Reunification & Reconciliation: How to bring the South back into the Union.
Rebuilding the South: Addressing the destruction caused by the Civil War.
Integration & Protection: Safeguarding newly emancipated black freedmen.
Governmental Control: Determining which branch of government controls Reconstruction.
Purpose and Successes of Reconstruction
Assist Former Slaves and Poor Whites: The Freedmen’s Bureau provided educational opportunities, teaching around 200,000 African Americans to read.
Forty Acres and a Mule: An unfulfilled promise to give confiscated land to former slaves.
Freedmen’s Bureau (March 1865)
Resented by the white South as a meddlesome federal agency.
Many former Northern abolitionists risked their lives to assist freedmen.
Wartime Reconstruction by President Lincoln (1863)
Proclamation of Amnesty & Reconstruction: 10% of voters in Southern states to pledge loyalty for rejoining the Union.
Lenient Policy: Required acceptance of emancipation.
Wade-Davis Plan: Demanded a 50% loyalty oath from 1860 voters; pocket-vetoed by Lincoln.
President Andrew Johnson’s Approach
Assumed presidency after Lincoln's assassination.
Recognized the 10% government but imposed disfranchisement requirements.
Required states to ratify the 13th Amendment (abolishing slavery).
Pardoned most former Confederate leaders, allowing them to regain political control.
Key Legislation and Amendments
Black Codes: Aimed to guarantee a stable labor supply post-emancipation.
Restricted African American rights, leading many into sharecropping.
Civil Rights Bill 1866: Granted citizenship and aimed to eliminate Black Codes.
Reconstruction Act of 1867: Divided the South into military districts; disenfranchised former Confederates; required new state constitutions including black suffrage.
Conflict Between Johnson and Congress
Congress overrode Johnson's vetoes for the first time in U.S. history.
Passed Civil Rights Bill and extended Freedmen's Bureau against Johnson's objections.
Amendments and Their Impact
13th Amendment: Abolished slavery.
14th Amendment: Guaranteed citizenship and equal protection.
15th Amendment: Ensured universal male suffrage regardless of race.
Reconstruction Governments
Rise of a new electorate due to the 15th Amendment.
Republican Coalition: Included African American voters, Scalawags, and Carpetbaggers.
KKK Formation: Aimed to maintain white supremacy, resisted by Force Acts of 1870 & 1871.
Civil Rights Act of 1875: Ensured equal access to public spaces.
The Decline of Reconstruction
Federal intervention yielded temporary successes, such as uniting the Union and expanding political opportunities for former slaves.
Despite amendments, African American rights were eroded through segregation, violence, political tactics, and Supreme Court decisions.
Judicial principles from Reconstruction Amendments eventually upheld rights in later court decisions.