1. The Reconstruction Era (1865-1877)

2. Reconstruction
1) The rebuilding of the South after being destroyed by the North
2) Bringing the South back into the Union
But there were 3 plans on how to do this

3. 1) Lincoln’s Plan
Wanted a lenient plan
Felt that the Confederates never left
“Proclamation of Amnesty & Reconstruction”
or the “10% Plan”

4. 10% of the population of the state to swear allegiance to the Union
then they could form a state government & get back into Congress
This plan upset the ‘Radical Republicans’
Led by Thaddeus Stevens

5. Assassination of Lincoln (April 14, 1865)
5 days after the South surrendered
Lincoln, his wife, and 2 friends attended a play at Ford’s Theatre in D.C.
John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor, openly walked into Lincoln’s balcony
Shot Lincoln in the back of the head

6. Booth leaps from the balcony onto the stage
Breaks his leg & leaves the theatre
He rides to the South where he thought he would be treated as a hero
It launches the biggest man-hunt in American history

7. Booth was running for 12 days
He & a co-conspirator were cornered in a farmhouse in Virginia by Union troops
The troops set fire to the farmhouse
Booth was shot by a soldier & died
2 months later, 4 of his co-conspirators were convicted & executed

8. 1st American President to be assassinated
“Now he belongs to the ages”
This was the end of Lincoln’s lenient plan for Reconstruction
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton is reported to have uttered his famous remark, "Now he belongs to the ages."

9. 2) Andrew Johnson’s Plan (Lincoln’s replacement)
From Tennessee, favors the South
He believed that “white men alone must manage the South”
He would let the Confederate states return to the Union if they did 3 things…

10. 1) 10% of population swear allegiance to the Union
2) Each state withdraw secession
3) Ratify the 13th Amendment
Abolish slavery
Then he would forgive the South’s war debts AND let them have their own state governments
The South loved this plan

11. 3) Congress Plan (Radical Republicans)
Extreme Republicans that want to punish the South
They hated Johnson’s Plan & made a plan of their own
1) Enlarged the “Freedmen’s Bureau”
agency to assist newly freed slaves & poor whites in the South
2) Passed Civil Rights Act of 1866
forbade states from passing discriminatory ‘Black Codes’

12. Johnson vetoed both
=> Republicans over-rode the vetoes and passed them anyway
also created the 14th Amendment
Makes the former slaves citizens with equal protection of the law
Congress is gaining a lot of power

13. Congress passes The ‘Reconstruction Act’
1) Divided the South into 5 military districts
2) States are required to accept the 13th and 14th Amendments
Impeachment of Johnson
Formal CHARGING of misconduct
Radical Republicans thought Johnson was not doing his job
Fell short of conviction by 1 vote
Impeached for attempting to fire Sec of War Edwin M. Stanton

14. End of Reconstruction
1) ‘Amnesty Act’
The Radical Republicans eventually had to return the South’s right to vote
Returned the right to vote to former Confederate states
They will surely vote Democratic
=> Republicans lose power

15. 2) Election of 1876
Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) vs. Samuel Tilden (Democrat)
Vote was too close to call, so they made a deal (Compromise of 1877)
Hayes would win the Presidency if he did 3 things…

16. 1) Withdraw troops from the South
2) South gets Federal $ to build RR, harbors, bridges
3) Appoint a Southerner as Hayes’s advisor
Republicans say OK
Shows that the North has lost the will to keep up Reconstruction => segregated South