Agenda

1. Agenda • Go over 2.5 – Lecture Guide • Ch. 2 Section and Chapter Review- Due Tuesday • Test Block Day – Open Notebook

2. Reconstruction Begins(plans begin before the war ends) • The South was a defeated region with a devastated economy at the conclusion of the Civil War. • The president and Congress had to deal with Reconstruction, or rebuilding the South and the country after the Civil War. They also had to decide under what terms and conditions the former Confederate states would rejoin the Union.

3. Lincoln’s Plan • Offered a pardon to all who took an oath of loyalty to US and accepted the Union’s proclamation regarding the abolition of slavery • Confederate gov’t officials or military officers could not take the oath • When 10% of state took oath they could reform state government • Goal: reconcile the South and the Union instead of punishing it for treason

4. Radical Republicans • The Radical Republicans had three main goals. • They wanted to prevent the Confederate leaders from returning to power after the war. • They wanted the Republican Party to become powerful in the South. • They wanted the federal government to help African Americans achieve political equality by guaranteeing them the right to vote in the South.

5. Reconstruction • Moderate Republicans thought Lincoln’s plan was too lenient on the South and the Radical Republicans’ plan was too harsh. • By the summer of 1864, the moderates and the radicals came up with a plan that they both could support. The Wade-Davis Bill was introduced and passed in Congress.

6. Wade-Davis Bill • Majority of adult white men in former confederacy take oath of allegiance • State could then hold a Const. Convention to create new const. • Those attending convention had to take a 2nd oath that they had never fought against Union or helped Confed. during the war

7. Wade-Davis Bill • State Constitutions had to: • Abolish slavery • Reject all debts the state had acquired as part of the confederacy • Deprive all former Confederate government officials and military officers the right to vote • Goal: harsher punishment for those who fought in war

8. Lincoln’s Response • Lincoln thought the plan was too harsh and would alienate many whites in the South, so he blocked the bill with a pocket veto. He did this by letting the session of Congress expire without signing the bill.

9. Reconstruction • As a result of the refugee crisis, Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau. This bureau was to feed and clothe war refugees in the South using army surplus supplies. The bureau also tried to help freedmen find work and negotiate pay and hours worked on plantations.

10. Lincoln’s assassination • April 9, 1865 – Lee surrenders- Civil War ends • April 15, 1865 – John Wilkes Booth assassinates President Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre • Why did JWB feel that he had no choice but to assassinate the President?

12. Johnson’s Plan • Vice President Andrew Johnson became president after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Johnson agreed with Lincoln that a moderate policy was needed to bring the South back to the Union. • In May 1865, Andrew Johnson issued a new Proclamation of Amnesty. • This plan offered to pardon all former citizens of the Confederacy who took an oath of loyalty to the Union and to return their property and included having each former Confederate state ratify the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery

13. Reconstruction • The new Southern state legislatures passed laws, known as black codes, that severely limited African Americans’ rights in the South. The codes varied from state to state, but in general, they were written with the intention of keeping African Americans in conditions similar to slavery. The black codes enraged Northerners. • In late 1865, House and Senate Republicans created a Joint Committee on Reconstruction to develop their own program for rebuilding the Union.

14. Civil Rights Act In March 1866, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866.(#7) The act gave citizenship to all persons born in the United States, except Native Americans. It guaranteed the rights of African Americans to own property and be treated equally in court. It granted the U.S. government the right to sue people who violated these rights.

15. Congressional Plan • Fourteenth Amendment • Granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in US • No state can deprive person of life liberty or property without due process of law. • No state can deny person equal protection under the law

16. Congressional Plan • Military Reconstruction Act • Divided South into districts with a Union general in charge of each in order to maintain peace and protect rights of persons and property • All states had to write new Const. acceptable to Congress • Give right to vote to all adult males, regardless of race • Had to ratify 14th amend. Before electing officials to Congress

17. Grant elected • Johnson did not run for election in 1868. General Ulysses S. Grant was the Republican candidate. The presence of Union soldiers in the South helped African Americans vote in large numbers. Grant easily won the election. Republicans kept majorities in both houses of Congress.

18. 15th Amendment • The Republican-led Congress proposed the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment said that the right to vote could not be denied on account of race, color, or previous servitude.(#9) The amendment became part of the Constitution in 1870.

19. Carpetbaggers and Scalawags • During Reconstruction, many Northerners moved to the South. Many were elected or appointed to positions in the state governments. Southerners referred to these Northerners as carpetbaggers because some brought suitcases made of carpet fabric. Many Southerners viewed the Northerners as intruders who wanted to gain from the South’s postwar troubles. • Southerners also disliked scalawags—white Southerners who worked with the Republicans and supported Reconstruction

20. Reconstruction • Thousands of formerly enslaved people took part in governing the South. They were delegates to state conventions, local officials, and state and federal legislators. • The Republican Party became powerful in the South and started many major reforms. The reforms included repealing the black codes, establishing state hospitals, and rebuilding roads and railways damaged during the Civil War.

21. Reconstruction • To pay for Republican reforms, many Southern state governments borrowed money and imposed high property taxes. • Many Southern whites resented African Americans and the Republican-ruled governments. Some Southerners organized secret societies such as the Ku Klux Klan to undermine the Republican rule.

22. Reconstruction Ends • Reconstruction came to an end when • Enforcing policies became difficult because of the rise of Democrats in Congress • The Republicans were becoming more concerned with government scandals and economic problems. • Many Southerners wanted a “New South” with a strong industrial economy instead of a mostly agricultural one. (#14)

23. After Reconstruction • After Reconstruction ended, African Americans returned to plantations owned by whites, where they worked for wages or became tenant farmers, paying rent for the land they farmed. • Most tenant farmers ended up becoming sharecroppers. They paid a share of their crops to cover their rent and farming costs.

24. After Reconstruction • Although sharecropping allowed African American farmers to control their own work schedule and working conditions, it also trapped them in poverty because they could not make enough money to pay off their debts and buy their own land.