The Civil War has ended, over 600,000 dead. The Reconstruction Era: the time period after the Civil War (especially in the South) First question: How would the Southern states be admitted back into the Union? There was a power struggle between the President and Congress.

Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes the President after Lincoln is shot. He is from Tennessee (border state) and lacks the leadership and authority that Lincoln had. Lincoln didn’t want to punish the South, but repair the South’s wounds and bring them back quickly. Johnson picked up Lincoln’s plan of being lenient (easy) on the South.

Another problem facing the South was how to deal with the millions of freed slaves- known as freedmen. The Freedman’s Bureau was created to help the freed slaves adjust to their new life (medical care, food, school) To keep the freedmen from having too much power, the South began using “Black Codes”

Black Codes: Laws made in the South to protect the traditional South society despite abolition of slavery. For example, it was illegal for freedmen to hold public office, travel freely, or serve on juries. Northerners are OUTRAGED at the South’s black codes.

Congress refuses to recognize the new Southern governments because of the Black Codes. The “Radical Republicans”-a group of Northern Congressmen wanted freedmen to be granted full political equality. The radical Republicans pass the “Reconstruction Act” to deal with how the South would be organized. Military rule over the former Confederate states until their new state governments could be formed. President Johnson disagreed. He felt that the President alone had the power to decide how the states could be readmitted.

The Radical Republicans think President Johnson is too soft on the South. To force Johnson out of office, Congress passes the Tenure of Office Act-which limited the President’s ability to dismiss his own cabinet. Johnson sees this as unconstitutional and fires his Secretary of War. The Radical Republicans try to IMPEACH Andrew Johnson because they think he’s too easy on the South.

For the first time, Congress tries to impeach a President of the United States. 2 things must happen: a vote in the House of Representatives to prove that the President is guilty. Then the Senate votes to remove the President from office. The vote was short by 1. He was impeached, but not removed from office. Shortly after, there’s another Presidential election and Ulysses S. Grant is elected.

Grant was elected the next Republican President after Johnson. Although he was an excellent General, he was a weak President with much corruption during his administration (not him, but he was too weak to control his own party and supporters.) The Radical Republicans now pass 3 new amendments to the Constitution. They are called the Civil War Amendments…

13 th amendment: slavery is abolished throughout the nation. 14 th amendment: granted citizenship to all former slaves. 15 th amendment: guaranteed voting rights to former slaves.

Carpetbaggers: Northerners who went South to gain political power. Scalawags: Southerners who sided with the North during the Civil War, and gained political power. Reconstruction was a first step in correcting the many injustices done to African Americans since colonial times. New state constitutions established free statewide public schools open to African Americans as well as whites. Hiram Rhodes Revels-the first African American to serve in the US Congress!

Following the war, plantation owners in the South faced a dilemma…how will we farm our land?? They needed workers. Freedmen (former slaves) and landowners came up with a plan…. SHARECROPPING: former plantation owners provide livestock, tools, and land to former slaves in exchange for a share of the crop. Wasn’t always fair to the freedmen!

The term “New South” describes the beginning of a modern, industrial South. The South was moving away from plantation culture and could no longer rely on slave labor. Because slavery was abolished and the Civil War and destroyed most of the land in the South, people needed jobs! So…. A population shift began to occur. People began moving away from farms and into the Southern cities in search of jobs. (Southern cities like Atlanta grow huge)

Northerners came to the South to help rebuild town and cities and put down new rail lines, develop new industries including cotton and steel mills. New crops like fruits and vegetables were added to old staples like cotton, tobacco, rice.

The North is tired of helping the South…Rutherford B. Hayes becomes the next President. Hayes election ends Reconstruction in With federal troops gone, the Southern state governments, and people, start to resent the power the Radical Republicans had over them. As a result, for decades the South gave its political support to the Democratic party, giving it the nickname “Solid South”

After Reconstruction, most of the North lost interest in the South and the freedmen began losing their rights again. The Ku Klux Klan “KKK” used acts of terrorism to keep blacks from gaining civil rights. The southern state governments pass Segregation laws to send a message that blacks are still inferior to whites. (separate facilities, schools, etc.)

African American leaders such as Booker T. Washington (picture on right) and W.E.B. DuBois (founder of the NAACP) spoke out against these injustices. But it would be another 80 years before these conditions were reversed by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s and leaders like Martin Luther King Jr.

The end of the Civil War also saw the opening of the “last Frontier”-the Great Plains. At the beginning of the Civil War, the US Congress passed several bills which the Southern states had previously blocked. In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act: any citizen can occupy 160 acres of government land. If the settler improved the land in 5 years, he could own it. Many Europeans came to the United States because of the Homestead Act.

The extension of the railroads was one of the main factors in settlement of the Great Plains. The country needed a way to connect from EAST to WEST….the transcontinental railroad. They started building the railroad in California moving east, and from the middle of the country building west. Hoping to meet up in Utah. The transcontinental railroad was complete in 1869 connecting the East to the West. Chinese immigrants helped build the railroad!

President Lincoln signed the Morrill Act to try and get people to move west again. Gave each state 30,000 acres of land to sell and use the money to fund public colleges that taught agriculture and mechanical arts. Sixty-nine colleges were founded using the Morrill Act. Many of these colleges were later turned into State Universities to help educate millions of Americans.

Designed to break up separate Indian tribes. Congressman Henry Dawes. Each Indian family was given 160 acres of farmland. The rest of the land was given to whites in order to farm. The goal was to let the separate Indian tribes disappear and bring the Indians into American culture. Many Indians were not trusting of the government (I wonder why?) Although it was well intended, the Act nearly destroyed native American culture.