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Reconstruction

Test Date:

Reconstruction Begins

-After the Civil War, the U.S. government faced the challenges of Reconstruction (1865-1877), the process of readmitting the defeated Southern States to the Union.

-The South was badly damaged after the war. Cities, farms, roads, and bridges had been destroyed. Widespread crop failures and worthless Confederate money caused many Southerners to face starvation and poverty.

Lincoln’s Plan

-Abraham Lincoln wanted to unite the country as fast as possible. He proposed a plan called the Ten Percent Plan, that offered southerners amnesty (official pardon) for all illegal acts supporting the rebellion. In order to receive amnesty, they had to 1) Swear an oath of loyalty to the U.S., and 2) Agree that slavery was illegal. Many argued that this plan was too lenient on the rebels.

-Louisiana quickly agreed, formed a new state legislature, and was admitted back into the Union. Many Southern states quickly followed.

Freedom for African Americans

-On January 31, 1865, at President Lincoln’s urging, Congress proposed the Thirteenth Amendment which made slavery illegal throughout the U.S.

-Newly freed slaves began legalizing marriages, seeking sold relatives, placing newspaper ads for their children, and travelling. Freedmen were unsure about where they would live and what kind of work they would do. They began to demand the same political/economic rights as white citizens.

-Congress established the Freedman’s Bureau, an agency providing relief for freed people in the South. They distributed food, established schools, and offered legal help.

President Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan

-On the evening of April 14, 1865, President Lincoln will be assassinated while attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. John Wilkes Booth, a southerner who opposed Lincoln’s policies, shot him.

-Vice President, Andrew Johnson will be sworn into the office of President and Reconstruction was now his responsibility. His plan will be similar to Lincoln’s plan, but he will pardon more than 7,000 wealthy southerners and former Confederate officials in just one year.

-All the southern states, except TX, created new governments. Johnson approved them all and declared the U.S. a restored nation.

-However, Republicans complained that many new representatives were leaders of the Confederacy. Therefore, Congress refused to readmit the southern states into the Union. The nation is still divided.

Opposition to President Johnson

-Congress continued to debate the rules for readmitting the states into the Union. Meanwhile, the new state legislatures had begun passing black codes, laws that greatly limited the freedom of African Americans.

-Created work contracts.

-Could be arrested if they could not prove employment.

-Not allowed to own guns.

Radical Republicans

-Many Americans were angry and felt that the South was returning to its old ways. Radical Republicans disagreed with Johnson’s Reconstruction and wanted the federal government to force change in the South.

-Congress proposed a bill that would give the Freedman’s Bureau the power to use military courts to try people accused of violating African Americans rights. Johnson vetoed the bill and said that the South must be represented before laws are passed.

-Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which gave African Americans the same legal rights as white Americans. Johnson vetoed and Congress overrode the veto.

Fourteenth Amendment

-Worried that the Civil Rights Act would be overturned, the Republicans proposed the 14th Amendment.

1. Defined all people born or naturalized within the U.S. as citizens (except Native Americans).

2. Guaranteed citizens equal protection of the laws.

3. States could not “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

4. Banned former Confederate officials from holding state or federal offices.

5. State laws are subject to federal court review.

6. Gave Congress the power to pass any laws necessary to enforce the amendment.

Congress Takes Control of Reconstruction

-The 1866 congressional elections gave the Republican party a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate. -In March 1867, Congress passed Reconstruction Acts that divided the South into 5 districts, each controlled by a U.S. military commander. For a state to be readmitted, they had to write a new constitution supporting the 14th amendment and give African American men suffrage.

-President Johnson strongly disagreed. For the first time in U.S. history, the House will vote to impeach the president. The Senate failed to convict Johnson.

-Impeachment is the process used by a legislative body to bring charges of wrongdoing against a public official.

Election of 1868

-Johnson will not run for another term. Ulysses S. Grant, war hero, will be chosen as the Republican candidate. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans will vote for the “party of Lincoln” and Grant will win a narrow victory against Democratic New York governor Horatio Seymour.

Fifteenth Amendment

-In 1869, Congress proposed the 15th Amendment, which gave African American men the right to vote.

-Many women were angry that they were not included in this amendment.

Reconstruction Governments

-Reconstruction governments built hospitals, roads, railroads, bridges, public buildings, and established public schools. These improvements were intended to help the southern economy recover from the war.

-After Grant became president, the Republican party controlled most southern state governments because of the support of African American voters. Most Republican officials were unpopular with white southerners.

-During Reconstruction, 600 African Americans won election to state legislatures. 16 of them went on to be elected to Congress. Hiram Revels became the first African American in the U.S. Senate.

Ku Klux Klan

-As more African Americans took office, resistance to Reconstruction increased among white southerners.

-Democrats claimed that the Reconstruction governments were corrupt, illegal, and unjust. They also did not like having federal solider stationed in their states.

-In 1866, a group of white southerners in TN created the Ku Klux Klan, a secret society that opposed civil rights, particularly suffrage, for African Americans.

-The Klan used violence and terror by attacking, even murdering, African Americans, white Republican voters, and public officials. Local governments feared the Klan and did little to stop them as it spread throughout the South.

-In 1871, Congress passed laws that made it a federal crime to interfere with elections. Within a few years, the Klan was no longer an organized threat.

Reconstruction Ends

-The General Amnesty Act of 1872 allowed former Confederates to serve in public office. Many of those, whom were Democrats, were soon elected to southern governments.

-The Republican party began losing power in the North as President Grant was blamed for the Panic of 1873.

-Many businesses closed and an estimated 2 million people did not have jobs. High unemployment rates caused strikes and protests. Northerners became more concerned about finances than southern racism.

Election of 1876

-Candidates: Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden

-Tilden appeared to have won, but Republicans challenged the electoral votes. A commission of justices and congressmen will give all of the disputed votes to Hayes.

-In the Compromise of 1877, the Democrats agreed to Hayes victory and in return, all federal troops were removed from the South.

African Americans’ Rights Restricted

-Gradually, Democrats regained control of state governments in the South. In efforts to deny African American suffrage, the governments set up the poll tax, a special tax people had to pay before they could vote. Some states required voters to pass a literacy test.

-A grandfather clause was passed that said men whose father or grandfathers could vote before 1867 did not have to pay a poll tax or pass a literacy test. As a result, almost every white man could vote without restriction.

-New Democratic governments also introduced segregation, the forced separation of whites and blacks in public places and passed laws called Jim Crow Laws that enforced segregation.

Plessy v. Ferguson

-Homer Plessy, an African American, refused to leave the whites-only Louisiana train car that he was riding on and he was arrested for breaking segregation laws. Plessy sued the railroad company and lost.

-His lawyers argued that the law violated his right to equal treatment under the 14th Amendment.

-Plessy appealed to the Supreme Court. They will rule against him in Plessy v. Ferguson, saying segregation was allowed if “separate, but equal” facilities were provided.

-Segregation will become widespread. African Americans were forced to use separate public schools, libraries, restrooms, and parks. These facilities were usually poorer quality than white facilities.

Farming in the South

-Few African Americans could afford to buy farms or move West, therefore many remained on plantations.

-They often became a part of a system called sharecropping, where landowners provided the land, tools, and supplies, while sharecroppers provided the labor.

-At harvest time, most of the crops went to the landowner. Whatever remained went to the sharecropper to sell. Many sharecroppers hoped to sell their share, save money, and buy a farm. Unfortunately, only a few ever achieved this dream.

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Key

Underlined – Important Information

Italicized – Important People

Highlighted - Vocabulary

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