1. Plan to repair damage caused by the Civil War and reunite the nation
Reconstruction
Plan to repair damage caused
by the Civil War and reunite the nation

2. Key Questions
1. How do we bring the South back into the Union?
4. What branch of government should control the process of Reconstruction?
2. How do we rebuild the South after its destruction during the war?
3. How do we integrate and protect newly- emancipated black freedmen?

3. What was Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction?
10% plan: only 10% of a state population had to sign a loyalty oath
No slavery
If they were generous to South, the Republicans would gain some support and the South would be happier
Only military and gov’t leaders in South would be in trouble, regular citizens and soldiers would not be
Congress said this was to lenient, and did not do enough to protect African Americans

4. Lincoln’s Assassination
Lincoln’s Presidency
Assassin: John Wilkes Booth
actor, Southern sympathizer, blamed Lincoln for South’s demise
April 14, 1865 at Ford's Theatre in D.C.
Booth escaped and was captured 11 days later in a Virginia barn, where he was killed.
His co-conspirators were sentenced to death h?v=iSvG_gk2mZU

5. Two Views of Reconstruction (After Lincoln)
Presidential
Andrew Johnson
Continue Lincoln’s plan by not punishing the South…not very willing to help out newly freed slaves and African Americans in general
Congressional
“Radical” Republicans led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner
Punish the South for their actions during the Civil War
Johnson
Stevens
Sumner

6. Johnson Presidential Reconstruction
Southern Democrat and former slave owner…
Didn’t care to protect or help African Americans gain equality
Did not want African American suffrage (right to vote)
Protected wealthy white Southerners
Confederate leaders would be punished unless they were pardoned by Johnson himself (12,652)
Left much of Reconstruction up to the states themselves…many confederate leaders regained control: Black Codes
Supported by many Southerners

7. Congressional Reconstruction Radical Republicans
Congress takes control of Reconstruction, wanted to be more harsh on the South
Disgusted by Black Codes restricting rights of African Americans
Refused to let rebelling Southern Congressman to regain their seats on Congress
Passed the Freedman’s Bureau, and other acts over Johnson’s VETO
Required Military supervision of the South
States must ratify 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
Congress not successful in implementing their plan for Reconstruction

10. Reconstruction Amendments:
13th Amendment: abolishes slavery, Jan 1865 before end of Civil War…Lincoln killed in April.
14th Amendment: July 1868 makes African-Americans citizens
15th Amendment: March 1870 cannot deny vote based on race

11. Freedmen’s Bureau: government organization that provided food, clothing, healthcare and education to black and white refugees from South
under-funded!
By 1872 it set up 1,000 schools and est. notable universities: Morehouse and Spelman, male and female liberal arts colleges in Atlanta

12. President Johnson’s Impeachment
1. Tenure of Office Act – law prevented president from firing cabinet members without Senate’s consent
2. Johnson fires Sec. of War = violation since the Senate had passed Tenure of Office Act to limit president’s power
3. House votes to impeach (accuse of high crimes and misdemeanors)
4. Found NOT GUILTY! Not kicked out, by one vote

13. Presidential Election of 1876

14. The Political Crisis of 1877
No one the electoral majority! So Democrats gave presidency to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes …Congress members decide who wins because no one won majority
In return, troops would be removed from the south
Reconstruction is OVER!!
African Americans left to negotiate their own fates with their state governments…
Compromise of 1877
and
Election of 1876