OBJECTIVE: Analyze the political, economic, and social impact of Reconstruction on the nation and identify the reasons why Reconstruction came to an end… FIRST 5: Open text to 391 Analyze Sharecropping chart Answer the skill builder question
Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction Lincoln was able to maintain his goal of preserving the Union He did not want to punish the Confederacy, just rebuild it Wanted to allow Confederate states to form their own governments once 10% of the voting population swore an oath of allegiance to the United States April 14th, 1865 Just five days after the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse John Wilkes Booth (Confederate sympathizer) assassinated Lincoln at Ford’s Theater ( )
Congress passed the Civil Rights Act Intended to give citizenship rights to freed slaves Johnson vetoed the measure Congress overrides Johnson Concerned that the courts might strike down the new law as unconstitutional, Congress passed a new amendment to the U.S constitution
14th amendment: guaranteed that no persons (regardless of race) would be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law Gave Citizenship to freedmen Ratified in 1868
Johnson v. Congress climaxed in 1868 Johnson tried to fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton He had been appointed by Lincoln He was fired due to his close ties with Radical Republicans This violated the Tenure of Office Act
13th Amendment freed the slaves Now, African-Americans in the South had to adjust to life after slavery In 1865, Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau Considered the first federal relief agency in U.S History Served to provide clothing, medical attention, meals, education, and even some land to freed blacks and some poorer whites Lacked strong support and disbanded in 1869
Sharecroppers and Tenant Farmers African Americans had their freedom, but they had no land or money To survive, they turned to sharecropping This is a practice by which a family farmed a portion of a landowner’s land in return for housing and a share of the crop Many sharecroppers fell victim to dishonest landowners who subjected to them to a subtle form of slavery If a sharecropper was fortunate, he might save enough money to try tenant farming Tenant Farming Tenant farmers paid rent to farm the land and owned the crops they grew They were not as much at the mercy of white landowners, as were sharecroppers
Carpetbaggers Northerners who had come to the South to do business Scalawags Southerners, often Republicans, who supported Reconstruction
Grant’s presidency saw the last piece of major legislation in Reconstruction In 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified to the Constitution Guaranteed that no citizen may be denied the right to vote by the US or any state on the account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude Amendment had great impact in the South by guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote
Compromise of 1877 ( HAYES TILDEN COMPROMISE) Democrats agreed to Hayes being president and Republicans agreed to end Reconstruction Southern states received federal money, more power to govern themselves, and a promise to withdraw federal troops Decision brought Reconstruction to an end and began the era of the Solid South
As Reconstruction ended, southern states passed these laws They required blacks and whites to use separate public facilities Many states also tried to avoid upholding the 15th amendment by requiring citizens to pass literacy tests or pay poll taxes in order to vote Most African Americans in south tended to be poor and uneducated so the new laws prevented many of them from voting In order to keep these laws from hindering poor and illiterate whites state states instituted grandfather clauses
These were clauses that exempted citizens from restrictions on voting if they, or their ancestors, had voted in previous elections Since whites had enjoyed the right to vote for years, grandfather clauses allowed poor and illiterate whites to vote while excluding African Americans