CHAPTER 17

RECONSTRUCTION AND THE NEW SOUTH

RECONSTRUCTION

• The reorganization and rebuilding of the former Confederate states after the Civil War

• 1865-1877

• Southern states also had to be readmitted into the Union• What do the Southern states need to do to be

readmitted?

LINCOLN’S PLAN

• Ten Percent Plan (1863)• When 10% of the voters of a state took an oath of

loyalty to the Union, the state could form a new government• Must:

• Adopt a new constitution that banned slavery

• Lincoln also offered amnesty to all white Southerners who were willing to swear loyalty to the Union, except for Confederate leaders

• Amnesty: Granting of a pardon

THE RADICAL’S PLAN

• Thought Lincoln was too forgiving

• Wanted a more radical, or extreme, approach

• Wade-Davis Bill• To rejoin the Union:• Majority of white males must swear loyalty• Only white males who swore they had not fought against the

Union could vote• Constitution must ban slavery and no former Confederates

could hold public office

FREEDMEN’S BUREAU

• 1865

• Helped African Americans adjust to freedom

• Provided food, clothing, and medical services

• Helped freed people acquire land or find work for fair wages

• Set up schools and gave aid to African American universities

ANDREW JOHNSON

• After Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, Andrew Johnson took over as President

• Johnson required high-ranking Confederates to appeal to the President to be pardoned• Wanted to humiliate Southern leaders

THE 13TH AMENDMENT

• 1865

• Abolished slavery in the United States

BLACK CODES

• 1866• Southern states passed laws to control freed men

and women.• Took away African American rights• Plantation owners could exploit African American

workers• Jobless African Americans were arrested• Banned from owning or renting farms

CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1866

• Granted full citizenship to African Americans• Overturned black codes• Contradicted the Dred Scott decision

THE 14TH AMENDMENT

• 1868

• Granted full citizenship to all people born in the United States

• No state could take away a citizen’s life, liberty, or property

• Confederate leaders could not hold office unless pardoned by Congress

• Southern States must ratify the amendment to join the Union

FIRST RECONSTRUCTION ACT OF 1867

• Called for the creation of new government for the 10 Southern states that had not ratified the 14th amendment

• Divided the 10 Southern states into 5 military districts each run by a military commander

• Guaranteed African Americans the right to vote and banned Confederate leaders from holding office

THE 15TH AMENDMENT

• 1869

• Prohibited the state and federal government from denying the right to vote to any male citizen because of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”

SCALAWAGS AND CARPETBAGGERS

• Scalawags: Southern whites who supported radical reconstruction in the South

• Carpetbaggers: Northern whites who moved to the South after the war • Called carpetbaggers because they arrived in the South

with their belongings in cheap suitcases

RESISTANCE TO RECONSTRUCTION

• Many Southern whites opposed efforts to expand African American rights• Refused to rent land to freed people• Store owners refused them credit• Employers wouldn’t hire them

• Ku Klux Klan• Used fear and violence to deny rights to freed men and

women• Killed thousands of African Americans• Burned homes, schools, churches

• Most white southerners refused to testify against those who attacked African Americans

COMPROMISE OF 1877

• Election of 1876- Rutherford B. Hayes vs. Samuel Tilden• Election was disputed

• Compromise of 1877• Hayes is declared the President• In exchange, the South would receive more aid and

all federal troops are withdrawn

• Hayes’ policies of letting the South handle its own issues ended Southern Reconstruction in 1877

VOTING RESTRICTIONS

• The end of Reconstruction meant the end of African Americans’ dreams for justice

• Southern leaders found a way around the 15th amendment• Poll tax- fee for people to vote

• Literacy test- voters had to read and explain difficult parts of the state constitution • Most African Americans had little education

• Grandfather clauses-Allowed people who did not pass the literacy test to vote if their fathers or grandfathers voted before Reconstruction

JIM CROW LAWS

• By the 1890s, segregation was a common feature of the South

• Jim Crow Laws required African Americans and whites to be separated in almost every public place• African American facilities were far worse than

white facilities

RECONSTRUCTION’S IMPACT

• Both success and failure

• + Helped rebuild Southern economy• + African Americans gained greater equality

(voting, some education, citizenship)• - Much of the South remained agricultural

and poor• - African American advances did not last

(segregation, discrimination, voting restrictions)

QUIZ

• 1. What is Southern Reconstruction?• 2. What was Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan?• 3. What did the Freedmen’s Bureau do?• 4. What is the 13th Amendment?• 5. What are the Black Codes?• 6. What did the Civil Rights Act of 1866 do?• 7. What is the 14th Amendment?• 8. What did the First Reconstruction Act of 1867 do?• 9. What is the 15th Amendment?• 10. How did some Southerners resist Reconstruction? Include

multiple examples• 11. How did the South restrict voting for blacks?• 12. What are Jim Crow Laws?