1. The End of Reconstruction

2. Overview of Principal Reconstruction Proposals and Plans
: Lincoln’s 10% plan
1865: 13th amendment
: Johnson’s version of Lincoln’s proposal
: Congressional Plan – 10% plan with 14th amendment
: Military Reconstruction (Congress) – 14th amendment plus black suffrage later established nationwide by the 15th amendment.
Compromise of 1876: ends Reconstruction

3. The Meaning of Freedom African-Americans:
First steps in finding freedom
Assistance to freed persons
African-Americans: get their freedom during a period of extreme economic hardship in the South
First steps in finding freedom
Find family members, marriage
Decide where to live -- rural areas or cities
Make a living
purchase their own farm
work as farm laborers
tenant farm
sharecrop
Assistance to freed persons
a. Army -- only brief time following the war
b. Freedman's Bureau
food and clothing
legal help with contracts
medical care
education
c. Northern missionary societies
d. African-American churches
begin as southern blacks decide to create their own places to worship
provide a key leadership role in African-American community--both in politics and in helping the newly freed people become educated

4. Southern whites respond to emancipation
White leaders want:
Black Codes:
Former Confederate Leaders:
White leaders want:
to maintain control of the labor of the African-Americans
“Black codes"
laws designed to reestablish the planters' control over black workers
the backbone of all these codes were laws forbidding vagrancy--being unemployed.
restricted freedom of movement for African Americans
some codes forbade owning or renting land
some codes limited jobs (only farm laborers or domestic servants)
many codes made it a crime for blacks to break a contract, assemble in large numbers, or act in an insulting manner toward a white (defined very broadly)
Many former Confederate leaders
were put back into politics even though federal law forbids them from doing so.
President Andrew Johnson's policy toward the South was to leave things as they were.
Vagrancy:
If person found to be a vagrant, then would face a fine or imprisonment. Person paying fine could get labor of prisoner

5. Attacks against Reconstruction
Political Attacks
Violence
Congressional Response
By 1872:
Political attacks
Conservatives appeal to whites
on basis of money
on basis of race
gradually gained support among whites during late 1860s
Violence
Vigilante groups:
KKK
formed as social club in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866 (costumes, secret passwords, etc.)
when black suffrage and white disenfranchisement became a reality in 1868, Klan turned to violence
Klan targets included
black voters
white Republicans
Union League leaders
Freedmen's Bureau agents
Congressional response
Enforcement acts ( ), included the KKK Act
outlawed Klan violence
allowed use of federal troops and courts to arrest and prosecute Klan members
suspended writ of habeas corpus
supervised elections in the South
By 1872, Klan activity had come to an end in the South
Reason: whites had regained political control

6. The End of Reconstruction
Northern interest wanes
Original Radical Republicans had died out
Corruption scandals in President Grant’s administration
Recession of 1873
Idealism of creating a nation where whites and blacks are treated equally (at least in politics and law) hard to keep going
Compromise of 1877
Results:
Northern interests lessens
They had died or were no longer in government
Historians argue that Grant’s administration was the most corrupt, “era of good stealings”
The recession caused northerners to focus on economic interests and political and social issues
Compromise of 1877 was the event that “officially” ended Reconstruction.
As a result of both:
Northern troops were removed, allowing whites in Southern states to regain control of Southern governments.
Many Reconstruction-style reforms were no longer enforced and/or overturned
Blacks were reduced to the status of second-class citizens
Southern hatred of Reconstruction-era Republican policies would make the South solidly Democratic; white Southern support of Democratic policy were last for nearly 100 years
Whites who returned to power in state legislatures in the South in 1878 were called the “redeemers”