Reconstruction

• 13th Amendment - 1865


  In 1862 Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in southern states in 1863.
• 13th Amendment - 1865 


  In 1865 Congress passed the 13th Amendment which wrote the abolition of slavery into the constitution

  This meant it applied to every state
• 13th Amendment - 1865

  It also it was very difficult for it to come back. getting rid of an amendment needs 2/3s of both houses of Congress and ¾ of states to agree.
• 13th Amendment - 1865 LIMITATIONS


  However, sharecropping trapped ex-slaves into a cycle of debt that could see them working for their former masters for free and unable to leave their land. Black codes also reintroduced elements of slavery in terms of punishment, restrictions on freedom and penal servitude.
• Freedman's Bureau ( 1865 - 1872 ) BENEFITS

  • Federal agency set up at first to give short term aid such as food, shelter and jobs to ex-slaves and help reunite families.
  • Also aimed to give longer term aid in the form of education – 90,000 freedmen in bureau schools
• Freedman's Bureau (1865 - 1872 ) LIMITATIONS

  • It was understaffed and underfunded.
  • It did not have presidential support – President Johnson attempted to veto it twice.
  • It was eventually closed down in 1872.
• Civil Rights Act ( 1866 ) LIMITATIONS 


  • Did not have presidential support – Johnson vetoed it but Congress overrode him.
  • Being only a law all it would take would be another law to remove it – therefore black citizenship was not secure.
  • Black Codes in the south violated many of these rights of citizenship and southerners could argue their state laws were just as important as federal law.
• Reconstruction Act ( 1867 ) BENEFITS


  • Radical Republicans now in the driving seat, angry with Black Codes, state governments full of ex-rebels that Johnson had pardoned and the denial of voting rights to ex-slaves.
  • Reconstruction Act placed the South under military rule.
  • They could be readmitted if they held new elections ensured ex-slaves to vote and agreed to ratify the 14th Amendment.
  • All states were readmitted by 1868 although some military remained until 1877 in some deep south states.