Reconstruction

How do we unite the country, with so many hard feelings?

Reconstruction Vocabulary

• Assassinated• Oath• Black Codes• Klux Klux Klan• Literacy Tests• Poll Tax• Grandfather Clause• Reconstruction• Impeachment• Radical Republicans • Military Reconstruction Act

• Freedmen's Bureau• Amnesty• Suffrage

President Lincoln’s 10% Plan as early as December 1863

10% Plan* Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (December 8,

1863)

* Replace majority rule with “loyal rule” in the South.

* When 10% of the voting population in the 1860 election had taken an oath of loyalty and established a government, it would be recognized.

* Pardon to all but the highest ranking military and civilian Confederate officers.

Timeline of Reconstruction1863 - Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (Abraham Lincoln)

1864 - Wade-Davis Bill (Benjamin Wade and Henry Davis)

1864 – (March) Freeman’s Bureau created

1865 – (April) Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Andrew Johnson (Democrat) becomes president and announces his Presidential

Reconstruction.1866 - Radical and moderate Republicans take control of

Reconstruction process (Freedman’s Bureau, Civil Rights Act, 14th Amendment).

Congressional Elections - Moderate and Radical Republicans gain a 2/3 majority in Congress.

1867 - Republicans pass the Reconstruction Act of 1867.Congress impeaches Johnson.

1868 - Grant (Republican) wins the presidential election.

Wade-Davis Bill (1864)Required 50% of the number of 1860 voters

to take an oath of allegiance (swearing they had never voluntarily aided the rebellion ).

Lincoln wanted 10% of the number of 1860 voters take an “oath of Loyalty”.

Required a state constitutional convention before the election of state officials.

Contained specific safeguards of freedmen’s liberties. Senator

BenjaminWade(R-OH)

CongressmanHenry W. Davis

(R-MD)

Views of ReconstructionNorthern leaders wanted to

insure slavery would be abolished. Moderates thought this could be accomplished as soon as Confederate armies surrendered and the southern states repealed secession and ratified the 13th Amendment.

All of this happened by the end of September 1865

General Lee surrendering to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse

http://www.ct.gov/mil/lib/mil/pictures/civilwar/thesurrender.jpg

13th Amendment

Ratified in December, 1865.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Congress Many in Congress wanted

tougher requirementson the rebellious southern

States. Wade-Daviswas a compromise bill between the moderate

Republicans and the Radical Republicans

Freedmen's Bureau

• The new gov. agency was created by Lincoln to assist freedmen, (ex-slaves) in the South.

• Major goal was to teach African Americans to read and write and to solve everyday problems of the newly freed, such as clothing, food, water, health care, communication with family members, and jobs.

Freedman’s Bureau Schools

Lincoln Assassinated

• President Lincoln is assassinated 4 days after General Lee surrendered at Appomattox courthouse (April 1865).

• He was killed by Actor John Wilkes Booth while at Ford’s theater watching a play.

• How would reconstruction of the union happen now that Lincoln is gone?

Lincoln Assassinated

Civil Rights Act of 1866

•Civil Rights Act of 1866–Gave African Americans citizenship and forbade

states from passing black codes (discriminatory laws) that restricted African Americans’ lives.

The act declared that all persons born in the U.S. were now citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of servitude, excluding Indians.

Former Slaves and Wounded Union Veterans Celebrating the Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866

14 Amendment

• In order to ensure permanent change in the law the 14th amendment granted citizenship to African Americans

• The amendment also guaranteed the right to due process under the law to African Americans

Election of 1866• Radical Republicans were elected as the

majority in Congress. • Passed the Radical Reconstruction Act

Civil authorities in the territories were subject to military supervision.

Required new state constitutions, including black suffrage and ratification of the 13th and 14th Amendments.

In March, 1867, Congress passed an act that authorized the military to enroll eligible black voters and begin the process of constitution making.

Federal reconstruction took the vote away from 10,000 to 15,000 white men who had been Confederate officials or soldiers

-Radical Republicans passed the Military Reconstruction Act in 1867

-Divided the South into military territories.Southerners were highly resentful of their loss of control over their southern

territories

-

Impeachment of President Johnson• Impeachment is bringing of formal charges against a public official.

•Radical Republicans targeted President Johnson

•Acquitted by one vote less than the two thirds required to convict him.

•1868

The 15th Amendment

• Granted African American men the right to vote in 1870.

• No guarantee African American men would have access to their local polls.

• Violence against African Americans at polling places was common.

• Literacy tests, poll taxes and other voter qualifications to prevent African Americans from voting became common. Women’s rights groups were furious that they were not granted the vote!

The First Black Votershttp://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/

BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Month=November&Date=14

The South Reacts to the Radical Republicans

• Black Codes• Intimidation

–Ku Klux Klan• Voting Restrictions

–Literacy Tests – prove you can read write before voting

–Poll Tax - pay a tax to vote–Grandfather Clause – Can vote if your

grandfather voted

South Reacts to Radical Reconstruction

Black Codes: were laws and constitutional amendments enacted by the ex- Confederate states following the Civil War.

The purpose of these laws were to restrict the new rights gained by the newly freed slaves.

These restrictive laws ensured a supply of inexpensive agricultural labor, and maintain white control both economically and politically.

“Boy, You ain’t a votin’ here”!

WHITE SUPREMACY

The Rise of Sharecropping

Former slaves once the war was over, if they didn’t stay on the plantations to work had to move around to find work.

Sharecropping: an arrangement where a landowner rents their land out for the renter grow their crops and once the crops are harvested the renter shares the profit from the crops .

Most black families became sharecroppers and barely got by because of debt involved in the arrangement.

13 year old sharecropper

Share CroppingShare Cropping Merchant Tenant Farmer Landowner

Loan tools and seed up to 60% interest to tenant farmer to plant spring crop.

Farmer using credit from the merchant gets food, clothing, and other necessities until the harvest.

A part of tenant’s future crops is used as repayment of debt to the merchant.

Farmer plants crops, harvests in autumn.

Turns over up to ½ of crop to land owner as payment of rent.

Tenant gives remainder of crop to merchant inpayment of debt.

Rents land to tenant in exchange for ¼ to ½ of tenant farmer’s future crop.

SharecroppingSharecropping

President Grant Elected 1868

Grant did attempt to enforce Reconstruction.His presidency racked by scandalsRepublican party divided between two groups.With the Republican party divided it had little energy left to devote to Reconstruction.

End of Reconstruction

•Scandal in Grants’ administration lost public support for Republican Party

•People in the North and South were calling for withdrawal of federal troops.

•Hayes elected in 1876. A secret deal between Hayes and Southern Democrats marked the end of reconstruction.•Deal called Compromise of 1877

Reconstruction in North Carolina

• New state Constitution was created in 1868. 23 of the delegates were former slaves.

• New Constitution gave all males 21 and over the right to vote.

• Radical Republicans took over in NC Gov.• Conservative southerners organized resistance

to the Republicans. Klu Klux Klan one form of resistance

What’s Next???

• Western Settlement in the United States• Surge in new inventions and industries• American gains prominence as a country in

the worlds area.

All of these and more transform the United States, and we become important on the World’s stage.

• http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/fimage/gildedage/image.php?id=3490

The South tried to weaken the plan by passing Black Codes.