Unit 12: Reconstruction

• Reconstruction


  The process of rebuilding and restoring the South after the Civil War
• Thomas Nast


  The "Father of the American Cartoon"
• The Civil War lasted from 1861-1865
• Reconstruction Era followed the Civil War
• Major questions after the Civil War

  • How should the South be rebuilt?
  • How should the states that seceded be brought back into the Union?
  • How should former slaves be incorporated into the country as freed men and women?
• Reconstructing a Nation


  1. After 4 years of war and over 200 years of slavery, could Northerners and Southerners rebuild the South together?

  2. Could they unify as citizens of the same country?
• Challenges faced by African Americans in the South


  • How would freed men and women be treated in the Southern states?
  • How would Northerners address the issue of including former slaves as citizens in society?
  • What were some major challenges that former slaves faced?
• The South lost 2/3 of its shipping industry, 9,000 miles of railroad, work animals and 1/3 livestock, and the value of Southern farm property plunged 70%
• The North lost 364,000 soldiers, including 38,000 Black Americans
• The South lost 260,000 soldiers, 1/5 of its white men; 1/3 southern men were killed or wounded
• Black Southerners were homeless, jobless, and hungry after the war; some freed slaves continued working on plantations of former masters; some moved to cities and to the West
• Plantation owners had their property seized under the Captured and Abandoned Property Act of 1863, and with worthless Confederate money, some farmers couldn't afford to hire workers while others sold property to cover debts
• Poor white Southerners faced competition with freedmen and migrated to frontier lands like Mississippi and Texas
• Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (1863)

  Also known as the Ten Percent Plan, it denied pardons to Confederate military and government officials and Southerners who killed Black American POWs, but offered pardons to Confederates if they swore an oath of allegiance and accepted federal policy on slavery
• Opposition to Lincoln's Reconstruction Plan

  • Radical Republicans thought it was too lenient and did not require state constitutions to guarantee Black voting rights or give Blacks true equality
• Wade-Davis Bill


  Required that 50 percent of a state's white male population take a loyalty oath to be readmitted to the Union, and states were required to give blacks the right to vote
• Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction Policy


  States could hold conventions to create a constitution but with no 10% allegiance requirement, states could hold elections and rejoin the Union if they voided secession, abolished slavery, and cancelled Confederate debt; Johnson offered pardons to Confederates, especially wealthy landowners and members of the political elite, if they swore an oath of allegiance
• The Freedmen's Bureau was created by Congress in 1865 to help Black Southerners adjust to freedom, but it lacked strong support in Congress, had a shortage of funds and personnel, and faced racism, leading to its shutdown in 1872 due to pressure from white Southerners
• Lincoln and General Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15 set aside land in South Carolina and Georgia for roughly 40,000 former slaves, the "40 acres and a mule" promise
• Sharecropping


  A system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced, with the tenant setting their own hours and tasks, but often facing economic exploitation and debt due to high interest rates, unpredictable harvests, and unscrupulous landlords and merchants
• The South grew more dependent on cotton, with the crop lien system providing loans in exchange for a lien on the crop, leading to downward prices and debt for cotton growers
• White-run governments in the South enacted black codes that restricted freedmen's rights, such as curfews, vagrancy laws, labor contracts, and land restrictions
• Southern defiance of Reconstruction enraged northern Republicans in Congress, who blamed President Johnson for the return of southern Democrats to power
• Civil Rights Act of 1866


  Outlawed black codes, but was vetoed by President Johnson before Congress overrode the veto
• 14th Amendment (1868)


  Declared that all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. are citizens, and that no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or deny equal protection of the laws
• Reconstruction Act of 1867

  Passed by Radical Republicans over Johnson's vetoes, it put the South under military rule, divided it into 5 districts each governed by a northern general, ordered new elections for delegates to create new state constitutions, required states to allow all qualified male voters including Blacks to vote, temporarily barred those who had supported the Confederacy from voting, and required states to ratify the 14th Amendment
• President Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives in 1868 for trying to fire the Secretary of War in violation of the Tenure of Office Act
• Due process of law

  All persons born or naturalized in the U.S. are citizens; no state will deprive person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law
• Reconstruction Act of 1867

  1. Passed by Radical Republicans over Johnson's vetoes

  2. Put South under military rule

  3. Divided into 5 districts, each governed by northern general

  4. Ordered southern states to hold new elections for delegates to create new state constitutions

  5. Required state to allow all qualified male voters, including Blacks, to vote in elections

  6. Temporarily barred those who had supported the Confederacy from voting

  7. Required southern states to guarantee equal rights to all citizens

  8. Required the state to ratify the 14th Amendment
• Johnson tried to fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to replace with General Ulysses S. Grant in fall 1867 then General Lorenzo Thomas in February 1868
• House found Johnson's firing of Stanton was unconstitutional; on Feb. 24, 1868, House members voted 126:47 to impeach (charge with wrongdoing in office)
• House drafted 11 articles of impeachment, including violation of the Tenure of Office Act (March 1867) and bringing "into disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt, and reproach the Congress of the United States."
• Johnson escaped impeachment by 1 vote
• 15th Amendment


  The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude
• The 15th Amendment was passed in February 1869 and ratified in March 1870
• Grant won the 1868 election, reinforcing Republican majorities in Congress which proposed the Fifteenth Amendment to guarantee black voting rights
• Women's rights activists were outraged that Fifteenth Amendment enfranchised Black men but not White women
• The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was formed, pledging to defend the social and political superiority of whites
• Federal response to the KKK

  1. Enforcement Act of 1870: banned the use of terror, force, bribery to prevent people from voting because of their race

  2. Other laws banned the KKK entirely and strengthened military protection of voters and voting places

  3. Using troops, cavalry, and power of courts, government arrested and tried thousands of Klansmen

  4. Within a year the KKK was virtually wiped out
• As federal troops gradually withdrew from South, black suffrage basically ended