Reconstruction Notes (1)

• What were the physical results of the Civil War for the South?

  • About 70% of Southern shipping industry was destroyed
  • 9,000 miles of railroads destroyed
  • 35% of livestock killed
  • Infrastructure reduced to rubble
• What were the human costs of the war?

  • 260,000 southerners killed (20% of adult white men)
  • 33% of southern white men killed or wounded
  • 364,000 northerners killed
  • 38,000 African Americans killed
• What was the status of African-Americans in the South after the war?


  They gained freedom, but they no longer had basic necessities provided to them.
• What were the effects for plantation owners?


  They lost $3 billion in slaves, and the Federal government siezed $100 million in abandoned property.
• How were the poor white families affected by freed African-Americans?

  They faced competition from free slaves for jobs.
• What was the major question surrounding the concept of Reconstruction?


  How to re-incorporate the South back into the Union. Whether to punish them or pardon them for seceding.
• What were the four steps to Lincoln's plan he made before he was killed?

  1. Pardon any confederate who would take an oath of allegiance to the Union
  2. No pardons for any confederate government officer or military official who had killed an African American prisoner of war
  3. A state may hold a convention to create a new state Constitution after 10% of votes had sworn allegiance to the Union
  4. States may then hold elections and participate in the Union
• What was the problem with Lincoln's plan for African Americans?

  It did not provide voting rights for African Americans
• Why did Lincoln not mention "readmitting" Confederate states?

  He believed that they had never really left since secession was unconstitutional
• What was the goal of the Radical Republicans?

  Committed to ensuring true equality for all. They helped pass the Wade-Davis Act, which was stricter than Lincoln's plan.
• Why was the Radical Republican's plan not put into effect?


  Lincoln vetoed it.
• Who became President after the death of Lincoln?

  Andrew Johnso
• Why was Johnson able to sympathize with both the North and the South?


  He grew up a poor southerner in Tennessee; was a Union loyalist who hated rich plantation owners.
• What were the major points of Johnson's plan?

  1. Pardon southerners who swear allegiance to the Union
  2. Each state may hold a constitutional convention (no 10% requirement like Lincoln's plan)
  3. States must void their secession, abolish slavery, and ignore confederate debts
  4. States may then hold elections and rejoin the Union.