Southern Reconstruction 1865-1877
Southern Reconstruction
1865-1877
Goals
• To explain the problems of Reconstruction• To explain the three new amendments to the
Constitution• To explain the changes in the North and the
South after the Civil War• To describe the presidencies of Johnson and
Grant• To describe the problems free African
Americans faced
Terms to Know:
• Amnesty• Assassination• Oath• Reconstruction• Black Codes• Freedmen
The Beginning
• Lincoln begins his 2nd term• Hopes for rebuilding the South• Reconstruction Plan:– a state could rejoin the union when 10% of the
people took an oath to support the Union– new governments could be formed– slavery laws would be obeyed
April 14, 1965
• Ford’s Theater
• John Wilkes Booth
• Lincoln Assassinated
• Johnson becomes President
Problems in the South
• Damage had been great• plantations ruined• $$ was worthless• roads blocked with rubble• railroads damaged• few police, no judges, no courts• no established governments
Reconstruction
• Rebuilding the South• Andrew Johnson is the new President
Johnson’s Plan Congress
-- Wanted to follow Lincoln’s Plans-- pardoned southerners who took oath-- temporary governors-- Most states ratified the 13th Amendment - ended slavery
-- “Radical Republicans” opposed the Reconstruction Plan-- “RR” wanted to punish the former Confederate States for the trouble they caused-- “RR” refused to recognized the new governments
Black Codes
• New Southern Governments adopted “Black Codes”– applied to African Americans– “Freedmen” were not allowed to vote, own land,
work certain jobs
– Congress felt the south did not intend to end slavery
Terms to Know• Due process
• Civil rights
• Impeach
• Misconduct
• Override
Civil Rights Act of 1866
• Congress intended to reverse “Black Codes”
– African Americans could • own property• bring lawsuits• marry legally
14th Amendment
• Proposed by Congress• Gave citizenship to African Americans!• Made the Bill of Rights cover all Americans• “deprive any person of life, liberty or property
without due process of law; nor deny to any person equal protection of the laws.”
• Did not apply to American Indians
Freedmen’s Bureau
• Started in 1865 as a temporary agency• Help formerly enslaved people and white
southerners• establish hospitals• extended in 1866 to help freedmen find jobs.• opportunities for freedmen to go to school• Protect the CIVIL RIGHTS of African Americans
Reconstruction Act of 1867
• passed over the VETO of the President• Military rule would be placed on those states
that have not returned to the Union• To be readmitted:– Constitutional
Convention– Congress’ approval of the
state’s constitutionAccept the 14th Amendment
Tenure of Office Act
• Required approval from the Senate before the President could fire an appointee.
• Johnson vetoed• Congress Overrode the veto
Tenure of Office Act…Cont’d
• President Johnson fired Edwin Stanton– a cabinet member
• The House of Representatives charged Johnson with doing something wrong– Impeach
• Senate failed to impeach Johnson• Johnson remained president
The Election of 1868
• Republicans– General Ulysses S. Grant• No political experience• Famous General of the Civil War
• Democrats– Horatio Seymour
• CONGRATULATIONS PRESIDENT GRANT!!!– received 450,000 African American votes
Terms to Know
• Carpetbaggers• Corruption• Scalawag• Sharecropper• Tenant Farmer• Segregate
Reshaping the South
• Reconstruction Acts provided for political reorganization of the South
• Confederate political leaders could not hold office
Scalawags
• White Southerners• Controlled new politicians– African Americans put in state offices
Carpetbaggers
• Northerner• Elected to political office in the South• Took advantage of people• Made money through corruption• Carried their belongings in bags
Plantations
• Could no longer use slave labor• Paid LOW wages to their former enslaved
people• Decreased the profits of the plantation
owners
Tenant Farming
• A farmer who pays rent to a plantation owner for the use of the land
• Paid a set price• Sold crops to pay the landowner• Ended up with very little
Farmer
BuyerLandowner
Crops
Sharecroppers
• “Shared their Crops”• Owner provided seed, tools, food and supplies• Crop was payment• Land owner sold the crops for high prices but
paid the farmers low prices.
• A NEW FORM OF SLAVERY HAD BEGUN
Other Changes to the South
• Discovery of iron ore, coal and limestone• Lumber mills• Cotton Mills• Towns and cities grew• States required public education for children• Segregated School–Whites to one - - - Blacks to one
Terms to Know• Grandfather Clause
• Suffrage
• Ku Klux Klan
• Scandal
• Centennial
15th Amendment
• February 1870• Gave African-American men the right to vote• Suffrage given to citizens – except Women and American Indians
• Southerners opposed the new amendment
Grandfather Clause
• African Americans kept from voting• Voting laws were passed that contained the
“Grandfather Clause”– any adult male could vote IF AND ONLY IF his
grandfather was a registered voter on January 1, 1867
Problems for Africans
• Ku Klux Klan– secret group– keep African Americans from voting– punish scalawags– make carpetbaggers leave the South– used violence
Problems for Grant
• little political training• appointed friends to government jobs• presidency hurt by several scandals• 1872 - Grant re-elected• country entered a depression
Election of 1876
• Democrats: – Samuel J. Tilden
• Republicans: – Rutherford B. Hayes
• Tilden won popular vote• No one won majority of electoral votes• An Electoral Commission decided the election
Rutherford B. Hayes
• Hayes made a political deal• Told Democratic leaders that he would end
Reconstruction• Hayes took office in March of 1877• All federal troops were removed from
southern states
• RECONSTRUCTION WAS OVER!!!