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The Ordeal of
Reconstruction
1865-1877
With Malice toward none, with charity for
all, with firmness in the right as God gives
us to see the right, let us strive to finish
the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s
wounds, to care for him who shall have
borne the battle and for his widow and
orphan, to do all which may achieve and
cherish a just and lasting peace among
ourselves and with all nations”
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural, March
4, 1865
“
The US Permanently Altered
1.
2.
3.
4.



Reunification- we are a “singular nation” not a
“collection of states”.
Slavery officially banned by 13th Amendment
Northern industrial power= industrial growth=
(steel, oil, RR)
Expansion of federal power
Homestead Act (1862) “free land” up to 160 acres.
Pacific Railway Act (1862) began federally funded
Transcontinental RR.
13th, 14th, 15th amendments- first 12 limited
government power; these expand it.
The 13th Amendment







Jan. 1, 1863- Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which
only freed slaves in the rebellious southern states NOT the slave
border states that remained with the Union (Maryland, Missouri,
Delaware, Kentucky).
Dec. 1863- Lincoln used Presidential War Powers to issue a
‘Proclamation for Amnesty and Reconstruction”, which offered the
South a chance to peacefully rejoin the Union IF they abolished
slavery and if 10% of their voting populations took an oath of
loyalty to the US---Southern states mostly refused to accept.
Dec. 1863 & Jan. 1864— two “Radical Republicans” in the House
proposed an amendment to the constitution to abolish slavery &
in Jan. 1864 a US Senator proposed a similar idea.
Lincoln’s 1864 Campaign Platform promised to support an
amendment.
A Senate committee began the work of merging the proposals.
April 8, 1864 the final amendment proposal passed the Senate.
Jan. 1865-the House passed it.; Lincoln approved it Feb 1, 1865.
•13th Amendment
Abolished slavery
(1865)
•14th Amendment
Provided citizenship &
equal protection under
the law. (1868)
•15th Amendment
Provided the right to
vote for all men which
included white and
black men. (1870)
Giving Voting
therights
Black man the right to vote was truly
revolutionary……..A victory for democracy!
Reconstruction Plans
1. Proclamation for Amnesty & Reconstruction” or The “10
Percent Plan”: advocated by Abraham Lincoln in 1863;
believed that the Southern states had never legally withdrawn
from the Union
• state could be reintegrated into the Union when: a)10% of its
voters in the 1860 had taken an oath of loyalty to the US &
acknowledged that slavery was over.
• next, the state could set a state government
Reactions:
• Radical Republicans feared the restoration of the planter class to
power & re-enslavement of blacks.
2. The Wade-Davis Bill (Proposed by “Radical Republicans” in
1864)
• 50% of a state’s voters take an oath of loyalty & stronger
protections for emancipation
• each state’s convention had to abolish slavery & deprive all
former Confederate government officials the right to vote or hold
office.
• Lincoln used the “pocket-veto” to kill this bill.
Split in Republican Party over
Reconstruction


1.
2.
3.
4.
Moderate Republicanssupported more easy readmission
of the South.
“Radical” Republicans
South must be punished
Southern Social system must be
destroyed
Planter Aristocracy should not be
reinstated to power
Blacks protected by federal power.
President Andrew Johnson
• Born in NC to poor parents- orphaned early on
•Never attended school- apprenticed at age 10 to a tailor
• taught himself to read; his wife taught him to write &
complete simple math
•Moved to Tenn. At 17 years old- engaged in politics
•Champion of poor whites-elected to Congress
•Refused to secede with Tenn.
•Appointed War Governor over Tenn. after Union troops
marched through
• champion of state’s rights & the US Constitution
•Became a heavy drinker after a bout with typhoid
Presidential Reconstruction
Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan (1865)
agreed with Lincoln- seceding states had never legally left
the Union- quick re-entry was best.
• Johnson recognized several of Lincoln’s “10%
governments” & developed his own plan.
• Offered a pardon to all former citizens of the Confederacy
who took an oath of loyalty & returned their property.
