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RECONSTRUCTION 1865-1877
Reconstruction centered around three central
questions:
1. On what terms should the defeated
Confederacy be reunited with the Union?
2. Who should establish these terms, Congress or
the President?
3. What should be the place of the former slaves
in the political life of the South?
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supported lenient plans for Reconstruction
10% Plan
provided for a generous amnesty
supported the 13th Amendment
• Congress’ response to Lincoln – States could be readmitted if:
• Majority male population took loyalty oath
• Adopt new Constitution abolishing slavery
• Adopted by convention of those who never born arms against
the U.S.
Lincoln pocket vetoed the bill
• Spoke out against planter
society
• Loyal to union when
Tennessee seceded
• Thought everyone should
have slaves– not just the
wealthy minority
• State must repeal law by which state withdrew from Union
• Abolish slavery and ratify 13th amendment
• U.S. would not pay Confederate war debt
Allowed former rebels
to regain control in
the south by 1865
• Created to deal with
former slaves
• Distributed food
• Established schools
• Help former slaves find
jobs
• Help former slaves obtain
land
Black School in the south set up by Freedmen’s
Bureau
South’s Response to Freeman’s Bureau
• Limited rights of blacks
• Prohibited from entering cities without permission, regulated
legal rights including marriage
• Equivalent to slavery
• Restricted the right to hold and sell property
• Dictated hours of labor, duties and behavior
• Type of work regulated
Radical Reconstructionists
• Radical leaders, Charles
Sumner and Thaddeus
Stevens
• Wanted to keep South out
of the Union and change its
economy
• Passed Civil Rights Act
• Authorized federal
government to use force to
enforce laws
• 14th amendment
• 15th amendment
• States must ratify 14th amendment
• South divided into 5 military districts – only people voting black
men and white men who had never participated in the rebellion
• Constitution guaranteeing blacks the right to vote
• President vetoed
Republican bills & did not
approve the use of army
to support reconstruction
• President removed civil
servants who were too
helpful to Congress
• Led to impeachment trial –
violation of the Tenure of
Office Act
• Impeachment failed by 1
vote
• Grant rewarded friends
with offices – many corrupt
or incompetent
• Tenure of Office Act –
could not remove
• Credit Mobilier scam- bank
took bribes from railroad
companies and funneled
them to Congress
• Women Suffrage
advocates upset over 13th,
14th, and 15th amendments
• Stanton and Anthony
campaigned against the
amendments
• Panic of 1873
• Paper currency issued
during Civil War caused
inflation
• Specie Resumption Act
1879
• Put country back on gold
standard
• Blacks served in the
state legislature
• Blacks at one time
held the majority in
legislature in South
Carolina
• Some well educated
while others were
field hands with no
education
• Play a key role in southern
government
• Often “men of bad
character" who came from
the North to work in the
South, to "manipulate and
exploit" the black vote and
political office and
economic privilege
• Farms rented to blacks
• Supplies sold on credit at
inflated prices
• When crop came in, went
towards debt
• Crop never covered debt
which increased each year
• Kept blacks poor
• Organization that scared
blacks against voting,
seeking jobs
• Resorted to violence and
terror
• Group undermined
abolitionist’s work
• Election of 1876
• Votes in four southern
states disputes
• House created special
electoral commission – 8
out of 15 Republicans
• Republicans agreed to end
Reconstruction – Hayes wins
election
“His Fraudulency”
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Segregation
Poll taxes
Grandfather clauses
Literacy tests
Supreme Court upheld “Jim Crow” laws