Transcript Reconstruction and the Changing South

Reconstruction and the
Changing South
U.S. History
Chapter 18
POSTWAR PROBLEMS
War changed southern
society forever.
Suddenly, there was a
new class of 4 million
people known as
freedman, men and
women who had been
slaves.
POSTWAR PROBLEMS
• Major cities were
ruined
• Transportation
system was
destroyed
• Returning soldiers
faced economic
uncertainty.
STEPS TO RECONSTRUCTION
• Lincoln wanted to
make rejoining the
Union easy for the
Southern states.
• Amnesty:
government pardon
STEPS TO RECONSTRUCTION
• Freedmen’s Bureau:
government agency to
help former slaves
• Bureau gave food and
clothing and helped
freedmen find jobs.
• Bureau set up schools
for freedmen.
JOHNSON BECOMES PRESIDENT
• Conflicts erupted in
Congress because
Republicans
disapproved of
Johnson’s
Reconstruction plan.
• Republicans believed
Johnson’s plan was too
lenient.
JOHNSON BECOMES PRESIDENT
• Southern states agreed
to ratify the 13th
amendment and win
Presidential approval
to rejoin the Union.
• 13th amendment
banned slavery
throughout the nation.
SOUTH RESISTS RECONSTRUCTION
Southern legislatures
passed black codes,
laws that severely
limited the rights of
freedmen.
SOUTH RESISTS RECONSTRUCTION
• Outraged
Republicans vowed
to develop a stricter
Reconstruction plan.
• They thought that
black codes deprived
African Americans of
equal opportunities.
SOUTH RESISTS RECONSTRUCTION
• Violence toward
African Americans
increased in the South.
• Literacy tests were
required for freedmen
to know sections of
the Constitution in
order to vote.
RISE OF RADICALS
• Radical Republicans
wanted to ensure
freedmen the right to
vote.
• Gained power by
joining forces with
moderate Republicans
to reduce power of
southern Democrats.
RISE OF RADICALS
• Radical Republicans were
led by Thaddeus Stevens
and Charles Sumner
• Sumner’s “Monstrous
Power” was slavery; he
thought Johnson’s
actions were allowing
slavery to continue in the
South.
IMPEACHMENT
• Radical Republicans wanted
to remove President
Johnson from office by
impeachment, or bringing
formal charges, against
him.
• Johnson was not
impeached; Congress
cannot remove a President
just because they disagreed
with him.
NEW FORCES IN POLITICS
• Southern leaders lost
influence
• Scalawag: term for
Southern white
Republican who
supported
Reconstruction
• Carpetbaggers:
Northerners who moved
South for profit
NEW FORCES IN POLITICS
• Joining transplanted
Northerners in the new
Southern politics were
African Americans.
• Some states unfairly
used laws allowing poll
taxes, or fees to vote, to
deny African Americans
the right to vote.
CONSERVATIVES RESIST
• Southerners were
determined real
power would remain
with whites.
• A secret organization,
Ku Klux Klan, spread
terror to keep African
Americans out of
office.
CONSERVATIVES RESIST
• An outbreak of
violence in New
Orleans against African
Americans helped
persuade voters to
elect a Republican
Congress in 1866.
• Segregation: legal
separation of the races
CHALLENGE OF REBUILDING
Reconstruction
governments raised
taxes to cover the costs
of rebuilding the
South.
CHALLENGE OF REBUILDING
• South developed its
own natural resources
for making clothing to
develop industry after
the Civil War.
• Furniture makers used
lumber from southern
forests to manufacture
tables and chairs.
CYCLE OF POVERTY
• Many freedmen and
poor whites went to
work on plantation.
Sharecroppers rented
and farmed a plot.
• Most freedmen met
their basic needs by
returning to the land
where they had worked
as slaves.
CYCLE OF POVERTY
Sharecroppers would
become trapped in
poverty because they
could not earn enough
money to pay their
debts to the
landowner.
END OF RECONSTRUCTION
• Radical Republicans lost
power with stories of
corruption in President
Grant’s administration.
• Rutherford Hayes
promised to remove all
federal troops stationed
in the South to gain
southern votes.
Good Luck on Your Test!