Untitled Note

Reconstruction Overview

• Timeframe: 1865-1877

• Focus on reconstructing American society with equality before the law.

Context at the End of the Civil War (1865)

United States in Crisis

• Military Casualties: 360,000 Union, 260,000 Confederate; total of 620,000 dead, with additional serious injuries affecting nearly 1 in 15 people (995,000 total casualties).

• Physical and Economic Crisis: South's infrastructure devastated; railroads, industries, and cities in ruins.

• Constitutional Crisis: Eleven former Confederate states not reintegrated into the Union.

• Political Crisis: Republican dominance in Congress; Andrew Johnson, a former Democratic slaveholder, assumed presidency.

• Social Crisis: Four million freedmen in the South faced survival challenges; included demobilized soldiers and displaced families.

• Psychological Crisis: Resentment and despair prevalent in both North and South.

Conflicting Goals During Reconstruction

• Key Groups: Identification of interests

  • Northern Radical Republicans

  • Southern Planter Aristocracy

  • Black Freedmen

  • Northern Mandates

Plans for Reconstruction

Perspectives on Reconstruction

• Gentle Plan: Renormalization of South as 'brothers.'

• Punishment Plan: Enforcing repercussions on the South for the war's repercussions.

Abraham Lincoln’s Approach

• Ten Percent Plan: Recognizing governments over Confederate states if 10% pledged loyalty to the Constitution.

• Response: Radical response via Wade-Davis Bill (Lincoln pocket veto); subsequent passage of 13th Amendment.

The 13th Amendment

• Section 1: Outlaws slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime.

• Section 2: Congress empowered to enforce the article.

Lincoln's Assassination

• Date: April 14, 1865

• By: John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in D.C.

• Followed by Andrew Johnson assuming presidency.

Johnson's Presidential Reconstruction (1865-1866)

• Consisted of Johnson's amnesty proclamation and establishment of Southern governments,

• Introduction of Black Codes: Laws aimed at restoring conditions of plantation labor for former slaves.

Black Codes Example

• Required proof of employment to avoid being forced into labor.

• Children could be compelled to work for former owners.

• Restrictions on gatherings and carrying firearms.

Congressional Response: Radical Reconstruction

• Led by Radical Republicans such as Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner.

Freedmen's Bureau Act of 1865

• Agency provided education, housing, and other resources for African Americans.

• Johnson vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode it.

Impact of the Freedmen's Bureau

• Contributions in education, jobs, and essential needs; divergent public perspectives on effectiveness.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

• Abolished Black Codes; granted full citizenship and civil rights to blacks.

• Vetoed by Johnson but overridden by Congress.

14th Amendment

• Secured civil rights protection; no state could deny equal protection under the law.

Women and Reconstruction

• Women's involvement in abolition and suffrage left marginalized; 14th Amendment replaced 'person' with 'male.'

Reconstruction Act of 1867

• Created five military districts; mandated new state constitutions granting black voting rights; 14th Amendment passage.

Military Districts and Commanders (1867)

• Specific generals assigned to military districts, overseeing conditions in South during Reconstruction.

The 15th Amendment

• Guaranteed the right to vote for all males.

Impeachment of President Johnson

• Accused of violating Tenure of Office Act; first president impeached but acquitted by one vote.

New Ways of Life During Reconstruction

Challenges for African American Workers

• Introduction of tenant farming, contract labor, sharecropping, and the crop lien system.

Resistance from White Southerners

• Rise in terrorism, including the Ku Klux Klan.

• President Grant enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1871 to address violence.

Reconstructed Southern Governments

• Representation included 20 African Americans in Congress; however, whites remained dominant politically.

• Influence of scalawags and carpetbaggers observed.

Redemption: Decline of Reconstruction (1870-1877)

• Amnesty Act of 1872 aimed at reintegrating most ex-Confederate officials; Democratic Party regaining control in the South.

Reestablishment of Conservative Governments

• Timeline of regain control by conservative governments throughout Southern states.

Redemption Violence and Political Problems

• Renewed violence intimidating blacks and Republicans; corruption within the Grant administration diminished Republican Party focus on civil rights.

The Compromise of 1877

• Reconstruction concluded; military withdrawal from the South agreed for Hayes’ election, marking end of political rights for former slaves.

Post-1877 Developments

• Civil Rights Act of 1875 struck down by Supreme Court (1883); emergence of Jim Crow laws entrenching segregation.

• Tactics introduced to disenfranchise black voters, including grandfather clauses and poll taxes.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• Supreme Court upheld segregation laws under the doctrine of 'separate but equal.'

• Dissenting opinion highlighted moral implications against equality.

Reflection Question

• Was Reconstruction a failure or a success?