Reconstruction Challenges: Rebuilding and Readmitting the South after the Civil War

Mr. Kilbourn

State of the South

Questions of Reconstruction • How to rebuild the South after the Civil War? • How to readmit the Confederate states to the Union?

Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan • Offer amnesty (pardon) to those willing to take a loyalty oath to the United States • Once 10 percent of the population of a state take the oath (often forcefully) then that state is readmitted as a state

Andrew Johnson Democrat From Tennessee Remained loyal to the Union when TN seceded

Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan Pardon all southerners who take an oath of loyalty to the Union Former Confederate states could set up state governments

Johnson’ Reconstruction Plan Each state needed to vote against their secession and ratify the 13th amendment

Black Codes • Southern laws which limited Blacks rights such as voting, bearing arms, owning property • Also incorporated low wages and crimes against being vagrants… jobless • Lasted for 2 years after the war and were gone before states were readmitted

Radical Republicans • Opposed Johnson’s plan • Led by Thaddeus Stevens

Impeachment of Johnson • Johnson vetoed many anti-southern policies from Congress • Congress overrode his vetoes • He also nominated people to executive offices that were very unpopular by Congress because of their political beliefs

Impeachment of Johnson (1868) • House of Representatives voted for his impeachment • Senate put Johnson on trial • Final vote – one vote shy of removing him from office • After his trial Congress took over the job of Reconstruction

Military Reconstruction Act • Passed by Congress in order to keep the rebel states in check • Divided the South in five military districts • Union general was in charge of each district • Forced southern states to write a new Constitution that included the 14 Amendment • Those loyal to the south were not allowed to vote

Fourteenth Amendment • June 1866 • Granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States (other than Indians)

Fifteenth Amendment • March 1870 • Right to vote cannot be denied “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”

Freedmen’s Bureau • Task of feeding and clothing former slaves • And some very poor whites • Find work for them • Negotiate labor contracts • Began education • Help them get off plantation lands

Freedmen’s Bureau

Sharecropping • New system for agriculture • Tenant farmers paid rent with a share of their crops

Sharecropping • Landlords – landowners who control the land the sharecroppers used • Crop liens – crops taken to cover debts

Sharecropping • Sharecroppers became trapped because farmers could not pay their debts

Republicans in the South By 1870, all former Confederate states had joined the Union Republicans held all the political power

Carpetbaggers Northerners either moving into the South or Union soldiers staying in the South Named after their bags as it was only a Yankee thing to have them Became involved in politics 60 were elected to Congress in the South

Scalawags White southerners who worked with Republicans (Yankees) and supported Reconstruction

Ku Klux Klan Started in 1866 by Nathaniel Bedford Forrest Secret society Mostly former Confederate soldiers

Goals of the KKK Drive out carpetbaggers Regain control of the South for the Democratic Party Used terror

Tactics of the KKK Broke up Republican meetings Harassed Freedmen’s Bureau workers Burned homes, churches, schools Kept Republicans (white and black) from voting

Letter to the U.S. Senate “We believe you are not familiar with the description of the Ku Klux Klan’s riding nightly over the country, going from county to county, and in the county towns spreading terror wherever they go by robbing, whipping, ravishing, and killing our people without provocation . . . We pray you will take some steps to remedy these evils.”

Ku Klux Klan Act Passed by Congress in 1871 Suspended Habeas Corpus signed by the now President Ulysses S. Grant Outlawed activities of the Klan Federal arrests Made mostly for the states of the deep south GA, FL, MS, and specifically SC

Compromise of 1877 • 1876 – presidential election • Republican – Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio • Union officer who was wounded five times and earned a reputation for bravery in combat and was promoted to the rank of major general. • Democrat – Samuel Tilden of New York • Didn’t fight in civil war and favored compromising with Union demands

Compromise of 1877 • Tilden had more electoral Votes • Election results were disputed in 4 states • Compromise was that Hayes would become President in exchange for troop removal of the south • Rutherford B. Hayes won with the support of southern Democrats

End of Reconstruction • April 1877 • Hayes pulled federal troops out of the South • Southern Democrats took control of all state legislatures

Reconstruction Challenges: Rebuilding and Readmitting the South after the Civil War