1. The Reconstruction Era
Ruins seen from the capitol, Columbia, S.C., Photographed by George N. Barnard. 165-SC-53.

2. Reconstruction
Reconstruction ( ) – period during which the United States began to rebuild after the Civil War and included the process by which the federal government readmitted former Confederate states.

3. After the War
The South lay in ruins, and nearly 4 million freedmen (freed slaves) needed food, clothing, & jobs
President Lincoln planned for Reconstruction, the rebuilding of the South
Ruins seen from the Circular Church, Charleston, S.C.,

4. Lincoln’s Reconstruction Proclamation
Lincoln’s “Ten Percent Plan” –
- Argued that southern states had never left the Union because secession was illegal– one nation indivisible
Offered amnesty to all Southerners, except Confederate leaders, who took an oath affirming loyalty to the Union and support for emancipation.
When 10 percent of a state's voters had taken such an oath, they could establish a new state government.
very lenient – goal was to readmit southern states as quickly as possible, not to punish the South

5. Lincoln’s Plan Angers Radicals
Radical Republicans, led by Charles Sumner & Thaddeus Stevens, opposed Lincoln’s Ten Percent plan, claiming that it was too lenient
Did not want to reconcile with the South – wanted to “revolutionize Southern institutions, habits, & manners”

6. Radical Republicans’ Plan
The Radical Republicans had 3 main goals:
1. Prevent the leaders of the Confederacy from returning to power after the War
2. Make the Republican Party a powerful institution in the South
3. Help African- Americans achieve political equality by guaranteeing their right to vote

7. Wade-Davis Bill
Considered a compromise between radical and moderate Republicans
Majority of adult white men in each Confederate state must take oath of allegiance to the Union
Then the state could hold a convention to create a new state government
Delegates to that convention had to take an “iron clad oath” that they had never fought against the Union.

8. Wade-Davis Bill
Ironclad oath-  By requiring officials and voters to swear they had never supported the Confederacy, it would limit the political activity of ex-Confederate soldiers and supporters. 
Lincoln blocked this bill with a pocket veto because it would delay reconciliation.

9. Acts of Congress, early 1865 Freedman’s Bureau Thirteenth Amendment
created by Congress in March 1865
It gave food, clothing, education & other kinds of help to the freedman and poor whites.
Thirteenth Amendment
Passed by Congress in January, 1865
Ended slavery throughout the U.S.

11. Andrew Johnson becomes President
Johnson took the Presidential oath after Lincoln’s assassination in April,1865, just 6 days after Lee’s Confederates surrendered.
Claimed he would carry out Lincoln’s reconstruction plan, but differed in significant ways:
-Maintained that Congress should have no role in the “restoration process.”
-Believed that efforts to protect the rights of blacks, whom he saw as inferior, would slow the rebuilding process. “White men alone must manage the South.”

12. Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan (“Restoration Program”)
Like Lincoln’s plan, very lenient toward the South.
Offered pardons to Confederate citizens that swore an oath of loyalty to the Union
Restored Southern states to the Union based on their ratification of the 13th Amendment (ends slavery)
Unconcerned with condition of freedmen
Andrew Johnson, Vice President & President

13. Response to Johnson’s Plan
Most Southern states quickly met Johnson’s demands and ratified 13th Amendment--
Then passed Black Codes, which limited the rights of African Americans.
Republicans in Congress were outraged because African- Americans were not allowed to vote & former Confederate Leaders were elected to Congress
Congress refused to seat the new Congressmen and Senators elected from the Southern states.

14. Administering the Oath of Allegiance to Confederate soldiers

15. Radical Reconstruction
Radical Republicans in Congress decide to take over Reconstruction
They want to break the power of the southern planters and to make sure African- Americans had the right to vote.
Radical Reconstruction

16. Civil Rights Act of 1866
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was the first U.S. federal law to define citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law.
It was mainly intended to protect the civil rights of former slaves.
Enacted by Congress in1865, but vetoed by President Johnson. In1866, Congress again passed the bill and Johnson again vetoed it, but a two-thirds majority in each chamber overrode the veto The Civil Rights Act became the first major piece of legislation in American history to become law over a president's veto.

17. Military Reconstruction Acts of 1867
Divided the south into five military districts.
Each district was placed under military leadership and new elections were held with voting only allowed by Congress' approved voters, mostly former slaves.
Each state was also required to ratify the 13th and 14th Amendments after drafting new state constitutions.
Essentially nullified Johnson’s programs for Reconstruction

18. Radical Reconstruction
14th Amendment, 1868 – All people born in the U.S. are citizens. No state may take away rights of citizens.
Reconstruction Act – Southern states had to ratify the 14th Amendment, African American men must be allowed to vote,…
15th Amendment, 1870 – The right to vote cannot be denied to citizens because of their race or color or because they were once enslaved.

