Reconstruction After the Civil War: The Path to Equality and Justice

1. 5 days after the Civil War ends President Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth!

2. Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan • Vice President Johnson became President after Lincoln’s assassination in 1865 • He was sympathetic to the South. • Southern slave owner!

3. Reconstruction • After the war, the South needed to be rebuilt physically, economically, and politically. • Reconstruction was the rebuilding of the South after the war • Three Plans: Lincoln’s Plan, Johnson’s Plan, and Republican/Congressional Plan

4. Lincoln’s Plan • Goal: Heal the South & Reunite the Union • Appointed temporary governors to run Southern States • Southern states had to: 1-declare secession null and void 2-abolish slavery 3- 10% of population had to declare allegiance to the US 4-cancel all war debts Johnson’s Plan • Very Lenient on the South! • Followed Lincoln’s Plan, but pardoned many Confederate leaders and officials

5. Georgia is Readmitted! • Held a new constitutional convention • Repealed the Ordinance of Session and passed the 13th amendment. • Constitution was very similar to the old one! • Georgia was readmitted into the Union in December of 1865. This proved to be temporary.

6. The Radical Republicans/Congressional Plan • Republicans in Congress offered their own plan for Reconstruction: • The southern states were put under military rule • Southern states had to hold new constitutional conventions. • African Americans were allowed to vote. • Southerners who had supported the Confederacy were not allowed to vote (temporarily). • Southern states had to guarantee equal rights to African Americans. • Southern states had to recognize African Americans as citizens. The Radical Republican plan was much harsher on the South!

7. Military Rule in the South • In 1867 Congress divided the South into military districts: Southern states had to redesign their state constitutions to the approval of Congress

8. Freedman’s Bureau • General Sherman set aside all abandoned land along the coast for use by former slaves • Congress formed the Freedmen’s Bureau to help freemen and poor whites. • The Bureau was in charge of feeding, clothing and finding jobs, and establishing school for the former slaves

9. Morehouse College • Founded in 1867 by a former slave with the purpose of training freed slaves how to read and write

10. Henry McNeal Turner & Black Legislators • 32 black men were elected to the Georgia General Assembly in 1867. • Henry McNeal Turner: Helped organize the Republican party during Reconstruction • South Carolina preacher/chaplain during the war • One of the many black legislators expelled from the Gen. Assembly by whites • Led a “Back to Africa” movement

11. Life in the South • Sharecropping: a family farmed a portion of a white landowner’s land in return for housing and a portion of the crop. • Tenant Farming: farming- a step up from sharecropping, the tenant uses the land and pays rent, whether in cash or crop • Example: landowner gets $50 or $50 worth of crop • Tenant Farmer brings more to the table than just labor (tools, fertilizer, etc.)

12. Cycle of Sharecropping

13. The North Benefits from Reconstruction • Carpetbagger: Northerners who came to the South to do business (get rich). • The South despised them because they thought they were being used! • Scalawag: Poor “white trash” Southerners who supported Republicans and Reconstruction. (Hated by the South!)

14. Amendments • 13th Amendment: Banned slavery and granted full emancipation to all slaves (ratified by a majority in 1865) • 14th Amendment: provided citizenship and equal rights to of the law to all persons born in the United States (except Native Americans)(1868) • 15th Amendment: Protected the voting rights of African-Americans (and all other males) (1870)

15. African America Rights in the South • Desire for freedom and community led to the growth of AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCHES • 500 freedmen served in State Legislatures during Reconstruction • Jim Crow Laws: AKA Black Codes. An attempt to control former slaves • Attempts to keep freedmen out of politics: • Polltax: fee applied to voting • Literacy Tests: test to prove literacy before freedmen could vote

16. Ku Klux Klan • Secretive organizer • Create to resist the equal right to African Americans • Used violence to intimidate freedmen and minorities (Catholics, scalawags, Jews) • ex) Lynching, burning crosses • Leader was called Grand Wizard

17. The End of Reconstruction • In 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes was elected President in a highly contested race. • Hayes ordered the withdrawal of all Union troops in the South as part of the Compromise of 1877 • After the troops left white Southerners regained control and worked to strengthen segregation

18. Questions????? • What were some of the main differences between the Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction plans? • What was the purpose of the Freedman’s Bureau? • Why was Andrew Johnson impeached? • What was the purpose of the black codes? • How did the Compromise of 1877 end Reconstruction?