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Reconstruction
How to put the
Union back
together?
Reconstruction
• 1865 - 1877
• The period of rebuilding the
South and restoring the
Southern states to the Union
after the Civil War
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Andrew Johnson
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• Lincoln’s VicePresident
• Became 17th
President when
Lincoln was killed
• Favored a generous
plan to re-admit
Southern states
• Personally pardoned
over 13,000 former
Confederates
Radical Republicans
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• Believed that the main goal of
Reconstruction should be the
total restructuring of society to
guarantee black people true
equality
• Opposed Lincoln’s plan and
Johnson’s plan
Freedmen’s Bureau
 Created by Congress in 1865 (after vetoed by
President Andrew Johnson)
 Functioned as a division of the War Dept
 Supplied clothing, food, and medical supplies to
war refugees
 Redistributed land abandoned or seized during
the war
 Educated more than 250,000 freed slaves
 Discontinued in 1872 with pressure from white
southerners
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A Freedmen’s Bureau School
A Freedmen’s Bureau School
Black Codes
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• Laws in Southern states that restricted
the rights of freed blacks
– Curfews (in doors by sunset)
– Vagrancy laws (fined or whipped for not
working)
– Labor contracts (must sign and work for a
year or lose all wages)
– Land restrictions (could not rent or own
house in town)
th
13
Amendment
 1865
 Abolishes
slavery
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th
14
Amendment
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 1868
 Defines
citizenship to include
African Americans
 Guarantees equal protection
under the law for all citizens
th
15
Amendment
 1870
 Citizens
can not be denied the
right to vote based on race,
religion, color, or previous
condition of servitude
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Reconstruction Act
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 1867 - Passed by Radical Republicans in
Congress
 Put the South under military rule
 Ordered states to create new constitutions
 All states had to allow black males to vote
 Required southern states to ratify 14th
Amendment and to guarantee equal rights
to all citizens
Johnson’s Impeachment
• Johnson opposed equal rights for African
Americans
• He fired his Secretary of War, Edwin
Stanton, who was a friend of the Radicals
• May 1868, Johnson was acquitted in the
Senate by only one vote
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Carpetbaggers
Northern Republicans who moved to the
South during Reconstruction
Sometimes carried cheap suitcases made
of scraps of carpet
Insulting nickname used by Southerners
who resented Northerners coming to
profit on their misery
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Carpetbag –
a travel bag
made from a
scrap of
carpet
“Carpetbagger”
coming from
the North to
profit from
conditions in
the South
Scalawags
Insulting name used by
Southerners to refer to
southern white Republicans
whom they thought were
traitors to the South
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Sharecroppers


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Workers who lived on land
owned by others and farmed it
for a share of the crops at
harvest time.
Many had to pay a planter for
housing or food, which usually
left them in debt every year.
Tenant Farmers




Rented land
Grew and sold their own crops.
Had a higher social status than
sharecroppers.
Sometimes saved enough money to
buy their own land.
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Ku Klux Klan
 Secret society of
former Confederate
leaders and plantation
owners.
 Goal was to keep
Blacks from gaining
equality.
 Used terror and
violence.
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Solid South



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Political changes after 1872
Ex-Confederates and other white
Southern Democrats form a
political force which blocks
Republican Reconstruction
policies and reforms.
Marks the end of Republican
control of the South.
Compromise of 1877
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The election of 1876 was nearly a tie in the
popular and electoral votes.
 Southern Democrats agreed to give the
election to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes
if he agreed to



Remove all remaining federal troops from
the South.
Give huge amounts of federal funding to
build southern railroads.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Electoral Vote (185)
Sates Won
(20)
Popular Vote (4,034,311)
Percentage
(47.9%)
Samuel Tilden
(184)
(18)
(4,288,546)
(51%)