•
Excluded from pardon former Confederates who owned
more than $20,000 in property- these people would have
to apply personally to Johnson for a pardon.
• state conventions must:
1. repeal ordinance of secession,
2. repudiate all Confederate debts,
3. ratify the 13th amendment.
**DEC. 6, 1865- Johnson says that ALL SOUTHERN STATES
HAD BEEN RECONSTRUCTED- READMITTED.
pardon
Effects of Presidential (Johnson’s)
Reconstruction
December 1865, when Congress re-adjourned:
1. Former Confederate leaders had joined Congress under
Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan (4 former Confederate
generals, 5 colonels, & various members of the Confederate
Congress & cabinet).
Result: Republican power was threatened- slaves now
counted as 5/5 of a person for representation= southern
states get 12 more votes in Congress & 12 more electoral
votes.
Cause for Concern
•1861-1865 Republicans had enjoyed almost
complete control of Congress
•Southern states could gain 12 more votes in
Congress & 12 more electoral votes.
Problems with Peace
• Former Confederate leaders were not hanged for
treason- the only former Confederate hanged was the
commandant of the Andersonville Prison.
• Jefferson Davis- imprisoned for 2 years; pardoned by
Pres. Johnson in 1868.
• Robert E. Lee- became president of Washington
University (located in Virginia) now known as
Washington & Lee University.
•Why? It was believed that no Virginia jury would
convict them.
State of the South at End of the War
1.Major Cities destroyed- Atlanta, Charleston,
Richmond
2.Economy was destroyed- banks & businesses
closed (9,000% inflation).
3.The Transportation system was destroyed
4.Agriculture crippled- slave labor system
collapsed, seed scarce
• Not until 1870- would the South produce as
large a cotton crop as they had in 1860.
5. Planter Class- disrupted; many reduced to
poverty ($2 billion invested in slaves=lost)
• Southerners remained defiant & cursed the
Yankees for their troubles (where the military
did not have control- southerners retake
control).
• Who will decide Reconstruction, the South,
Congress or President?
South after war 1
Mississippi Governor, 1866:
“The Negro is free”
“Whether we like it or not; we must
realize that fact now and forever.
To be free, however, does not make
him a citizen or entitle him to
social or political equality with the
white man.”
Gov of Miss
Freedmen define their freedom
The South was unsure the meaning of “freedom” for
blacks= emancipation took effect unevenly across the
South.
•Many blacks were emancipated & then re-enslaved as
the Union Army marched through.
• Many whites resisted freedom for former slaves
•Some slaves resisted the liberating Union army
•Some emancipated slaves joined Union troops in
pillaging & looting former masters
•Many emancipated slaves took new names
• Tens of thousands took to the roads: search for
spouses, children etc.
•The “Exodusters”- 1878-1880; 25,000 blacks left
Louisiana, Texas, & Mississippi to go to Kansas.
• The church became the center of community life
• Freedmen- raised money purchase land, build schools
& hire teachers
**The Freedmen’s Bureau
Congress created it on March 3, 1865 to provide food,
clothing, medical care, and education to freedmen & white
refugees (1st federal relief agency ever!)
• was an early type of primitive welfare agency
• Headed by Union Gen. Oliver O. Howard (later president
of Howard University).
•Greatest achievement: taught @ 200,000 blacks to read
•Shortcomings: failed to give blacks forty acres of land
confiscated from Southerners, local Freedmen
administrators collaborated with planters to keep blacks in
labor contracts
•White South resented the Bureau
Oliver O. Howard
Freedmen’s Bureau 3
Freedmen’s
Bureau 4

As southern states were restored to the
Union under President Johnson’s plan,
they began to enact black codes, laws
that restricted freedmen’s rights.
 The black codes established virtual
slavery with provisions such as these:
Curfews: Generally, black people could not gather after
sunset.
Vagrancy laws: Freedmen convicted of vagrancy– that is,
not working– could be fined, whipped, or sold for a year’s
labor.
