1. Topic #20
Reconstruction

2. Why was the process of reconstructing the South after the Civil War so difficult?

3. Southern agriculture and infrastructure lay in ruins

4. Major cities such as Richmond and Atlanta lay in ruins

5. Much of southern private property had been confiscated or looted by federal forces. Crooks disguised as Treasury agents intimidated people

6. Most Southerners had their life savings and investments in Confederate currency, now worthless.

7. More Americans died in the Civil war than all other American Wars combined before Vietnam. For a nation of app. 31 million, 360,000 Union and 260,000 Confederates died, not counting the millions wounded

8. Cost of Civil War as percentage of GDP:
Some estimates have placed the total cost of the Civil War at almost $20 billion, which would be five times the total expenditure of the federal government from its creation to 1861

9. And most pressing problem of all, of course, was what to do with the emancipated slaves, now known as “Freedmen,” almost all homeless, penniless, and uneducated

10. Carpetbaggers and Scalawags, terms used by angry Southerners, exploited the South’s suffering for personal and political gain. Note in this cartoon the racist Jewish stereotypic overtones

11. After the Civil War, what political divisions existed in determining how Reconstruction would unfold?

12. Immediately after the Civil War, the Democratic Party, seen as the party of Southern rebellion by most in the North, was in such a minority in Congress that it had no real say In addressing the question of how to conduct reconstruction of the South

13. But the Republicans were not united as the war ended
Moderate Republicans = emphasis should be on restoring the Union as quickly as possible, and thus tended to be more lenient on defeated South
Radical Republicans = saw an unprecedented opportunity to remake the South and thus demanded more reforms for defeated South to reenter union.

14. How did Abraham Lincoln deal with the issue of Reconstruction after the Civil War, and how did his political opponents try to block him?

16. Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan:
Pardons for all citizens of the South provided that they swear an oath of allegiance to the United States. This does not apply to higher military and political figures, most of whom had broken a loyalty oath to the US they had taken before the war (i.e. military, government, etc.)
As soon as ten percent of those who had voted in the Southern state in 1860 took this oath, a new state government could be organized.
The Southern states had to ratify the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States
The president, not Congress, had the final say in readmitting the Southern states that complied. Lincoln assumed he could do so because the states had always been part of the US, in rebellion and not actually having left the Union.

17. With Lincoln’s generous terms, Arkansas and Louisiana quickly agreed and re-entered the Union. Congress, however, would not let their elected delegates sit.

18. Thirteenth Amendment officially abolished all slavery

19. Wade-Davis Bill

20. How did the assassination of Abraham Lincoln unfold?

21. Ford’s Theater, Washington, DC

23. John Wilkes Booth

24. The presidential box at the time of the murder

25. Ford’s Theater Today

28. Dr. Samuel Mudd

29. Boarding house where Lincoln died

31. Just after Lincoln’s death (note: blood-stained pillow)

32. Body lying in state

33. Lincoln train

34. Lincoln Burial

35. Lincoln’s death mask

37. Hanging of Booth’s co-conspirators

38. Who was Abraham Lincoln’s successor, and how did he try to implement Reconstruction of the South? How successful was he?

39. Andrew Johnson

40. Black Code (note bottom)

41. Alexander Stephens

42. Johnson vetoed a renewal of the Freedman’s Bureau and sought to weaken and defund it

43. Thaddeus Stevens

44. 14th
Amendment

46. After Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill of 1866, Johnson issued a veto that Congress overrode

48. What was the difference between Congressional Reconstruction and Presidential Reconstruction?

49. Historians have divided the Reconstruction era into two phases
Historians have divided the Reconstruction era into two phases. “Presidential Reconstruction” lasted until the Congressional elections of 1866 while “Congressional Reconstruction” followed the election.

50. How did Congressional Reconstruction unfold and ultimately end?

51. Military districts instituted

52. Tenure of Office Act

53. Edwin Stanton

54. The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

55. Ulysses S. Grant

56. 15th
Amendment

57. Ku Klux Klan

59. Sharecropping in South

60. Sharecropping family

61. Rutherford B.
Hayes

62. Samuel Tilden

63. The election of 1876 led to the Compromise of 1877

64. Rutherford B. Hayes Inauguration, 1877