Reconstruction

• Reconstruction was the period of time after the Civil War (1865-1877) when the 11 southern states of the Confederacy were allowed back into the Union.

Reconstruction

• It was a time when southern blacks enjoyed a short period of equality, only to have their civil rights eventually taken away until Martin Luther King’s successes in the 1960s.

What was the North like at the end of the Civil War?

Growing in Industrial Strength

What was the North like at the end of the Civil War?

It had a high tariff that helped Northern business

Tariff: a tax placed upon imported items in order to protect a country’s manufacturing businesses.

What was the North like at the end of the Civil War?

States were building universities on land given to them from the Federal government. These became known as Land Grant Colleges.

What was the South like after the Civil War?

• Some southern counties lost more than half their male population

What was the South like after the Civil War?

• Southern veterans came back to find their farms destroyed and the next decent harvest at least 18 months away.

What was the South like after the Civil War?

• There were more than 3,000,000 freed slaves that had no jobs, education, or homes.

North South

The South is going to pay for this!!!!

We have to make sure the North stays more powerful

We had better protect the rights of the Freedmen

Just because you have freed the

slaves doesn’t mean we’re

going to treat them fairly!

I could use a loan, some money and our railroad needs to be repaired!

I said I was sorry! Now let’s forget the whole thing happened!

Freedom!

EQUALITY!

How about

cash so we get

us a little old farm!

The South should suffer and pay!

Northern dominance should be insured!

African Americans?

Total forgiveness

Some help with rebuilding effort

Return the Freedmen to a position that

resembled slavery

Freedom

Equality

Some assistance getting started

THE

NORTH!

THE

SOUTH!

THE FREEDMEN!

Lincoln’s 10% PlanSouthern States would be

admitted as soon as…

• 10% of the men took a loyalty oath.

• Blacks were offered education.

• The state agreed to abolish slavery.

This was a very forgiving plan for the south. When he heard Lincoln had been killed, Jefferson Davis cried and then said; “I think we southerners have lost our best friend”.

Wade –Davis Bill

Many Northerners felt Lincoln’s plan was too gentle. Congress proposed this…

• 51% of the southern men took a loyalty oath.

• Freed blacks were given total equality.

Benjamin Wade

(Ohio)

Henry Davis

(Maryland)

William Tecumseh Sherman’s Idea

Sherman wanted to confiscating Confederate lands and dividing it up amongst the freed slaves.

He said he could give every black family

“40 acres and a Mule”

Andrew Johnson’s ReconstructionJohnson granted pardons and amnesty to

any Southerner who wrote him personally.

He felt the government should be for the “white men”, and didn’t support protecting freed slaves rights.

Soon many Confederate officers were chosen for the Senate and Congress. Northerners were so upset, they refused to allow the southerners in. Many northern politicians wondered why the war had even been fought if Southern officers were being allowed to sit as Senators and Black Americans were no better off.

Amnesty: (legal) forgiveness

Black Codes

These were laws passed in southern states to keep black people in a situation similar to slavery.

Examples of Black CodesLouisiana: Black people were not allowed in certain

parishes (counties) without papers showing that they were servants of a white family.

Jackson, Mississippi: Black people were not allowed outside after dusk.

Alabama: Black people could not purchase land unless their grandfathers had owned land in Alabama.

Atlanta, Georgia: Black people were limited to 19 different careers (such as servants)

Baton Rogue, Louisiana: Black people could only attend “black churches”. These churches could only open their doors on Sundays and 6 different religious holidays. They also could not be open after dark.

The New PresidentAndrew Johnson

• A former governor of Tennessee (a border state).

• He wanted to completely southerners as long as they sent him a letter of apology.

• He wanted to maintain white supremacy.

The Radical RepublicansNorthern Republicans who took

control of Congress for 10 years. They wanted 2 things…

1. To limit the power of white southerners

2. To promote total equality for the freedmen

They supported and passed a new plan known as Congressional Reconstruction. It becomes the law of the land from 1867-1877.

Congressional Reconstruction

• Southern states were divided into 5 military districts governed by a Northern army General who made sure that loyalty to the Union and civil rights for the freed slaves were both protected. The South absolutely hated this.

The Freedman’s Bureau

• A federal department that helped freed slaves gain food, jobs, protection, land, and legal representation.

CarpetbaggersNortherners who

moved south to take government jobs, “stick it” to southerners and make a personal fortune on the side.

Scalawags

Southern whites (usually poor) who cooperated with the North, Congressional Reconstruction and Carpetbaggers for their own personal ambitions and fortunes.

Copperheads

These were northerners who sympathized with the South. They had not supported the war and wanted a quick reconstruction.

The Civil War Amendments

• 13th (XIII) Amendment: Abolished Slavery

• 14th (XIV) Amendment: Equal Citizenship

• 15th (XV) Equal Voting Rights

These amendments try to protect the rights of the blacks in the south. They do for a while, but it is not until 1964 that legal equality is achieved.

Impeachment of Johnson• The House impeached (formally

accused) Johnson of not cooperating with Congressional laws.

• The Senate failed to convict him by 1 vote.

• Johnson agreed not to run for reelection and he cooperated with Congress for the remainder of his Presidency

The Election of 1876

Republican (Ohio) Democrat (New York)

The Election of 1876

Tilden won both the popular vote and the electoral vote. However, there was violence and intimidation throughout the South. Several states had contested results (ballots from dozens of counties are still missing). Politicians from both parties met and agreed to let the Republican Hayes become President as long as congressional reconstruction was revoked. This was known as the Compromise of 1877.

Overnight, the Ku Klux Klan, segregation, and black codes returned and would not be challenged until the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Redeemers

• They were southern white politicians who regained control of their state governments as the north lost interest in enforcing congressional reconstruction.

Ku Klux Klan

Jim Crow Laws

• Similar to Black Codes; they were laws that were designed to keep southern blacks separate (segregation) and in an inferior political position.

Southern Voting Laws

• Grandfather clauses: your grandfather had to have the right to vote before 1866 for you to have the right to vote.

• Literacy tests: You had to pass a test to vote.

• Poll Tax: You had to pay $1 or $2 to vote.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• A Supreme Court decision that allowed southern states to have “separate but equal” facilities. This allowed Jim Crow laws to continue.