The document discusses key events and policies during the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War. It provides information on Lincoln's 10% Plan, Johnson's more lenient reconstruction plan, the Black Codes enacted by Southern states, and the Radical Republican's response under the Congressional Reconstruction plan. The summary focuses on the three main groups that influenced Reconstruction and their differing approaches: 1. Lincoln and Johnson favored quicker reunification and less punitive policies towards the South. 2. Southern states passed harsh Black Codes to restrict freedmen's rights. 3. Radical Republicans in Congress implemented a stricter plan through military occupation, protecting civil rights, and attempting to establish political equality for African Americans.

2. Simply speaking,
it’s putting the
pieces of the
puzzle back
together.
Reconstruction – Program put in
place by the federal government
to repair damage to the South
and restore the southern states to
the Union.
The role that political climate played in reconstruction.
What was life like for the freedmen?
What rights will African Americans have?

3. Reconstruction GOALs
• In order for reconstruction to be a success the four following
goals have to be achieved
• 1. Protect new African American Freedmen
• 2. Rebuild Southern economy
• 3. Reintegrate the South back into the Union
• 4. Which Branch of Government will control
Reconstruction

5. Repair the damage?
1. The casualties of the Civil War were over 650,000.
(From 10,455 engagements, naval clashes,
accidents, suicides, sicknesses, murders, and
executions)
2. The U.S. government spent an estimated $6.2
billion by 1879. (War & Reconstruction)
3. The Confederacy spent perhaps $2.1 billion.
4. Physical Devastation: burned or plundered homes,
pillaged countryside, untold losses in crops &
animals, ruined buildings/bridges, destroyed
railroads, and neglected roads (South in Ruins)

6. Still Burying the Dead One Year After the War at
Cold Harbor, Virginia

7. Treatment of the Traitors
• Jefferson Davis:
– Temporarily clapped into irons during early days of
two-year imprisonment
– He and fellow “conspirators” finally released
– All rebel leaders pardoned by President Andrew
Johnson in 1868
– Congress removed all remaining civil disabilities
some thirty yeas later
– Congress posthumously restored Davis's citizenship
more than a century later.

8. Living in the South
• Old South collapsed economically and socially
• Handsome cities, Charleston and Richmond, now
rubble-strewn and weed-choked
• Banks and businesses locked doors, ruined by runaway
inflation
• Factories smokeless, silent, dismantled
• Transportation broken down completely
• Agriculture—economic lifeblood of South—almost
completely crippled
• Not until 1870 would cotton production be at pre-war
levels
Princely planter aristocrats humbled by losses
• Investment of more than $2 billion in slaves evaporated
with emancipation

9. Cont.
• Beaten but unbent, many white Southerners
remained dangerously defiant:
– Continued to believe their view of secession correct and
“lost cause” a just war
– Such attitudes boded ill for prospects of painlessly
binding up Republic's wounds

12. Faces of Reconstruction

13. Reconstruction Plans
Lincoln’s Plan- (10% Plan)
Amnesty for Oath of Loyalty
Emancipate the Slaves
New Gov’t after 10% take oath
No Confed. officers or officials
Johnson’s Plan
Amnesty for all except wealthy
Revoke ordinance of succession
Ratify the 13th Amendment
Reject Confederate War debts
Mod/Rad.- Wade Davis Bill (51%)
Majority of voters must take oath
New States must abolish slavery
Must reject Confed. War debts
Deny officers/officials vote & office
Congressional Plan
No officer/official in new Gov’t
Abolish Slavery & give AA’s Vote
Civil Rights Act / 14th Amendment
Pass Military Reconstruction Act
• Allowed former confederates to be re-elected
• Johnson’s impeached for violating the Office of
Tenure Act
Hindered by Redeemers & KKK
Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction

14. As soon as ten percent of a state’s voters
took a loyalty oath to the Union, the state
could set up a new government.
Lincoln’s Plan
“Ten Percent Plan”
If the state’s constitution abolished
slavery and provided education for
African Americans, the state would
regain representation in Congress.
I am even willing to
consider the following:
1. Grant pardons for former Confederates
2. Compensate them for lost property
3. Not requiring a guarantee of social or political
equality for African Americans
• Lincoln pressed Congress to pass the
13th amendment (Movie Lincoln)

15. Congress Reconstruction
Republican rammed through Congress 1864:
• Wade-Davis Bill:
– Required 50% of state's voters take oath of allegiance
– Demanded stronger safeguards for emancipation than
Lincoln's as price of readmission to Union
– Controversy over Wade-Davis revealed:
– Deep differences between president and Congress
» Congress insisted seceders left Union and “committed
suicide” as republican states
» Thus forfeited their rights
– Could be readmitted only as “conquered provinces” on such
conditions as Congress should decree
Lincoln “pocket-vetoed” bill- Pocket vetoes occur when the President
receives a bill but is unable to reject and return the bill to an adjourned
Congress within the 10-day period. The bill, though lacking a signature and
formal objections, does not become law. Pocket vetoes are not subject to the
congressional veto override process

