Chapter 12 Reconstruction

12.1 The Politics of Reconstruction Reconstruction- The process of reuniting the nation and rebuilding southern states without slavery. In the South, debt was a huge problem.

Lincoln’s Plan 10% Plan- Wanted to reunite the nation as quickly and painlessly as possible. Wanted to offer amnesty to all if they agreed to do the following. 1. swear an oath of loyalty to the US. 2. abolish slavery. Once 10% of the voters from that state did that, they could form a new state government.

Some congressmen did not agree with Lincoln. Wade-Davis Plan- 1. Abolish slavery 2. Majority of males in the state had to pledge loyalty. 3. Only men that swore they did not support the Confederacy could vote or hold office. President Lincoln refused to sign it to make it a law. Pocket veto

10% Plan

Lincoln is Assassinated April 14, 1865, Lincoln was watching the play, Our American Cousin, at Ford’s Theatre. John Wilkes Booth, a southerner, thought that by killing Lincoln, the war would start back up and the South would win. Andrew Johnson replaces Lincoln.

Johnson’s Plan His plan was known as Presidential Reconstruction. His reconstruction policies were very similar to Lincoln’s. Except, wealth southerners and former Confederate officials needed a presidential pardon. By the end of 1865, all southern states were readmitted except for Texas. Congress refused to admit the new southern senators and reps.

Presidential Reconstruction

Freedmen’s Bureau Congress established the FB to provide relief for all poor people. Medical, employment, food, and education.

Civil Rights Act of 1866 Gave African Americans citizenship and forbade states from passing discriminatory laws black codes that severely restricted African Americans’ lives.

Congressional Reconstruction The Civil Rights Act of 1866 became the first major legislation ever enacted over a presidential veto.

Radical Reconstruction

14TH Amendment made “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” citizens of the country. All were entitled to equal protection of the law, and no state could deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.

RECONSTRUCTION ACT OF 1867 Did not recognize state governments formed under the Lincoln and Johnson plans except for that of Tennessee, which had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. Divided former Confederate states into five military districts, each headed by a Union general. The voters in the districts including African-American men would elect delegates to conventions in which new state constitution would be drafted.

It had to ensure African-American men the vote, and the state had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.

Johnson Impeached The House of Representatives has the sole power to impeach federal officials, who are then tried in the Senate. Impeached with violation of the Tenure of Office Act. “Not guilty,” the vote was 35 to 19, one short of the two-thirds majority needed.

Grant Elected President 15TH Amendment Radicals introduced the Fifteenth Amendment, states that no one can be kept from voting because of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Also affected Northern states, many of which at this time barred African Americans from voting.

Grant’s Troubled Presidency http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/appomattox-court-house/videos/president-ulysses-s-grant-scandal-and-legacy?m=528e394da93ae&s=undefined&f=1&free=false

12.2 Reconstructing Society Southern state governments faced the challenge of physically rebuilding a battle-scarred region. The economic effects of the war were devastating for the South. The South’s population suffered great loses

PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMS The Republican governments built roads, bridges, and railroads and established orphanages and institutions for the care of people with mental illnesses and disabilities. Also created the first public school systems that most Southern states had ever had.

Postwar Politics Scalawags- white Southerners who joined the Republican Party. The majority were small farmers who wanted to improve their economic and political position and to prevent the former wealthy planters from regaining power. Carpetbaggers- Northerners who moved to the South after the war. Wanted to exploit the South’s postwar turmoil for their own profit.

Carpetbaggers and Scalawags http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/carpetbaggers-and-scalawags/videos

African Americans made up the largest group of Southern Republicans. Many freed slaves will move to cities looking for jobs. African Americans saw education as a way to escape poverty and inequality. African American churches were also used for social and political meetings as well. African Americans enjoined their greatest political freedom during Reconstruction. Hiram Revels

40 Acres and a Mule General Sherman had promised the freed slaves who followed his army 40 acres per family and the use of army mules. about 40,000 freed persons settled on 400,000 abandoned acres in coastal Georgia and South Carolina. The freed slaves farmed their plots until August 1865, when President Johnson ordered that the original landowners be allowed to reclaim their land and evict the former slaves.

Sharecropping https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyU-TUuQjfw

Sharecropping- landowners divided their land and gave each worker a few acres, along with seed and tools. At harvest time, each worker gave a share of his crop, to the landowner. “croppers” who saved a little and bought their own tools might even rent land for cash from the planters, and keep all their harvest, in a system known as tenant farming. Eventually they might move up the economic ladder to become outright owners of their farms.

Cotton no longer “King” Farmers began to diversify their crops. falling cotton prices and mounting planters’ debts caused many banks to fail.

12.3 The Collapse of Reconstruction KKK turned into violent terrorist organizations. Goal was to restore white supremacy. Method was to prevent African Americans from exercising their political rights. turn the Republicans, who had established the Reconstruction governments, out of power. tried to prevent African Americans from making economic, as well as political, progress.

Efforts to stop the KKK President Grant was not aggressive in his use of the power given to him by the Enforcement Acts, and in 1882, the Supreme Court ruled that the 1871 Enforcement Act was unconstitutional.

Democrats take control Amnesty Act in May 1872, returned the right to vote and the right to hold federal and state offices to about 150,000 former Confederates. “redemption” Congress allowed the Freedmen’s Bureau to expire. Corruption and scandal in Grant’s administration takes focus away from Reconstruction.

Reconstruction Ends