Reconstruction refers to the 12 year period following the Civil War (1865-

1877).• Congress passed the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery throughout the U.S. in January 1865.

• It was not ratified by the states until December.

• On January 16, 1865, General William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 15.

• Sherman’s army confiscated plantations outside of Charleston, South Carolina.

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Abraham Lincoln expected the president to control Reconstruction.

• Lincoln suggested giving former Confederates amnesty, or a pardon, when they:1) Promised their

loyalty to the Union.2) Pledged to support

the Constitution.3) Accepted the end

of slavery.

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Under Lincoln’s plan, when 10 percent of a state’s voters promised loyalty, a new

government could be elected.• Then state voters

would have to approve the 13th Amendment.

• Only then would the state be re-admitted to the Union.

• Under this Ten Percent Plan, southern states were not forced to give equal rights to African-Americans.

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On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot while watching a play at Ford’s

Theater in Washington.• His assassin, John

Wilkes Booth, was an actor and a southern sympathizer.

• Booth escaped, but was shot and killed several days later.

• Following Lincoln’s death on April 15, Republicans in Congress moved to control Reconstruction.

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Radical Republicans in Congress wanted to punish former Confederate

leaders.• They wanted to make sure

former slaves gained equal rights.

• The Radicals’ plan to reunite the nation was the Wade-Davis Bill.

• This plan required a majority of a state’s citizens (not just 10%) pledge to support the Constitution.

• Citizens also had to swear they never voluntarily supported the Confederacy.

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In March 1865, Congress established the Freedman’s Bureau, which

helped former slaves find jobs that paid fair wages.

• It also set up courts to ensure justice for African Americans.

• Over 4,300 schools were created for 250,000 children and adults.

• The first colleges for African Americans were established, including Howard University in Washington, DC.

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• President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, angered congressional Republicans by adopting a plan closer to Lincoln’s.

• Johnson restored property and political rights to most former Confederate leaders, allowing many to return to power.

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Under Johnson, southern state governments found ways to limit the

rights of former slaves.• Under laws known as

black codes, African Americans were not allowed to:1) Vote,2) Hold certain jobs,3) Carry weapons,4) Serve on juries, or5) Own or lease

farms.

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After the war, former slaves and poor whites couldn’t afford their own land.

• Instead, they worked land owned by white landowners and gave them a part of their harvest.

• This arrangement was called sharecropping.

• Former slaves soon found themselves in debt to their former masters.

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Outraged by black codes, Republicans in Congress decided to take further

control of Reconstruction.• The Civil Rights Act of

1866 granted citizenship to all people born in the United States (except Native Americans).

• Anyone attempting to deny people their rights faced a $1,000 fine or a year in jail.

• Johnson vetoed the bill.• Republicans in

Congress overrode his veto.

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In June 1866, Congress passed the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

• It said that anyone born in the U.S. was a citizen.

• States that tried to take away citizens’ rights would lose congressional representation.

• It also banned former Confederate leaders from public office.

• It would not be ratified by the states until July 1868.

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Congress said that any state wishing to rejoin the Union had to ratify the

14th Amendment. • Johnson discouraged

states from ratifying the amendment.

• Out of 11 former Confederate states, only Johnson’s home state of Tennessee ratified it in 1866.

• Voters voted solidly for Republicans in the 1866 Congressional elections.

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Under the Reconstruction Act (1867), states refusing to ratify the 14th Amendment were

placed under military rule.• Pre-1867 Southern

state governments were declared illegal.

• Freed slaves and whites who supported Republicans were registered to vote.

• Former Confederate leaders and their supporters were not allowed to vote.

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The Tenure of Office Act of 1867 further reduced President Johnson’s

power.• This law made it illegal

for him to fire Cabinet members without Senate approval.

• When Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in February 1868, the House voted to impeach the president.

• Johnson was tried in the Senate for breaking the Tenure of Office Act.

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The Senate fell one vote short of the two-third majority necessary to

remove Johnson from office.• In 1868, Republicans

nominated Ulysses S. Grant, who easily won the presidency.

• Grant would be re-elected in 1872.

• He used martial law to deal with severe disorder in the South.

• It soon became clear that Reconstruction was losing support among the American people.

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New state constitutions were written to support voting rights for African

American men.• Then voters had to

approve their new state constitution and the 14th Amendment.

• By the end of 1870, all southern states had been readmitted to the Union.

• Northerners who had moved to the South were soon in charge of most state governments.

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Southerners disliked these carpetbaggers, who they felt were using government jobs to get rich.

• White southerners who sided with Republicans were called scalawags – a term used to describe a worthless farm animal.

• African Americans were elected to public office.

• Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first African American senator.

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New state governments in the South made many changes.

• New tax laws required wealthy plantation owners to pay a larger share.

• Property qualifications for voting and holding office were eliminated.

• Women were allowed to own property.

• The black codes were eliminated.

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African Americans opened their own churches – which became centers of

community life.• Black couples could also now be legally married.

• The Ku Klux Klan was formed by Confederate veterans in 1866.

• This secret society terrorized African Americans to discourage them from voting.

• The KKK also targeted carpetbaggers.

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Congress passed the 15th Amendment in February 1869; it was

ratified by the states in 1870.• It stated that the

right to vote could not be denied based on race or the fact that the person had been a slave.

• As the popularity of Reconstruction faded, southern governments found ways around this guarantee.

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Some southern states denied the right to vote to people who could not read

or write.• In many places, people

who wanted to vote were required to pay money, called a poll tax.

• Few African Americans could meet either of these requirements.

• Grandfather clauses allowed voters whose grandfather or father were eligible to vote in 1867 to be excluded from literacy tests.

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The goal of many southern states became segregation, the separation

of the races.• Jim Crow laws

enforced segregation in schools, restaurants, railroad cars and other public places.

• The Supreme Court – in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – ruled that segregation was legal so long as facilities for blacks and whites were equal.

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In the 1876 presidential election, Democrat Samuel Tilden easily won

the popular vote.• However, he was one

vote short of a majority over Republican Rutherford B. Hayes in the electoral college.

• The 20 electoral votes from South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana were disputed.

• Congress created a special group to review the election results.

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Four months later, the commission awarded the disputed votes to Hayes,

who won 185-184.• In what became known

as the Compromise of 1877, remaining federal troops in the South would be removed.

• White Democrats quickly regained control of their states and reintroduced the black codes.

• Reconstruction was over.

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