Reconstruction Era: SummaryThe Reconstruction era, 1863-1877, was a time of political crisis and violence directed against the freed slaves.

The majority of white Southerners believed there would be a quick reunion with the North with white supremacy

continuing in the South. They were willing to accept a degree of freedom for African Americans with a few civil rights but no role in governing.

Many Northerners including Vice-President Andrew Johnson, who became president after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, shared these views.

Opposing this view were black Southerners and a majority of Northern Republicans

They thought that before the Southern States were restored the federal government must secure the basic rights of former slaves.

In several pieces of Civil Rights Legislation and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the Republican Congress wrote this policy into law.

Unfortunately, violent opposition in the South and a retreat from the ideal of racial equality in the North meant Reconstruction would last less that ten years.

When it ended, the ex-slaves found themselves at the mercy of white Southerners who did everything in their power to turn Black Americans into second class citizens.

It wouldn’t be until the middle of the 20th century that the promise of Reconstruction would be fulfilled.

Reconstruction Era: Summary

Lincoln’s Reconstruction Planknown as…

A pardon to any Confederate who would take an oath of

allegiance to the Union and accept federal policy on slavery.

Denied pardons to all Confederate military and gov’t officials & to southerners who had killed African American war prisoners.

Permitted each state had to hold a convention to create a new state constitution only after 10% of voters in the state had sworn allegiance.

States could then hold elections and resume full participation in the Union.

“readmit” southern states since they never legally left

require constitutions to give voting rights to black Americans How does Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address reflect his ideas about Reconstruction?

It sets a tone of forgiveness for the postwar era

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Did not…Did not…

Ten Percent Plan

How did Congress react to Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan?

Congress saw it as a threat to congressional authority. Lincoln should leave political reorganization to Congress.

Radical Republicans viewed Lincoln’s plan as too lenient.

Congress passed its own, stricter Reconstruction plan, the Wade-Davis Bill (Act). Required ex-Confederate men to take an oath of past & future loyalty & to swear that they had never willingly borne arms against the U.S.

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Johnson’s Reconstruction Planknown as…

Pardoned southerners who swore allegiance to the Union.

Permitted each state to hold a constitutional convention (w/o Lincoln’s 10% allegiance requirement) States required to void secession, abolish slavery, & repudiate Confederate debt.

States could then hold elections and rejoin the Union.

pardons to all Confederate leaders, in reality, Johnson issued pardons to those who asked him personally.

the spirit of Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan but was more generous to the South.

Presidential Reconstruction

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reflected… denied…

As a team, discuss how the Radical Republicans’ Reconstruction plan differed from Lincoln and Johnson’s plans?

Radical Republicans

wanted to punish white southerners

secure equal rights for African Americans

issue a harsh loyalty test for former Confederate soldiers

Lincoln & Johnson

wanted quick pardons for most former Confederate soldiers

early constitutional conventions for southern states

felt that ending slavery was more important than securing full equal rights for African Americans.

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The Freedmen’s Bureau was assigned the following tasks:

To aid Refugees and Freedmen by

•furnishing food

• giving medical care

• establishing schools

• supervising labor contracts

•managing abandoned and confiscated land

•arbitrating in court disputes between freedmen

Symbolic portrait of the Bureau acting as a buffer between racist whites and ex-slaves.

The Freedmen’s Bureau set up schools for ex-slaves and their children who had been

forbidden education under slavery.

Dedicated men and women came from the North to teach the newly freed slaves.

Booker T. Washington said, "It was a whole race going to school. Few were too young and none were too old."

A Freedmen’s Bureau school

Freed slaves were eager to learn reading and writing, as these had been forbidden under slavery.

Humorous cartoon portraying a 71-year-old ex- slave woman who had determined to learn how to read and write. She was kept in at playtime for missing a lesson.

Freedmen’s Bureau accomplishments in Education 1865-1870

4,239 Elementary schools were established

9,307 Teachers employed

247,333 Pupils taught

74 High and normal schools were built

61 Industrial schools were built

Accomplishments of the Freedmen’s Bureau

Gave away more than 21 million food rations to both black and white Southerners.

Established 45 hospitals and treated 450,000 persons.

Settled over 30,000 displaced persons.

Negotiated hundreds of thousands of labor contracts between freedmen and employers.

Served as an arbiter and mediated disputes between freedmen and others.

Set up 4,300 schools that educated over a quarter million ex-slaves.

The Freedmen’s Bureau was attacked.

President Johnson was against the Bureau and twice Congress had to override his vetoes to keep it functioning.

Most Southerners hated the Bureau, seeing it as a “foreign government” forced on them by the North’s military.

By 1869, Congress had ended all the Freedmen’s Bureau's work except for education, which ended in 1870.

Black Civil War veterans received assistance until 1872.