RECONSTRUCTION

How did Reconstruction become the Second American

Revolution—and why did it ultimately fail?

I. Wartime Reconstruction
II. Radical Reconstruction
III. Fall of Reconstruction
 Reconstruction Issues

• How should “freedom” be defined for former slaves?

• How should the southern states be readmitted into the
Union?
• What rights should African Americans have in the reformed
states?
 Politics of
Wartime
Reconstruction
• 1863: Lincoln’s “Ten-
Percent Plan” offered
amnesty and restoration
of property to southern
whites who swore loyalty
to Union
• Southern states could
form new government in
Union when 10% of white
males had sworn loyalty
• Under Lincoln’s initial
plan, there was no place
for African Americans in
reconstruction
governments
 Wade-Davis Bill, 1864
• Competing plan for the reintroduction of
southern states into the Union
• One-half of white males in southern states had to
pledge allegiance to the Union for new statehood
• New states would have to recognize political
rights of African American males
• Congress passed the Bill—Pres. Lincoln vetoed it
 Andrew Johnson
• Succeeded Abraham Lincoln as President
• Southern politician and former champion of
the “yeoman” farmer
• Ambivalent about Reconstruction—especially
Black equality
• Impeached in 1867 and out of office in 1868
 Black
Codes
• Laws passed in newly
reconstructed and white-
dominated southern states
• Limited the political rights of
freedpeople
• Certain states required that
Blacks sign annual labor
contracts or face being
auctioned for “hire”
 “Radical”
Republicans
• Radical northern Republican
politicians including
Thaddeus Stevens and
Charles Sumner
• Called for the dissolution of
white-dominated southern
states and new constitutions
guaranteeing Black equality
• Dominated U.S. Congress due
to lack of southern
representation
• Passed the Civil Rights Act in
1866
 Fourteenth Amendment (1868)
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States,
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State
shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor
shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Reconstruction Act
(1867)
• Divided the South into 5 districts overseen by
military governors
• Northern policies regarding Black voting rights
and other issues would be overseen with force
• Marked the beginning of “Radical”
Reconstruction (1867-77)
• Overseen by President U.S. Grant
 Fifteenth Amendment (1870)
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any
State on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.
 Radical
Reconstruction
in the South
• Majority of eligible African
American males registered to
vote in the South by 1870
• 2,000 Black officeholders in
the U.S. during Reconstruction
• South Carolina featured a
majority-Black state legislature
 Resistance to
Reconstruction:
Violence in the South
• Secret societies formed among former
Confederates throughout the South
• Vigilantism and terrorism against African
Americans and white Republicans
• Ku Klux Klan became the most notorious
white terrorist organization; suppressed
in 1872 (revived in the 1920s)
 Colfax
Massacre,
Louisiana, 1871
Opposition to Reconstruction:
South and North

• White Democrats (“Redeemers”) re-took

control of much of the South in 1875-6
• Northern Republican commitment to
Reconstruction began to decline in the 1870s
• Republican Party split over the issue of
whether to leave Reconstruction to the
Southern states
• Racist depictions of “Negro government”
permeated the northern press
“Compromise” of 1877

• Presidential election of
1876 marked the end of
Reconstruction
• Republican Party
secured the election of
Rutherford B. Hayes
• Democratic Party gained
the concession that
federal troops would
stop enforcing
Reconstruction policies