COS Standard 15 found in Chapter 12

Compare congressional and presidential reconstruction plans, including African-American political participation.

Tracing economic changes in the post-Civil War period for whites and African Americans in the North and South, including the effectiveness of the Freedmen’s Bureau

Describing social restructuring of the South, including Southern military districts, the role of carpetbaggers and scalawags, the creation of the black codes, and the Ku Klux Klan

Describing the Compromise of 1877

Summarizing post-Civil War constitutional amendments, including the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments

Explaining causes for the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson

Explaining the impact of Jim Crow laws and Plessey versus Ferguson on the social and political structure of the New South after Reconstruction

Analyzing political and social motives that shaped the Constitution of Alabama of 1901 to determine their long- term effect on politics and economics in Alabama

Reconstruction

Rebuilding the South after the Civil War

Lincoln’s Plan

Reconcile instead of punishing the South Proclamation of Amnesty and

Reconstruction pardon to all Southerners who took an

oath of loyalty to the US and accepted the Union’s proclamations concerning slavery.

After 10% of the state’s voters in the 1860 presidential election had taken the oath, the state could organize a new state government.

Radical Republicans Plan

The Radical Republicans did not want to reconcile with the South.

Three main goals:They wanted to prevent the Confederate

leaders from returning to power after the war.

They wanted the Republican Party to become powerful in the South.

They wanted the federal government to help African Americans achieve political equality by guaranteeing them the right to vote in the South.

Wade-Davis Bill

All Republicans can agree Majority of the adult white males in the

former Confederacy to take an oath of allegiance to the Union.

State can hold a convention to create a new government

Each state would have to abolish slavery, reject all debt and deprive all former Confederate officers and officials the right to hold office and vote

Lincoln does not like…pocket veto

Freedman’s Bureau

feed and clothe war refugees in the South using army surplus supplies

helped freedmen find work and negotiated pay and hours worked on plantations.

provided schools, paid teachers, and helped establish colleges for training African American teachers

served in the US Cavalry after 1866; most were stationed in the southwestern US and were called “buffalo soldiers.”

Johnson’s Plan

Proclamation of Amnesty offered to pardon all former citizens of the

Confederacy who took an oath of loyalty to the Union and to return their property

Excluded from the plan were all former Confederate officers and officials and all former Confederates who owned property worth more than $20,000. These people could individually ask the president for a pardon.

each former Confederate state call a constitutional convention to repeal its order to secede and to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery

reject all debts acquired during the Civil War

Black Codes

severely limited African Americans’ rights in the South

written with the intention of keeping African Americans in conditions similar to slavery

Civil Rights Act of 1866

The act gave citizenship to all persons born in the US, except Native Americans.

It allowed African Americans to own property and be treated equally in court.

It granted the US government the right to sue people who violated these rights.

13th, 14th and 15th Amendment 13th: Abolishes slavery 14th: granted citizenship to all persons

born or naturalized in the US. no state could deprive any person of life, liberty, or property “without due process of law.” No state could deny any person “equal protection of the laws.”

15th: This amendment said that the right to vote could not be denied on account of race, color, or previous servitude.

Military Reconstruction Act

did away with Johnson’s reconstruction programs

divided the former Confederate states into five military districts; each former Confederate state had to hold another constitutional convention to write a constitution Congress would accept

give the right to vote to all adult male citizens

ratify the Fourteenth Amendment elect people to Congress

Johnson and Impeachment Republicans feared Johnson would refuse to enforce

the Military Reconstruction Act. Congress passed

the Command of the Army Act: required all orders from the president to go through the headquarters of the general of the army.

the Tenure of Office Act: required the Senate to approve the removal of any government official whose appointment had required the Senate’s approval.

Secretary of War Edwin Stanton agreed with the Radical Republican plan. Johnson did not like that so he challenged the Tenure of Office Act by firing Stanton.

After Johnson fired Stanton, the House voted to impeach Johnson. refusing to uphold the Tenure of Office Act and undermining the

Reconstruction program.

After debate, the Senate vote was one vote short for conviction.

Johnson does not run for re-election Grant takes office

Carpetbaggers and Scalawags Carpetbaggers: Northerners moved

to the South who were elected or appointed to positions in the state governments (suitcases made of carpet fabric)

Scalawags: white Southerners who worked with the Republicans and supported Reconstruction

Black Officials

Joseph Rainey became the first African American elected to the House of Representatives.

Hiram Revels became the first African American in the US Senate.

Secret Societies

KKK: Ku Klux Klan Goal: drive out the Union troops and

carpetbaggers and regain control of the South for the Democratic Party.

Klan members terrorized supporters of the Republican governments.

In 1870 and 1871, Congress passed three Enforcement Acts to end the violence in the South. federal crime to interfere with a citizen’s right to vote federal elections under the supervision of federal

marshals the Ku Klux Klan Act—made the activities of the Ku

Klux Klan illegal

Reconstruction Ends The Republican candidate in the election of 1876 was

Rutherford B. Hayes. Hayes wanted to end Radical Reconstruction.

The Democratic candidate was Samuel Tilden, the former governor of New York.

Neither candidate won a majority of electoral votes. There was so much election fraud that it was hard to tell who

had won. Congress appointed a commission to decide the outcome of

the election. The commission said that Hayes won the election. Congress approved the commissions finding and Hayes

became president. The outcome of the election is known as the Compromise of 1877. It is believed that to get Southern Democrats in Congress to agree to Hayes as president, the compromise included the promise by the Republicans to pull federal troops out of the South.

Hayes pulled federal troops out of the South. This ended Republican governments and Reconstruction in the South.

South after Reconstruction New South: Industrial Old South: African Americans are still in bondage Plessy versus Ferguson: Homer Plessy sat in the

white section of a train in Louisiana. When a conductor ordered Plessy to give up his seat, he refused. He was then arrested and imprisoned in a New Orleans jail. He was tried by a New Orleans court and found guilty of having violated Louisiana law. He appealed to the Louisiana Supreme Court, which found the law valid. Plessy then appealed to the US Supreme Court, claiming his conviction and the Louisiana railroad law were unconstitutional because they violated the 13th and 14th Amendments, separate but equal doctrine

African Americans after Reconstruction After Reconstruction ended, African Americans

returned to plantations owned by whites, where they worked for wages or became tenant farmers, paying rent for the land they farmed.

Most tenant farmers ended up becoming sharecroppers. They paid a share of their crops to cover their rent and farming costs. Sharecroppers bought the supplies on credit at high interest rates. To get the money from the sharecroppers, the law allowed merchants to take some of the crops to pay the debts.

Sharecroppers became trapped on the land because they could not make enough money to pay off their debts and leave.

Declaring bankruptcy was not an option, because failure to pay off debts could lead to imprisonment or forced labor.