The Reconstruction Era

RADICAL REPUBLICANS' PLAN FOR RECONSTRUCTION

Republicans in Congress who favored a more radical, or extreme, Reconstruction plan became known as the Radical Republicans. Their plan: • Required a majority of each state's adult white males to pledge loyalty to the Union before the state could form a new government • Allowed only white males who swore they had not fought against the Union to vote for delegates to the state constitutional convention • Required the state to adopt a new constitution that banned slavery Lincoln thought the plan was too harsh and refused to sign it.

BUFFALO SOLDIERS

Some African Americans escaped the South during Reconstruction by joining the army. They served in segregated units and fought in the Indian Wars in the West in the late 1800s. The Apaches and Cheyenne called these soldiers "buffalo soldiers" as a sign of honor and respect. Units of Buffalo Soldiers also served in Cuba, the Philippines, Hawaii, and Mexico.

CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1866

Although Southern states banned slavery, they passed new laws called black codes to control freed African Americans. In response to the black codes, Congress passed the Civil Rights Acts of 1866. This act • granted citizenship to African Americans • gave the federal government new powers to protect the rights of African Americans President Johnson vetoed the bill, but Congress was able to override the veto and it became law.

MILITARY OCCUPATION

By 1867 only Tennessee had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. In response, Radical Republicans passed two Reconstruction Acts. • The First Reconstruction Act divided the 10 defiant Southern states into five military districts and placed them under military rule. • The Second Reconstruction Act empowered the army to register voters in each military district and organize conventions to write new state constitutions.

POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

During the early years of Reconstruction, African Americans took part in government for the first time. African Americans participated as voters, helping to elect Republican candidates. African Americans also participated as candidates themselves, winning elections at both the national and state levels.

IMPEACHMENT

Fearing that President Johnson would interfere with their Reconstruction plans, the Radical Republicans passed laws to limit his power. This included the Tenure of Office Act. When Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in violation of the act, Republicans started impeachment proceedings. The House of Representatives voted to impeach the president, or charge him with wrongdoing. The Senate did not get the two-thirds majority needed for a conviction, and Johnson remained in office.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION

Important accomplishments were achieved during Reconstruction. • The South rebuilt its economy from the ruins of war. • New industries developed in the South. • African Americans were granted the rights of citizenship through amendments to the Constitution. • African Americans participated in government as voters and elected officials

THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT

In 1869 Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment, which guaranteed that the federal and state governments could not deny the right to vote to any male citizen because of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The states ratified the amendment in 1870.

ELECTION OF 1876

In the presidential election of 1876, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes ran against Democrat Samuel Tilden. The election was very close, with neither candidate winning a majority of electoral votes. Election returns in three Southern states were disputed. A congressional commission recommended that the disputed votes should go to Hayes, which would give him the victory. To ensure that Congress would agree with the commission's recommendation, Republicans promised Democrats they would withdraw military troops from the South. This marked the end of Reconstruction.

THE KU KLUX KLAN

Many white Southerners opposed Reconstruction. They did not want African Americans to have more rights. They refused to rent land to African Americans or to give them credit. Employers refused to hire them. Secret societies such as the Ku Klux Klan used fear and violence to intimidate freed people. They killed thousands of African Americans and burned homes, schools, and churches.

LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION

On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot as he watched a play in Washington, D.C. He died the next day. The assassin was John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. Vice President Andrew Johnson became president.

JIM CROW LAWS

Other laws, called Jim Crow laws, required African Americans and whites to be separated in public places. This is called segregation. In the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal as long as the separate facilities for African Americans were equal to those of whites.

FREEDMEN'S BUREAU

President Lincoln and Congress worked together to create the Freedmen's Bureau . • Provided food, clothing, and shelter to freed African Americans • Built schools for African Americans • Helped people get land to farm or find jobs

LINCOLN's TEN PERCENT PLAN

President Lincoln offered the first plan for Reconstruction. His plan became known as the Ten Percent Plan. • Offered amnesty to those who took an oath of loyalty to the Union—except for Confederate leaders • When 10 percent of the voters in a state had taken the oath, the state could form a new government • Required the state to adopt a new constitution that banned slavery Some Republicans thought the plan was too lenient and refused to grant statehood to any state that tried to reenter the Union under Lincoln's plan.

FAILURES OF RECONSTRUCTION

Reconstruction also had tragic failures. • The Southern economy remained largely agricultural and continued to rely on cotton as the main cash crop. • Most freed African Americans worked as sharecroppers. • Violence, voting restrictions, and Jim Crow laws took away African Americans' newly won rights and led to widespread segregation

VOTING RESTRICTIONS

The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits states from denying citizens the right to vote because of race. White Southern leaders, however, passed voting laws that restricted African Americans' right to vote. • poll taxes: required people to pay fees before being allowed to vote • literacy tests: required that people be able to read on a certain level before being allowed to vote Southern states also passed grandfather clauses allowing a person to vote if his father or grandfather had voted before Reconstruction. Such laws allowed white Southerners who could not pay poll taxes or pass literacy tests to vote.

THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery throughout the United States. It was passed by Congress in January 1865 and ratified by the states in December 1865.

JOHNSON'S RECONSTRUCTION PLAN

The new president, Andrew Johnson, had his own plan for Reconstruction. • Offered amnesty to most Southerners who swore loyalty to the Union • Required high-ranking Confederate leaders to appeal to the president for a pardon • Required the state to adopt a new constitution that banned slavery • Required the state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery Several states organized new governments under Johnson's plan and elected representatives to Congress. Republicans in Congress, however, refused to seat them, believing Johnson's plan to be too lenient.

THE SOUTHERN ECONOMY DURING RECONSTRUCTION

With the end of Reconstruction, many Southern leaders urged Southerners to build a new industrial economy. Many new industries were built. But the South remained mostly an agricultural region. Few African Americans were able to buy land to farm. Most became sharecroppers, renting land from landowners in return for a share of the crops. Often, landowners demanded an unfairly large share of the crops, and sharecroppers had little left to sell. Sometimes there was not enough left to feed their families.

THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT

Worried that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 might be overturned in the courts, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution to extend the rights of citizenship to African Americans. • Granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. • Provided due process rights • Provided equal protection under the law Congress required the Southern states to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment before they could rejoin the Union. At first, many refused to do so.