1. The Politics of Reconstruction
Building a New South
Freedmen’s Bureau provides social
services, medical care, education
Reconstruction—U.S. rebuilds, readmits
South into Union (1865–1877)
Lincoln’s Plan
State readmitted if 10% of 1860 voters swear
allegiance to Union
Radical Republicans consider plan too lenient:
- want to destroy political power of
former slaveholders
- want full citizenship and suffrage
for African Americans

2. The Politics of Reconstruction Cont.
Johnson’s Plan for Reconstruction
Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s successor,
forms own plan
Excludes Confederate leaders,
wealthy landowners
Congress rejects new Southern
governments, congressmen
Congressional Reconstruction
Congress passes Civil Rights Act,
Freedmen’s Bureau Act (1866)
Fourteenth Amendment grants full
citizenship to African Americans
Reconstruction Act of 1867 divides
Confederacy into districts

3. The Politics of Reconstruction CONT.
Johnson Impeached
House impeaches for blocking Reconstruction;
Senate does not convict
U. S. Grant Elected
Grant elected president in 1868; wins 9 of 10
African-American votes
Fifteenth Amendment protects voting
rights of African Americans

4. Reconstructing Society
Conditions in the Postwar South
By 1870, all former Confederate states
have rejoined Union
Republican governments begin public
works programs, social services
Politics in the Postwar South
Scalawags—farmers who joined Republicans,
want to improve position
Carpetbaggers—Northern Republicans, moved
to the South after the war
Many Southern whites reject higher status,
equal rights for blacks

5. Reconstructing Society CONt.
Former Slaves Improve Their Lives
Freedmen found own churches; ministers
become community leaders
Republican governments, church groups
found schools, universities
Thousands move to reunite with family, find jobs
African Americans in Reconstruction
Few black officeholders; Hiram Revels is
first black senator
Sharecropping and Tenant Farming
Sharecropping—to farm land owned by another,
keep only part of crops
Tenant farmers rent land from owner
Often led to forms of debt peonage

6. The Collapse of Reconstruction
Ku Klux Klan—southern vigilante group, wants to:
destroy Republicans, aid planter class,
repress African Americans
to achieve goals, KKK kills thousand of men,
women, children
Enforcement Acts of 1870, 1871 uphold
federal power in South
In 1872, Amnesty Act passes, Freedmen’s Bureau expires
Support for Reconstruction Fades
Republicans splinter; panic of 1873
distracts North’s attention
Supreme Court rules against Radical Republican changes

7. The Collapse of Reconstruction Cont.
Democrats “Redeem” the South
Democrats regain control as 1876 election
deal ends to Reconstruction
known as the “Compromise of 1877” it calls for
removal of Federal troops from
the South
Rutherford B. Hayes is President
The Nadir begins in the South
Will continue through the 20th
Century

8. EFFECTS OF NADIR Increased violence Restricted Voting Rights
KKK
No Trial Lynchings
Restricted Voting Rights
Poll taxes
Grandfather clause
Literacy tests
Jim Crow Laws “New Black Codes”
Increasing Debt Peonage Systems
Segregation
Plessy v. Ferguson-creates the “separate
but equal” doctrine
Racial Etiquette Customs Enforced
Northern Discrimination Too
Great Migration at Turn of the Century