1. Reconstruction Era (1863-1877)

2. President Lincoln’s 10% Plan
“Loyal Rule”
Didn’t ask Congress
Pardon citizens
10% vote
Re-admit states back to Union

3. President Lincoln’s Plan
1864: “Lincoln Governments” formed in LA, TN, AR
“loyal assemblies”
Weak; dependent on Union Army for survival
Military Force
Minority Rule

4. Wade-Davis Bill (1864) 50% oath of loyalty “Iron Clad Oath”
Admit no involvement
Restrictions to elections of state officials
Must guarantee liberty of freed slaves
Congressman Henry W. Davis (R-MD)
Senator Benjamin Wade (R-OH)

5. Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
“State Suicide” Theory [MA Senator Charles Sumner]
“Conquered Provinces” Position [PA Congressman Thaddeus Stevens]
Pocket Veto
President Lincoln
Wade-Davis Bill

6. Lincoln is Dead! Lincoln is assassinated! “Sic Semper Tyrannus!”
Shot in the back of the head
Andrew Johnson

7. 13th Amendment Ratified 12/1865.
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Ended slavery, DID NOT grant citizenship

8. Johnson & Reconstruction
Jacksonian Dem.
From TN
White Supremacist
Pro-Union; not Anti-Slave

9. Pres. Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan:
Johnson becomes President after Lincoln's assassination.
Pres. Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan:
I. The majority of voters in each Southern state must pledge their loyalty to the U.S….
II. …and each state must ratify (approve) the Thirteenth Amendment.
The Thirteenth Amendment, which banned slavery, was ratified on Dec.6, 1865

10. Johnson's Reconstruction Plan
Offered amnesty upon simple loyalty oath to all except:
- Civil War Officers - Former Plantation Owners - Individuals w/ property over $20,000
New State Constitutions
Forbid slavery; secession
Pay back war debt to Feds.

11. Slavery is Dead?

12. Growing Northern Alarm!
Most S. state constitutions do not meet requirements
Johnson granted 13,500 “special pardons”
Plantation owners resume political power
Revival of southern defiance; racism
BLACK CODES

13. Black Codes
Purpose:
Guarantee stable labor supply
Restore pre-emancipation system of race relations.
Assures whites will earn more $$ than blacks
Forced many blacks to become sharecroppers [tenant farmers].

14. Black Codes - laws that severely limited the rights of freedmen.
…serving on juries.
…voting.
African-Americans were forbidden from…
…running for political office.
…owning guns.

15. Sharecropping

16. Tenancy & Crop Lien System
Furnishing Merchant
Tenant Farmer
Landowner
Loan tools and seed up to 60% interest to tenant farmer to plant spring crop.
Farmer also secures food, clothing, and other necessities on credit from merchant until the harvest.
Merchant holds “lien” {mortgage} on part of tenant’s future crops as repayment of debt.
Plants crop, harvests in autumn.
Turns over up to ½ of crop to land owner as payment of rent.
Tenant gives remainder of crop to merchant in payment of debt.
Rents land to tenant in exchange for ¼ to ½ of tenant farmer’s future crop.

17. Congress Breaks with the President
Congress bars S. delegates
Joint Committee
02/1866: Johnson veto Freedmen’s Bureau bill.
03/1866: Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act.
Congress passed both bills over Johnson’s vetoes: 1st time in U. S. history!!!!

18. Radical Reconstruction (1866-1877)

19. Freedmen’s Bureau (1865) N. Abolitionists
Help slaves; gain political power
“Carpetbaggers”
Equal opportunity
Education Reforms

20. Freedman’s Bureau School

21. Establishment of Black Colleges

22. “Plenty to eat and nothing to do.”
Freedmen’s Bureau Seen Through Southern Eyes
“Plenty to eat and nothing to do.”

