1. Plans for Reconstruction Pgs. 402-408
U.S. History A
Plans for Reconstruction
Pgs

2. The South after the War
Richmond was in ruins, as were many other cities and towns
Former slaves had very few job opportunities and many were unable to make a living
Many small farmers died fighting the war, leaving their farms without proper care

3. More than 20% of the South’s white population died in the war
Plantations suffered from the loss of slaves
War damage also left the South’s transportation network in bad shape

4. Challenges for African Americans
Nearly 4 million former slaves had won their freedom
Many former slaves were no longer willing to work long hours
Ways had to be found to provide educational and economic opportunities for all formerly enslaved African Americans

5. How to Treat the South?
What place would African Americans have in political life in the South?
What was the status of the Confederate states?
Should Confederate states be forgiven?
Sold Confederate states be punished?

6. Wartime Reconstruction
Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau to provide help to the thousands of black and white southerners uprooted by the fighting
Congress wanted to trample the South
Lincoln wanted to simply let the South rejoin the Union

7. Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plans
In 1862 Lincoln appointed military governors temporarily to rule parts of the Confederacy that were already in Union hands
When 10% of a state’s voters had pledged loyalty to the Union and support for emancipation, the state could rejoin the Union

8. Lincoln’s actions created a big debate in Congress over who would control Reconstruction
Lincoln supporters said that since secession was unlawful, the Confederate states had never left the Union and Congress did not need to readmit them

9. Some members of Congress felt Lincoln’s plan was too lenient
Congress proposed its plan for Reconstruction called the Wade-Davis Bill
Required a majority of a state’s white male citizens to pledge loyalty before a new government could be elected
Lincoln killed the bill with a pocket veto

10. Lincoln’s Assassination
John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln while the president watched a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865
Booth planned to kidnap the president and exchange him for Confederate prisoners of war

11. Booth decided to kill Lincoln after the president did not appear where Booth planned to kidnap him
Other plotters were assigned to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson on the same night
Booth was the only one to succeed

12. After shooting the president, Booth jumped onto the stage, breaking his leg
He yelled “Sic semper tyrannis” (Thus always to tyrants) and then ran off the stage
Booth escaped to Virginia
He was surrounded in a barn by Union troops and shot when he refused to surrender

13. As Booth laid dying, he asked a Union soldier to hold up his hands before his face
He looked at them and uttered “Useless… Useless…”, and then died
Booth’s co-conspirators were tried and hanged
Andrew Johnson became the new president