The Reconstruction Period1865-1877

The Social, Economic, and Political rebuilding of the

country after the American Civil War

Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House

marks the end of the Civil War and the start of Reconstruction

Presidential ReconstructionPresident Abraham Lincoln (Rep.) President Andrew Johnson (Dem.)

Moderate Plan for Reconstruction

• The 10 % Plan• Easy re-entry of Southern States, the

southern states had not really left the union

• Proclamation of Amnesty/pardon of most ex-Confederates

• Slow, measured progress, change• Passage of the 13th Amendment• No substantial aid to freedmen

The Assassination of President Lincoln

April, 14th, 1865Ford’s Theatre Washington

D.C.

Peterson Boarding House Wash. D.C.

Pres. Lincoln dies 7:22 a.m. April 15th , 1865

Famous Actor John Wilkes Booth

Conspirators

Sec. of State William Seward Vice President Andrew Johnson

“now he belongs to the ages”Sec. of War Edwin Stanton

Lincoln dies at the age of 56 on April, 15, 1865

Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield, Illinois

Pres. Andrew Johnson vs. Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens

The Impeachment of Pres. Andrew Johnson

Johnson is acquitted by a single vote in the Senate

Johnson violates the Tenure of Office Act

by firing Sec. of War Edwin Stanton

Congressional Reconstruction

• The southern states had left the union and should be considered conquered territories (Wade-Davis Bill)

• Renewed and expanded Freedmen’s Bureau• Reconstruction Act of 1867• Support for the 14th and 15th Amendments

(in addition to the 13th)• Tenure of Office Act• Force Acts• Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875

Leading Radical RepublicansBenjamin Wade

Thaddeus Stevens Charles Sumner

Military Reconstruction Acts of 1867

The election of Grant 1868

Southern Backlash:The Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

Black CodesState laws throughout the South with the goal of

suppressing the freedmen

Sharecropping in the South

The Freedmen’s BureauBureau of Freedmen, Refugees

and Abandoned Lands

The “Civil War Amendments”

• 13th Amendment (1865) Abolition of Slavery

• 14th Amendment (1868) Citizenship for the Freedmen and civil rights

• 15th Amendment (1870) Black Suffrage

CarpetbaggersNortherners who went South

Scalawags:

• Southerners who supported reconstruction policies, seen by fellow Southerners as traitors to the Southern cause. Various motives on the part of Southerners. Some supported reconstruction policies in order for personal advancement while others genuinely agreed with the intention of the policies.

Reelection of Pres. Grant

The Grant Scandals

Credit MobilierWhiskey RingIndian Ring

The results of black suffrage

Sen. Blanche Bruce (Ms.) Sen. Hiram Revels (Ms.)

The disputed Election of 1876

Rutherford B. Hayes (Rep) Samuel Tilden (Dem.)

The Compromise of 1877

The Republicans (Hayes) gain the White House and the Presidency

in exchange for the removal of troops from the South and the end of the military districts

With the removal of troops the South returns in large part to its Antebellum status, characterized by racism, discrimination and segregation. The conservative White Democrats took control of politics and state governments as the Reconstruction Period ends.

Reasons for the end of Reconstruction

• Death of Thaddeus Stevens• Economic concerns. The “Panic of

1873”• Preoccupations with Grant’s scandals• Attentions drawn to the Westward

movement• Reestablishment of Southern

Democrats to political power in their states