Reconstruction

Chapter 4, section 4

Definition • Period of time when U.S. began to

rebuild after the Civil War• 1865-1877

Lincoln’s plan• As soon as 10% of the people who

had voted in 1860 took an oath of allegiance to the federal gov’t, that state could be readmitted

• Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia were readmitted under this plan

Lincoln’s plan con’t• Radical Republicans didn’t like it• They wanted African Americans to be

given full citizenship and the right to vote

Johnson’s plan• About the same as Lincoln’s• He excluded high-ranking

Confederates and wealthy landowners from taking the oath

• The other 7 states quickly agreed

Congress• Refused to readmit those states• Enlarged the Freedmen’s Bureau (which

provided food, clothing, hospitals, legal protection and education for former slaves and poor whites)

• Passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 – gave African Americans citizenship and forbid states from passing discriminatory laws

• Both were vetoed by Johnson

Congress con’t• 14th Amendment – said anyone born

in the U.S. was a citizen and states can’t deny them rights

Congress con’t• Reconstruction Act of 1867 –• didn’t recognize states readmitted under Lincoln

and Johnson’s plans• States had to give African Americans the right to

vote and ratify the 14th Amendment• *Impeached Johnson (but found not guilty)

Grant• Was elected in 1868• 9 out of 10 African Americans

had voted for him• During his presidency the 15th

Amendment was passed – said no one could be kept from voting based on race

Reconstructing society• All states were readmitted by 1870• Republicans continued

Reconstruction because they wanted to make economic changes

3 conflicting groups• Scalawags – white Southerners –

usually small farmers• Carpetbaggers – Northerners who

moved south• African Americans – many couldn’t

read or write

Things to note• Many African Americans received

support from churches• Because 95% of former slaves were

illiterate, public schools were established

• Sherman had promised 40 acres and a mule, but most former slaves didn’t get it

Black Codes• Were laws that limited the freedom of

black people

• Examples• African Americans had to sign work contracts

which created conditions similar to slavery• If black people couldn’t prove they had a job they

could be arrested and forced to work 1 year without pay

• Black people weren’t allowed to own guns• Black people couldn’t rent property in cities

Voting restrictions• Poll tax – special tax people had to

pay in order to vote• Grandfather clause – if a voter

couldn’t afford the tax, they could vote anyway if his father or grandfather could vote before 1867

• Literacy test – Had harder questions for black people than white (sometimes it wasn’t even in English)

Jim Crow laws• Required segregation between blacks

and whites

Plessy v. Ferguson• Segregation was allowed if

“separate-but-equal” facilities were provided for African Americans

Ku Klux Klan• Goals – destroy the Republican party;

aid the planter class; prevent African Americans from exercising their political rights

• Methods – killed 20,000 men, women, and children

The End• It had been 11 years since the war

ended• Economic depression in the North• Election of 1876

o Tilden won the popular vote but was 1 electoral vote short

o People in the South accepted Hayes if Reconstruction ended