Problems After Civil War SOUTHERN SOCIETY: whites resent new political power of former slaves, many young men dead, cities in rubble, schools destroyed SOUTHERN ECONOMY: agriculture crippled, livestock destroyed, banks & businesses closed, railroad tracks destroyed, unemployment CONGRESS vs. PRESIDENT: each had opposing plans for how to fix problems

RECONSTRUCTION Period of rebuilding & political reorganization of the South after Civil War 1865 – 1877 Process for readmitting defeated Confederate states to the Union

LINCOLN’S PLAN Ten Percent Plan Government would pardon all Confederates who would swear allegiance to the Union When 10% took oath, Confederate states could form new state governments and send representatives to Congress Four states qualified: AR, LA, TN, VA Angered the “Radical Republicans”

JOHNSON’S PLAN From North Carolina Grants amnesty (pardon) to more than 13,000 former Confederates Believed that whites must still hold political power in South Seven remaining Southern states agree, all but Texas set up new governments and send representatives to Congress

RADICAL REPUBLICANS “Radical Republicans” in Congress Want South to be punished Try to destroy political power of former slave owners Propose giving blacks citizenship and the right to vote Refuse to seat representatives sent by the South to Congress!

CONGRESSIONAL PLAN Set up Freedmen’s Bureau to help African Americans transition to freedom by providing food, teachers, legal aid, horses, mules, etc. Pass Civil Rights Act of 1866 to give African Americans citizenship and outlaw “black codes” – laws that discriminated against blacks BOTH are vetoed by Johnson!

CONGRESSIONAL REACTION Congress is mad! Override Johnson’s vetoes of Freedmen’s Bureau Act and Civil Rights Act Pass Reconstruction Act of 1867 which did NOT recognize new Southern state governments formed under Lincoln/Johnson plans Divided former Confederate states into 5 military districts; states had to give former slaves the right to vote in order to reenter the Union Proposed Civil War Amendments

CIVIL WAR AMENDMENTS 13 th (1865): abolished slavery 14 th (1868): gave former slaves citizenship and equal treatment under the law 15 th (1870): said no state can deny right to vote based on race, color, or former servitude

JOHNSON IMPEACHED Radicals believed Johnson was blocking Reconstruction Impeached him for firing Secretary of War Technical violation of Tenure of Office Act House impeached but Senate voted NOT to convict so he stayed in office Lost 1868 election to Ulysses S. Grant

RESULTS OF RECONSTRUCTION Political struggles in Republican party in the South: scalawags (poor whites), carpetbaggers (northerners who moved South), former slaves First public schools set up African Americans elected to office (16 to Congress, more in local governments) Sharecropping: poor farmers worked land they didn’t own for a small percentage of the crop

END OF RECONSTRUCTION Bank failures lead to 5-year depression Democrats begin to regain control, Radical Republicans lost power Amnesty Act gave right to vote back to 150,000 former Confederate officers & returned confiscated estates Some whites used violence to intimidate African Americans Ku Klux Klan formed – est. 20,000 killed

Why might this time period be called “The Second Civil War”? Did Reconstruction mend the conflict between the North and South, or did it make it worse?