Unit X. RECONSTRUCTION

Part I.Where to begin?

Objectives

-Describe the hardships the South faced after the Civil War-Describe the idea of Reconstruction-Analyze the needs of South Carolinians through pictures

XIII. RECONSTRUCTION

Richmond, VA

Charleston, SC

Columbia, SC

Postwar Problems

I. Social problems – freedmen, northerners, women, casualties of

war

II. Physical problems – buildings, work animals, money

III. Political problems – voters and office holders? question of secession or rebellion? decision makers?

Early Plans for Reconstruction

Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan: 1. Confederate officials (civilian and military) could not vote. 2. Confederates pardoned if they took oath to obey the Constitution and U.S. laws 3. States could resume their place in Union when

10% of men in a state took oath***Easy on the south

Wade-Davis Bill

Congress passed Wade-Davis Bill instead:

1. Majority of white men in southern states had to swear oath of loyalty

2. Anyone who had volunteered to fight for CSA could not vote or hold office

Lincoln used a pocket veto

Lincoln is Assassinated

-Shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865 before his Reconstruction plan was accepted

-Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes President.

-President Johnson - southerner (TN) who remained loyal to Union throughout war.

Johnson’s Plan

1. Planters whose property was worth $20,000 or more had to ask Johnson personally for pardon.

2. Required all southern states to approve the Thirteenth Amendment.

3. Required all southern states to nullify ordinances of secession

4. Southerners could not repay individuals and institutions that financed the Confederacy

Rebellion in Congress

Southern states quickly met Johnson’s conditions.

President approved their state governments in late 1865.

Voters in South elected former Confederate officials to Congress.

Republicans refused to let southern representatives take office.

Freedmen’s Bureau Bill

Passed by Congress before the end of war

-Gave food and clothing to former slaves

-Tried to find jobs for freedmen

-Helped poor whites

-Provided medical care

-Set up schools for freed slaves

-“Forty Acres and a Mule”???

• The Radical Republicans’ plan was enforced– P.391 SC book

• Abraham Lincoln is Assassinated

• A Confederate Conspiracy