Reconstruction (1865-1876)

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Reconstruction (1865-1877)
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Post- Civil War

• Issues in America
• 4.5 mill newly freed blacks
• Un-educated
• No money
• Without Property
• Limited Opportunities
• Southern economy destroyed
• Railways, farms, industry lie in ruin

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Key Questions
1. How do webring the Southback into the Union?
4. What branchof governmentshould controlthe
process ofReconstruction?
2. How do we rebuild the South after
itsdestruction during the war?
3. How do weintegrate andprotect
newly-emancipatedblack freedmen?
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President Lincolns Plan

• 10 Plan
• Wanted peaceful and lenient policy (forgiveness)
• People rebelled not states- he can pardon people.
• Would pardon anyone who declared oath to Union
• When 10 of the voting population in the 1860
  election had taken an Oath of Allegiance and
  established a government, it would be recognized.
  
• He didnt consult Congress regarding
  Reconstruction.

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Republican Opposition

• Radical Republicans
• Thought the South should be punished
• Blacks should have full citizenship
• Led by Charles Sumner Thaddeus Stevens

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Wade-Davis Bill (1864)

• Required 50 of the number of 1860 voters to take
  an iron clad oath of allegiance.
• Required a state constitutional convention before
  the election of state officials.
• Enacted specific safeguards of freedmens
  liberties.
• Basically- CONGRESS controls reconstruction

SenatorBenjaminWade(R-OH)
CongressmanHenryW. Davis(R-MD)
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Jeff Davis Under Arrest
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Freedmens Bureau (1865)

• Gave clothing and food to former slaves and poor
  southern whites.
• Set up hospitals, schools, industry, etc.
• Northern Abolitionists traveled south
• Called carpetbaggers by white southern
  Democrats.

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Freedmens Bureau Seen Through Southern Eyes
Plenty to eat and nothing to do.
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Freedmens Bureau School