Period spans only 12 years (from 1865 to 1877); aims:
• Re-admit seceded Southern states to the Union.
• Define place of 4 million freedpeople—transition from coerced labor to citizens.
Immediate post-war South:
• Infrastructure devastated by Union “hard-war” tactics (e.g., Sherman’s March).
• Economy in ruins; labor system abolished.
Emancipation Proclamation (effective 01/01/1863) = wartime measure; only freed slaves in rebelling areas.
“Lincoln governments” created where 10\% of voters swore loyalty; Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana gained exemption from proclamation (could keep slavery).
Highlighted limits of wartime emancipation ⇒ necessity of constitutional amendment.
Thirteenth Amendment
Text: slavery abolished except as punishment for crime.
Passed Congress 1865; ratified by 3/4 of states ⇒ nationwide abolition.
Lincoln’s Assassination & Johnson’s Ascension
04/14/1865: John Wilkes Booth shoots Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre.
Booth: pro-slavery, failed March kidnap plot, coordinated attacks on VP & Sec. of State.
VP Andrew Johnson (Tenn. Unionist Democrat) becomes president:
• Racist, strict constructionist, states’-rights advocate.
• Political mismatch with Republican Congress.
Johnson’s “Presidential Reconstruction”
Quick readmission plan: states must
• Repudiate secession,
• Repay Confederate debts,
• Ratify 13^{th} Amendment.
Blanket pardon for ex-Confederates except those owning >\$20{,}000 property (aristocracy must seek individual pardon).
Republicans refuse to seat Southern delegations ⇒ legislative standoff.
Black Codes
Southern legislatures (and some Northern locales) enact codes to re-inscribe racial hierarchy.
• Recognize limited rights (property, marriage, contracts).
• Deny jury service, testimony against whites, militia service.
• Vagrancy laws: absence of labor contract ⇒ arrest ⇒ fine ⇒ “hired out” to pay fine (de facto forced labor).
Goal: social control & quasi-slavery.
Congressional (Radical) Reconstruction
Furious Republicans craft stronger protections:
• Civil Rights Act 1866: nearly all U.S.-born (except Indigenous) = citizens; illegal to deny rights.
• Fourteenth Amendment (proposed 1866, rat 1868): embeds CRA in Constitution;
– Birthright citizenship, due process, equal protection.
– Penalizes states denying male suffrage (reduced representation).
Johnson vetoes CRA & opposes 14^{th}; Congress overrides.
Reconstruction Acts 1867
Post-midterms 1866 GOP super-majority overrides Johnson; passes Military Reconstruction Act:
• Dissolves Southern gov’ts; divides South into 5 military districts.
• Readmission requires: ratify 14^{th}, extend vote to Black men, repeal Black Codes.
Johnson impeached (Tenure of Office Act fight) Feb 1868; survives Senate removal by 1 vote.
Election of 1868
Democrat Horatio Seymour pledges to end Reconstruction.
Republican Ulysses S. Grant (Union hero) pledges to uphold it.
Black Southern vote decisive ⇒ Grant wins electoral landslide despite close popular vote.
African-American Political Mobilization
1867–1877:
• Record Black turnout; at times outnumber white electorate in Deep South counties.
• Approx. 2 U.S. Senators, 14 Representatives; hundreds in state legislatures; majority in S.C. House.
• Roles in drafting new state constitutions, founding public schools & welfare institutions.
• Leaders from varied backgrounds: formerly enslaved, freeborn, educated, skilled, even ex-slaveholders.
Land Reform & Freedmen’s Bureau
Gen. Sherman’s Special Field Order 15 (“40 acres & a mule” along Ga./S.C. coast) lacked legal authority.
Freedmen’s Bureau (est. 03/1865): manage abandoned/confiscated lands, provide rations, courts, education.
• Land redistribution reversed 1866 (lands restored to pardoned ex-Confederates).
• Bureau becomes primarily relief & legal aid body; expires 1872.
Southern Labor Systems After Emancipation
Severe labor void ⇒ sharecropping & wage contracts with ex-masters.
