Transcript Reconstruction - ekartamhistory

In 1865, Congress created the
Freedmen's Bureau to educate, feed,
and clothe former slaves and white
refugees. If you were in charge of the
education of the freedmen in 1865,
what would you teach them so that
they would be well-equipped to
succeed in the post-slavery South?
Why?
Reconstruction
Reconstruction
Politics
Conditions of the South at
the end of the war
• Economic Chaos
–Former Confederate farmhouses,
barns, mills had been burned.
–Bridges, RR track destroyed.
Conditions of the South at
the end of the war
• Economic Chaos cont.
–Towns looted, inhabitants driven
out.
–Plantation owners lost slaves,
could not afford capital for
equipment and replace slave labor
–Businesses at a standstill
Conditions of the South at
the end of the war
• Social Confusion
–Aristocratic yielded to bankers,
merchants, small farmers
–Changing status of blacks created
social tensions
Conditions of the South at
the end of the war
• Political Uncertainty
–State and local govt’s had to be
organized with relation to the
Union
–Political leaders of the North
differed sharply over what should
be done
2 main ?’s of Reconstruction
1. How will the Southern states be
readmitted to the union?
2. What will be the status of the
Freedmen?
Lincoln’s Plan
• Southern whites could
regain citizenship.
– Except high ranking
officials
• 10% plan
– 10% of the voters took
oath new state
government could be set
up
– Must prohibit slavery
Was Lincoln’s Plan to mild?
A. Yes
B. No
Wade-Davis bill
• Required at least 50% voters
loyalty and excluded from gov’t
holding anyone who cooperated
with the Confederacy
• Lincoln pocket-vetoed it
Which plan do you support?
A. Lincoln Plan
B. Wade-Davis Bill
Lincoln Assassination
• John Wilkes
Booth
• Conspiracy plot
Lincoln Assassination
Andrew Johnson
• Senator from
Tenn.
• Carry on with
Lincoln’s Plan
• 13,000 pardons
Help for former slaves
• Congress proposed the 13ht
Amendment
–Abolition of slavery
• Organized the Freedman’s
Buereau
Freedman’s Bureau
• Oversaw relief actions
• Established schools for former
slaves and poor whites
• Helped re-unite families broken
by slavery
Johnson’s Plan
• Generally unconcerned with
former slaves rights
–vetoed both Freedmen’s Bureau
continuation and the Civil Rights
Act of 1866
• Punish planter class
Limit of freedoms
• “Black Codes”: Keep blacks in same
position as slaves
–Sign work contracts for a full year
• Sharecropping
• Tenant farming
–Limited travel
–5,000 killed in the 2 years following
the War
• Nathan Bedford
Forrest
KU Klux Klan
• Maintain
supremacy through
violence
• Blacks were
beaten, tarred and
feathered, burned
out of their homes
or lynched.