1. Rebuilding after the Civil War
Reconstruction
Rebuilding after the Civil War

2. The Civil War is over… Now What?!
Remember when General William Sherman and his troops marched through the heart of the south practicing total war (destroying everything) all the way to the Atlantic Ocean?
Remember when southern states succeeded (broke away) from the Union and formed their own Confederate States?
Remember when President Lincoln emancipated (set free) slaves in the Confederate states?

3. Where do we start?
Reconstruction: the period of reuniting and rebuilding the South following the end of the Civil War

4. Piecing it back together

5. Ten Percent Plan
President Lincoln proposed that southerners be offered amnesty (an official pardon). All southerners had to do was:
swear an oath of loyalty to the United States
accept a ban on slavery
When 10 percent of the voters (men) in any state took the oath, that state would be accepted back into the Union.

6. 10% Plan vs. Wade-Davis Bill
Also called for southerners to ban slavery
Most of the people of a state would have to take the pledge before the state could rejoin the Union
Only southerners who swore they did not support the Confederacy could run for office

7. 13th Amendment 1865: officially outlawed slavery in the nation.
Former slaves responded to freedom in many ways: They legalized their marriages, searched for relatives who had been sold away, took last names, and moved to new places

8. Freedmen’s Bureau passed by Congress in 1865 to help the freedmen and south’s poor people
Provided supplies and medical services
Helped African American war veterans
Supervised contracts between freedpeople and employers
Took care of lands abandoned or captured during the war
Build more schools (some freed-people also established their own schools) although some southerners violently resisted the idea of education African Americans, freed-people of all ages attended classes.

9. “I never before saw children so eager to learn…it is wonderful how they can have so great a desire for knowledge and such a capacity for attaining it.” – teacher of a freedmen’s school

10. President Andrew Johnson
April 14, 1865 President Lincoln was shot and died the next morning. Vice President Andrew Johnson became the next president of the United States

11. Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
A way to restructure southern state governments. States that followed the steps were readmitted to the Union:
Appointed a temporary governor for each state
All the states had to revise their constitutions
Voters elected state and federal representatives
The new state had to declare that secession was illegal
Had to ratify (officially approve) the 13th amendment
Many Republicans complained that many new representatives had been leaders of the Confederacy. Congress therefore refused to readmit the southern states into the Union.

12. 14th Amendment
Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 guaranteeing African Americans the same rights as whites.
Johnson vetoed this Act claiming it gave the Federal Government too much power
Congress overrode Johnson’s veto
14th Amendment:
All people born in the US are citizens
Guaranteed citizens equal protection of laws
People could not be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process
Former Confed. officials could not hold office
Congress could pass any laws needed to enforce it

13. Reconstruction Acts
1866 Congressional elections gave the Republican party a 2/3 majority in both houses
Divided the South into five districts
U.S. military commander to control each district
New state constitutions needed to support the 14th Amendment
Had to give African American men the right to vote

14. Presidential Impeachment
Johnson was battling with Senator Thaddeus Stevens & Radical Republicans
Congress tried to take power away from the President
Johnson did what he wanted!
House of Reps voted to impeach Johnson
After a Senate trial, he was acquitted by one vote
However, the trial broke his power as President

15. Election of 1868
Republicans chose Ulysses S. Grant to run for President
Supported the congressional Reconstruction plan
“Let Us Have Peace”
Congress readmitted 7 southern states
Approved the 15th Amendment/gave African American men the right to vote
Whites tried to use violence to keep them from voting

16. 15th Amendment Guaranteed African American men the right to vote.
This went into effect in 1870

17. Opposition to Reconstruction

18. Ku Klux Klan
Many southerners opposed Reconstruction. In 1866 a group of them created the secret and violent Ku Klux Klan. Its targets were African Americans, Republicans, and public officials. The Klan spread throughout the South until the federal government stepped in and passes laws that made Klan activities illegal. This however, did not stop the violence.

19. Fighting Against Inequality

20. “The New South”