RECONSTRUCTIONdefinition: putting something back

together

1865 To 1877

How do the actions and beliefs

of individuals and groups bring

about social, political, and

economic change?

RECONSTRUCTION FACTShttp://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/index.php?s=lesson-plans&id=205

Reconstruction after the war consisted of dividing the Southern states into military districts—a plan supported by the Radical Republicans in Congress. These districts would be governed by the United States military.

Opposing Views

Not everyone in the United States and the defeated Confederate States of America agreed upon how to best put the Union back together.

Abraham Lincoln (Moderate Republican)Andrew Johnson (Moderate Republican)Radical RepublicansRobert E. LeeFrederick Douglass

The war has been lost; the North has freed the slaves. We have to decide whether to heal old wounds or fight for

what was lost.

Will we be tried for

treason? Will we be

allowed to work? Will

we be allowed to

vote and hold office?

Lincoln and Moderate Republicans

Moderate Republicans:

Leaders like President Lincoln and Vice President Andrew Johnson wished to take it easy on the South so that they would peacefully rejoin the Union without too much resentment.

RADICAL REPUBLICANSRadical Republicans believed the majority of the southern states’ voting population should swear allegiance to the United States before they could be readmitted into the Union.They felt that freed slaves and their civil rights should be protected.They felt that Congress, NOT the president, should be in charge of the reconstruction of the South.

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass had been an outspoken opponent to slavery.

After the Civil War, he worked tirelessly for suffrage (right to vote) for the African-Americans.

He supported the Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution.

He disagreed with President Johnson’s assertion that only whites should lead the southern state governments.

Former slaves had to find work and establish their place in politics, the economy, and society. They faced the challenges of illiteracy, lack of economic security, racial prejudice, and unequal treatment under the law and in society.

What do we do about the freedmen?

Robert E. Lee, Confederate General

He urged Southerners to reconcile (make up) with the Northerners and reunite with the Union.

He later became president of Washington College, which was renamed Washington and Lee after his death.

Many in the South refused to accept the rules placed upon them by the Northerners and struck back with black codes and the Ku Klux Klan.