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!!!