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Reconstruction
Reconstruction
The time between 1865 and 1877
Three major tasks:
The return of the Southern states
The status of ex-Confederate leaders,
The Constitutional and legal status of the
African-American Freedmen.
Physical Toll of the War
Destroyed 2/3 of the South’s Shipping
industry
9,000 miles of railroad
Destroyed farmland, machinery and 1/3 of
all live stock
Value of all Southern property dropped 70%
Human Toll of the War
364,000 Northerners
260,000 Southerners (1/5 of the white adult
population killed, one out of three killed or
wounded)
Southern Hardships
Black Southerners- 4 million freed people. After a
lifetime of forced labor they now found
themselves homeless and jobless
Plantation owners – Lost slave labor worth $3
billion and federal government could seize
property.
Poor white southerners- could not find work
because of the competition from freedmen
Presidential Reconstruction 1863-66 was
controlled by Presidents Abraham Lincoln and
Andrew Johnson, with the goal of speedily
reuniting the country.
Radical Reconstruction, 1866-1873 emphasizing
civil rights and voting rights for the Freedmen.
Redemption, 1873-77, a reaction in which
conservative white Southerners (calling
themselves "Redeemers") overthrew the
Republicans and took control of each state.
Presidential Reconstruction
Lincoln- 10% Plan very forgiving!
Offered a pardon (Official forgiveness) to any
Confederate willing to take an oath to the Union and
accept new slavery laws
Denied pardon to Officials in Army/Gov’t
Permitted states to hold new constitutional conventions
after 10% of the population had sworn allegiance to the
Union
States could then hold election and resume in the union
Lincoln cont
Opposition came from his own party, the
Radical Republicans
Radicals believed reconstruction should
restructure society and give blacks true
equality.
Created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen
and Abandoned Lands in January 1865,
known as the Freedmen's Bureau.
Johnson’s Reconstruction
It pardoned Southerners who swore allegiance to the Union
Each state could hold constitutional conventions (Without
Lincoln's 10% requirement)
States required to void secession, abolish slavery and
renounce Confederate debt.
State’s could then hold elections and rejoin the Union
(Officially denied pardons to Confederate leaders but if
they asked Johnson personally he would pardon them,
giving 13,000 pardon’s in 1865)
Freedom Movement
Freedom to own land (Forty acres and a Mule)
Freedom to Worship
Freedmen’s Bureau (First relief agency in US
History- gave out clothing, medical supplies, and
food more than 250,000 African Americans
received their first education from it)
Freedom to Learn (1860 90% of black adults were
illiterate)
“I never before saw children so eager to
learn. Coming to school a constant delight
and recreation to them… Many of the
grown people [also}] are desirous of
learning to read. It is wonderful how a
people who have been so long crushed to
the earth can have so great a desire for
knowledge, and such a capability for
attaining it.” –Charlotte Forten
Pop Quiz
What was Lincoln’s Plan Called?
Who’s Plan was more lenient
Johnson or Lincoln?
Name two of the groups that
suffered in the south?
Name one of the three issues
faced in reconstruction.
Presidential Reconstruction
While Johnson’s plan was in effect, white
southerners wrote black codes. (Took away many
of the rights of the freed African Americans- could
not vote, serve on juries, curfews, vagrancy laws,
rent land only in rural areas, pay fees to have a
job…)
In response Radical Republicans passed the Civil
Rights Act of 1866 which guaranteed African
Americans citizenship.
Fourteenth amendment- created in 1866 and
ratified by states in 1868 which made civil
rights part of the constitution.
“All persons born or naturalized in the US are
citizens… no state shall make or abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens”
(13th had been passed in 1865 to abolish
slavery)
Civil Rights Act of 1875- guaranteed equal
rights in public places.
Johnson urged states not to ratify the 14th
amendment and Northerners were mad
enough to sweep Radicals into the Congress
who set about their own agenda.
Radical Reconstruction
Strict Laws Imposed! Reconstruction Acts
States who hadn’t accepted the 14th amendment were
put under military rule
Ordered southern states to create new constitutions
Required states to allow ALL qualified voter to vote
Guarantee equal rights to all citizens.
Ratify the 14th amendments
Barred those who had supported the Confederacy from
voting.
The Fight Begins!!!
Reduction of Presidential Power
Johnson is Impeached 126 to 47 with 11
articles of impeachment
Saved from impeachment by
one vote
Grant elected to presidency
Carpetbaggers- Southerners called the
Northerners how came to the south
carpetbaggers.
Scalawags-white southerners who supported
reconstruction
Freed African Americans- many had to
return to the plantations where they had
been enslaved. A system called
sharecropping developed were a person
farmed the land and paid a portion of
harvest for the rent.
Fifteenth amendment passed in 1869 – the
right of a person to vote could not be denied
“on account of race, race, color or previous
condition of servitude”
1866 6 former confederate soldiers formed
a secret society known as the KKK – spread
quickly through the South
Reconstruction ends
Four reasons Reconstruction ends
Corruption
The economy (panic of 1873)
Violence
Democrats return to power
Compromise of 1877 Hayes vs Tilden.
Hayes made president and remaining troops
removed from south.