Chapter 12- Reconstruction and the New South

I. Rebuilding the Nation

A. Preparing for Reunion

1. Many problems faced the nation: The South was destroyed, treatment of freedmen, homeless refugees

2. Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan was very forgiving and gave amnesty to former Confederates who swore a loyalty oath

3. Radical Republicans argued for a harsher policy, but Lincoln refused to endorse

B. The Freedmen’s Bureau

1. Provided emergency relief to freedmen and white refugees

2. Set up schools to educate freedmen

3. Also helped freedmen with legal problems

C. Lincoln is Murdered

1. Assassinated five days after Lee’s surrender by John Wilkes Booth

2. Replaced by Andrew Johnson

3. Many expected him to take a strict approach with the South

II. The Battle Over Reconstruction

A. A Growing Conflict

1. In Jan. 1865, the 13th Amendment banned slavery

2. Johnson’s plan for Reconstruction was very lenient

3. Black codes were enacted by Southerners to discriminate against freedmen

4. Radical Republicans wanted to protect freedmen and keep former Confederates from gaining power

B. The 14th Amendment

1. In response to black codes, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866

2. The CRA granted full citizenship and protection of civil rights

3. The 14th Amendment was passed to make sure the Supreme Court could not strike down the CRA

C. Radical Reconstruction

1. Violence against African Americans led Radical Republicans to impose military rule

2. With military protection, African Americans began to vote and hold public office

3. The Radicals’ dislike for Andrew Johnson led to his impeachment in 1868

D. The Election of 1868

1. Ulysses S. Grant is elected

2. The 15th Amendment guaranteed freedmen the right to vote

3. Angered by their loss of power, many Southern whites form violent groups to intimidate Republican supporters (KKK)

III. The End of Reconstruction

A. Reconstruction’s Conclusion

1. Corruption in the Grant administration caused many to lose faith in the Republicans

2. Democrats regained control in the South, often through terror/violence

3. Rutherford B. Hayes is elected President in 1876 and removes the military from the South

B. African Americans Lose Rights

1. Laws were passed to prevent African Americans from voting; poll tax and literacy tests

2. Grandfather clauses allowed whites to get around voting restrictions

3. Jim Crow laws established segregation throughout Southern society

4. Segregation laws upheld in Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896); “separate but equal”

C. A Cycle of Poverty

1. Poverty forced most African Americans to become sharecroppers

2. Sharecroppers often became locked into a cycle of debt

3. Urban African Americans were often forced into low-paying, unskilled jobs

D. Industrial Growth

1. Southerners started industries to turn raw materials into finished products

2. Lumber and textile mills; furniture and cigarette factories

3. The “New South” was no longer dependent on just cotton