Download The war left the South with enormous problems. Towns and cities

The war left the South with enormous problems. Towns and cities were in ruin,
plantations were burned, and modes of transportation were destroyed.
Lincoln proposed the 10% plan in which after ten percent of the voters of a state took
an oath of loyalty to the Union, the state could form a new government and adopt a new
state constitution that had to ban slavery.
Lincoln offered amnesty to all white Southerners (except Confederate leaders) who were
willing to swear loyalty to the Union.
Congress considered Lincoln’s plan too mild, so they adopted another plan called the
Wade-Davis Bill which required 50% of the white males in a state to swear loyalty to
the Union.
An agency called the Freedmen’s Bureau was established to help former slaves make
the transition to freedom.
After the tragic assassination of Lincoln, Andrew Johnson became president and
announced his plan which he called “Restoration.”
The Thirteenth amendment was passed, outlawing slavery in all parts of the United
States.
In 1866, white mobs in Tennessee burned African American’s homes, churches, and
schools. The Ku Klux Klan was born.
White legislatures in the South passed “Black Codes” designed to exploit African
American workers. These codes trampled the rights of African Americans, and allowed
them to be arrested and fined if they were found to be unemployed. They then had to
work for free to pay off the fines.
Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which granted full citizenship to African
Americans and gave the Federal government power to intervene in state affairs in order
to protect their rights.
The fourteenth amendment granted full citizenship to all individuals born in the United
States. Congress declared that Southern states must ratify the amendment in order to
be admitted back into the Union.
The Republicans in Congress took charge of Reconstruction, and since Congress was
controlled now by one party, they could do whatever they pleased without fear of veto.
Thus began a period known as “Radical Reconstruction.”
President Johnson was against many of the ideas of Radical Reconstruction, and
Johnson defied several laws that were passed by the legislature, including the Tenure
of Office Act which prohibited the president from removing government officials.
The legislature tried to impeach Johnson, but barely fell short of the two-thirds
majority needed to force him from office.
The Republicans elected Ulysses S. Grant in 1868.
Congress passed the 15th amendment in 1869. It prohibited the state and federal
governments from denying the right to vote to any male citizens because of race, color,
or previous condition of servitude.
Many Northern whites who moved South after the war to take advantage of the
situation to serve as Republican leaders were known as carpetbaggers because they
arrived with all of their belongings in cheap suitcases made of carpet fabric.
Many Southerners ridiculed the Reconstruction governments and accused them of
corruption and financial mismanagement.
Most white Southerners opposed efforts to expand the rights of African Americans.
The Klan grew in strength and often influenced African American’s ability to vote using
terrorist tactics.
The Klan murdered over 150 people over a 3-year period.
African Americans were often refused credit and work, as plantation owners tried to
maintain control over freed African Americans in any way they could.
The Freedmen’s Bureau helped create African American schools, and by 1870, 4000
schools had been established.
The most common form of farm work for freed African Americans was “Sharecropping.”
This system was little better than slavery because after paying off the landowners,
sharecroppers often had little or nothing left to sell.
During the Grant administration, political corruption within the party and within the
reconstruction movement split the party. Political scandal, tax scandals, bribes, and
unfair business deals within the Republican Party tarnished Grant’s reputation along
with economic depression, and allowed the Democrats to regain power.
The Republicans were able to maintain the presidency with the election of Rutherford B.
Hayes in 1876, only because of a fixed election.
Hayes effectively ended the Reconstruction Era by taking Southern control out of
Federal hands. (Read page 512 struggling for liberty)
For many years after the Civil War ended, the South continued to lag behind the rest of
the nation economically.
By the 1880’s the South was convinced that it needed to develop a more industrial
economy. Textile mills sprang up throughout the South.
Tobacco industries grew rapidly, as did iron and steel factories.
A cheap and reliable workforce helped Southern industry grow as did a railroad building
boom. Cotton remained the largest cash crop, but an oversupply forced prices down, and
the rural South sank even deeper into poverty and debt.
In the 1890’s, segregation was a prominent feature of life in the South. Jim Crow
Laws forced African Americans and whites to be separated in almost every public place.
The problem was that while facilities were separate, they were in no way equal.
Under Reconstruction, African Americans gained freedom and began creation their
own institutions, but a segregated society prevented them from experiencing any of
the realities of the “American Dream.”