Transcript File
Reconstruction and its Effects Reconstruction • The period during in which the U.S. began to rebuild after the Civil War • Also refers to the process the federal government used to readmit the defeated Confederate states to the Union. Lincoln’s Plan Ten percent plan • The government would pardon all Confederates except high ranking officials and those accused of crimes against prisoners of war. • As soon as ten percent of those who had voted in 1860 took this oath of allegiance, a Confederate state could form a new state government. Turn and talk • Q1: The election of 1860 was when Lincoln was voted into office and wasn’t even on the ballot in most places in the South. Why would he want 10% of the population of those who voted in the 1860 election to take an oath in order to be readmitted as a state? Radical Republicans • Wanted to destroy the political power of former slaveholders. • Most of all, they wanted African Americans to be given full citizenship and the right to vote. Lincoln Assassinated • John Wilkes Booth shoots and kills President Lincoln at Fords Theatre. • Andrew Johnson becomes President Turn and Talk • Q2: Why would Lincoln’s assassination change the course of the country after the war? Johnson’s Plan For Reconstruction • Excluded high-ranking Confederates and wealthy southern landowners from taking the oath needed for voting privileges. • Pardoned more than 13,000 former Confederates because he believed that “White men alone must manage the South.” Johnson’s Plan For Reconstruction • Congress refused to admit the new Southern legislators. • Civil Rights Act of 1866 gave African Americans citizenship and forbade states from passing discriminatory laws or black codes. • Johnson vetoed Civil Rights Act of 1866. Turn and Talk • Q3: From what you know about Johnson, why would he use his veto power to stop the Civil Rights act of 1866? Congressional Reconstruction • Overrode the president’s vetoes of the Civil Rights Act and Freedmen’s Bureau Act. • Fourteenth Amendment prevented states from denying rights and privileges to any U.S. citizen, now defined as “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” Congressional Reconstruction Reconstruction Act of 1867 • Act divided the former Confederate states into five military districts. • The states were required to give African Americans the right to vote and ratify the fourteenth amendment in order to reenter the Union. • Johnson vetoed Reconstruction Act of 1867 Johnson vetoed Reconstruction Act of 1867 Turn and Talk • Q4: Johnson vetoed yet another act of Congress. Why would he do this? Explain. Johnson Impeached • Johnson’s removal of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton from office, violated the Tenure of Office Act. • The House Impeached Johnson • The Senate voted not to convict. U.S. Grant Elected • More than 500,000 Southern African Americans voted. • 9 out of 10 voted for Grant. • Fifteenth Amendment, no one can be kept from voting because of “race color or previous condition of servitude.” Turn and Talk • Q5: Why would so many African Americans vote for Grant as president in the first election most of these men were able to vote? Explain. Reconstructing Society Conditions of a Postwar South • The Republican governments began public works programs to repair the physical damage and to provide social services. Politics in the Postwar South • Scalawags were white Southerners who joined the Republican Party. • Carpetbaggers were Northerners who moved to the South after the war. Turn and Talk • Q6: Why would people from the North want to move South during Reconstruction? (Think about why modern contractors move to Iraq to expand businesses). African Americans • Gained voting rights due to Fifteenth Amendment. • Registered to vote for the first time. • Eager to exercise their voting rights Former Slaves Improve Their Lives • Founded their own churches. • First public schools established by Reconstruction governments. • Churches help create schools. African Americans in Reconstruction • First time they held office in local, state, and federal government. • Hiram Revels was the first African American Senator. • Gen. Sherman promised former slaves who followed his army 40 acres per family and the use of army mules. Sharecropping and Tenant Farming Sharecropping • Landowners divide their land and assigned each head of household a few acres, along with seed and tools. Turn and Talk • Q7: Explain why farming the major focus for African American livelihoods (careers) by the government? Opposition To Reconstruction Ku Klux Klan • Southern vigilante group. • Wanted to destroy the Republican party • Throw out the Reconstruction governments. • Prevent African Americans from exercising their political rights. Support for Reconstruction Fades Panic of 1873 • Series of bank failures that triggered a five year depression. • Supreme Court began to undo some of the social and political changes the Radicals made. Democrats “Redeem” the South • In the Election of 1876, Democrat candidate Samuel Tilden won the popular vote but was one vote short of electoral victory. • Southern Democrats in Congress agreed to accept Hayes if federal troops were withdrawn from the South. Election of 1876 • Q8: Why would withdrawal of soldiers in the south be very bad for Blacks?