Download Reconstruction

Reconstruction
Questions need to be answered
• Should the slaveholding southerners be
punished?
• What rights should be granted to free African
Americans?
• How can the nation be brought back
together?
Lincoln’s Plan
• Ten Percent Plan- Only ten percent of voters
from a state were needed to claim oath to the
Union in order for it to form a new
government
• Offered a Pardon to all white southerners who
were not leaders.
• Supported right to vote for African Americans
who fought in the War or were educated- but
still did not grant them equal rights.
Wade-Davis Bill
• A majority of white males in the state had to
swear loyalty to the Union in order for it to be
let back in.
• Confederates could not hold public office
• Had to adopt new state constitution banning
slavery
Freedmen’s Bureau
• Helped the transition process for freed African
Americans.
• Distributed food, clothing, medicine
• Provided schools, hospitals, ect…
• Helped acquire land
• Offered transportation
Lincoln Assassinated
• Killed by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s theater
• Vice President Andrew Johnson took over as
President
• How did he deal with the issue of free African
Americans?
• While Pres Johnson opposed granting all freed
Africans voting rights he did force all states to
ratify the thirteenth amendment- banning
slavery.
Radicals in Control
• The Southern States began laying out new
governments
• Many of the new representatives had been
high ranking confederates
• How do you think they were received when
they reached Washington D.C.
• They thought nothing had changed, Africans
were still being treated unfairly
Black Codes
• Similar to the ones prior to the civil war
• Fined African Americans who were not
working
• Banned Africans form owning farms
• Allowed whites to take orphaned African
Americans as the apprentices
Challenging the Black Codes
• Congress began to step in grant Freedmen
Bureau new powers.
• Passed Civil Rights Act of 1866- granted full
citizenship to African Americans.
• Johnson vetoed both plans but was overruled
by Congress.
Fourteenth Amendment
• Granted full citizenship to all individuals born in
the United States.
• Said no state could take away a citizens life liberty
or property
• Congress said that southern states had to ratify
fourteenth amendment in order to be readmitted
to the Union. – Only Tennessee signs
• Johnson urges both Northerners and Southerners
to reject this plan.
Reconstruction Act of 1867
• Since 10 Southern States did not ratify they
were placed under military rule.
• Also guaranted African Americans right to vote
in state elections.. And they did
• Republicans took over control of Southern
governments.
Impeach
• Strongly opposed to his rule congress attempted
to impeach President Johnson
• They were unsuccessful but it was seen as a
disgrace to the presidency
• In the next election Republican supported civil
war general Ulysses S. Grant. He won
• Quickly after Congress passed the 15th
amendment- prohibited states from denying the
right to vote to any male citizens because of race,
color, or previous servitude.