Labor contracts: Freedmen had to sign agreements in
January for a year of work. Those who quit in the middle of a
contract often lost all the wages they had earned.
Land restrictions: Freed people could rent land or homes
only in rural areas. This restriction forced them to live on
The Sharecropping System
Thousands of poor blacks & whites became tenant
farmers or sharecroppers.
• sharecroppers paid ½ to 2/3 of their crops.
• landlords sold seed & supplies on credit= debt
peonage.
• if a sharecropper could not pay his debts, crop liens
were placed on the crops (merchants/landlords could
take crops)
• failure to pay debts= forced labor or imprisonment.
Had Unions soldiers died in vain??
Johnson vs. the Radical Republicans
•
Feb. 1866- Johnson vetoed a bill extending the
Freedmen’s Bureau (later it was re-instated).
• March 1866- Republicans passed the *Civil Rights
Act 1866 (gave US citizenship to blacks)- Johnson
vetoed it & Congress overrode his veto.
• June 1866 The 14th Amendment- pushed by
Republicans because they feared that if southerners
regained some control over Congress, they would
repeal the Civil Rights Act.
1. gave civil rights (including citizenship) to freedmen
(but not the vote).
2. reduced the representation in Congress & Electoral
College of any state who refused blacks the ballot.
3. Disqualified former Confederates from state & federal
office who had once held federal office & sworn loyalty.
4. guaranteed the federal debt & rejected Confederate
debts.
* Pres. Johnson was opposed to the 14th Amendment &
urged southern states to reject it- all did except Tenn.
An inflexible President, 1866: Republican cartoon shows Johnson knocking Blacks of the
Freedmen’s Bureau by his veto.
Johnson’s Veto
Section 1: “All persons born in the U.S. are citizens of this country and the
state they reside in. No state shall make or enforce any law which deprives
any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to
any person within its jurisdiction to the equal protection of the laws.”
The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation, the
provisions of this article.
** would have been impossible to pass
Section 2: Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states
according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons
in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote…is
denied to the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age,
and the citizens of the United States…the basis of representation therein shall
be reduced in the portion which number of such male citizens shall bear to the
whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.
* In other words…the 14th Amendment only legally protected the rights of male
citizens.
14th: Rights 14th
of Citizens
•Women rights
supporters refused
to support the 14th
Amendment giving
African American
Men citizenship
unless women were
added to it.
Abolitionists vs Women’s rights
The Big Question
Would Reconstruction be carried out with or without the
14th Amendment?
Congressional Elections 1866
Johnson wanted to get a majority elected to Congress
who would favor his soft-on-the South approach.
• “the swing around the circle” - late summer of 1866Johnson was asked to dedicate a monument to Stephen
Douglas- he used the opportunity to speak at various
venues to support his views.
• accused radicals of planning anti-Black riots & murder in
the South.
• backfired- his approach built strength for the radical
view= 1866 elections= Republicans built more than 2/3
majority in both houses= Republicans will dominate
Reconstruction.
The Radical Republicans
Led by Charles Sumner (Senate) & Thaddeus
Stevens (House) -Leader of Joint Committee on
Reconstruction.
Thaddeus Stevens, in Congress, 1866
“Strip a proud nobility of their bloated
estates, send them forth to labor and you
will thus humble the proud traitors.”
Thaddeus Steven, in Congress, 1867
“I am for Negro suffrage in every rebel
state. If it be just, it should not be denied:
if it be necessary, it should be adopted: if it
be a punishment of traitors, they deserve
it.”
Quotes of Radicals
Charles Sumner
Thaddeus Stevens
•Wanted to the see the South punished.
•Advocated political, social and economic equality
for the Freedmen.
•Would go after President Johnson through the
impeachment process after he vetoes the Civil
Rights Act of 1866.
Radical Republicans
Republican Views on Readmission
“Radical” Republicans- wanted to keep
the South from readmission as long as
possible.
 Bring drastic social & economic
transformation in the South
Moderate Republicans Respected states-rights & self-government
 Restrain states from infringing on citizen’s
rights
 No large federal role infringing on
people’s private lives.
