Transcript End of Reconstruction

Unit 6
Reconstruction
1864-1877
Rebuilding of the South
after the Civil War
1
Civil War → Reconstruction
• Pres. Abraham Lincoln
inaugurated for second
term on March 4, 1865
• General Robert E. Lee
surrendered at
Appomattox Courthouse
on April 9, 1865
2
First Steps Toward Reunion
• Wade-Davis Bill
– Required majority of white men in each
southern state to swear loyalty to Union
– Denied right to vote or hold office anyone who
had volunteered to fight for Confederacy
– Lincoln refused to sign the bill
3
First Steps Toward Reunion
• 10% Plan
– Southern state could form a new government
after 10% of voters swore an oath of loyalty to
the U.S.
– State’s new government
• Had to abolish slavery
• Then elected members to Congress
4
John Wilkes Booth
• Pres. Lincoln shot by
John Wilkes Booth
on April 14, 1865
while watching a play
at Ford’s Theater in
Washington, DC
5
Andrew Johnson – 17th President of U.S.
• 1 term: 1865-1869
• Republican Party
• 13th Amendment
• 14th Amendment
6
Reconstruction: 1864-1877
• 13th Amendment
– Ended slavery
• Banned slavery in U.S.
• 14th Amendment
– Made former slaves citizens
• Made discrimination illegal
7
Andrew Johnson – 17th President of U.S.
• Midterm election of
1866 disaster for
Pres. Johnson
• Radical Republicans
win majorities in
Congress
– Passed several acts
over Johnson’s veto
8
Andrew Johnson – 17th President of U.S.
• Radical Republicans
2 main goals:
– Break power of rich
southern planters
– Ensure freed slaves
right to vote
9
Andrew Johnson – 17th President of U.S.
• Impeached by House
of Representatives
on Feb. 24, 1868
• Senate found him not
guilty
– One vote short of
2/3 majority
10
Ulysses S. Grant – 18th President of U.S.
• 2 terms: 1869-1877
• Republican Party
• 15th Amendment
11
Reconstruction: 1864-1877
• 15th Amendment
– Gave former slaves right to vote (men only)
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not
be denied or abridged by the United States or any state
on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.
12
Reconstruction: 1864-1877
• Carpetbaggers
– Northerners who moved to the South to work for
Reconstruction
• Scalawags
– White southerners who supported Reconstruction
• Sharecroppers
– Rent land to grow food & give owner share of crops
• Ku Klux Klan
– Secret organization
– White southerners use fear & violence to keep
African Americans from voting or entering politics
13
Reconstruction: 1864-1877
• By 1872, most former Confederates were again
allowed to vote
• By late 1870s, conservative whites had regained
control of the South
– Northerners grew weary of trying to change the South
• Time to let Southerners run their own government
again, even if African Americans lose rights gained
– Government of the Southern states was once again in
the hands of the Southerners
14
End of Reconstruction
• Election of 1876
– Samuel Tilden – Democratic candidate
• Won popular vote
• One electoral vote short of number needed
to win election
– Rutherford B. Hayes – Republican candidate
• Promised to end Reconstruction
• Selected by Congress to be President
15
Rutherford B. Hayes – 19th President of U.S.
• 1 term: 1877-1881
• Republican Party
• Removed remaining
Federal troops from
the South
16
End of Reconstruction
• Southern white conservatives use violence to
keep African Americans from voting
• Voting restrictions in Southern states
– Poll taxes
• Voters pay tax each time they vote
– Literacy tests
• Prove a voter could read & write
• Grandfather clauses
– Excused voters from poll taxes or literacy tests if
voter’s father or grandfather had voted before 1867
17
End of Reconstruction
• Segregation became law of the South
• Jim Crow laws
– Laws separating whites and blacks
• schools, restaurants, theaters, trains, streetcars,
playgrounds, hospitals, cemeteries
• 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson
– Supreme Court said segregation was legal if
facilities were equal
18
End of Reconstruction
• Laws passed during Reconstruction
(such as 14th Amendment) became basis
of civil rights movement almost 100 years
later
19