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American History (CHA3U1)
Introduction
 Confederate war veterans
returned to devastated land
 African Americans quickly
learned that freedom didn’t
mean equality
 Readmitting Southern
states to the Union difficult
because of white Southern
bitterness & Radical
Republicans in Congress
Frederick Douglass
 The arm of the Federal
government is long, but it is
far too short to protect the
rights of individuals in the
interior of distant States.
They must have the power
to protect themselves, or
they will go unprotected, in
spite of all the laws the
Federal government can put
upon the national statutebook.
- Frederick Douglass, 1866
Where did it begin?
 Reconstruction Began as War Measure
 First came the Emancipation Proclamation
 Lincoln’s 10% Plan - Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction
 Goal was an easy peace to shorten war and to absorb
the South back into the Union as quickly and
painlessly as possible
Emancipation Proclamation
 Lincoln issued it on January
1, 1863, as the nation
approached its third year of
bloody civil war.
 The proclamation declared
"that all persons held as
slaves" within the rebellious
states "are, and
henceforward shall be free
 13th Amendment – made all
slaves free in 1865
Emancipation Proclamation Con’t
 Although the Emancipation Proclamation
did not end slavery in the nation, it
captured the hearts and imagination of
millions of Americans and fundamentally
transformed the character of the war.
(they couldn’t enforce it in the southern
states they did not control)
 After January 1, 1863, every advance of
federal troops expanded the domain of
freedom.
 The Proclamation announced the
acceptance of black men into the Union
Army and Navy
 By the end of the war, almost 200,000
black soldiers and sailors had fought for
the Union
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural
 With malice toward none;
with charity for all; with
firmness in the right, as
God gives us to see the
right, let us strive on 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 his orphan--to do all
which may achieve and
cherish a just and lasting
peace, among ourselves,
and with all nations.
Lincoln’s 10% Plan
 Lincoln offered a full pardon to any
Southerner, with the exception of certain
leaders, who would take an oath to support
“the Constitution of the United States and
the Union of the States thereunder.”
 Those who took the oath in each state could
vote to form a new state government.
 Lincoln promised to recognize the new
government if two conditions were met: the
new government accepted the elimination
of slavery as required by the Emancipation
Proclamation of January 1863; and the
number of those voting for the new
government was at least 10 percent of those
who had voted in the 1860 presidential
election.
Who’s in Charge of Reconstruction?
 Lincoln was convinced that Reconstruction, or restoration,
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as he preferred to call it, was for the president to carry out.
Congressional leaders thought otherwise. They tabled the
Wade-Davis bill in July 1864.
It was designed to punish the South and to make it
subservient to the Republican Party in the North.
The bill limited voting on new state constitutions to those
who had never joined the rebel cause, required a loyalty
oath by the majority of a state's citizens, and permanently
deprived former rebel leaders of the right to vote.
Lincoln killed the bill by using his pocket veto, and as long
as he lived this plan made little headway.
Wade-Davis Bill, July 1864
 The bill was designed to punish the South
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and to make it subservient to the
Republican Party in the North.
The bill limited voting on new state
constitutions to those who had never
joined the rebel cause
It required a loyalty oath by the majority
of a state's citizens
It permanently deprived former rebel
leaders of the right to vote.
Lincoln killed the bill by using his pocket
veto, and as long as he lived this plan
made little headway.
Benjamin F Wade
After Slavery
New Ways of Life
 The Plight of Landowners  some slaves agreed to stay and
work the land for housing, food and cash after crops harvested
 Many lost land because Confederate money worthless
therefore couldn’t pay taxes or debts
 The Plight of Workers  poor whites / African Americans 
tenant farmers / sharecroppers
The Freedman’s Bureau
 The Freedmen's Bureau was
established in the War
Department on March 3, 1865.
 The Bureau supervised all
relief and educational activities
relating to refugees and
freedmen (ie. including issuing
rations, clothing and medicine)
 The Bureau assumed custody
of confiscated lands or property
in the former Confederate
States, border states, District of
Columbia, and Indian Territory.
 They also built schools
Sec. 2: Reconstructing the South
Presidential Reconstruction
 Lincoln’s Plan  amnesty /
pardon to all Southerners
who pledged an oath of
loyalty to the United States
 African Americans could
return to Africa or colonize
Caribbean
 The Radical Republicans’
Plan  harsher than
Lincoln’s plan  military rule
Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination
The Country Mourns
Lincoln’s Funeral Train
Reconstructing the South
 Johnson’s Program  President after
Lincoln assassinated tried to
implement Lincoln’s generous plan
but Radical Republicans refused to
co-operate  disagreed with having
former Confederate leaders elected
 White Men & Black Codes  states
allowed to create their own laws that
denied African Americans many
basic rights such as voting or gov’t
education
Reconstructing the South
Presidential Reconstruction
 The North Responds  April
1866 Congress passed the Civil
Rights Bill giving citizenship to
African Americans and all the
rights entailed
 The Fourteenth Amendment 
defined citizenship to include
African Americans who were
guaranteed equal protection
under the law
Sec. 2: Reconstructing the South
Radical Reconstruction
 Reconstruction Plans  appreciative African
Americans would vote for Radical Republicans
 Reconstruction Legislation  March 1867
Reconstruction Act passed putting the South under
five district military rule until the states gave African
Americans the right to vote
 Former Confederate states could not elect people to
Congress until they passed the 14th Amendment
 15th Amendment passed taking away state power to
control voting, but not enforced
Reconstructing the South
Scalawags (Union sympathizers)
and carpetbaggers (Northerners)
despised
carpetbaggers was the term
southerners gave to northerners
who moved to the South during the
Reconstruction era, between 1865
and 1877.
They formed a coalition with
freedmen (freed slaves), and
scalawags (southern whites who
supported Reconstruction) in the
Republican Party.
Together they politically controlled
former Confederate states for
varying periods, 1867–1877.
Reconstructing the South
Carpetbag Government
 The Radicals in Power  reduce
Presidential power
 Challenging the Tenure Law  Pres.
Johnson twice fired Edwin Stanton a
supporter of Radicals
 Johnson Impeached  May 16, 1868
Senate voted 35 to 19 to convict Pres,
one vote shy
 The 1868 Election  General Grant
won as a Radical Republican to
become new President
Andrew Johnson & Ulysses S
Grant
Restoring Southern Power
Opponents of Reconstruction set up
secret societies (e.g. KKK)  wore
out Radicals
The Compromise of 1877
 Electoral Commission  disputed
Pres vote in 1876 given to Republican
candidate Hayes
 Reaching an Agreement 
Democrats outraged so Republicans
promised South power, funds and
removal of federal troops
Restoring Southern Power
After Reconstruction
 Segregation  separation of
races made legal by Supreme
Court ruling Civil Rights Act of
1875 unconstitutional  Jim
Crow laws follow
 The “New South” 
industrialization with
Northern financing brought
railroads, factories
 Few Gains for African
Americans  temporary gains
soon gone with economic
slavery
Conclusion
 Civil War devastated the South but in the long run the
abolition of slavery helped the South to industrialize
and diversify its economy
 Unfortunately it would take another 100 years for
African Americans to gain political and economic
equality