March 2,1867- **Congressional
Reconstruction Act
(Military)
1. Divided the South into 5 military districts with a Union
general in charge of each district (20,000 Union troops in
each district used to enforce Reconstruction).
• Temporarily disfranchised former Confederates
2. States had to ratify the 14th Amendment
3. State constitutions had to guarantee all adult black males
the vote (angered white women!)
** DESIGNED TO FREE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FROM
DIRECT RESPONSIBILITY OF PROTECTING BLACK RIGHTS.
** Susan Anthony & others lobbied against it
**15th Amendment (1870)- gave black men the right to vote.
- angered white women suffragists
• Lincoln & Johnson had supported giving the ballot to blacks
gradually-after education, property ownership etc..
• Most Northern states denied blacks voting rights before the
15th.
Military
Reconstructi
on
Each number indicates the
Military Districts
The
South would
be reconstructed
under the Radical
Republicans plan.
Republicans
would elect Grant
as their President
and he would carry
out the Radical
Reconstruction.
“The Strong
Government”,
1869-1877. Grant
enforcing the
Reconstruction Act
of 1867 and
“forcing” the South
to change.
An “Oasis” of Freedom
A. Black Political Organization
a) Union League- based in the North; educated members
about civic duty & campaigned for Republican
candidates.
b) African-American women- attended parades,
assembled mass meetings in churches
c) African-American men were elected to state, local,
and national offices- helped write new state
constitutions= true universal male suffrage!
• 1868-1876- 14 black Congressmen elected, 2 black
senators (Hiram Revels &Blanche K. Bruce)
• Blacks served as Lt. Governors, state reps, sheriffs,
justices of the peace – no state governors.
Blanche K. Bruce
Hiram Revels
First Black
Senators and
representatives
in the 42st and
42nd Congress.
Senator Hiram
Revels, on the
left was elected
in 1870 to
replace the seat
vacated by
Jefferson Davis.
Black Congressmen
Civil
Rights: What Blacks want
Effects of Military Reconstruction (18681876)
Congress carried out some of the president’s
functions as commander in chief
• set up questionable courts (martial or military
courts)
• the US Supreme Court had already ruled
military tribunals could not try civilians (even in
wartime) in areas where civil courts existed (Ex
parte Milligan 1866)
• By 1870, the Southern states had reorganized
their governments & had received full rights.
• as federal troops left a state---the government
passed back to the hands of white -“Redeemers” (whites who wanted to reverse
advances made by Reconstruction)
Radical Legislatures (Regimes)


1.
2.
3.
4.

Legislatures formed in the south under military
Reconstruction to form new state constitutions.
Passed badly needed reforms:
Adequate public schools
Tax system streamlined
Public works projects
Property rights guaranteed to women
Graft- rampant in southern state government
reconstruction= gave negative impression about
Reconstruction in general.
Southern Reaction to Reconstruction
Many whites resented the success & ability of
black legislators & the Reconstruction.
• Ku Klux Klan (Invisible Empire of the South)founded in Tenn. 1866; hooded riders traveled at
night to scare blacks.
• intimidated blacks & white carpetbaggers.
Congress attempts to THWART the KKK
•1870- The Force Acts- Congress passed a law
outlawing Klan activities.
• whites continued to undermine the
empowerment of blacks-disregarded the 14th &
15th amendments
• 1890- disfranchisement- poll taxes & literacy
tests (fewer & fewer blacks voted)
•The Solid South- predominantly voted democrat
not Republican until 1980.
Reaction of white southerners to
Reconstruction
Former slaves- now holding office offended some Southern
whites.
•Scalawag- name given to any white southerner who
(former Unionists or Whigs) who supported Republican
Reconstruction.
•Carpetbaggers- name given to Northerners who came
South; believed to be coming to take advantage of the war
torn region- most former Union soldiers or businessmen who
wanted to modernize the “New South”.
