1. Reconstruction Chapter 10
Reconstruction 1864 to 1877
How to reunite the North and South
Make sure you understand the vocabulary you are reading.

2. The South is destroyed The Civil War ended April 9, 1865.
Most of the land and resources in the South were destroyed by the Civil War. The South would need to be rebuilt.
This rebuilding of the South was called Reconstruction.

3. Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan
President Lincoln wanted to reunite the nation as quickly as possible.
Any southern state with at least 10% of its voters making a pledge to be loyal to the U.S. could be readmitted to the Union.
The South also had to accept a ban on slavery.
Lincoln did not want to punish the South.

4. Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
On March 4, 1865, President Lincoln laid out his approach to Reconstruction in his second inaugural address.
He hoped to reunite the nation and it’s people.

5. Lincoln’s Inaugural Address
“With malice [hatred] toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and for his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

6. Wade-Davis Bill
Required the majority of the adult males in the South to take an oath of loyalty to the United States. Only then could they create a new state government and re-enter the union.
Required that all former leadership of the Confederacy to be excluded from ever participating in government again.
Would have took away the ability of Southern leaders from the military or government ever to vote, or hold office.

7. Wade-Davis Bill Bill was passed by Congress eager to punish the South.
President Lincoln refused to sign the Bill. Doing so is called a Pocket Veto because he let the Bill expire.
Lincoln believed a harsh peace would be counter productive.

8. Lincoln is assassinated
Just six days after the war ended, on April 15, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated while watching a play.
Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Southerner who was angry at Lincoln.
Vice-President Andrew Johnson became president.

10. The Slaves Are Free
With the ending of the war, the slaves were now free.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution was passed.
The 13th Amendment made slavery illegal forever in the United States.

11. The Freedmen’s Bureau
The Freedmen’s Bureau was established to help poor blacks and whites in the South from literally starving to death.
The Freedmen’s Bureau established schools in the South.
Laws against educating slaves during the Civil War meant that most ex-slaves did not know how to read and write.

12. New President Andrew Johnson
Southern Democrat who believed in a modest approach was the best way to bring the South back into the Union.
Johnson’s Plan: Restoration program pardoned all former Confederate leaders and any Confederate citizen who had worth of more than 20,000.
Congress was furious when former Confederate leaders were elected.

13. The Black Codes
The Black Codes were laws passed by Southern states that limited the new-found freedom of African Americans.
Black Codes forced African Americans to work on farms or as servants. They also prevented African Americans from owning guns, holding public meetings, or renting property in cities.

14. Voting Rights Other laws were passed to keep blacks from voting.
One law said former slaves had to pay a tax to vote. It was called a poll tax.
Another law was passed that said a person could only vote if their grandfather had voted. These laws were called the Grandfather Clause.

16. To override Black Codes
Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 granting citizenship to all persons born in the United States except Native Americans.
The 14th Amendment guaranteed citizenship to all people born or naturalized within the U.S. except for the Indians.
It said that state governments could not “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

17. Radical Republicans
The Black Codes angered many Republicans in Congress who felt the South was returning to its old ways.
The Radical Republicans wanted the South to change more before they could be readmitted to the Union.
They were angry at President Johnson for letting the South off so easy.

18. Radical Republicans
In March 1867, Congress instituted the Military Reconstruction Act.
Plan divided the South into five military districts each under the control of a Union general.
Congress relied on General Grant and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to enforce their plan.

20. Johnson and The Radical Republicans
Congress passed the Army Act and the Tenure of Office Act. They did so to prevent President Johnson from firing Stanton.
Congress was angry at President Johnson for not going along with their Reconstruction policies and firing Stanton.
As a result, Congress impeached Johnson.

21. Impeachment
Impeachment is the process of charging a public official with a crime.
The next step was to try the president in the Senate.
By a single vote, Republicans failed to convict Johnson.
The only other time a president has been impeached was Bill Clinton.

22. Republican Rule in the South
Southerners called Northerners who came to the South seeking work Carpetbaggers. Name happened because some came with suitcase made of carpet fibers.
The Southerners hated the Northerners who arrived believing they came to take advantage.

23. 15th Amendment In 1870 the 15th Amendment became law.
The 15th Amendment gave African American men the right to vote.
Women’s rights activists were angry because the amendment did not also grant women the right to vote.

24. African American Communities
Set up to improve their own lives without government assistance.
Churches were the center of the communities.
Promoted social values and settled disputes and disciplined individuals for bad behavior.
Schools were started to educate.

25. Southern Resistance
African Americans were participating in government. White Southerners resented it and started to form secret organizations to terrorize African Americans and white supporters.

26. Ku Klux Klan
In 1866 a group of white southerners created the Ku Klux Klan.
The KKK was a secret society opposed to African Americans obtaining civil rights, particularly the right to vote.
The KKK used violence and intimidation to frighten blacks.
Klan members wore white robes and hoods to hide their identities.
The Klan was known to have murdered many people.

28. Enforcement Acts
3 laws passed to protect African Americans and combat the KKK.
First law made it a federal crime to interfere with a citizen’s ability to vote.
Second law put federal elections under the control of Federal Marshalls.
Third law outlawed the KKK.
Over 3,000 Southerners were arrested.

29. The Grant Administration
President Grant was seen as a weak and corrupt President.
During his time in office there were several scandals involving people from his Administration.
The Panic of 1873 broke out and caused a recession in the country.
The Republicans and specifically Grant were blamed.

30. Reconstruction ends
The Republicans decide not to nominate Grant for a third term and run Rutherford B. Hayes.
Hayes and Democrat Tilden were almost tied for electoral votes. 20 electoral votes were left in the Southern states.
To elect the President to ensure there was not fraud a committee was form comprised of 8 Republicans and 7 Democrats to sort out who would be the next President.
Compromise of 1877 is considered a deal that Hayes agreed to remove all of the troops from the South, but it has never been proven.