reconstruction what you need to know
TRANSCRIPT
ReconstructionThe Basics – key terms, people and events.
Questions following the Civil War• What to do with former slaves?• Should Southerners be punished?• How should Southerners be punished?• What to do with the rebellious states?
War Ends!
Image –General Robert E. Lee of the Confederacy Surrendering to Ulysses S. Grant of the Union in Appomattox, Virginia April 12, 1865.
The war is over, now what?How do we figure out• What to do with former slaves.• Whether Southerners should be punished.• How Southerners should be punished if you feel as though they
should.• Is there a difference between citizens who participated and the leaders?
• What to do with the rebellious states.• How do we reunite the nation?
There was mass devastation
Human Casualties
The Reconstruction Plans• There are 5 plans for Reconstruction that were
proposed and/or enacted during the Reconstruction Era. These plans are sometimes coexistent, while others supersede the previous.• Lincoln’s 10% Plan, December 1863• Wade-Davis Bill, 1864• Presidential Reconstruction (Andrew Johnson), 1865-66• Radical Reconstruction, (Congress) 1866
• Military Reconstruction• Each of these plans reflects the particular view of
democracy & authority articulated by its drafters (i.e who made them).
Terms Specifics
Terms of Reincorporation
• Ten percent of the population of each southern state had to swear loyalty to the United States
• Southern states could set up new governments on their own, as long as their government set free all slaves
Treatment of Former Confederates
• Except for high ranking officers, all confederate soldiers would be pardoned
Treatment of African-Americans
• Beyond being granted freedom, nothing• Remember, for Lincoln liberty is defined in a
narrow sense (free labor, nothing more)• You are free, but the rest is up to you
Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction: 10% Plan
• As President, Lincoln puts forth the first plan for Reconstruction
TEN PERCENT PLAN
TEN PERCENT PLAN
Radical Republicans’ Plan for Reconstruction: Wade-Davis Bill
Terms Specifics Terms of Reincorporation • 50% of the population of each
southern state had to swear loyalty to the United States
Treatment of Former Confederates • No special treatment
Treatment of African-Americans • Southern states had to draft Constitutions banning slavery
WADE-DAVIS
BILL
WADE-DAVIS BILL
Lincolns 10% plan was not approved
by Congress
Lincoln vetoed Congress’ Wade-
Davis Bill?
Lincoln is Assassinated• Question is rendered moot with Lincoln’s
assassination in April 1865• Upon his assassination his Vice President
Andrew Johnson comes to office, with yet another vision of Reconstruction…
Andrew Johnson• 1808-1875• Born into poverty in N.C.• Moved to Tennessee and rose up the political
ranks• Lincoln made him military governor of Tennessee• Chosen by Lincoln to serve as VP when Lincoln
ran for reelection in 1864• Gesture of good faith to the South
• Viewed himself as the champion of the yeoman and a foe of the planter class whom he described as a “bloated, corrupted aristocracy.”
• Personality• Stubborn, intolerable of criticism, unable to
compromise, racist
Terms Specifics Terms of Reincorporation
• Federal government would appoint provisional governors in southern states
• These governors would call state conventions, elected by whites alone, that would establish loyal governments in the South
• Apart from the requirements that they abolish slavery, repudiate secession, and refuse to pay the Confederate debt, he granted the new government a free hand in managing local affairs.