23. 14th Amendment Ratified in 07/1868.
Natural-Born Citizens.
Citizens Rights
Pay back for war debt
“Punish S.” for ignoring Fed. manadates

24. Radical Plan for Readmission
Military supervision (Martial Law)
States must:
Ratify 13th, 14th Amendments
Black Suffrage
03/1867: Military to enroll black voters

25. Reconstruction Acts of 1867
Military Reconstruction Act
10 S. states refuse to ratify 14th Amend.
Divide 10 “unreconstructed states” into 5 military districts.

27. Reconstruction Acts of 1867
Edwin Stanton
Sec. of War
Command of the Army Act
Tenure of Office Act
Designed to protect radical members of Lincoln’s cabinet.
Constitutional???

28. President Johnson’s Impeachment
Johnson removes Stanton 02/1868.
Johnson puts pro-S. Gens. in charge
House impeaches Feb. 24th by vote of

29. The Senate Trial 11 week trial.
Johnson acquitted 35 to 19 (one short of required 2/3s vote).

30. African-Americans & Govt.
Free blacks able to vote/participate in govt.
White hysteria
Fear of “black oppression”
Southern states feel need to “re-establish” white rule
Examples: - Poll Taxes - Ku Klux Klan - Black Codes - Lynchings - Literacy Tests - Grandfather Clause

31. Colored Rule in the South?
White Hysteria:
Colored Rule in the South?

32. The Balance of Power in Congress
State
White Citizens
Freedmen SC
291,000
411,000 MS
353,000
436,000 LA
357,000
350,000 GA
591,000
465,000 AL
596,000
437,000 VA
719,000
533,000 NC
631,000
331,000

33. Black & White Political Participation

34. Black Senate & House Delegates

35. Blacks in Southern Politics
Core voters: black vets.
Some held political office
But, politically unprepared.
The 15th Amendment guaranteed fed. voting.

36. 15th Amendment Ratified in 1870. IMPACTS:
Amendment 15: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
IMPACTS:
- Forbid denying the right to vote based on race

37. The Failure of Federal Enforcement
Enforcement Acts of 1870 & [also known as the KKK Act].
“The Lost Cause”
Rise of the “Bourbons”

38. The “Invisible Empire of the South”

39. Legal Challenges to the 14th & 15th Amendments
The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)
The court offered a narrow definition of the 14th Amendment.
It distinguished between national and state citizenship.
It gave the states primary authority over citizens’ rights.
Therefore, the courts weakened civil rights enforcement!

40. Legal Challenges to the 14th & 15th Amendments
Bradwell vs. Illinois (1873)
Myra Bradwell, a female attorney, had been denied the right to practice law in Illinois.
She argued that in the 14th Amendment, it said that the state had unconstitutionally abridged her “privileges and immunities” as a citizen.
The Supreme Court rejected her claim, alluding to women’s traditional role in the home.
Therefore, she should NOT be practicing law!

41. Legal Challenges to the 14th & 15th Amendments
U. S. vs. Reese, et. al. (1876)
The Court restricted congressional power to enforce the KKK Act.
The court ruled that the STATE alone could confer voting rights on individuals.
The 15th Amendment did NOT guarantee a citizen’s right to vote, but just listed certain impermissible grounds to deny suffrage.
Therefore, a path lay open for Southern states to disenfranchise blacks for supposedly non-racial reasons [like lack of education, lack of property, etc.]

42. Legal Challenges to the 14th & 15th Amendments
U. S. vs. Cruickshank (1876)
LA white supremacists accused of attacking a meeting of Blacks & were convicted under the 1870 Enforcement Acts.
The Court held that the 14th Amendment extended the federal power to protect civil rights ONLY in cases involving discrimination by STATES.
Therefore, discrimination by individuals or groups were NOT covered.

43. Abandoning Reconstruction
Northern support decreases
“Grantism” & political corruption
Panic of 1873 (6-year depression); economic issues overwhelm civil rights issues.
Concern over westward expansion and Indian wars.
Congress leaves enforcement up to states