The Ordeal of Reconstruction

APUS CHAPTER 22
H
RECONS- Key Challenges:
TRUCTION 1. How will the South be let back into the Union? Reunification and reconciliation.
2. How will the South be rebuilt after its destruction during the war?
3. How will the newly emancipated black freedmen be integrated and protected?
4. Which branch of government should control the process of Reconstruction?
Freedmen’s • Purpose: ___Help former slaves and poor southern
Bureau: March whites___________________________________________________________________
1865 • Greatest success was in __education_____________ – Freedmen’s Bureau taught an estimated
200,000 African Americans how to read
• “__Forty acres and a mule_______________________________”
– Confiscated land to be given to former slaves
– Almost never happened
• Problem: __Economically
vulnerable_____________________________________________________________________
Different • Wartime Reconstruction by President Lincoln in 1863: __Proclamation of Amnesty &
Reconstruction Reconstruction__________________________________
Plans – Southern states may rejoin the Union once 10% of state voters (those who voted in election of
1860) _pledge loyalty to Union___________________________
– ___They must accept emancipation____________________________
– Lenient policy: easy on south
• _Wade-Davis Plan_____________________________
– Required 50% of the voters from 1860 __”iron clade” oath of
allegiance____________________________________
– Tougher plan: excluded those who aided the Confederacy
• Wade-Davis plan _”pocket-vetoed” by
Lincoln___________________________________________________________
President __Lincoln is assassinated_____________________________________
Andrew Johnson Southern Senator from Tennessee, __Andrew Johnson________________________________
becomes president
Recognizes the 10% Lincoln governments
Disfranchisement __(loss of vote)____________________
All states must ratify the _13th Amendment (ratified Dec. 1865): abolished
slavery__________________________________________________________
Johnson ends up pardoning most of the former Confederate leaders
Southern planters reestablish political control of southern politics

KEY IDEA TO REMEMBER ABOUT THE 13TH AMENDMENT:

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, bringing about the war’s most dramatic social and
economic change, but the exploitative and soil-intensive sharecropping system endured for several
generations.

Southern • Black Codes: _Purpose was to guarantee a stable labor supply now that blacks were
Defiance: emancipated____________________________________________________________________
Black Codes • Southerners hope to _restore pre-emancipation system of race
 relations______________________________________________________
• Examples:
– _Prohibited African Americans from renting land or borrowing money to buy
land____________________________________________________________________________
– _African Americans forced to sign labor
contracts_________________________________________________________________________
___
– _Penalty for leaving before contract
expired__________________________________________________________________________
__
– _African Americans can’t serve on a jury or
vote____________________________________________________________________________
• Many African Americans were forced to become _sharecroppers________________________
– __Allowed to use land in exchange for giving a percent of crops to the owner of the
land___________________________________________________________________________
President • By 1866 Northern Republicans in Congress are angry when former Southern Confederate officials
Johnson vs. are returned to office.
Congress – _Cals for a stricter version of Reconstruction (Congressional
reconstruction)______________________________________________________________________
_______
• Important to know _transition of Reconstruction policy between the executive, legislative, and
judicial branches__________________________ ____________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
JOHNSON • Congress prevents Southern Congressional delegates from coming back.
clashes with • Feb 1866: _President Johnson vetoed the Freedmen’s Bureau extension-
Congress ______________________________________________
– __Congress passes!________________________________
• Republican controlled Congress passes Civil Rights Bill
1866:________________________________________:
– __Gave citizenship to African Americans and sought to get rid of the Black
Codes____________________________________________________________________
– __Johnson
vetoes_________________________________________________________________________
Congress passed ______________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

