1. Reconstruction: A Failed Revolution
Thesis Statement
During Reconstruction, the federal government missed a unique opportunity to radically restructure southern society along more egalitarian lines. While conditions for African- Americans began to improve during Reconstruction, many of their gains were quickly erased during the “Jim Crow” period that followed.

2. Presidential Reconstruction
Johnson
No loyalty oath required
Opposed helping former slaves
Lincoln
10% Plan… 90% could refuse loyalty oath
Both
Wanted to go easy on the South… heal the wounds of the war as fast as possible.
Supported the 13th Amendment… Ended slavery everywhere
Liberally issued pardons to former Confederates
Believed Southern states had NOT actually left the Union… therefore Reconstruction was primarily a military endeavor, and should be under the control of the executive branch.

3. Radical Reconstruction
Harsh, punishing philosophy toward the South
Wanted more help for former slaves
50% Loyalty Oath
Wanted to strictly exclude former Confederates from political office
Military Reconstruction Act of 1867 (5 Military Districts)
Believed that southern states had committed “state suicide” and had to re-apply for statehood (therefore Reconstruction should be in the hands of the legislative branch).
Thaddeus Stevens
Charles Sumner

4. Help for Freedmen
Freedmen’s Bureau... Help w/ schools, labor contracts, etc.
Civil Rights Act of 1866… Granted African-Americans citizenship & all rights of citizens
14th Amendment... Citizenship for African-Americans, “Equal Treatment under the Law
15th Amendment: Right to vote can't be denied by race
Klan Acts (Force Acts) of 1870 & 1871… Gave military authority to target the KKK… forced it to be more secretive
BUT… No land redistribution

5. Republican Governments in the South
Freedmen: Freed slaves
“Carpetbaggers:” Northern migrants who moved South to help freedmen, or exploit economic & political opportunities
“Scalawags:” White southern Republicans
How well did they do?... Probably no better or worse than Democratic governments.
Racist Political Cartoon Depicted Republican Governments in the South

6. Sharecropping
Sharecropping: Landowner provided land, seeds, tools, and lent $ for expenses in exchange for a portion of the crop
Tenant Farming: Renting land
Debt Peonage: Both systems usually trapped poor farmers (white & black)

7. Race & Sharecropping

8. Percentage of Sharecropped Farms

9. Slavery vs. Sharecropping

10. A Steel Manufacturer in Birmingham, Alabama
The “New South”
Some industrialization begins to take place in southern cities like Birmingham, AL
Much of the economic growth was financed by investors & entrepreneurs from the North (a.k.a. “carpetbaggers”)
A Steel Manufacturer in Birmingham, Alabama

11. Social Change in the South

12. Freedom Schools
Thousands of African-Americans (young and old) flocked to schools created by the Freedmen’s Bureau and by Republican state governments.

14. Illiteracy by Race

15. The Ku Klux Klan Founded in Tennessee in 1866
Terrorized southern blacks, and whites who sympathized with them
Largely (but temporarily) eradicated after the anti- Klan Acts of 1870 & 1871
It re-emerges after the Union army pulls out in 1877

16. Lynching

17. The Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow Laws: Segregated Blacks & Whites in Public Places
Plessey v. Ferguson (1896)... “Separate but Equal” does not violate the 14th Amendment

18. Voting Restrictions
Redeemers & the “Solid South”… Wanted to replace Republican state governments w/ Democrat-controlled white supremacist govs.