CHAPTER 17 RECONSTRUCTION

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CHAPTER 17 RECONSTRUCTION
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RECONSTRUCTION

• Reconstruction the process of readmitting the
  former Confederate states to the Union
• 1865-1877
• Lincolns main vision for the process was to
  reunite the nation as quickly and painlessly as
  possible

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FREEDMENS BUREAU

• Organization established by Congress to aid poor
  southerners
• Gave relief to freed African-Americans
• Established more schools and increased efforts to
  educate freed slaves

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TEN PERCENT PLAN

• Lincolns plan
• Offered southerners amnesty, or official pardon
  (forgiveness), for all illegal acts supporting
  the rebellion
• Southerners had to swear an oath of loyalty to
  the U.S. and agree that slavery was illegal
• Many Republicans did not agree because they felt
  it would take more to restore the Union than a
  loyalty oath
• (Do not copy) if only ten percent of voters in
  a state made these pledges, they could be
  readmitted into the Union

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WADE-DAVIS BILL

• This bill required that the majority of southern
  males take an oath of loyalty
• Also required States to ban slavery forever

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THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT

• This amendment to the Constitution made slavery
  illegal throughout the U.S.
• Ratified on December 18th, 1865

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LINCOLNS ASSASSINATION

• April 14th, 1865
• Lincoln was shot and killed at Fords Theater in
  Washington, D.C. while attending a play with his
  life
• His assassin was John Wilkes Booth who was a
  southerner who opposed Lincolns policies
• VP Andrew Johnson was sworn into office quickly

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PRESIDENT ANDREW JOHNSON

• 17th President Democrat
• He was now in charge of Reconstruction
• Wanted to grant wealthy southerners and former
  Confederate leaders amnesty through presidential
  pardons
• His administration set up new southern
  governments by allowing elections of state and
  federal representatives
• Congress, however, still refused to readmit
  southern states be cause the representatives of
  the new governments had been Confederate leaders
  (nation was still divided)

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CHANGES IN SOUTHERN LIFE

• Social structure of the South changed because
  African-Americans began to demand the same
  economic and political rights as whites
• Life at southern mills was difficult because
  employees were overworked and suffered from
  asthma and brown-lung disease
• Many blacks were elected as representatives to
  state legislatures in the South

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BLACK CODES

• Southern states passed these laws to limit the
  freedom and civil rights of African-Americans
• Southerners felt the codes were justified because
  the government was intended for white men only
• Codes required that blacks sign work contracts to
  replace the labor force that was lost after the
  ending of slavery
• Blacks were not allowed to own guns/firearms

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CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1866

• Johnson determined that the Freedmens Bureau was
  unconstitutional
• Republicans responded by passing this act which
  provided African-Americans with the same legal
  rights as whites

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RADICAL REPUBLICANS

• They wanted the federal government to force
  change in the South
• They supported suffrage (the right to vote) for
  African-American men
• Thaddeus Stevens, a Pennsylvania Congressman, was
  the leader

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FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT

• All people born or naturalized within the U.S.,
  except Native Americans, were citizens
• Citizens were guaranteed equal protection of the
  laws
• Republicans proposed this because they wanted to
  protect the Civil Rights Act from being
  overturned by the South

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RECONSTRUCTION ACTS

• Passed by Congress in March 1867
• Divided the South into five military districts
  controlled by a military commander

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JOHNSONS IMPEACHMENT

• Impeachment process used by a legislative body
  to bring charges of wrongdoing against a public
  official
• Congress passed a law that prevented the
  president from removing a cabinet official
  without Senate approval because they knew Johnson
  did not support their Reconstruction policies
• House of Representatives voted to impeach Johnson
  in 1868 because he fired a cabinet official
  without Senate approval he wasnt convicted

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ELECTION OF 1868

• Ulysses S. Grant was voted the 18th president
• He was a Republican
• He appealed to many northern voters because he
  was a war hero and his party was the party of
  Lincoln
• African-American votes helped him achieve victory

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FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT

• 1869 - Gave African-American men the right to
  vote
• Republicans believed this amendment would help
  their Reconstruction plan because blacks would
  support the plan as well
• Women criticized the amendment because it did not
  give them the right to vote

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CARPETBAGGERS

• White southerners used this term as an insult
  towards northern-born Republicans who held
  political offices in the South
• (Do not copy) the rumor is that
  carpetbaggers rushed to the South carrying all
  their possessions in bags made from carpeting so
  they could profit off of Reconstruction

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HIRAM REVELS

• First African-American Senator
• He was elected in 1870
• Took over the seat previously held by Jefferson
  Davis in Mississippi

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KU KLUX KLAN

• Began in 1866
• Secret society of white southerners who opposed
  black suffrage
• They used violence and terror against
  African-Americans in some cases they murdered
  blacks
• They gained much power in the South because local
  governments did little to stop their violence
• Their actions inspired Congress to make it
  illegal to interfere with elections or deny
  citizens equal protection

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END OF RECONSTRUCTION

• In 1872, low-ranking, former Confederate officers
  were permitted to hold public office
• Republican Party also began losing power in the
  North due to scandals in Ulysses S. Grants
  administration
• Panic of 1873 severe economic downturn made
  northerners less concerned with southern racism
  and more considered with their financial
  well-being

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COMPROMISE OF 1877

• Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) was elected the
  19th president in 1876 after a dispute over
  electoral votes
• Compromise Democrats agreed to accept Hayess
  victory if all federal troops were removed from
  the south

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REDEEMERS

• They were Democrats who regained control of state
  governments in the South
• They established laws that successfully
  discriminated against African-Americans

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JIM CROW LAWS

• Segregation forced separation of whites and
  blacks in public places
• Jim Crow laws enforced segregation
• Poll tax a special tax that people had to pay
  so they could vote and many blacks could not
  afford it
• Grandfather clause men whose fathers and
  grandfathers who could vote before 1867 did not
  have to pay the tax or take a literacy test
  every white man could escape voting restrictions

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SHARECROPPING SYSTEM

• Limited opportunities for blacks to own farms and
  property
• Most sharecroppers lived in a cycle of debt buy
  goods on credit and then fail to make much money
  selling their crops

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PLESSY V. FERGUSON

• 1896 major Supreme Court case
• Supreme Court ruled that segregation was allowed
  (constitutional) if separate-but-equal
  facilities were provided for blacks
• Segregation became widespread across the country
  in schools, libraries, parks, restaurants, etc.
• Black facilities were blatantly inferior and
  unequal