Sharecropping: tenants work plots, pay rent via share of crop ⇒ chronic debt cycles, little mobility.
Economic elites prioritize cotton output & “stability” over racial justice.
Rebuilding Black Civil Society
Family reunification: newspaper ads, migration; legal marriages shift dependents’ support from govt to patriarch.
Education: freedpeople of all ages pursue literacy; schools often housed in churches.
Independent Black churches proliferate; hubs for worship, schooling, politics, mutual aid.
• Women gain leadership roles; address sexual violence, community welfare.
Formation of all-Black towns (e.g., Mound Bayou, Miss., 1887) to seek autonomy.
Women & Reconstruction Politics
Fourteenth Amendment first to insert word “male” → fractures women’s rights movement.
American Equal Rights Association 1866 seeks universal suffrage; splits 1869:
• National Woman Suffrage Association (Stanton, Anthony) oppose 15^{th}, ally with white supremacists.
• American Woman Suffrage Association supports Black male vote first.
“New Departure” argument: Constitution already implicitly enfranchises women; hundreds (incl. Susan B. Anthony) attempt to vote 1868/1872, many arrested.
Southern white women: Ladies’ Memorial Associations glorify Confederacy; spearhead Lost Cause myth, monuments, Memorial Day rituals.
Southern Black women create aid societies, memorial events (origin of federal Memorial Day in Charleston 1865).
Racial Violence & the KKK
White backlash intensifies after 14^{th} & 15^{th} Amendments: riots, intimidation at polls.
Ku Klux Klan founded Pulaski, Tenn. 1865: vigilante terror to restore white supremacy.
Enforcement Acts 1870–1871 criminalize conspiracies to deny rights; classify Klan violence as rebellion; federal troops deploy.
Limited success; Southern juries seldom convict whites; violence continues, especially where Black turnout high.
Post-War Economic Realities
South
Pre-war slave economy valued ≈ \$3{,}000{,}000{,}000; cotton the backbone.
War destruction + emancipation ⇒ capital wiped out; food shortages; hyper-inflation.
Sharecropping & crop-lien systems lock both Black & poor white farmers in debt till 1930s.
War-time policies:
• First national income tax 1862.
• Higher tariffs 1862 protect industry.
• National Banking Acts create uniform currency & bond-backed “greenbacks.”
Post-war boom; innovation offsets labor shortages via mechanization.
Close gov’t–business ties ⇒ scandals (e.g., Whiskey Ring 1875 siphons millions); focus shifts to corruption over racial justice.
Waning of Reconstruction
New Departure/Redeemer Democrats argue citizenship ≠ suffrage; promise “home rule” by white Democrats.
GOP idealism erodes amid Depression of 1873–1879:
• Bank failures, rail crashes, 6-year slump; workers fight low wages, debt bondage.
Democrats regain House 1874; obstruct Reconstruction funding & enforcement.
Federal troop withdrawals begin; Black voter suppression (poll violence, literacy tests, tax tests) rises.
Compromise of 1877 & Formal End
Election 1876 deadlock:
• Democrat Samuel J. Tilden wins popular vote; lacks 1 electoral vote for majority.
• GOP Rutherford B. Hayes behind in popular but contests 20 disputed electors.
Secret deal:
• Democrats concede presidency to Hayes.
• Hayes pledges removal of remaining federal troops from South + federal subsidies for southern rail & internal improvements.
Troop withdrawal = collapse of Republican state gov’ts; “Redeemers” entrench white rule.
Black office-holding & turnout plummet; segregation & Jim Crow laws follow.
Historical Significance & Legacy
Reconstruction: first national attempt at interracial democracy; constitutional revolution (Amendments 13–15).
Achievements: abolition, birthright citizenship, due process, equal protection, Black male suffrage, beginnings of public education in South.
Failures: land redistribution aborted; economic dependence unchanged; women’s suffrage sidelined; white supremacist violence unchecked; federal commitment short-lived.
Sets stage for 80$$+ years of segregation until Civil Rights Movement.