1. Lincoln is Assassinated
April 14, 1865 – John Wilkes Booth

2. Johnson is left to deal with the task of reconstructing the United States of America
What should be done with the Southerners who rebelled?
Johnson:
Radical Republicans:

3. What must the southern states do in order to be granted ‘full status’ again as states?
Johnson:
Radical Republicans:

4. What should be done for the freedmen?
Johnson:
Radical Republicans:

5. The Lincoln/Johnson Plan vs. The Radical Republican Plan
Reconstruction
Chapter 4, Section 4
The Lincoln/Johnson Plan vs. The Radical Republican Plan

6. Johnson’s Plan – a former Confederate state could rejoin the union once they had…
Written a new state constitution
Elected a new state government
Repealed its act of secession
Agreed not to repay Confederate war debts
Ratified the 13th Amendment

7. So, they did. Johnson pardoned Confed
So, they did. Johnson pardoned Confed. leaders, and they continued as leaders of southern states. They then turned toward the task of recovery:
Free schools for whites only
Passed “black codes” to clarify the status of the freedmen:
Black Americans could own land, marry, sue, and be sued. But they were denied other rights such as voting, serving on juries, bearing arms, restricting work privileges, etc..

8. Radical Republicans had a different vision of the new south
(Radical means drastic change; opposite of conservative)
1. Punish southern leaders and take them from power
2. Ensure rights of freedmen

9. Radical Republicans act:
They pass the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill and the Civil Rights Act in 1866 which nullified the black codes by declaring freedmen full citizens with equal rights.
Johnson vetoed both, but they passed them with a 2/3 vote over his veto

10. 14th amendment = citizenship rights:
All Af-Amer. became citizens with equal protection of the laws.

11. Radicals act again:
1867, Congress enacts its own Reconstruction plan over Johnson’s veto.
Disband the new southern governments.
Divide the south into 5 military districts and put them under military rule.
Rules for rejoining the union

12. Impeachment:
Congress impeaches Johnson after he fires his Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton.
The House said he over-reached his presidential powers.

13. “Golden Moment” in Amer. History:
Army goes south to register over 1 million new voters – black and white.
Former confederates called these “northern intruders” scalawags.
Grant wins election with help of over 500,000 black voters
15th amendment passed = right to vote “shall not be denied…on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

14. State governments and federal seats held by former slaves!
By 1870, all of the defeated states are readmitted to the union.
Taxes and gov. corruption become problem, turning people away from the Republican Party

15. Rise of “secret societies”
KKK (Ku Klux Klan) and other white racist organizations used terrorist tactics to scare black voters
Whites stuffed ballot boxes to ensure white rule

16. Decline of Reconstruction
Many Americans yearned for an end to the bitterness and strife of Reconst.
Economy was weak= people didn’t want to fund Reconst. programs anymore = end of Freedmen’s Bureau
A shady presidential election leads to Pres. Hayes removing all troops from the South.
Leads to disenfranchisement of African-Americans (look it up!)

17. Segregation rules the South
Back in power, Southern Democrats (whites) worked to reverse Reconstruction
Initiate poll taxes and literacy tests
Laws that previously punished segregation were replaced with “Jim Crow” laws
Supreme Court upheld these Plessy v. Ferguson = beginning of “separate but equal” facilities
African-Americans protested against segregation and disenfranchisement, but lynching often followed (The fed. gov. voted against anti-lynching laws by the way!)