Reconstruction

Freedman’s Bureau took 1 st steps  Created by Lincoln during the war  Help newly freed adjust to new lives

Lincoln’s Plan for Reunion “charity for all”  Pardon Confederates  State Constitutional Conventions when 10% take oath  Return to Union with Constitution that endorses 13 th amendment

Pres. Johnson’s Plan moderate Republican  Pardon Confederates  New State Constitution 1. void secession 2. abolish slavery 3. ratify 13 th Amdmt 4. stop paying Confederate war debt

Southern Defiance  New Black Codes  Violence & Rioting

Congressional Reconstruction “Radical” Plan  Protect Citizens’ Rights 1. Civil Rights Act 1866 outlawed southern state black codes th Amendment * guarantees rights of citizenship * “Equal Protection of the Law”

Control & Punish the South  Military Reconstruction act 1867

Controlling the President  Tenure of Office Act  Impeachment  Precedent

Extending Suffrage  15 th Amendment No Citizen shall be denied the right to vote based on race color or previous condition of servitude

Political, Economic & Social Changes Result

Republican Support in the South  Carpetbaggers  Scalawags  African American Office Holders

Republican Policies  Civil Rights Legislation guaranteeing equal rights & access  Public Education  Repealed Black Codes

Economic Development Plantation System was destroyed  U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands  Failed attempt for land redistribution  Focus on economic improvements RailroadsBanksIndustry

Changes in Southern Agriculture New forms of Slavery  Debt Peonage  Sharecropping  Tenant Farming

Voter Anger Taxes = State Debt Taxes = State Debt Corrupt Government Officials Demand for Cotton = Economic Depression

Whites Attack Reconstruction Southern Backlash Ku Klux Klan Intimidation keeps Blacks away from the polls

Solid South Whites always elect Democrats

Reconstruction Ends  Election of 1876 Rep. Hayes Dem. Tilden  Compromise of 1877 Hayes Promises to Remove all Southern Troops

New form of White Supremacy  The plight of the freedman after Reconstruction  White Supremacists take control of Government – begin to limit rights and freedoms of blacks

Voting Restrictions  Poll Tax: voter must own property and pay a tax in order to vote  Literacy Tests: voters have to demonstrate ‘minimal’ standards of knowledge  Grandfather Clauses: segregated blacks from whites by allowing those with ancestors who voted to be exempt from new laws

Segregation  Jim Crow Laws: required the separation of the races (Schools, parks, transportation, hotels, diners, etc.)

Discrimination  De Facto – discrimination in fact rather than by actual law  Common in the North despite few Jim Crow laws  De Jure – discrimination by law

Plessy v. Ferguson  1896 US Supreme Court case which legalized separate facilities for whites and African-Americans.  Separate facilities had to be equal:  “Separate but Equal”  Reality: Black Facilities were always unequal