2. Questions following the Civil War
• What to do with former slaves?
• Should Southerners be punished?
• How should Southerners be punished?
• What to do with the rebellious states?
3.
4. War Ends!
Image –General Robert E. Lee of the Confederacy Surrendering to
Ulysses S. Grant of the Union in Appomattox, Virginia April 12, 1865.
5. The war is over, now what?
How do we figure out
• What to do with former slaves.
• Whether Southerners should be punished.
• How Southerners should be punished if you feel as though they
should.
• Is there a difference between citizens who participated and the leaders?
• What to do with the rebellious states.
• How do we reunite the nation?
9. The Reconstruction Plans
• There are 5 plans for Reconstruction that were proposed and/or
enacted during the Reconstruction Era. These plans are
sometimes coexistent, while others supersede the previous.
• Lincoln’s 10% Plan, December 1863
• Wade-Davis Bill, 1864
• Presidential Reconstruction (Andrew Johnson), 1865-66
• Radical Reconstruction, (Congress) 1866
• Military Reconstruction
• Each of these plans reflects the particular view of democracy &
authority articulated by its drafters (i.e who made them).
10. Terms Specifics
Terms of
Reincorporation
• Ten percent of the population of each southern state had to swear
loyalty to the United States
• Southern states could set up new governments on their own, as long
as their government set free all slaves
Treatment of
Former
Confederates
• Except for high ranking officers, all confederate soldiers would be
pardoned
Treatment of
African-Americans
• Beyond being granted freedom, nothing
• Remember, for Lincoln liberty is defined in a narrow sense (free
labor, nothing more)
• You are free, but the rest is up to you
Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction: 10% Plan
• As President, Lincoln puts forth the first plan for
Reconstruction
11.
12. Radical Republicans’ Plan for Reconstruction: Wade-
Davis Bill
Terms Specifics
Terms of Reincorporation • 50% of the population of each southern
state had to swear loyalty to the United
States
Treatment of Former Confederates • No special treatment
Treatment of African-Americans • Southern states had to draft Constitutions
banning slavery
13.
14. Lincolns 10% plan
was not approved
by Congress
Lincoln vetoed
Congress’ Wade-
Davis Bill
15. Lincoln is Assassinated
• Question is rendered moot with Lincoln’s assassination
in April 1865
• Upon his assassination his Vice President Andrew
Johnson comes to office, with yet another vision of
Reconstruction…
16. Andrew Johnson
• 1808-1875
• Born into poverty in N.C.
• Moved to Tennessee and rose up the political ranks
• Lincoln made him military governor of Tennessee
• Chosen by Lincoln to serve as VP when Lincoln ran
for reelection in 1864
• Gesture of good faith to the South
• Viewed himself as the champion of the yeoman and
a foe of the planter class whom he described as a
“bloated, corrupted aristocracy.”
• Personality
• Stubborn, intolerable of criticism, unable to
compromise, racist
17. Terms Specifics
Terms of
Reincorporation
• Federal government would appoint provisional governors in southern
states
• These governors would call state conventions, elected by whites alone,
that would establish loyal governments in the South
• Apart from the requirements that they abolish slavery, repudiate
secession, and refuse to pay the Confederate debt, he granted the new
government a free hand in managing local affairs.
Treatment of Former
Confederates
• Offered a pardon to nearly all white southerners who took an oath of
allegiance
• Excluded confederate leaders and wealthy planters whose prewar
property had been valued at more than $20,000
• Though later Johnson offered personal exemptions
Treatment of
African-Americans
• Slavery is ended, what else do they need?
• Unlike Lincoln, explicit racism here…
• First to use “reverse racism”…no one ever gave the white guy
something for free
Johnson’s Plan for Reconstruction a.k.a Presidential Reconstruction
18. Meanwhile…In The South: The Black Codes
• The absence of a clear Reconstruction plan allowed the South to begin to
redesign their social institutions in the way they want to
• They seek to redesign social life in such a way as to maintain racial
hierarchies in the absence of slavery
• Black Codes:
• Laws passed by the new
southern governments that
attempted to regulate the
lives of former slaves
• Granted blacks certain rights
(marriage, ownership of
property)
• Denied them the rights to testify against whites, to serve on juries or in
state militias, or to vote.
