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Reconstruction
1865-1877
Section 1
“Reconstruction Plans”
The Reconstruction Battle
Begins
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Reconstruction – The rebuilding after the Civil War.
Lincoln wanted a moderate policy that would
reconcile the South with the Union instead of
punishing it for treason.
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Amnesty – pardon
The South would gain 15 seats in the House of
Representatives.
Thaddeus Stevens – A radical Republican who did
not want to reconcile with the South.
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“revolutionize Southern institutions, habits, and manners.”
The Reconstruction Battle
Begins

Radical Republicans – A group of
Republicans who opposed Lincoln’s plan to
bring the South back into the Union.
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Wanted to prevent Confederate leaders from
returning to power after the war.
Wanted the Republican Party to become powerful
in the South.
Wanted the federal government to help African
Americans gain political equality by guaranteeing
their right to vote in the South.
The Reconstruction Battle
Begins
 Many
Radical Republicans were
abolitionists before the war.
 Wade-Davis Bill – A plan for
Reconstruction drawn up as an
alternative to Lincoln’s plan.
 Pocket Veto – The rejection of a bill by
the president by leaving the bill
unsigned until after Congress adjourns.
The Reconstruction Battle Begins

Freedmen - Freed African Americans.
 Freedmen’s Bureau – Bureau established by
Congress to help freed African Americans
adjust to their new freedom.
 Some believed the freedmen should be given
confiscated Confederate land, while others
felt it went against an individuals property
rights.

Congress refused to support land confiscation.
Johnson Takes Office
Black Codes – a series of laws passed by
Southern legislatures, which severely limited
African Americans’ rights in the South.
 Civil Rights Act – 1866 law that granted
citizenship to all persons born in the United
States except Native Americans.
 Fourteenth Amendment – Amendment to the
Constitution that granted citizenship to all
persons born or naturalized in the United
States.

Radical Republicans Take
Control
Military Reconstruction Act – Law passed by
Congress that divided the Confederacy into
five military districts.
 Tenure of Office Act – Law that required the
Senate to approve the removal of any
government official whose appointment had
required the Senate’s consent.
 Impeach – To bring charges of a crime
against a government official.

Republican Rule in the South

Carpetbagger – Name given to Northern
whites who moved to the South after the war
and supported Republicans.
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Many had moved to the South to educate whites
and African Americans.
Scalawag – Name given by former
Confederates to Southern whites who
supported Republican Reconstruction of the
South.
Republican Rule in the South

Thousands of African Americans took part in
governing the South.
 Most of the first elected were educated in the
South.
 Joseph Rainey – First African American
elected to the House of Representatives.
 Hiram Revels – African American elected to
the Senate.
 Even though African Americans took part in
the government, they did not control it.
Republican Rule in the South

The Republican party took power because
poor whites supported it.
 Republican governments in the South
repealed the black codes.
 They set up state hospitals and institutions;
rebuilt roads, railroads, and bridges.
 Many of the officials were corrupt and
accepted bribes.

Graft – Gaining money illegally through politics.
African American Communities
 Ways
that African Americans improved
their lives:
 Gained
political rights
 Received an education
 Established churches
 Other kinds of organizations
Drama societies
 Trading Associations
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Southern Resistance
 Many
Southern whites resented African
Americans.
 The goal of the Ku Klux Klan was to
drive out the Union troops and
carpetbaggers and to have the
Democratic party control the South.
Southern Resistance
 In
1870 and 1871 Congress passed
three Enforcement Acts.
 One
act made it a federal crime to interfere
with a citizens right to vote. The second act
placed federal elections under the
supervision of federal marshals.
Klux Klan Act – Law that outlawed
the activities of the Ku Klux Klan.
 Ku
The Grant Administration
“Sin Tax” – Tax on alcohol and tobacco.
 Horace Greeley – Newspaper publisher and
1872 presidential candidate for the Liberal
Republicans.
 “Whiskey Ring” – A scandal in which
government officials and distillers cheated the
government out of millions of dollars by filing
false tax reports.
 Panic of 1873 – An economic crisis.
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Reconstruction Ends
Compromise of 1877 – The method used to
reach an outcome in the 1876 presidential
election.
 Tenant Farmers – Farmers who paid rent for
the land they farmed.
 Sharecroppers – Farmers who paid a share
of their crops to cover their rent and the
equipment they needed.
 Furnishing Merchant – Country stores and
local suppliers who provided sharecroppers
with their supplies.

A “New South” Arises
Liens – Allowed merchants to take
sharecroppers’ crops if sharecroppers
could not pay their debt.
 Debt Peonage – A condition that
trapped sharecroppers on the land
because they could not make enough
money to pay off their debts and leave.
 Crop
End of section…