1. Reconstruction and Its Effects
#25 Chapter 4 Section 4
Reconstruction and Its Effects
OBJECTIVE: Understand the strengths and weaknesses of the Reconstruction Era.

2. I. The Politics of Reconstruction
Reconstruction: period of time ( ) when the U.S. began to rebuild following the Civil War.

3. Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction
Southern states readmitted to Union if 10% of 1860 voters swear allegiance to Union.
TOO LENIENT ON THE SOUTH
Radical Republicans- a group of Republicans in Congress who wanted to destroy the political power of ex-slave owners.

4. Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s successor, forms own plan.
Also too lenient on the South.
JOHNSON WAS V.P. FOR 41 DAYS

5. Congressional Reconstruction Congress passes….
Civil Rights Act (1866) laws could not discriminate against African Americans.
Freedman’s Bureau Act (1866) help ex-slaves in the South.
14th Amendment (1868) granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed.
Reconstruction Act of 1867
Divides Confederacy into military districts.
Requires South to pass the 14th Amendment.
Requires South to allow African Americans the right to vote.

6. President Andrew Johnson Impeached
1868: House impeached Johnson for blocking Reconstruction; Senate does not convict. Remains President.

7. Ulysses Grant (Republican) elected President in 1868.
15th Amendment (1870) stated that no one can be denied voting rights because of race and color.

8. II. Reconstructing Society
Politics in the Postwar South
Scalawags- White southern farmers who joined the Republicans, want to improve position.
Carpetbaggers- Northern Republicans, moved to the South after the war.

9. African Americans in Reconstruction:
1870: Hiram Revels becomes the 1st African American Senator.

10. Sharecropping- to farm land owned by another, keep only part of crops.
Tenant farmers rent land from owner and keep all of its harvest.
In both systems, the landowner is the one who profits the most.

11. III. The Collapse of Reconstruction
Ku Klux Klan- southern vigilante group, wants to:
Destroy the Republican Party, aid the white planter class, repress African Americans.

12. Support for Reconstruction Fades. Why??? Republicans split apart.
Southern Democrats regain power.
Supreme Court rules against Radical Republicans changes.
Positives of Reconstruction=
13th-14th-15th Amendments.