Reconstruction
Rebuilding the war-torn US
President Lincoln's Plan for Reconstruction (Before he was assassinated!)
Ten Percent Plan
* Voters could also elect delegates to revise the state constitution.
* All southerners would be granted a full pardon (except High-ranking Confederate army officials!)
Lincoln's Assassination
* Andrew Johnson was a southerner!
President Johnson's Plan for Reconstruction
* He returned confiscated property to white southerners
* He issued hundreds of pardons to former Confederate officers and government officials
* He undermined the Freedmen's Bureau by ordering it to return all confiscated lands to white landowners
* Johnson also appointed governors to supervise the drafting of new state constitutions and agreed to readmit each state provided it ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery.
Comparison of the two plans!
Compare the two plans!
Why are the plans different?
13th, 14th & 15th Amendments
Sick- Slavery
Cats- Citizenship
Vomit- Voting
Say the 13th, 14th & 15th Amendments!
The 4 ways to rebuild our country after the Civil War!
2. How to rebuild the Southern economy!
3. How to provide for the basic needs of former slaves!
4. How to extend US citizenship to former slaves!
How to readmit the Southern states back into the US!
Reconstruction Act
* Supported by the Radical Republicans (Northern Congressmen!)
How to rebuild the Southern economy!
Sharecropping and Tenant Farming
Tenant Farmer- They would pay rent to the landowner and would farm the land.
How to provide for the basic needs of former slaves!
Freedmen's Bureau
*Food, medical care, help with resettlement, establish schools, manage abandoned property and regulate labor.
* MOST people were not given what they were promised!
How to extend US citizenship to former slaves!
14th & 15th Amendments
15th- Granted voting rights to former slaves (males only!)
The South's reaction to this rebuilding process!
2. Jim Crow Laws- Laws passed to bypass Federal laws that southerners did not agree with. These were also hateful.
3. Ku Klux Klan- Secret society meant to terrorize not only African Americans but any whites who were supportive of African Americans.
Other Groups of people!
* Carpetbaggers- (Named for the luggage they carried!) Northerners who went to the South and became involved in Southern politics.
* Neither group was wanted in the South!
Legislative Acts
Homestead Act
* Must improve the land by building a dwelling (house) and plowing the land.
* After 5 years
Morrill Act
* Objective was to teach agriculture, mechanical arts and science
* Federal land sold went to colleges (30,000 acres)
(Started colleges like Texas A & M)
Dawes Act
* Allowed breaking up reservations into small sections.
* Main purpose is to protect Indian property rights.
Civil Rights Act of 1866
granted citizenship to persons born in the United States, except
members of American Indian tribes; first time Congress passed a law protecting racial
minorities
Impact of the Election of Hiram Rhodes Revel
*He was selected as the first African American senator!
In 1870, the Mississippi state legislature chose Revels to fill a seat in the Senate that had been vacant since the start of the Civil War.
*Although he served only a brief term, Revels was seated as the first African American senator, against the objection of white Southerners.
*As a senator, Revels won notice for speaking out for racial equality
Historic African American congressional representation
*1869-1901 – 20 representatives and 2 senators served, all from the South (1 senator from Louisiana was denied his seat)
*No African Americans served as a representative again until 1929, and none from the
South until 1973
*No African Americans served as a senator again until 1967 with a total of 9 having served
to date
Compromise of 1877
* Meant to remove Federal troops from the south.
* Appointed one Southern Democrat to President Hayes Administration.
* Construct a second transcontinental Railroad in the South.
* Other legislation to help industrialize the South.