20. Reconstruction Governments
African-Americans were overwhelming majority of Southern Republican voters.
l6 African-Americans served in Congress during Reconstruction, over 600 in state legislatures, and hundreds more in local offices, from sheriffs to justices of the peace.
Reconstruction governments established the South's first state-funded public school systems, adopted measures to strengthen the bargaining power of farm laborers, made taxation more fair, and outlawed racial discrimination in public transportation and accommodations.

22. Reconstruction Governments (cont.)
Ambitious programs of economic development intended to create a New South whose economic expansion would benefit black and white alike.
But a program of railroad aid spawned corruption and rising taxes, alienating increasing numbers of white voters.
Graft- gaining money illegally through politics in order to maximize the benefits to private interests.

23. Extension of Freedmen’s Bureau
Freedmen’s Bureau helped some black farmers negotiate sharecropping agreements, but many of these year-long contracts kept freedmen in deep poverty and under the thumb of landowners.
Sharecropping – a system of agriculture in which tenants labored for a landlord in return for a share or percentage of the total crops produced

24. Sharecropping
Although it allowed freedmen to control their work for the first time in their lives, they rarely had enough crops left over to sell to allow them to buy their own land

25. Sharecropping
Sharecropping

26. Johnson’s Troubled Presidency
The Radical Republicans wanted Johnson out Office, so they sought to impeach him.
Impeach: To formally charge with misconduct in office. If the House of Representatives impeaches a President, the Senate holds a trial to determine if he/she will be removed.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over the President’s trial.

27. Johnson’s Troubled Presidency
Congress passed 2 new laws to avoid any Presidential vetoes or refusal to enforce the laws they passed
1.) Command of the Army Act-- all orders from the President to go through the headquarters of the general of the Army (Grant’s headquarters)
2.) Tenure of the Office Act-- cabinet members could not be removed “during the term of the president by whom they may have been appointed”

28. Johnson’s Troubled Presidency
Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to challenge the Tenure of Office Act
The House of Representatives voted to impeach Johnson
He was tried in the Senate and vote was 35 to 19 (one vote short of the 2/3 majority needed to remove him from office)
Johnson stays in office till the Election of 1868

29. President U.S. Grant

30. Reconstruction Under Grant
18th President of the United States and served two terms from March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1877.
Grant presided over the last half of Reconstruction.
He supported amnesty for Confederate leaders and protection for the civil rights of African-Americans.

31. Reconstruction Under Grant
He favored a limited number of troops to be stationed in the South to protect rights of Southern blacks, and suppress the violent tactics of the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1869 and 1871, Grant signed bills promoting voting rights and prosecuting Klan leaders.
Panic of 1873 – Severe economic downturn that forced scores of smaller banks to close and caused the stock market to plummet.

32. Politics in Post War South
Republican Party in the South relied on 3 groups during reconstruction:
African Americans – right to vote guaranteed by 15th Amendment
Scalawags – White Southerners who became Republicans and supported Reconstruction
Carpetbaggers – Northern Republicans who moved to the South

33. Carpetbaggers
Large numbers of Northerners traveled to the South for economic opportunity, or to serve with the Freedmen’ s Bureau.
Southerners called them “carpetbaggers” because they arrived with suitcases made of a carpet fabric.
Many saw them as intruders seeking to exploit the South’s postwar turmoil for their own gain

34. The Collapse of Reconstruction
Contributing Causes:
- Anti-black violence
- Election of 1876
- Compromise of 1877

35. The Collapse of Reconstruction
Anti-Black violence – goal was to prevent African Americans from voting or competing with whites economically.
Ku Klux Klan (KKK) – violent terrorist organization devoted to white supremacy

36. Ku Klux Klan Established in 1866 by former Confederate soldiers in TN
Wore hooded robes and often rode in bands at night terrorizing African-Americans and carpetbaggers

38. The Collapse of Reconstruction
Election of 1876 – Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) vs. Samuel Tilden (Democrat)
Tilden won the popular vote, Hayes won the electoral college
South was upset and disputed the election

39. The Collapse of Reconstruction
Compromise of 1877 – agreement to settle the disputed election
Hayes (Republican) keeps presidency
Republicans end military occupation of the South
White Democrats took control of southern state governments
“Redemption”

40. Reconstruction Ends
Reconstruction ended after Rutherford B. Hayes’s private deal with southern politicians.
After Reconstruction, a new industrial economy began to emerge in the South.
For African Americans the end of Reconstruction meant a return of the “Old South”
Many returned to the plantations owned by whites, either working for low wages or becoming tenant farmers (paying rent for the land they farmed) or sharecroppers.

41. Reconstruction Ends
Southern whites pass new laws to deny African Americans equal rights:
Poll Taxes, Literacy Tests, & Grandfather Clauses
Segregation, Jim Crow Laws, Lynching
These abuses weren’t addressed by government until the Civil Rights Movement 100 years later.