Reconstruction

Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction

• After Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in 1863 – Lincoln began preparing for Reconstruction

• Lincoln believe the south never legally seceded – plan based on forgiveness

• Lincoln issues the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863 – hoped to rally the north and force south to surrender

Lincoln’s 10 Percent Plan

• A southern state could be readmitted to the Union once 10 % of its voters swore an oath of allegiance to the Union

• Voters then would draft revised constitutions and establish new gov.

• All southerners except for high-ranking Confederate officials would be pardoned

• Lincoln promised to protect their private property minus slaves

• Most moderate Republicans supported Lincoln’s plan in hopes to end the war

• In essence, his plan was lenient in an attempt to entice the south to surrender

Lincoln’s Vision for Reconstruction

• Favored self-reconstruction without much help from Washington

• Appealed to both poor southerners as well as wealthy aristocrats by offering pardons and protection of property (not slaves)

• He wanted Reconstruction to be a short process in which secessionist states could draft new constitutions so the USA could return to they way it was before the war

Radical Republicans

• Many republicans believed that Lincoln’s plan was not harsh enough – south needed to be punished

• These radicals hoped to control reconstruction, transform southern society, disband planter aristocracy, redistribute land, develop industry, and guarantee civil liberties to former slaves

Wade-Davis Bill

• Radical Republicans passed the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864 to counter Lincoln’s 10% plan

• Southern state could rejoin the Union only if 50 % of its registered voters swore allegiance to the United States

• Lincoln did not like this bill – he feared that making the requirement 50 % would not end the war quickly

• Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill and refused to sign

Freedmen’s Bureau

• Lincoln and Congress disagreed on the best way to redistribute land

• Lincoln had several of his generals resettle former slaves

• Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau– Distribute food and supplies, establish schools,

redistribute additional confiscated lands to former slaves and poor whites

• Anyone who pledged loyalty to USA could lease 40 acres

• Most southerners viewed the Freedmen’s Bureau as a threat to their way of life during the postwar depression

• Agents for the bureau often accepted bribes from plantation owners and turned a blind eye to the former slaves

• Bureau was successful in setting up schools for nearly 250,000 free blacks

Lincoln’s Assassination

• In the spring of 1865, Lincoln and Congress were about to have a showdown on their plans for reconstruction..

• On April 14th, John Wilkes Booth, shot Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre

• Lincoln died the next morning

• Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes President

Presidential Reconstruction

• Like Lincoln, Johnson wanted to restore the Union as quickly as possible

• While Congress was in recess, Johnson went to work with Presidential Reconstruction

• Returned confiscated property to white southerners, issued 100s of pardons to former Confederate officers, undermined the Freedmen’s Bureau and ordered confiscated land be returned to white owners

• Appointed governors to supervise the drafting of new Constitutions

• Agreed to readmit states if they ratified the 13th Amendment (abolished slavery)

Joint Committee on Reconstruction

• Radical and moderate Republicans in Congress were furious that Johnson began his plans without their consent

• Johnson did not offer any security for former slaves

• To challenge Presidential Reconstruction, Congress established the Joint Committee on Reconstruction – came up with stricter requirements for readmitting states

Civil Rights Act of 1866

• Civil Rights Act of 1866 – guaranteed citizenship to all Americans regardless of race (except native Americans), and secured former slaves the right to own property, sue, testify in court, and sign legal contracts

• President Johnson vetoed the bill, but was overridden by Congress with a 2/3rds vote

14th Amendment

• After passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866, Congress drafted the 14th Amendment to make sure the civil rights act would work

• 14th Amendment – guaranteed citizenship to all males born in the United States, regardless of race

Protections for Former Slaves

• Civil Rights Act and the 14th amendment were milestones to give former slaves equal rights

• Civil Rights Act reversed the court ruling in the 1857 case Dred Scott vs. Sanford (said blacks were not citizens)

Radical Reconstruction

• After the 1866 elections, the Radical Republicans gained almost complete control of Congress – majority in both houses

• Congress now had enough power to override any Presidential vetoes by Andrew Johnson (1867)

• This begins the period of Radical Reconstruction (also Congressional Reconstruction)

1st and 2nd Reconstruction Acts

• 1st Reconstruction Act 9 (1867) – also known as Military Reconstruction– The bill divided the former Confederacy into 5 military

districts, each governed by a Union general– Congress declared martial law in these areas and

sent troops to keep the peace– Congress also declared that southern states ratify the

15th amendment (gave blacks right to vote)

• To safeguard voting rights, Congress then passed the 2nd Reconstruction Act – put Union troops in charge of voting registration

Black Voters

• After the 15th amendments ratification in 1870, over 700,000 blacks registered to vote

• Most of them declared themselves as republicans (at this time the Democrats were associated with slavery)

Compromise of 1877

• Reconstruction comes to an end with the Compromise of 1877

• Republican Rutherford B. Hayes defeated Democrat Samuel Tilden

• Election results were shady in 4 states• They agreed to let Republican Hayes

become President IF Union troops left the south – ends Reconstruction, but we are many years from a normal USA

Life in the South

• Believing that former slaves held too much power, the Democrats regained power and passed laws to restrict civil rights

• Republican party in the south was dominated by 3 groups– Freedmen– Carpetbaggers – people from north who moved

south to make money– Scalawags – people from south who supported

reconstruction

Tools to Restrict Civil Rights• Ways in which Democrats restricted civil

rights included:– Black Codes – close to slave codes– KKK – terrorist organization formed to stop

blacks from voting– Poll Tax – tax to keep blacks and poor whites

from voting– Literacy Tests – tests blacks had to take before

voting– Jim Crow Laws – laws to enforce segregation– Plessey v. Ferguson – “separate but equal”

After Civil War

• South went through a transition period – plantation system to the small farmer

• Plantations with slave labor was replaced with sharecropping– A farmer worked a parcel of land in return for

a share of the crop, a cabin, seed, tools, and a mule

Crop-Lien System

• Forced southerners to buy crops from the north

• Bought items on credit based on there crop – could never get out of debt

African American Leaders

• Booker T. Washington – in order to achieve political and social equality, must first achieve economic success; seek practical training in trades; discouraged blacks to protest against discrimination because it only increases white hostility

• Founded Tuskegee Institute

• Ida Wells – African Americans should protest unfair treatment; focused her attention on stopping lynching (hanging) of African Americans

• WEB Dubois – education was meaningless with equality, founder of the NAACP