crimes
and misdemeanors”
 Andrew Johnson was
“framed” by the Republicans
in Congress
The Tenure of Office
Act
• The Tenure of Office
Act stated that the
president could not “fire”
a cabinet member – only
Congress could. When
Johnson fired Secretary
Stanton, Congress
impeached Johnson
• A 2/3 vote of the
Senate is needed to
convict a president
• The vote in Congress was
35-19. Congress was one
vote short of conviction
The Election of 1876
There
were 4
“disputed”
states:
-Florida
-Louisiana
-South
Carolina
-Oregon
which
totaled
20
Electoral
votes
whoever won the 20 votes would be the next president……
…and the winner is
Hayes was a democrat
who needed all 20
electoral votes to win.
A compromise was
reached: Hayes won
all 20 votes and
became president. In
return, HE AGREED
TO END RECONSTRUCTION
suffrage
The right to vote
Black men were given the right to vote in
the 15th amendment. Or were they?????
voting restrictions
poll taxes
grandfather
clauses
literacy
tests
racism was further legalized
by…..
Poll Taxes – Blacks had to pay a fee each
time they voted. Poor freedmen could not
afford to vote
Literacy Tests- Blacks had answer
questions about The Constitution.
Freedmen had very little education
Grandfather Clauses- Those southerners
whose grandfathers had been eligible to
vote on January 1, 1867, did not have to
take the literacy tests. This was insurance
that only white men would vote
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson was a
Supreme Court case which, in
1896, legalized segregation
• Homer Plessy was a Black
man who was arrested in
Louisiana for sitting in the
“white” car of a train
• The case reached the U.S.
Supreme Court which
declared that segregation was
legal as long the different
facilities were “separate but
equal”
Which car is
the white car?
Which car is
the black car?
but were they
really equal?????
The Legacy of Reconstruction
“Union! I can more
easily conceive of the
Lion and Lambs lying
down together, than of
a union of the North
and South”
- Massacusetts teacher in the South, 1866