1. Reconstruction

2. Post Civil War Problems
After the war both the North and the South had many problems to deal with.
Should the South be punished?
What was to become of the four million former slaves?

3. The Post Civil War North
The North suffered little damage to farms, homes and business from the war.
The North was prospering.
Industries in the North that had sprung up during the war were growing.
New railroads were being built.
When a million Union soldiers returned home, most had little trouble finding work.

4. Destruction in the South
Many parts of the South were totally destroyed.
Cities burned, roads, and bridges wrecked, and farmlands ruined.
Homes and livestock were gone.
Trains and railroads were too damaged to use.

5. Destruction in the South
Loss of human life in the South was tragic.
One out of every twenty white males had been killed or wounded.
The South had lost most of it’s younger generation.
The South had also lost it’s slave labor force.
Many farmers had to learn how to run their farms without slave labor.

6. The Joys of freedom
Freedom was the fulfillment of a dream for former slaves.
The joy was short-lived.
Many left their owners, they soon discovered that they had no place to go.
How could they own property if they had no money to buy it?
Skilled workers were able to find work.

7. Tenant Farming & Sharecropping
Freed slaves who had been farm hands had little chance to own land.
Most of these people were forced to become tenant farmers and sharecroppers.

8. Tenant Farmers
These freed man rented a piece of land. They could decide which crops to plant, and usually sold their own crops. They would pay the land owner in either money or a portion of their crops

9. Sharecroppers These men were more numerous than tenant farmers.
Most former slaves became sharecroppers.
They were told what to plant, by the landowner.
The landowner directed the workers in their planting and harvesting, just as during slave times.
At harvest time the crop was shared by the owner and the sharecropper.
The sharecropper usually got one third of the selling price.

10. Sharecroppers
Most sharecroppers had to depend on owners for food, clothing, and housing.
The high prices these people charged left the sharecroppers in a never-ending state of poverty.
Sharecropping held back southern farming for almost a century.

11. Urban Blacks
Many freed blacks moved to southern cities in search of freedom and jobs.
Some with needed skills, managed to earn a living, others could not find work.
Crowded into shantytowns, blacks were faced with increasing prejudice in both the South and the North.
Many southern cities passed laws called “black codes. These codes were passed to restrict the movement and opportunities for the newly freed blacks

12. The Freedmen’s Bureau
The bureau was set-up by Congress just before the end of the war.
It’s purpose was to help former slaves and people displaced by the war.
The bureau was to help these people find homes, jobs, and an education, as well as, provide them with food.
The freedmen’s bureau had its greatest success in setting up thousands of schools for blacks.
Blacks who could, flocked to these schools.

13. The Freedman’s Bureau (continued)
The Freedmen’s Bureau also founded and put up the money for colleges and universities.
Fisk University in Nashville; Howard University in Washington D.C.; and Atlanta University are probably the best known.
The bureau set-up hospitals and offered food and homes to those without jobs or money.
It also helped black workers get better pay and treatment from their employers.

14. Some Freedmen’s Bureau programs succeeded while others failed.
The bureau depended upon money from Congress, and some of it’s programs failed because of lack of funds.
Some bureau workers used their positions to make money.
The Freedman’s Bank failed and was closed by 1874, because of this few blacks became independent landowners.

15. Reconstruction Politics
Who had the right to decide when the southern states would be allowed to re-enter the Union;
Congress or the President? What steps should be followed to bring former Confederate states back into the Union?
Lincoln believed that the Confederate states never really left the Union. He also believed that the President had the power to decide how citizens of the former Confederate States were to be taken back into the Union.

16. Congress vs the President
Radical Republicans
The Radical Republicans who controlled Congress did not agree, they believed that they would decide how the South would be allowed back into the Union.
The differences set the stage for a political battle.
Congress vs the President

17. Two Plans for Reconstruction
The Lincoln-Johnson Plan
Except for some high government and
military leaders, they would pardon any southerner who would swear to obey the laws of the United States.
A state could rejoin the Union when 10% of all those who voted in 1860 took the oath. Citizens could then form a legal state government and vote for members of Congress.

18. The Radical Republican Plan
They wanted to make sure former slaves were given their proper rights, including the right to vote.
They wanted leaders of the Confederacy punished and to keep the federal government in the firm hold of the Republican party.
The Republican tariff and Homestead Act were not to be overturned.
For all of these reasons they wanted Congress not the President in charge of Reconstruction.

19. The 13th and 15th Amendments

20. The Reconstruction Amendments
1865-The 13th Amendment- This amendment abolished slavery in the United States The 14th Amendment- This amendment defined citizenship and guaranteed due process an equal protection under the law to all citizens The 15th Amendment- This amendment gave former slaves the right to vote. (men only)

21. The South Under Reconstruction
Despite the harsh terms under the RadicaL republican plan the South slowly began to recover from the war. Most southern states reorganized their governments.
More people received the right to vote.
More people qualified for public office.
Tax supported schools were begun or improved.
Roads, bridges, and railroads were repaired and improved.
Farmers began to produce even more than they did before the war.

22. Reconstruction also had its failures
Industry in the south grew very slowly.
Some political officeholders cheated the citizens.
Blacks made some gains, but were seldom treated as the equals of whites.

23. Scalawags and Carpetbaggers
Scalawags were southerners who worked together with freed slaves and favored Congressional Reconstruction.
Carpetbaggers were northerners who came to the south looking for ways to make a living.
Most carpetbaggers and scalawags were honest, hard working people, the few who were corrupt gave a bad name to all.