The War When the Civil War finally ended, it was clear that peace had not come easily. More than 600,000 soldiers had died. Many others had returned home wounded. Much of the South was destroyed. And now the President was dead. As one Southerner remembered, “All the talk was of burning homes, housed knocked to pieces…..famine, murder desolation.” The years following the war were hard ones. However, the end of the war brought new hope to at least one group of people-the former slaves. A Free People With the Union victory, 4 million enslaved people were freed. Most slaves were already free by the time the Civil War ended in In December of that year, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution ended slavery in the United States forever. “I felt like a bird out of a cage,” one former slave remembered, looking back on the day he was set free. “I could hardly ask to feel any better than I did that day.” Free Africans quickly began to form new communities. They built churches and schools. They opened stores. They formed groups to help people find jobs and to take care of people who were sick. In 1866, only one year after the war ended, one African leader proudly said, “We have progressed a century in a year.” As soon as they could, many former slaves began to search for family members who had been sold and sent away under slavery. Newspapers were filled with advertisements asking for help in finding their loved ones. This ad appeared in a newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee. “During the year 1849, Thomas Sample carried away from this city, as his slaves, our daughter, Polly, and son George…We will give $100 each for them to any person who will assist them, or …get word to us of their whereabouts.” Many families never found their missing loved ones. But for those that did, it was a time of great joy. “I wish you could see this people as they step from slavery into freedom,” one Union soldier wrote to his wife. “Families which had been for a long time broken up are united and Oh! Such happiness.” Former slaves worked hard to build new lives. Yet life remained difficult. Often it was hard just to find food, clothing, and shelter. Many began to look to the United States government for help. In 1865, Congress set up an organization to help former slaves. This group was called the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands-or the Freedmen’s Bureau. The Freedmen’s Bureau gave food and other supplies to freed slaves. It also helped some white farmers rebuild their farms. The most important work of the Freedmen’s Bureau, however, was education. Newly freed slaves were eager to learn to read and write. To help meet this need, the Freedmen’s Bureau built more than 4,000 schools and hired thousands of teachers. The Freedmen’s Bureau also wanted to help former slaves earn a living by giving them land to farm. This plan, however, did not work out. The land was to have come from the plantations taken during the war. But the government decided to give the plantations back to their original owners. In the end, most former slaves were not given land. Without money to buy land of their own, many had to work for other people. The Freedmen’s Bureau

Sharecropping In their search for jobs, some former slaves went back to work on plantations. Many planters welcomed them. Fields needed to be plowed, and crops needed to be planted. Now, however, planters had to pay Africans for their work. In the days following the war, there was not much money. Instead of paying workers in cash, many landowners paid them in shares. Under this system, known as sharecropping, a landowner gave a worker a cabin, mules, tools and seed. The worker then farmed the land. At harvest time, the landowner took part of the crops, plus enough to cover the cost of the worker’s rent and supplies. What was left was the worker’s share. Sharecropping gave landowners the help they needed to work the fields. It also gave former slaves work for pay. Yet few people got ahead through sharecropping. When crops failed, both landowners and workers suffered. Even in good times, most workers’ shares were very little, if anything at all. A New President As Americans were getting used to their new lives after the war, government leaders began making plans for bringing the country back together. This time of rebuilding was called Reconstruction. After Lincoln’s death, the Vice President, Andrew Johnson, became the new President. Johnson tried to carry out Lincoln’s promise to be fair to the South in defeat. He pardoned most Confederates who promised loyalty to the United States. They were then given back the rights of citizenship and were allowed to vote. Their states held elections, and state governments went back to work. Johnson also said that the Confederate states must abolish slavery. This requirement was met when the Thirteenth Amendment was passed late in Johnson then said that the last of the Confederate states could return to the Union. Such easy terms, however, made some people angry. Many Northerners felt that the Confederates were not being punished at all. White Southerners were being elected to office and taking over state governments just as they always had. Yet no one talked about the rights of former slaves. What would happen to them? In 1865 & 1866, state governments in the South enacted laws designed to regulate the lives of former slaves. The Black Codes limited basic civil rights and human liberties of blacks. The Black Codes differed from state to state. In most states Africans were not allowed to vote. In some they were not allowed to travel freely. They could not own certain kinds of property or work in certain businesses. They could be made to work in the fields without pay if they could not find another job. Many, however, faced an even worse problem. Shortly after the war ended, secret groups formed in the South that tried to keep Africans from having their rights as free persons. Most of those who joined these groups were upset about their war losses and angry about the new rights of former slaves. Many African Americans were killed; their schools and churches were burned. It became a time of terror for many people. The Black Codes

Congress Takes Action Many leaders of Congress were alarmed about the way former slaves in some Southern states were being treated. They believed that President Johnson’s Reconstruction plan was not working. So they voted to change to a plan of their own-a plan that was much tougher on white Southerners. First, Congress did away with the new state governments and put the Southern states under the army’s rule. Union soldiers kept order, and army officers were made governors. Before each Southern state could reestablish its government, it had to write a new state constitution giving all men, both black and white, the right to vote. To return to the Union, a state also had to pass the Fourteenth Amendment. This amendment gave citizenship to all people born in the United States-including former slaves. Johnson was very angry about this plan and about other laws that Congress passed to cut back his authority. Believing that these laws were unconstitutional, Johnson refused to carry them out. Then, in 1868, the House of Representatives voted to impeach the President, or charge him with a crime. He was put on trial in the Senate. There, in a very close vote, he was found not guilty. Although he stayed in office, Johnson was no longer a strong leader. The Sothern states began to write new state constitutions and pass the Fourteenth Amendment. State elections were held once again. For the first time, African Americans from the South were elected to Congress. They also served in state governments that took over the job of rebuilding the South. Reconstruction Ends The new state governments made many important changes. They did away with the black codes. They approved the Fifteenth Amendment, which said that no citizen could be kept from voting because of race. They built hospitals and schools and repaired roads, bridges, and railroads. Yet the work of the state governments did not make everyone happy. To pay for their Reconstruction projects, state leaders placed high taxes on land. These taxes hurt landowners. Many white Southerners soon grew angry with their state leaders. They did not like the fact that African Americans were voting and taking part in government. They did not like the white Southerners who supported the government. They called them Northerners. Other Northerners went to the South to try to help with Reconstruction or to make money buying land or opening businesses. White Southerners called them carpetbaggers because many of them arrived carrying their belongings in suitcases made of carpet pieces. Some white Southerners tried again to take authority from their state leaders. One way they did this was to control the way people voted. Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan used violence to keep African Americans from voting or to make sure they voted as they were told. Sometimes the votes of African Americans simply were not counted. In time white Southerners once again took control of their state governments. New state laws were passed that made it very hard, if not impossible, for African Americans to vote. African Americans had to go to separate schools and churches and sit in separate railroad cars. Such laws led to segregation, or separation of black people and white people. Reconstruction was over by In that year the last of the Union troops left the South. The rights and freedoms African Americans had just won were again taken away in the South.