Reconstruction
1865-1876
Wartime Reconstruction
 Lincoln’s primary aim was the restoration of
national unity

speedy, forgiving reconciliation
 Congress sought white loyalty & black rights
“The Rail Splitter at Work Repairing the Union”
“To Bind Up the Nation’s Wounds”
 Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
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blazed with Biblical imagery
looked ahead to peace
 Lincoln offered full pardons to rebels who
renounced
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10% plan for states
Lincoln Delivering 2nd Inaugural Speech
Black Quest for Autonomy
 After the war blacks
sought:
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freedom of travel
restoration of families
independent worship
Presidential
Reconstruction
Assassination
 Lincoln killed by John Wilkes Booth
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15 April 1865
 Vice-President Andrew Johnson became
President
Johnson & Reconciliation
 Andrew Johnson (Pro)
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poor, uneducated parents
self-made wealth; former tailor & slaveowner
only Southern Senator who remained loyal to
the union
 Andrew Johnson (Con)
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states’ rights
defended slavery; racist
bitter & hateful toward aristocrats
Andrew Johnson
Southern Resistance
& Black Codes
Southern states resisted, Johnson
backed off
 Black Codes
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discriminatory laws to keep blacks subordinate
to whites
banned from gun ownership
corporal punishment for gestures & language
banned from jury duty
not allowed to vote
tax on non-farm labor
Radical Reconstruction
Military Reconstruction Act, 1867
 US Army occupation of South
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Union general in charge of 5 districts
black voter registration
excluded Confederates
new conventions & state constitutions with
black suffrage
but fell short of land reform
Johnson vetoed, Congress overrode
Freedmen’s Bureau Agent
Impeaching a President
 AJ responsible for enforcing law
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but, he sabotaged Congress & encouraged
white belligerence & resistance
issued pardons to Confederates
fought the Freedmen’s Bureau
replaced Union generals
sought to protect Southern whites
Congress attempts to tie AJ’s hands
 required all Army orders to pass through Gen.
Grant
 Tenure of Office Act, 1867
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Senate approval of removal of any official
appointment with Senate approval
Senate trying to protect Sec. of War Stanton
(who supported Reconstruction)
“crazy, or only drunk?”
 AJ suspended Stanton, August 1867
 Senate refused to consent

AJ fired him anyway
Impeachment
 House impeached AJ
 Senate acquitted him

1 vote shy of 2/3 needed
The Struggle in the South
Freedmen, Yankees, & Yeomen
Southern Republicans, 1867
 African-Americans
 “Carpetbaggers”
 Northern migrants
 restless, educated, young men looking for
opportunity
 “Scalawags”
 Unionist, Southern, yeoman farmers who
resented planters
 Blacks & whites joined together to pursue
political change
Depiction of a Carpetbagger
Ku Klux Klan
 formed 1866 by Nathan Bedford Forrest
 began as social club for CSA veterans
 became anti-Republican paramilitary org.
 KKK used violence to defeat Reconstruction
& restore white supremacy
Nathan Bedford Forrest
The Birth of a Nation
Republican Rule
Reconstruction constitutions
 reduced aristocratic privilege & increased
democratic equality
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universal male suffrage
abolished property qualifications for holding
office
more elective offices
 expanded general welfare
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prison reform
care for orphans, insane, deaf, mute, debtors
Constitutions fell short:
 no land reform
 only 6% of Southern Congressmen were
black
 not all ex-Rebels banned
“The First Colored Senator & Representatives”
Republican Achievements in the South
 public education for
blacks & whites (though
segregated)
 civil rights laws
 improved transportation
 economic development:
railroads
White landlords, black sharecroppers
 After the war, planters used binding wage
contracts to restore system of work gangs,
white overseers, field labor for women &
children, clustered cabins, minimal personal
freedom, corporal punishment
 freedmen’s dream of land ownership never
came true
Sharecroppers
Sharecropping
 planters divided land into 25 acre farms,
rented by freedmen for ½ of annual crop
 blacks gained more freedom, but still
dependent on landlord
 planters resumed production, but lost old
supervision
 by 1870—white sharecroppers
Reconstruction Collapses
Grant & Corruption
 U. S. Grant elected in 1868 despite KKK
murdering hundreds of Southern Republicans
 Grant knew US was weary of Reconstruction
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disassociated from Southern Republicans
 Grant grew tentative, unsure, bewildered
 surrounded by “fumbling kinfolk & old cronies”
as advisors
 administration tainted by corruption, economic
depression
 Reconstruction ended
U.S. Grant writing Memoirs, 1885
Northern Resolve Withers
 Reasons for North’s abandonment of
reconstruction
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racial prejudice
Supreme Court weakened federal
government’s ability to protect blacks
White Supremacy Triumphs
 black freedom=white rage
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Southern Democrats promised to replace
“bayonet rule” with “home rule”
swore to save South from “Negro rule”
Southern Democratic strategy:
 polarize parties by color
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called Democratic party that of the “proud
Caucasian race”
blamed farm problems on Republican financial
policy
 terrorize black voters
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“night riders” murdered blacks and scalawags
yeoman farmers defected to Democratic party
Election & Compromise, 1876
 Presidential election that threatened another
civil war
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Rutherford B. Hayes
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Republican Governor of Ohio
Samuel Tilden
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Democrat Governor of New York
Rutherford B. Hayes
Samuel Tilden
1876 Presidential Election
 Tilden won popular vote, but one vote shy in
Electoral College
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disputed votes in FL, SC, LA
Republicans stuffed boxes, but Democrats
had terrorized Republican voters
Compromise of 1877
 Deadlocked Congress created commission of
15
 Compromise of 1877
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Republicans gained presidency
Democrats got home rule & free hand in racial
matters
At least one Democrat appointed to Cabinet
Construction of transcontinental railroad
through the South
Conclusion
A revolution half-accomplished
 Reconstruction=most profound upheaval in
US history
 world of masters & slaves gave way to
landlords & sharecroppers
 South returned to union, but as “junior
partner”
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North’s industrial capitalism ruled the land
 “2nd Reconstruction” occurred 100 years
later; but only because 1st Reconstruction
failed