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Reconstruction
Life as a Freedmen
 After the Civil War, the thousands of freedmen
(former slaves) faced even more challenges. They
were now homeless and had little more than the
clothes they were wearing.
 Many went from place to place looking for food,
shelter, and work.
 Others searched for spouses, children, and others
who had been sold away from them during slavery.
 Some traveled just because they now had the
freedom to do so.
Freedmen’s Bureau
 In an effort to help the freedmen, the U.S.
government established the Bureau of
Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands
in March 1865 which later became known as
the Freedmen’s Bureau.
Goals of the Bureau
1.
Supervise and manage all abandoned lands
and "all subjects relating to refugees and
freedmen from rebel states"
2. Issue provisions, clothing, fuel, and shelter
for destitute refugees and freedmen
3. The authority to set apart abandoned or
confiscated lands for use by freedmen and
refugees with the possibility of purchase
of such land after three years
Contributions of
Freedmen’s Bureau
 Education became a
priority…set up
schools
 4,000 primary
schools, 64
industrial schools,
and 74 teachertraining schools
 Atlanta University
Center…Morehouse
College, Clark,
Spellman
Agricultural South
 After the war, land owners needed
workers to work their land.
 Former slaves and landless whites
needed jobs.
Sharecropping
 Landowners provided land, house, farming
tools, animals, seeds, and fertilizer…
everything needed to farm except labor.
 Workers agreed to give the owner a share
of harvest.
Downside of Sharecropping
 Workers did not have basics until crops were sold.
 Owners often let them have food, medicine,
clothing, and other supplies on credit until crops
sold.
 Credit was often bad for borrower because after
crops sold and credit paid back, little was left.
 Most workers were uneducated and could be easily
cheated.
 Continued to get further in debt.
Tenant Farming
 Similar to sharecropping, but tenants usually
owned some equipment and farm animals.
 They also bought their own seed and
fertilizer.
 Paid back set amount of money or share of
crop and the end of the season.
 Tenants usually make some profit.
Reconstruction
 Reconstruction is the time period after the
Civil War when the South began to rebuild.
 South was ruled by Union army.
 Southern states began to rejoin the Union.
Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan
 Abraham Lincoln had thought about
the process of restoring the Union
from the earliest days of the war. His
guiding principles were to accomplish
the task as rapidly as possible and
ignore calls for punishing the South.
Lincoln’s Reconstruction
Plan
1.
2.
3.
A general amnesty (no punishment for the
crime) would be granted to all who would
take an oath of loyalty to the United
States and pledge to obey all federal laws
pertaining to slavery.
High Confederate officials and military
leaders were to be temporarily excluded
from the process
When one tenth of the number of voters
who had participated in the 1860 election
had taken the oath within a particular
state, then that state could launch a new
government and elect representatives to
Congress… Often called the “Ten-Percent
Plan”
Congressional
Reconstruction Plan


1.
2.
3.
Congress and many Northerners
opposed Lincoln’s plan…thought the
South should be punished.
Congress passed Wade-Davis Bill as
their own plan for reconstruction.
A state must have a majority within its
borders take the oath of loyalty
A state must formally abolish slavery
No Confederate officials could
participate in the new governments.
Lincoln’s Assassination
 Lincoln saw this as
an attempt to punish
South and felt the
Union would be too
difficult to repair if
passed.
 Lincoln was
assassinated before
his plan could be put
into place.
 Vice President
Andrew Johnson
became president.
Johnson’s Reconstruction
Plan
 Pardons would be granted to
those taking a loyalty oath
 No pardons would be available
to high Confederate officials
and persons owning property
valued in excess of $20,000
 A state needed to abolish
slavery before being
readmitted
 A state was required to repeal
its secession ordinance before
being readmitted.
Johnson’s Plan
 Most of the seceded states began
compliance with the president’s program.
Congress was not in session, so there was no
immediate objection. However, Congress
reconvened in December and refused to
seat the Southern representatives.
Reconstruction had produced another
deadlock between the president and
Congress.
New Requirements
President Johnson was pressured into
adding other requirements.

1.
2.
3.
Southern states had to approve the 13th
Amendment, which made slavery illegal.
Southern states had to nullify their ordinances
of secession.
Southern states had to promise not to repay
the individuals and institutions that had helped
finance the Confederacy.
Changes to the
Constitution
 After the Civil War, 3 amendments
were passed and ratified to ensure the
rights of the former slaves.

They are sometimes called the
Reconstruction Amendments.
th
13
Amendment
 Officially abolished slavery.


Was passed by Congress in January 1865 and
submitted to the states for ratification
(approval/acceptance and implementation).
President Johnson made ratification of the
amendment a requirement for the southern
states to rejoin the Union.
th
13
Amendment
 It abolished slavery, but it did not
abolish discrimination.
 By 1865, most of the Southern states,
including Georgia, had passed a number
of laws known as Black Codes, which
were designed to restrict the rights
of freedmen.
th
14
Amendment
 The 14th Amendment was in response to the
Black Codes.
 It granted citizenship to the freedmen and
forbade any state from denying anyone the
“equal protection of the law.”
th
15
Amendment
 Granted all male
citizens the right
to vote regardless
of race, color, or
previous condition
of servitude.


Women still could
not vote.
Voting age was 21.
Henry McNeal and the
Black Legislators


In 1867, African Americans voted for the first
time in Georgia electing 29 African Americans to
the Georgia House of Representatives and 3 to
the Georgia Senate… Henry McNeal was one of
them.
All of these men were expelled on the grounds
that although the Constitution had given them
the right to vote, it did not specifically give
them the right to hold office.
Klu Klux Klan
 The Klan was one of
several secret
organizations to keep
freedmen from
exercising their new
rights.
 Began in Pulaski,
Tennessee as a social
club for returning
soldiers, but changed
into a force of terror.
Klu Klux Klan
 Members dressed in
robes and hoods so no one
would recognize them.
 They terrorized and
intimated African
Americans to keep them
from voting hoping to
return control of the
state to the Democrats.
 Numerous reports of
beatings, whippings,
and murder.