Reconstruction Central themes: Federalism, Race, and Civil Rights
Four Central questions of Reconstruction: 1.How do you bring the South back into the union? 2. How do you rebuild the South after the destruction of war? 3. How to integrate and protect the rights of the freemen? 4. What branch of government should control Reconstruction?
Reconstruction Plans President Lincoln’s Plan: Amnesty in Reconstruction / 10% Plan 10% of the voting population in the 1860 election had taken an oath of loyalty and established a government Pardon to all but the highest ranking military and civilian Confederate officers
Radical Republicans Plan: Wade-Davis Bill Required 50% of voting population to ironclad oath Required a state constitutional convention before election of state officials No high ranking Confederate participation in government Enacted specific safeguards of freedmen’s liberties
President Johnson’s Plan (10% + Plan): Amnesty upon simple oath to all except Confederate civil and military officers and those with property over $20,000 new constitutions must accept minimum conditions repudiating slavery, secession and state debts
Named provisional governors in Confederate states and called them to oversee elections for constitutional conventions Effects- Disenfranchised Confederate leaders Pardoned planter aristocrats & returned them to power Radical Republicans furious
Reconstruction Amendments 13 th Abolition of Slavery (Dec 1865) 14 th Citizenship and due process (July 1868) 15 th African American males right to vote (Feb 1870)
Reconstruction Acts of 1867 Military Reconstruction Act 10 Southern states that refused to ratify the 14 th Amendment divided into 5 Military Districts
Tenure in Office Act Banned the president from removing official from government without the Senate’s approval (see Impeachment notes)
African American Rights & Progress Freedmen’s Bureau Provides necessities of life & education Federal protection of civil rights Participation in government- 16 Congressmen 2 Senators Lieutenant governors & local politics
Despite gains limited economic opportunities: Sharecropping Tenant Farming
What ends Reconstruction? Economic Depression 1873 Election of 1876 Compromise of 1877
Black Codes (dejure segregation) Grandfather Clause Poll Tax Literacy test Jim Crow Laws
Plessy v Feguson 1896 – separate but equal