Download Dealing with the Freedmen

The End of the War
Reconstruction 1865-1876
The Close of the War
• End of 1864 and early 1865, Union forces began
to beat down the South. Lee surrendered on April
9, 1865. Five days later President Lincoln was
assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.
• The war left 618,000 dead (more than any other
wars involving the U.S. combined) The widows
were left to begin new lives. 4,000,000 slaves
were now free but not equal.
• The need to bring the Union back together led
toward a plan to reconstruct the United States.
Reconstruction
• One of the issues needing to be resolved after the
war was how to readmit those states that had made
up the Confederacy
• President Lincoln and Congress each had different
views of how this was to be accomplished Lincoln believed it was his authority to accept
Southern states back into the Union while
Congress believed it was its constitutional rights
to readmit the states
• Lincoln’s plan was also seen as too lenient on the
South
Differing Plans of Reconstruction
• Lincoln’s 10% Plan
– Proclamation of Amnesty &
Reconstruction
– Offered full pardon to
Southerners (w/exception to
some Confederate leaders) if
they took an oath of loyalty.
10% of voters on 1860 election
had to participate
– Emancipation of slaves had to
be accepted
– Once terms were met states
could organize and begin steps
for readmission
– Louisiana, Arkansas,
Tennessee ready to be
readmitted in 1863
• Congressional Plan
– Wade-Davis Bill
• Radical Republicans
opposed Lincoln’s plan
– 50% of voters in 1860 election
had to take oath of loyalty to
Union
– Federal appointed governors
would call for state elections to
begin process of readmittance
– Penalties for certain
Confederate leaders (no voting
rights; banned from holding
office
– Lincoln uses his pocket veto to
defeat plan
Andrew Johnson
• From North Carolina, had no formal education
(didn’t read or write until teen years)
• Served in the Senate, only Southern Senator to
remain loyal to the Union even after secession
• In election of 1864, Lincoln chose him to be his
running mate even though Johnson was a
Democrat
• Becomes president upon Lincoln’s assassination;
vows to continue Lincoln’s plan
Congress at Work
• 13th Amendment (January 1865) - abolishes slavery
• Freedmen’s Bureau (1865) - established to provide aid to
former slaves and poor whites; passed out food, gave
medical care, set up schools and hospitals
• Civil Rights Act (April 1866) - passed in response to
Southern attempts to resume pre-Civil War life; granted
equal rights to all citizens regardless of race; President
Johnson will veto the act but Congress will override the
veto
• 14th Amendment (June 1866) - makes civil rights part of
the U.S. Constitution
• 15th Amendment (February 1869) - grants voting rights to
all males of the U.S. including freedmen
Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
• Most of Johnson’s plan centered on his dislike for southern
planters (which he was not) & former slave owners. He
accepted emancipation but was opposed to black equality
• Amnesty Plan differed greatly from Lincoln’s
– Offered pardons to many southerners, but not high Confederate
officials or Southerners who owned property worth $20,000 or
more. These individuals had to apply directly to Johnson for a
pardon before they could vote or hold office
– Appointment of provisional governors to former Confederate states
– Voting rights to freedmen but ignored the Civil Rights Act & the
14th Amendment
The Reconstruction Acts
• As a result of the South attempting to return to its
“white” ways; also stemmed from continued
problems between Congress and Johnson,
Congress passed the following:
– Military Reconstruction Act (March 1867) - declared
Southern governments formed using Johnson’s plan as
illegal
– Command of Army Act - limited the power of the
president as commander-in-chief of the armed forces
– Tenure of Office Act - denied the president the power
to fire any government official w/out approval of the
Senate
Plan for Impeachment
• Congress plots to impeach President Johnson by passing
the Reconstruction Acts w/the hope that Johnson would
violate one of these laws
– Johnson fires Secretary of War Edwin Stanton violating
the Tenure of Office Act
– Congress files charges of impeachment Feb 1868
– Johnson is acquitted by one vote
• Election of 1868 - Republicans choose Ulysses Grant,
Democrats choose Horation Seymour; Grant will win
election in this very close race (black Republican voter
turnout helps)
Dealing with the Freedmen
• The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the
Confederacy; after the war these “freedmen” now had to
be dealt with
•Many choose to stay on the plantations & work for
former masters or the widows; a great deal will head
North or West
•Freedmen were given the opportunity to rent land also
sharecropping was a way to get not only land but also
supplies, a home, & equipment
•Numerous blacks began to participate in politics w/a
few even being elected to the Senate
The South and the Freedmen
• Southern states reacted to
having emancipated slaves
by enacting “Black Codes”
which were laws to govern
the conduct of blacks.
Southerners also resorted to
violence against the
freedmen.
•Terrorist groups formed to
keep blacks from voting and
taking part in politics. One
group was the Ku Klux
Klan.
Reconstruction Ends
• 1869 - Democrats emerge as the “new” political party of
the South
• 1873 - U.S. suffers an economic depression
• 1876 - Presidential election - Democrats nominate Samuel
Tilden, Republicans nominate Rutherford Hayes, election
is tainted by a scandal involving the electoral college;
Hayes wins
• The South continues its struggle with accepting the 15th
amendment and enacts the literacy test and poll taxes to
discourage black voters
• Jim Crow laws which are designed to segregate blacks
from whites are passed in the South