Congress: How Civil Rights Bill 1866 – leads to ___14th Amendment_________________________:

to prevent  _Declared all persons born in the U.S. are citizens of the US (including African
southern states Americans)_______________________________________________________________________
from _______
overturning laws  _States must protect rights and provide “equal protection of the law” & “due
passed during process”_________________________________________________________________________
Reconstruction? _____
 _Prevented former Confederates political officials from holding political
office____________________________________________________________________________
_
 _Southern states would be punished for denying the right to vote to black citizens!
______________________________________________________________________________
CONGRESSIONA • Republican controlled Congress now controls Reconstruction policy. Radicals vs. Moderates
L
RECONSTRUCTIO • Reconstruction Act of 1867 divided the south into 5 military districts controlled by Union generals •
N Disenfranchisement of former Confederates & invalidate state govts of Lincoln & Johnson (10%)
• To be readmitted: Required new state constitutions, including black suffrage and ratification of the
13th and 14th Amendments.
President  1867 Congress passed Tenure of Office Act in order to reduce Presidential power & protect
Johnson Republican Reconstruction cabinet members
Impeached  The Senate must approve any presidential dismissal of a cabinet official or general.
 President Johnson removed Sec of War Stanton in 1868
 The House immediately votes to impeach President Johnson
 One vote short of 2/3’s required
RECONSTRUCTIO • 13th __freedom. Abolished
N slavery______________________________________________________________
AMENDMENTS • 14th _citizenship granted. Protection of rights to citizens with “equal protection of the laws” and
“due
process”___________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
• 15th _universal male suffrage. Right to vote could not e denied “on account of race, color, or
previous condition of
servitude”__________________________________________________________________________
_
____________________________________________________________________________
Significance?

RECONSTRUCTIO • New electorate in the South as a result of the 15th Amendment and Congressional Reconstruction •
N Republican coalition
GOVERNMENTS – African American male voters
– Scalawags: _cooperating southern whites______________________________
– Carpetbaggers: _northerners who went south________________________________________
• Some looking to profit and others wanted to help out
RECONSTRUCTIO • _Ku Klux Klan________________ established to secure white supremacy and resist Reconstruction
N FALLS APART govt.
• Force Acts of 1870 & 1871 intended to stop resistance to Reconstruction
– Federal troops sent in to stop the KKK
• Civil Rights Act of 1875: _guaranteed equal access to public places. Protect right to serve on
juries___________________________________________________________
• Rarely enforced and eventually overturned by the Supreme Court in 1883
• By 1870s Congress & _President Grant_______________ would be unwilling to use federal
government to monitor Southern society
• Federal intervention in Southern society under Congressional Reconstruction yielded some short
term success
– _Reunited the
Union___________________________________________________________________
– _Opened up political opportunities to former
slaves___________________________________________________________________
– _Temporarily rearranged the relationships between white and black people in the
South___________________________________________________________________
 • _Civil War ended slavery and the idea of a divisible union: BUT left largely uncharged social and
economic
patterns____________________________________________________________________________
___
________________________________________________________________________________
• _Although citizenship, equal protection of the laws, and voting rights were granted to African
Americans in the 14th and 15th Amendments, these rights were progressively stripped away through
segregation, violence, Supreme Court decision, and local political
tactics._____________________________________________________________________________
__
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
• _The Reconstruction Amendments established judicial principles that were staled for many
decades, but eventually became the basis for the court decisions upholding
rights.______________________________________________________________________________
_
________________________________________________________________________________
Summary: What are three BIG IDEAs of this chapter?
Three big ideas of this chapter are the Black Codes, Congress preventing southern states from overturning
laws passed during Reconstruction, and reconstruction falling part. The Black Codes were put in place to
guarantee a stable labor supply now that blacks were emancipated. However, southern had hoped to restore
pre-emancipation system of race relations. As a result of the Black Codes many African Americans were
forced to become sharecroppers. In 1866 the Civil Rights Bill was passed as a way to prevent southern states
from overturning laws passed during reconstruction, this then lead to the 14 th Amendment. This declared that
all those who are born in the U.S. are citizens of the U.S. this also included African Americans. It also mentions
that states must protect rights and provide “equal protection of the laws” and “due process”. It also prevented
former Confederates political officials from holding political office as well as punish southern states for
denying the right to vote for black citizens. Reconstruction began to fall apart when the Ku Klux Klan was
established, this group was established to secure white supremacy and resist Reconstruction government.
Force Acts of 1870 and 1871 intended to stop the resistance by sending federal troops to stop the KKK. By this
time Congress and President Gant were unwilling to use federal government to monitor Southern society.