Unit 1 (reading): Reconstruction

Overview

1865-1877

Major events

• Presidents murdered and impeached

• Amendments 13-15 added to the constitution

• fierce backlash from vigilante/terrorist organizations in the south

Main Idea

• This era is when an effort to rebuild the south was made, faltered, and ultimately failed

  • South experienced losses

  • Reduced to political dependence and economic destitution

  • Union efforts were resisted by southern Whites

  • racial/regional inequalities were increased as well as racial violence

Presidential reconstruction

• Lincoln had an original goal of reunification both during and after the war

  • Lincoln’s first “10%” plan was lenient and generous to rebel states

  • Radical Republicans didn’t want Lincoln to forgive rebel states before they ensures civil rights for African Americans.

• Andrew Johnson

  • Appointed by Lincoln as vice president in 1864

  • Democrat with the goal of supporting the south

  • After Lincoln’s 1865 assassination, Johnson became president

  • Johnson did not give African Americans the right to vote and gave rebel states abundant freedom, returning all property if they pledged loyalty

  • As a result, former confederate leaders returned to power

  • Gave a total of 7,000 presidential pardons by 1866

• New Orleans Riots

  • 37 dead, 140 wounded

  • Happened when a convention met to stop Black codes from passing

• Black Codes

  • Laws made to keep African Americans as close to slavery as possible

  • Forced them to work

  • Taxed them, for not being farmers or servants

  • Prohibited them from owning guns

  • Barred them from public spaces

  • Forbid them from hunting or fishing

  • Taxed their dogs

  • Worked against the freedman’s bureau

• Freedman’s bureau

  • Federal agency providing help/welfare for newly emancipated African Americans

• A power struggle came between Radical Republicans fighting for Civil Rights and those who supported Johnson’s lenient policies.

Radical Reconstruction

• Radical Republicans opposed Johnson’s policies, wanting civil rights for African Americans and punishment for confederate leaders.

  • Radicals wanted to interfere with states rights to protect African Americans

  • Johnson tried to veto the freedman’s bureau bill and the Civil Rights bill, but these were overturned by congress

  • Radicals in congress changed southern leadership so that confederate leaders no longer held office

• Reconstruction amendments

  • 13th amendment

    • Outlawed slavery in the United States

  • 14th amendment

    • All people born or naturalized in the United States are citizens

    • Guarantees equal protection of the law

    • prevented states from taking away some civil rights

  • 15th amendment

    • Right to vote cannot be denied based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

A President Impeached

• Andrew Johnson was the first president to be impeached in 1868

  • Tried to remove Stanton, the secretary of war, because he was in charge of the reconstruction acts

  • Because there was no vice president + next in line was not liked, Johnson was one vote short of removal

  • Johnson finished his term without removal

Rebuilding the Old Order

• African-Americans

  • Now able to vote and own land

  • African Americans began holding public office

  • Disadvantaged economically, as they only had plantation skills and often could only find work sharecropping

• Southern Whites

  • Created a system similar to slavery through sharecropping

  • Many Southern Whites started terrorist organizations such as the KKK

  • Passed Jim Crow laws to enforce segregation and prevent African Americans from voting

• Carpetbaggers

  • Northerners who moved South to get rich

  • Many aimed to take political office from ex-confederates