1. Georgia Performance Standards: SSUSH9b-f
Section 3:
Reconstruction
Georgia Performance Standards:
SSUSH9b-f

2. SSUSH10 The student will identify legal, political, and social dimensions of Reconstruction.
a. Compare and contrast Presidential Reconstruction with Radical Republican Reconstruction.
b. Explain efforts to redistribute land in the South among the former slaves and provide advanced education (Morehouse College) and describe the role of the Freedmen’s Bureau.
c. Describe the significance of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments.
d. Explain Black Codes, the Ku Klux Klan, and other forms of resistance to racial equality during Reconstruction.
e. Explain the impeachment of Andrew Johnson in relationship to Reconstruction.
f. Analyze how the presidential election of 1876 and the subsequent compromise of 1877 marked the end of Reconstruction.

3. Reconstruction The rebuilding of the South after the Civil War
Plans for reconstruction:
Lincoln: 10% Plan
Required 10% of state’s eligible voters to swear allegiance to U.S. for state to reenter union
Wade-Davis Bill:
Required over 50% of state’s eligible voters to swear allegiance to U.S. for state to reenter union
DID YOU KNOW: The Wade-Davis Bill would also have permanently banned any Confederate politician or soldier from voting or holding public office.

4. Assassination of Lincoln
Assassinated on April 14, 1865
Attending “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre
Killed by John Wilkes Booth

5. Freedman’s Bureau Operational from 1865-1872 Goal:
Protect rights of African-Americans in the South
Advance education, provide work opportunities and negotiate labor contracts
Eventually even operated as courts for suits involving African-Americans

6. Different Views of Reconstruction
Presidential
Lenient (forgiving)
Radical Republican
Punitive (punishment)
Why?

7. Johnson and Reconstruction
Andrew Johnson, a Democrat from the South, becomes President after Lincoln’s death
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Vetoed by Johnson
Overridden by Congress
Why?
Guaranteed equal rights to black Americans

8. Johnson and Impeachment
Johnson was unpopular
Northerners → Southern, too friendly to South
Southerners → Traitor to the South
Impeachment
Tenure in Office Act (1867)
Fired Secretary of State Seward
Congress impeaches Johnson (1867)
Acquitted by one vote
Johnson becomes compliant with the Republicans.

9. Radical Reconstruction
Period beginning in 1866
Goals:
Punish the South
Protect Rights of Freedmen
How?
Keeping former Confederates from voting
13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
Use of military forces

10. Civil War Amendments 13th Amendment 14th Amendment 15th Amendment
Abolishes slavery
14th Amendment
Makes former slaves citizens of the U.S.
All people born in the U.S. (except Indians or visitors) are citizens
15th Amendment
Gives all men the right to vote, regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude"

11. Military Reconstruction
South divided into 5 military districts
All states except Tennessee
Georgia was in the 3rd District
Last to be reinstated to the Union (July 15, 1870)

12. Reforms of Reconstruction
Land:
Attempt to redistribute land
“40 acres and a mule”
Failed
Never was an official policy of the United States Government, policy by General Sherman.
President Andrew Johnson gave the land back to the original white owners.
Why?

13. Reforms of Reconstruction
Education:
Emphasized in black community
Public, segregated schools created
Higher Education:
Ex. Morehouse College, founded 1867 in Atlanta to provide advanced education to freed slaves.
Why was education
considered important?

14. “Carpetbaggers” and “Scalawags”
Southern term for a Northerner who moved to the South during Reconstruction
Viewed as an opportunist trying to take advantage of Southerners
Scalawag:
Term for a Southern Republican or supporter of Reconstruction
Viewed as a traitor to the South

15. Southern Reactions to Reconstruction
Black Codes:
Laws that limited African-American rights
Ku Klux Klan:
Terrorist group
Sought to punish Republicans & African-Americans who attempted to exercise their rights

17.
Political cartoon threatening lynching to carpetbaggers Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Independent Monitor, 1868

18. African-American Politics
Many African-Americans given right to vote
15 African-Americans elected to the House of Representatives, 2 to the Senate
Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first African-American U.S. Senator, from Mississippi. Served
Blanche Bruce, the second African-American U.S. Senator, from Mississippi. Served

19. Rise of the “Redeemers”
Southern Democrats
Took over state governments across the South
Beliefs:
White supremacy
Economic modernization was needed
Sonny Perdue, the 81st Governor of GA, was the first Republican elected Governor in Georgia since the end of Reconstruction in 1872.
DID YOU KNOW: The Redeemers took away African-American and poor white voting rights by requiring poll taxes, literacy tests or residency requirements (“grandfather clauses”) to vote.