1. Notes: Reconstruction defined
1865 TO 1877
Power Struggle: Johnson vs. Congress
President’s plan: lenient to 1867
10% plan- followed Lincoln’s Plan
Radical Republicans---opposed Johnson
Congress’s plan: harsh to 1876
Southern oath of allegiance---50%
Ratify: 13, 14 & 15 Amendments
reject state’s rights
submit to U.S. Government authority
Help for Freedmen
Freedmen’s Bureau for education
Divide the South into 5 military districts

2. Lincoln’s assassination would make it a difficult road.
R E C O N S T R U C T I O N
Human toll of the Civil War: The North lost 364,000 soldiers. The South lost 260,000 soldiers.
Between 1865 and 1877, the federal government carried out a program to repair the damage to the South and restore the southern states to the Union. This program was known as Reconstruction.
Lincoln’s assassination would make it a difficult road.
Plantation owners lost slave labor worth $3 billion.
Poor white Southerners could not find work because of new job competition from Freedmen.
The war had destroyed two thirds of the South’s shipping industry and about 9,000 miles of railroad.

3. Presidency would suffer as a result of this failed impeachment.
PRESIDENT ANDREW JOHNSON
Remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War.
Lincoln chose him as his VP to help with the South’s Reconstruction.
Supported Lincoln’s Plan
Engaged in a power struggle with Congress over who would lead the country through Reconstruction.
Would be impeached but not removed from office.
Impeachment: Bringing charges against the President. Two steps involved……
1st Step: U. S. House of Representatives hold hearings to decide if there are crimes committed. They then vote on the charges and if there is a majority, then, charges are brought against the President.
2nd Step: U.S. Senate becomes a courtroom. The President is tried for the charges brought against him. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is the judge. Once trial is completed, Senators must vote to remove President with a 2/3’s vote.
Presidency would suffer as a result of this failed impeachment.

4. 13th Amendment Abolished slavery (1865)
CIVIL WAR AMENDMENTS
13th Amendment Abolished slavery (1865)
14th Amendment Provided citizenship & equal protection under the law. (1868)
15th Amendment Provided the right to vote for all men which included white and black men. (1870)
Voting rights
Giving the Black man the right to vote was truly revolutionary……..A victory for democracy!

5. 1865, Congress created the Freedman’s Bureau to help former slaves get a new start in life. This was the first major relief agency in United States history.
Bureau’s Accomplishments
Built thousands of schools to educate Blacks.
Former slaves rushed to get an education for themselves and their children.
Education was difficult and dangerous to gain.
Southerners hated the idea that Freedmen would go to school
FREEDMEN'S BUREAU
Freedmen’s Bureau 2

6. K K K Ku Klux Klan refers to a secret society or an inner circle
The Klan sought to eliminate the Republican Party in the South by intimidating voters.
They wanted to keep African Americans as submissive laborers.
They planted burning crosses on the lawns of their victims and tortured, kidnapped, or murdered them.
Prosperous African Americans, carpetbaggers, and scalawags became their victims.
Mississippi Governor, 1866: “The Negro is free”
“Whether we like it or not; we must realize that fact now and forever. To be free, however, does not make him a citizen or entitle him to social or political equality with the white man.”

7. SHARECROPPING
Sharecroppers were Freedmen and poor Whites who stayed in the South and continued to farm.
Freedmen signed a work contract with their former masters .
Picked cotton or whatever crop the landowner had.
Freedmen provided the labor.

8. A VICIOUS CYCLE OF DEBT ECONOMIC SLAVERY
1. Poor whites and freedmen have no jobs, no homes, and no money to buy land.
6. Sharecropper cannot leave the farm as long as he is in debt to the landlord.
2. Landowners need laborers and have no money to pay laborers.
ECONOMIC
SLAVERY
3. Hire poor whites and freedmen as laborers
Sign contracts to work landlord’s land in exchange for a part of the crop.
5. At harvest time, the sharecropper is paid.
Pays off debts.
If sharecropper owes more to the landlord or store than his share of the crop is worth;
4. Landlord keeps track of the money that sharecroppers owe him for housing, food or local store.

9. DURING RECONSTRUCTION MANY A/A’s VOTED & WERE VOTED INTO OFFICE
First Black Senators and representatives in the 42st and 42nd Congress.
THE 1ST A/A SENATOR, Hiram Revels, on the left was elected in 1870 to replace the seat vacated by Jefferson Davis.
Black Congressmen

10. CORRUPT BARGAIN vs
Rutherford B. Hayes Samuel Tilden
The election of 1876 and the Compromise of 1877 are referred to as the Corrupt Bargain.
The Democrats and Republicans work out a deal to recognize Hayes as President
In return, President Hayes must end Reconstruction and pull the Union troops out of the South.
Once this happens, there is no protection for the Freedmen and the South will regain their states and go back to the way it was.

11. Successes and Failures of Reconstruction
Union is restored.
Many white southerners bitter towards US govt & Republicans.
South’s economy grows and new wealth is created in the North.
The South is slow to industrialize.
14th and 15th amendments guarantee Blacks the rights of citizenship, equal protection under the law, and suffrage.
After US troops are withdrawn, southern state governments and terrorist organizations effectively deny Blacks the right to vote.
Freedmen’s Bureau and other organizations help many black families obtain housing, jobs, and schooling.
Many black and white southerners remain caught in a cycle of poverty.
Southern states adopt a system of mandatory education.
Racist attitudes toward African Americans continue, in both the South and the North.

12. RECONSTRUCTION ENDS (the military is gone)
Southern state govt’s pass laws to restrict A/A’S voting rights:
LITERACY TEST- must read Constitution to be able to vote.
POLL TAX- must pay a fee to be able to vote
GRANDFATHER CLAUSE- if g-pa voted before civil war, then you could vote. (no blacks voted then!)
SEGREGATION- separation of races in public places
also known as JIM CROW LAWS
PLESSY V. FERGUSON- “SEPARATE BUT EQUAL”
BROWN V. BOARD OF ED.- OVERTURNED PLESSY CASE