Treatment of Former Confederates
• Offered a pardon to nearly all white southerners who took an oath of allegiance
• Excluded confederate leaders and wealthy planters whose prewar property had been valued at more than $20,000• Though later Johnson offered personal exemptions
Treatment of African-Americans
• Slavery is ended, what else do they need?• Unlike Lincoln, explicit racism here…• First to use “reverse racism”…no one ever gave the
white guy something for free
Johnson’s Plan for Reconstruction a.k.a Presidential Reconstruction
Meanwhile…In The South: The Black Codes
• The absence of a clear Reconstruction plan allowed the South to begin to redesign their social institutions in the way they want to
• They seek to redesign social life in such a way as to maintain racial hierarchies in the absence of slavery
• Black Codes:• Laws passed by the new southern governments that attempted to regulate the lives of former slaves• Granted blacks certain rights (marriage, ownership of property)• Denied them the rights to testify against whites, to serve
on juries or in state militias, or to vote. • Declared those blacks who failed to sign year labor
contracts could be arrested and hired out to white landowners
Radical Republicans React• So flagrantly violated free labor principles of the
North, that the Republicans took action.• What angered Northern Republicans was the South’s
inability to accept emancipation; inability to accept the Union’s definition of democracy. • Radicals believed that Union victory was an
opportunity to institutionalize the principle of equal rights regardless of race.• Johnson’s plan did not call for the establishment of
Civil Rights, would let the south continue on the path it was on• Johnson had to be stopped.
Timeline1862
(declared), 1863 Issued
the Emancipation Proclamation
1863 Lincoln’s 10% Plan
1864 13th Amendment -
goes into effect in 1865
1865 Lincoln Assassinated
1865 Presidential
Reconstruction Under Andrew Johnson
1866 Civil Rights Act
Passed
1867 Military Reconstructio
n
1868 14th Amendment
1870 15th Amendment
1877 Compromise of 1877, End
of Reconstructio
n
During the changing plans, the Black Codes were established in the South.
Radical Republicans Put Forth Their Own Reconstruction Agenda
Civil Rights Act 1866
• Johnson Vetoes, Congress Overrides
14th Amendment (ratified 1868)
• Johnson objects
Reconstruction Act 1867
• Johnson Vetoes, Congress Overrides
15th Amendment(ratified 1870)
• Johnson objects
Radical Republicans Put Forth the Civil Rights Bill 1866
• Civil Rights Bill 1866• Defined all persons born in the United States as citizens and
spelled out rights they were to enjoy without regard to race• No state could deprive any citizens of the right to make
contracts, bring lawsuits, or enjoy equal protection of one’s person and property• No mention of the right to vote for blacks• First attempt to give concrete meaning to the freedom granted
in the 13th Amendment
Civil Rights Act 1866• Johnson vetoes it!
• Said that the Act would centralize power in the national government and deprive the states of the authority to regulate their own affairs.
• Said blacks did not deserve the rights of citizenship. By acting to secure their rights, Congress was discriminating “against the white race.”
• Congress overrode the veto• First major law in
American history to passed over a presidential veto
Until new state governments could be created in southern states, Congress put the south under military control
1867 divided the South into five military districts and outlined how new governments, based on manhood suffrage without regard to race, were to be established.
* 20,000 U.S. troops were deployed to enforce the Act.
First Military District: Virginia, Second Military District: North Carolina and South Carolina, Third Military District: Georgia, Alabama and Florida, Fourth Military District: Arkansas and Mississippi,Fifth Military District: Texas and Louisiana
The 14th Amendment• Congress proceeds to adopt its own plan
for Reconstruction• Proposed the 14th AmendmentSection 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
14th Amendment• The amendment's first section includes two important
clauses: The Citizenship Clause, The Due Process Clause, and The Equal Protection Clause. • The Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of
citizenship, overruling SCOTUS decision in Dred Scott • The Due Process Clause prohibits state and local government
officials from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without legislative authorization. This clause has also been used by the federal judiciary to make most of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states, as well as to recognize substantive and procedural requirements that state laws must satisfy
• The Equal Protection Clause requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction.
14th Amendment• Writes into the Constitution the principles that equality
before the law regardless of race is a fundamental right of all American citizens• Codifies Lincoln’s interpretation of the Constitution
• Most important change in the Constitution since the Bill of Rights
Fifteenth Amendment• Prohibited the federal and
state government from denying any citizen the right to vote because of race. • Did not include women • Despite demands of women’s
suffrage activists• Wording opened the door to
suffrage restrictions not explicitly based on race—literacy tests, property qualifications, and poll taxes.