RECONSTRUCTION

1
RECONSTRUCTION
2
Reconstruction

• The South is in ruins.
• Shermans march to the sea
• Slaves are gone
• Railroads destroyed, bridges gone
• RECONSTRUCTION is the process of reuniting the
  nation and rebuilding the southern states without
  slavery. (1865-1877)

3
HOW DO YOU REUNITE THE BLUE GRAY?

• Lincolns wants to offer AMNESTY to southerners.
• AMNESTY an official pardon for any illegal acts.
• To receive it Southerners had to
• Swear an oath of loyalty
• Accept a ban on slavery
• TEN PERCENT PLAN If 10 of a states government
  agrees to make these pledges they can form a new
  govt. (Louisiana quickly does this.)

4
Wade Davis Bill

• Congress had the power to admit new states.
• Some Republicans werent happy with Lincolns 10
  plan.
• Benjamin Wade and Henry Davis
• Wade David Bill State has to meet 2 conditions.
• 1-ban slavery
• 2-majority of male adults in the state have to
  take loyalty oath.
• (only southerners who swear they never supported
  Confederacy may vote or hold office in new
  state.)
• Lincoln doesnt sign the bill- believes it will
  be too hard for Southern states to return this
  way.

5
13th Amendment

• Made slavery illegal in United States.

• How did it change things?
• Legalized marriages traveled
• Originally Sherman tries to set aside land for
  slaves to farm their own land- but govt. gives
  it back to former owners.
• Where will they live? What kind of work? What
  rights do they have?

6
Freedmans Bureau

• Established by congress in 1865.
• Provide relief for all POOR (black and white) in
  south.
• Distributed food
• Supervised labor contracts
• Promoted education in the South
• Established schools provided books and teachers.
• Colleges for African Americans (Howard University
  in DC Fisk University in Nashville)

7
A sad night

• April 14th, 1865
• President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated at
  Fords Theater by John Wilkes Booth.

8
Andrew Johnson
9
Black Codes

• New state legislatures began passing laws to deny
  African Americans civil rights.
• Nearly every Southern state passed
• Black codes laws that greatly limited the
  freedom of African Americans.

• Under the Black Codes
• African Americans had to sign work contracts
• If an African American couldnt prove they had a
  job they could be arrested.
• Punishment is 1 year of labor with NO pay.
• Not allowed to own guns
• Not allowed to rent property in cities.

10
Radical Republicans

• South is returning to its old ways!
• Believe Black Codes to be cruel and unjust.
• Radical Republicans Want the Southern states to
  change much more than they have before they can
  return to the Union.
• Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner
• Civil Rights Act of 1866 provided African
  Americans with same legal rights as whites.
• Johnson vetoes.
• Congress overrides his veto!

11
14th Amendment

• 1- defined all people born or naturalized within
  the US (except Native Americans) as U.S.
  citizens.
• Guarantees citizens equal protection under the
  laws.
• Cannot be deprived of life, liberty or pursuit of
  happiness.
• Bans many former Confederate officials from
  holding federal or state offices
• Makes state law to review federal courts
• Gives Congress power to pass any laws needed to
  enforce any part of the amendment.

• President Johnson Democrats opposed.
• Riots broke out- 2 peaceful protests by former
  Union soldiers- at the first one 46 African
  Americans killed, the second 3 months later 34
  and 3 white Republicans killed.
• CONGRESS TAKES OVER.
• Reconstruction Acts- dividing the south into 5
  districts with a US military commander in each
  district. To rejoin Union states had to rewrite
  state constitutions supporting 14th amendment.
• President Johnson opposes.
• Congress begins passing laws to limit his power.
  He goes against them and the Impeachment process
  begins.
• By a single vote he was NOT impeached.

12
Ulysses S. Grant
13
15th Amendment

• Gives African American Men the right to VOTE!

• Not as well received as youd think
• the right to vote to ALL Americans- women? Native
  Americans?

14
More reconstruction terms

• Carpetbaggers Northern born Republicans who
  moved South after war
• Help former slaves?
• Make money from the reconstruction efforts?
• Scalawags mean fellows White Southern
  Republicans. Believed to have betrayed the south
  by voting for Republicans.
• Sharecropping on plantations- former slaves
  would share the crop with landowner if they
  worked the land.
• System that was easy to abuse and usually ended
  up putting sharecroppers into debt.

15
Ku Klux Klan

• In 1866 a group of white southerners formed the
  Ku Klux Klan
• A secret society opposed to civil rights,
  particularly suffrage, for African Americans.
• Use violence and terror, white Republican voters
  and public officials.
• Hugely popular and had a large membership
  throughout the South.
• In response Congress passed laws that made it a
  federal crime to interfere with elections or to
  deny citizens equal protection under the law.
• Civil Rights Act of 1875 guaranteed African
  Americans equal rights in public places.

16
Jim Crow and Plessey Ferguson

• Poll tax in an effort to deny the vote to
  African Americans there was a special tax
  voters had to pay before they could vote. Some
  states even required a literacy test.
• Segregation forced separation of whites and
  African Americans in public places.
• Jim Crow Laws laws that required segregation.
• Must stay in different hotels, ride different
  rail cars, sit in different places in theaters
  etc.
• African Americans were assigned to the most
  uncomfortable, unsanitary and unsafe places.
• Surprising turn of events the US Supreme Court
  determines the the Civil Rights Act of 1875 is
  unconstitutional. Restricted the powers of the
  14th Amendment.
• Plessey V. Ferguson separate but equal is
  introduced.
• In fact these other places are separate and
  unequal!