• Declared those blacks who failed to sign year labor contracts could be
arrested and hired out to white landowners
19. Radical Republicans React
• So flagrantly violated free labor principles of the North,
that the Republicans took action.
• What angered Northern Republicans was the South’s
inability to accept emancipation; inability to accept the
Union’s definition of democracy.
• Radicals believed that Union victory was an opportunity
to institutionalize the principle of equal rights regardless
of race.
• Johnson’s plan did not call for the establishment of Civil
Rights, would let the south continue on the path it was on
• Johnson had to be stopped.
20. Timeline
1862
(declared),
1863 Issued
the
Emancipation
Proclamation
1863 Lincoln’s
10% Plan
1864 13th
Amendment -
goes into
effect in 1865
1865 Lincoln
Assassinated
1865
Presidential
Reconstruction
Under Andrew
Johnson
1866 Civil
Rights Act
Passed
1867 Military
Reconstruction
1868 14th
Amendment
1870 15th
Amendment
1877
Compromise of
1877, End of
Reconstruction
During the changing plans, the
Black Codes were established
in the South.
21. Radical Republicans Put Forth Their
Own Reconstruction Agenda
Civil Rights Act
1866
• Johnson Vetoes,
Congress Overrides
14th Amendment
(ratified 1868)
• Johnson objects
Reconstruction Act
1867
• Johnson Vetoes,
Congress Overrides
15th Amendment
(ratified 1870)
• Johnson objects
22. Radical Republicans Put Forth the Civil Rights Bill 1866
• Civil Rights Bill 1866
• Defined all persons born in the United States as citizens and spelled out rights
they were to enjoy without regard to race
• No state could deprive any citizens of the right to make contracts, bring
lawsuits, or enjoy equal protection of one’s person and property
• No mention of the right to vote for blacks
• First attempt to give concrete meaning to the freedom granted in the 13th
Amendment
23. Civil Rights Act 1866
• Johnson vetoes it!
• Said that the Act would
centralize power in the national
government and deprive the
states of the authority to
regulate their own affairs.
• Said blacks did not deserve the
rights of citizenship. By acting to
secure their rights, Congress was
discriminating “against the white
race.”
• Congress overrode the veto
• First major law in American
history to passed over a
presidential veto
24. Until new state governments could be created in southern states,
Congress put the south under military control
1867 divided the South into
five military districts and
outlined how new
governments, based on
manhood suffrage without
regard to race, were to be
established.
* 20,000 U.S. troops were
deployed to enforce the Act.
First Military District: Virginia, Second Military District: North Carolina and South Carolina,
Third Military District: Georgia, Alabama and Florida, Fourth Military District: Arkansas and Mississippi,
Fifth Military District: Texas and Louisiana
25. The 14th Amendment
• Congress proceeds to adopt its own plan for
Reconstruction
• Proposed the 14th Amendment
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.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation,
the provisions of this article.
26. 14th Amendment
• The amendment's first section includes two important clauses: The
Citizenship Clause, The Due Process Clause, and The Equal Protection
Clause.
• The Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship, overruling
SCOTUS decision in Dred Scott
• The Due Process Clause prohibits state and local government officials from
depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without legislative authorization.
This clause has also been used by the federal judiciary to make most of the Bill of
Rights applicable to the states, as well as to recognize substantive and procedural
requirements that state laws must satisfy
• The Equal Protection Clause requires each state to provide equal protection
under the law to all people within its jurisdiction.
27. 14th Amendment
• Writes into the Constitution the principles that equality before the law
regardless of race is a fundamental right of all American citizens
• Codifies Lincoln’s interpretation of the Constitution
• Most important change in the Constitution since the Bill of Rights
28. Fifteenth Amendment
• Prohibited the federal and state
government from denying any citizen
the right to vote because of race.
• Did not include women
• Despite demands of women’s suffrage
activists
• Wording opened the door to suffrage
restrictions not explicitly based on
race—literacy tests, property
qualifications, and poll taxes.
