Radicals Take Control

1. Radicals Take Control When Northerners realized that African Americans in the South were still being mistreated, Congress worked to find a solution

2. During the fall of 1865, President Johnson’s plan was implemented in the South. Southerners had elected former Confederate officials to Congress. When the Southern representatives arrived in Washington, D.C., Congress refused to seat them. Southern Representatives

3. Black Codes • Black codes: laws that aimed to control freed black men and women. These laws trampled the rights of freed African Americans. • Plantation owners to exploit black workers through sharecropping. • Allowed officials to arrest and fine jobless African Americans.

4. In this system, an landowner rented a plot of land to a sharecropper (farmer) along with a crude shack, some tools, and maybe a mule. Sharecropping

5. Sharecropping • Sharecroppers did not pay their rent in cash. They paid a share of their crops- often as much as ½ to 2/3- to cover rent, fertilizer, tools, and animals they needed. • After paying the landowners, sharecroppers had little left to sell, barely enough to feed their families. • For many sharecropping was little better than slavery.

6. Also, the black codes banned African Americans from owning or renting farm land. Freed men and women, and Northerners saw the black codes as slavery in disguise. Black Codes

7. Fighting the Codes • In 1866 Congress gave the Freedmen’s Bureau new powers. Southern officials could now be charged with violating the rights of African Americans. • Congress passed a civil rights bill that overturned (get rid of) the black codes and gave African Americans full citizenship.

8. President Johnson vetoed both bills. Congress had enough votes to defeat both vetoes, the bills became law and the black codes were abolished. After President Johnson’s vetoes the Republicans in Congress drafted, and passed a new Reconstruction plan. Radicals have a plan

9. Passed in 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution gave full citizenship to all people born in the U.S. This amendment required every state to grant its citizens “equal protection of the laws.” Also, no former leading Confederates could hold national or state office The 14th Amendment

10. This gave African American men the right to vote, however, many states denied African Americans the right to vote by such means as poll taxes, and literacy tests. 15th Amendment

11. Reconstruction Act of 1867 • The Reconstruction Act of 1867, enacted in March by the Republican Congress organized the South as a conquered land, dividing it (with the exception of Tennessee) into five military districts, each under the command of a Union general. Johnson did NOT like this plan.

12. Military Reconstruction Districts, 1867

13. Impeach • Impeach: to formally charge a public official with misconduct in office. • The Constitution allows Congress to remove from office any federal official who has committed serious wrongdoing. If a majority of the House votes to impeach, the Senate acts as jury with a 2/3 vote whether to convict and remove the person from office.

14. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, was in a position to hurt Johnson's plans for Reconstruction. Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which prohibited Johnson from firing Stanton. Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

15. In August 1867, Johnson suspended Stanton and appointed Ulysses S. Grant to the position. Congress overruled Johnson's actions and Stanton regained his position. In 1868, Johnson fired Stanton and Republicans brought 11 articles of impeachment against President Johnson. Johnson was acquitted of all charges but was ineffective in his plans for Reconstruction and finished his term quietly. Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

16. Election of 1868 • Republican candidate: Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant. • Democrat candidate: Former governor of New York Horatio Seymour.

17. Election of 1868 • Grant won the election, gaining 214 of 294 electoral votes. • Grant also received most of the votes of African Americans. • The 1868 election was a vote on Reconstruction, and voters supported the Republican approach to the issue.