Reconstruction

The effort to rebuild the southern

states and restore the Union

Lincolns Plan
Began his planning long before the end of the
war
Based on the idea that the southern states
had never left the Union

 Features
Pardons to southerners who swore paths of
loyalty to the United States
Recognition of new southern state government
when 10 percent of those who had voted in the
1860 election took these oaths and when the
states adopted new constitutions abolishing
slavery
Lincoln was open to suggestions from Congress for
changes but he was assassinated in April, 1865

Johnsons Plan
Andrew Johnson became president upon
Lincolns death
Intended to follow the broad out lines of
Lincolns plan
He recognized four southern states and
prepared to readmit the others

 Radical Republicans
Controlled Congress
Wanted harsher Reconstruction terms
Johnsons failure to consider congressional views
and his efforts to block radical plans, led Congress
to impeach him
1868 the House charged him with high crimes
and misdemeanors violation the Tenure of
Office Act

 The senate fell one vote short of the 2/3

required to remove the President from office
Though acquitted, his political power was
gone

 The requirement of southern states to ratify

the Fourteenth Amendment
Addressed civil rights issues
Prohibited many former Confederate government
in office

State Governments During

Reconstruction
White southerners who had served in leadership
positions before and during the Civil War tried to
reassert their control of state and local
governments
They were concerned with limiting the freedom
and movement of former slaves
When the radical plan took effect, most of the
former Confederate leaders (mostly Democrats)
were barred from holding office and voting

 Republicans headed the new state

governments and were supported by African
Americans
African Americans had the right to vote and
some held office themselves

 Carpetbaggers- republican northerners who

came South to take part on Reconstruction
White southerners sometimes used terror and
violence to keep African Americans from
taking part

 13th Amendment- abolished slavery in the

United States

 14h Amendment
Declared that all native born or naturalized
people, including African Americans were citizens
Forbade states to make laws that abridge the
privileges of citizens or that deprive any person
of life, liberty or property without due process of
law or that deny to any person the equal
protection of the laws.

 15th Amendment- declared that states could

not keep citizens from voting because of
race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.

President Grant
War hero, General Ulysses S. Grant ran for
president as a Republican in 1868 and won
Grant was not a politician or political leader
Scandals and corruption damaged Grant's
administration- business owners on the
booming post-war economy offered bribes to
politicians in return for favors

 Credit Mobilier Scandal- railroad officials

impoverishes the railroad then paid off members
of Congress to block any investigations
Salary Grab- congress voted itself a 50 percent
pay raise and added two years of public back payrepealed because of public
Whiskey Ring- whiskey distillers paid graft to
federal tax collectors rather than pay the tax
owed on their liquor

 Also political corruption at state and local

levels
William Boss Tweed- ran the Tammany Hall
political machine in NYC in 1860s and 1870s
Thomas Nast attacked Tweed with his political
cartoons and turned public opinion against
him

The End of Reconstruction

1877

 Corruption weakened the political strength of the

Republican party
By early 1870 almost all former Confederates
could vote again and voted Democratic
Solid South for most of the next century the
South voted Democratic
Republican party remained strong in North and
Midwest and focused on business and farm
interests wanted to keep the money suply tight
and tariffs on imports high

The Election of 1876

1876- Democrats nominated Samuel Tilden,
the governor of NY to run for president
against Rutherford B. Hayes, governor of Ohio
Tilden won the popular vote.

 Electoral vote was contested

Four states sent in disputed election returnswhich votes were counted would decide the
election
A special electoral commission was named to
count the votes
The Republican majority on the commission
gave all the electoral votes to Hayes

 Compromise of 1877
Democrats agreed to go along with the
commissions decision in return for promises by
Hayes
A withdrawal of remaining troops from the South
ending Reconstruction
To name a southerner to his cabinet
To support federal spending on internal improvements
in the South

 Effectively weakened the Norths political

victory in the Civil War
Restored power to many of the southern
families who had formed the Confederacy

White Control in the South

Southerners eliminated the political advances
African Americans ad made during
Reconstruction
Black CODES
Passed in most southern states immediately after the
Civil War
Based on old slave codes
Produced an angry reaction in the North allowing
Radial Reconstruction to pass

 Secret Societies
White southerners originally formed groups like
the KKK to frighten African Americans and their
supporters out of taking part in Reconstruction
government
The federal government used the army against the
societies
With the end of Reconstruction and the growth of
the political power, the Klan and other groups
played a less active role

 Poll taxes
Tax on every voter in southern states
Those too poor to pay could not vote

 Literacy tests
Some states required literacy tests for voting
Often required an interpretation of part of the
Constitution
Few African Americans could pass the tests because
they had little or no education
The Freedmens Bureau was created by Congress to
aid former slaves ad establish schools, but it only
lasted a few years
To laws forced African American children to attend
separate schools which were poorly equipped and
funded

 Grandfather Clauses
Poll taxes and literacy tests might have kept poor
whites from voting, too
To prevent this, southern states added
grandfather clauses to their constitutions
Allowed the son or grandson of a man eligible to
vote in 1866 or 1867 to vote if he could neither
pay the tax or pass the literacy test
Few African Americans could vote in 1867, so the
clause benefitted only white.

 Jim Crow Laws

Southern states passed laws establishing social
segregation
Forbade African Americans from sharing facilities
with whites, such as railroad cars or water
fountains

The Supreme Court Response

The Supreme Court did not interfere with
efforts to restore white control in the South
Civil Rights Cases 11883)
13th Amendment abolished slavery but did not
prohibit discrimination
14th Amendment prohibited discrimination by
government but not by individuals

 Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Segregation was legal as long as African Americans
had access to equal but separate facilities
Justified segregation in all public facilities- schools,
hospitals, passenger terminals, etc.
Was the norm until the 1950s

 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)

Reversed Plessy v. Ferguson
Sated hat educational facilities separated solely on
the basis of race were by their nature unequal

African Americans Debate Their Future

Two strategies to improve the lives of African
Americans
Booker T. Washington
African American should temporarily put aside
their desire for political equality
Should focus on building economic security by
gaining useful vocational skills

 W.E.B Du Bois
Called for the brightest African Americans to gain
an advanced liberal arts education
Said they should demand social and political
equality