Johnson’s Impeachment & Trial
1867- Congress passed the Tenure of Office Actrequired president to get consent of Senate before he
could remove appointees (meant to protect Sec. of War
Stanton).
•1868- Johnson fired Stanton & House voted 126 -47 to
impeach for “high crimes & misdemeanors”.
•the trial was held in the Senate- Radicals failed to get 2/3
vote needed to expel the president.
• New Precedent was set!
• Johnson agreed to stop interfering with Reconstruction
policy- he stayed in office.
Brought up on 11
charges of high crimes
and misdemeanors.
Tenure in Office Act:
Law Congress passed.
President can’t fire any
of his cabinet members
without consulting
Congress.
 Presidency would suffer as
fired Edwin Stanton
a result of this failed
Missed being removed
impeachment.
from office by 1 vote in
 Johnson agreed not to
Senate
interfere with
Reconstruction will
Reconstruction
 Saved the separation of powers
NOW be carried out by
Radical Republicans!
Impeachment: Bringing charges against
the President. Two steps involved……
1st Step: U. S. House of Representatives hold
hearings to decide if there are crimes committed.
They then vote on the charges and if there is a
majority, then, charges are brought against the
President.
2nd Step: U.S. Senate becomes a courtroom.
The President is tried for the charges brought
against him. The Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court is the judge. Once trial is completed,
Senators must vote to remove President with a
2/3’s vote.
Impeachment process
Presidents during Reconstruction
1.Andrew Johnson- 1865-1868
2.U.S. Grant – 1868-1876– supported
Reconstruction to get votes from newly freed
black men who could vote.
3.Rutherford B. Hayes – 1877– became president
after disputed election of 1877- in exchange-he
removed troops from the South= Military
Reconstruction ends.
Election 1876-1877- Dem. Samuel Tilden received
more pop. Votes (re: Bush v. Gore 2000)
* Electoral votes disputed in 3 Reconstruction
states (La., Fl., SC).
* Congressional commission of Dems. & Rep. made
a deal= **Compromise of 1877= Hayes named
winner= US troops out of the South=
Reconstruction ends!= Jim crow era begins.
Other Events
“Seward’s Folly”
1867- Sec. of State William Seward signed a treaty
with Russia that transferred Alaska to the US for
$7.2 million.
 Russia had been friendly to the North during the
war, territory believed to be teeming with furs,
gold etc



Civil Rights Act 1875- forbade discrimination in
public places
1896- Plessy v. Ferguson- court rules that public
accommodations may be “separate but equal”.
New
South
New South
•Becomes a
little- more
industrializedstill
agriculturally
dependent.
•Cities rebuilt
•Railroads
•Schools, over
a thousand
•Hospitals, 45
in 14 states
•Diversify
economy.
How & Why Reconstrcution Ends
KEY Events
Panic of 1873 (Economic Depression)
US Supreme Court hears “Slaughter House” Cases
1874-Democrats take control of the House.
1875-Civil Rights Act passed
1876 Election (disputed presidential election)
Compromise of 1877
Panic of 1873
Northerners become less interested in
reconstruction
Democrats took control of the House in 1874
1873 Slaughter House Cases:
Cases involving a slaughter house in New Orleans
Ruled the 14th Amendment protected citizen’s
from rights infringement by the federal government
---not the states.
The Civil Rights Act 1875
Aimed to eliminate social discrimination in
public places.
Democrats in the House made it
unenforceable
**1869 in Va. & Tenn. Democrats regained
majorities in state….other states followed.
Election of 1876
1876-Democrats
had won back southern states
and hoped to win the White House.
Democrats nominated (Samuel Tilden)
Republicans nominate Rutherford B. Hayes
Tilden won 184 electoral votes (185 needed to
win) and won the popular vote.
Three southern state’s ballots were in dispute
however (SC, La., Florida)
Committee was established to recount votes
(determined Hayes won the vote in the three
states)—Democrats were upset.
Compromise of 1877
Democrats agree to make Hayes president
Republicans agree to remove troops from
south.