HIST 20 - Reconstruction

Reconstruction

Postwar effort to rebuild the South, determine the status of former Confederates, reunify the nation, and define freedom and citizenship to African Americans

Pacific Railroad Act (1862)

Provided federal grants of money and land for a transcontinental railroad across the US

National Currency

Greenbacks

Sea Islands Experiment (1861 - 1865)

Conversion of slave plantations into places where “contraband” could work for wages or their own land

Lincoln’s 10% Plan (late 1863)

Amnesty and property to most Southern white people who accepted abolition and swore allegiance to the Union. States membership was restored to the union if 10% of the electorate signed loyalty pledges

Outcome of 10% Plan

It was opposed by Radical Republicans, some southern states established functioning unionist governments

Special Field Order No. 15 (Jan. 1865)

Initiated by General William T. Sherman. Dedication of land in South Carolina and Georgia to settlement by freed people

13th Amendment

Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude unless it was a punishment for crime

Freedmen’s Bureau

Federal agency established to ease the transition from slavery to freedom

April 9, 1865

Surrender of General Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomatix Court House

May 1865 Program

Pardoning almost all white southerners and restoring their propery, and setting up loyal governments that abolished slavery and repudiated secession

Aprenticeship Labor

Children deemed “without support” could be bound to white employers

Sharecropping

Farming land in exchange for farm supplies/share of crop

Civil Rights Bill (April 1865)

All U.S.-born people became citizens, it was vetoed by Johnson but overturned by Congress

Reconstruction Acts (1867 - 1868)

Divided the south into five military districts, they called for the creation of new state governments, black men were guaranteed the right to vote, and the US military would oversee voter registration and elections

14th Amendment (1868)

Guaranteed all black men equal protection under the law

15th Amendment (1870)

It prohibited using race, color, or previous slave conditions as an excuse to not let people vote

Enforcement Acts (1870/1871)

They made it a crime to deprive African Americans of civil rights, deemed Klan activities of rebelion against the government illegal, and allowed troops to protect freed people

Union Leagues

A result of radical reconstruction which mobilized freedmen to vote and instructed them on political issues on all levels

Liberal Republicans

Championed small government, believed that federal government did enough in the south

Home Rule

Southern Democrat controlled government that guaranteed white supremecy which people called for due to corruption and economic depression

Redeemers

Democrats who wanted to undo the gains of Republicans and African Americans. They took over governments by violence, intimidation, and fraud

Bargain of 1877

After a disputed election, Rutherford B. Hayes (republican) was elected in exchange for removing the US military presence from the South and allowing for “home rule”. Black voting rights became non-existent

Eric Foner’s 5 present-day issues which are reflective of Reconstruction

Immigration/Citizenship,

Marriage Laws,

States’ Rights vs. the Federal Government,

Voting Rights,

Home Grown Terrorism