Reconstruction of the South1865-1877

What happened after the surrender at Appomattox

Damage to the South

Your Turn

Many historians criticize Southern reconstruction. What would be some rules and regulations that you

would implement toward reconstruction of the South in order to allow them back in? How would

you enforce them? Try to list 5 new very broad rules and regulations to help reconstruction of the South?

Try and follow the Constitution if you can!!!

Questions About Reconstruction

• How and when should the states resume their former role?

• Should the south be punished?• Equal rights for all races?• Stronger federal government?

The Lincoln Plan 18631. Pardon offered for those

Confederates who swore allegiance to Union

2. Denied pardons to high-ranking Confederate officials or ones that committed war crimes

3. Each state could hold a constitutional convention if 10% of voters had sworn allegiance to Union

4. States could then hold elections and rejoin the Union

Conclusion

• Upset the Radical Republicans who wanted to punish the South

• They believed that Congress should decide on Reconstruction not Executive (standoff)

• Lincoln’s untimely death allows for a different President to fight with Congress

The Johnson Plan 18651. Pardoned Southerners who

swore allegiance to the Union

2. Permitted each state to hold a constitutional convention (if they would withdraw its secession/swear allegiance to the Union)

3. States must abolish slavery by ratifying the 13th Amendment

4. States could then hold elections and rejoin the Union

Conclusion

• Four states admitted back to Union (La, Tn, Ar, Va)• Radical Republicans were angry that Johnson

allowed Southern states back into the Union so easily

• They make every attempt to dismantle his plan by gaining majority in Congress during the 1866 elections

• Felt the issue of land, voting rights, and protection under law as the main objective

That’s Weird????

• Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.

• Cleopatra married two of her brothers.• If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs

in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

• Under an old Chinese law, anyone who revealed how to make silk was liable to death by torture.

Reconstruction Act of 18671. Put South under military rule

by Union general (5 sections)2. It ordered southern states to

hold new elections for delegates/constitution

3. Ordered all qualified male voters must be allowed to vote (black and white)

4. Barred southerners who had supported the Confederacy from voting

5. Southern states had to guarantee equal rights

6. Must pass 13th 14th and 15th Amendment

Conclusion

• South was very upset about the strict laws imposed on them in order for them to be brought back into the Union

• Congress would decide how things will be done

Freedmen’s Bureau• Goal is to help former slaves

adjust to freedom• Provided education to 250,000

former slaves• Gave food to many black and

white war refugees• Distributed confiscated land to

former slaves (until Johnson gave the land back to white owners)

• Carpetbaggers-Name for northern Republicans who moved to the South following the Civil War

• Scalawags-Name for a white Southern Republican

“Black Codes” and the Ku Klux Klan• During Reconstruction, white

southerners began to try and regain control of southern government seats

• Passed laws known as “Black Codes” that restricted the rights of Freedmen

• The Ku Klux Klan tried to prevent freedmen from exercising their rights

• By the depression of 1873 made people less interested in African Americans welfare

Andrew Johnson

• Johnson tried to reduce the influence of the Radical Republicans by firing Secretary of War- Edward Stanton

• House voted to impeach but Senate refused to convict (by one vote)

Ulysses S. Grant

• The new president, Ulysses S. Grant, established anti-Klan legislation to curb violence

• Administration was plagued with corruption

Election of Rutherford B. Hayes

• Rutherford B. Hayes won an election that was heavily contested

• The Compromise of 1877 gave the election to Hayes over Tilden, but he had to remove federal troops from the southern states (this officially ended reconstruction)

The End of Reconstruction

• Many northerners felt nothing was being accomplish by Reconstruction

• Reconstruction tended to put southern states into deeper debt

• Reconstruction came to symbolize corruption and greed

• The white dominated south blocked most Reconstruction legislation

The Reconstruction Legacy Successes

• Union and war-torn south repaired• Stimulated economic growth• 13th/14th/15th Amendments passed• Black families had access to school, jobs, and

housing• South adopts system of tax-supported

education system

The Reconstruction Legacy Failures

• Slaves became sharecroppers• White Southerners regained control of state

governments and reversed Reconstruction era reforms

• Racist attitudes continued in the North and South (Jim Crow Laws)

• South was slow to industrialize and worker concerns were not addressed