16. Congress Reconstruction
(cont.)
• Majority moderate group:
– Agreed with Lincoln—seceded states should be restored as
simply and swiftly as reasonable—though on Congress's
terms, not president's
• Minority radical group:
– Believed South should atone more for its sins
– Wanted social structure uprooted, planters punished, newly
emancipated blacks protected by federal powers
Andrew Johnson:
• Agreed with Lincoln—seceded states never left Union
• Quickly recognized several of Lincoln's 10%
governments

17. Lincoln’s Plan
“Ten Percent Plan”
Lincoln’s plan angered members of his own
party who wanted to punish the South as well
as having full rights for African Americans.
Led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner,
these “Radical Republicans” in Congress insisted
that the Confederates had committed high crimes.
1. Sen. Sumner’s Goal:
Citizenship/political rights for
former slaves
2. House of Rep Stevens Goal:
Economic opportunity for former
slaves
The Radical Republicans passed the
Wade-Davis Bill that required:

18. “No government
can be free that
does not allow all
its citizens to
participate in the
formation and
execution of her
laws”
Thaddeus Stevens Hallmark

19. Thaddeus Stevens
• His most important accomplishment is keeping the ex-Confederates
out of Congress on Dec. 4, 1865. President Andrew Johnson allowed
the South to have congressional elections where they allowed
Confederate officials to be elected to Congress. That could have
negated progress made for freed blacks after the Civil War. Stevens
saw to it that House clerk Edward McPherson skipped the reading of
Southern representatives’ names, keeping them from being seated.
That was the beginning of Reconstruction.”
• He was instrumental in the creation of paper money, There was no
federal paper money before the Civil War, only coins.
• Helping secure passage of the 13th Amendment, which abolished
slavery, and the 14th Amendment, which defined citizenship and
helped extend equal rights to the states.
• He was the one most steadfastly championing the access of free
public education to all citizens (in Pennsylvania)
• Stevens died in Washington, D.C. on August 11, 1868. In failing
health, Stevens had requested to be buried in Shreiner-Concord
Cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, because the state accepted all
races.

20. Lincoln’s Plan Ends
• • John Wilkes Booth (This Guy)
• Ford Theater (at this place)
Ford’s Theater, April 1865
John Wilkes Booth, 1862

21. Lincoln’s Assassination
(April 14, 1865)

22. Johnson’s
Plan
V.P. Andrew Johnson became President after
Lincoln’s death. He intended to follow the broad
outline of Lincoln’s Plan.
Johnson’s Plan included:
1. States were to
withdraw secession.
2. Swear allegiance to
the Union.
3. Ratify the 13th
Amendment & draft a
constitution that
abolished slavery.
“White men alone
must manage the
South.”
Was supposed to be
stabbed the night
of Lincoln’s death
but the conspirator
got scared and
decided to get
drunk instead.
Historical Significance: He did not want A.A. to have the right to
vote. He supported states’ rights over federal regulations, therefore,
allowing states to be able to limit the freedoms of former slaves.

23. Andrew Johnson
(D-TN) 1865-1869
• Why Johnson
• Only southern Senator to remain with union
• Offered VP to balance ticket
• Personality of Johnson
• Stubborn, never willing to compromise
• Inflexible, righteous streak, thin skinned to
criticism
• Believed in conspiracy theories when people
were against him
• Loved Andrew Jackson
• Some say he was the most racist president.
(Blacks were savages, barbarians, just go back
to work on plantation
• Wrong side of History, Morality, and Politics (does
he remind you of another Pres)
Click for Bio

24. Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan:
1) Amnesty upon simple oath
 Exceptions: Confederate government
officials, military officers & those with
property over $20,000.
 Pardons
2) New state constitutions -
 repudiate Slavery, Secession, and
Confederate debts.
Johnson’s Plan Impact
• 13,500 pardons (re-establishes the planter
aristocracy)
• Former Confederates elected to Congress
• BLACK CODES passed
Andrew Johnson
Johnson’s Plan
Presidential Reconstruction

25. Johnson’s Plan
• Also demanded that wealthy planters and high-
ranking Confederates ask him personally for
forgiveness
• By December 1865, all former Confederate states
had met Johnson’s requirements for readmission
to the Union.
• Johnson considered Reconstruction complete.
• Southern states held elections and rebuilt their
state governments.
• Many former Confederates regained power.
• Dec. 1865 – Stevens saw to it that House clerk Edward
McPherson skipped the reading of Southern
representatives’ names, keeping them from being
seated.
Presidential Reconstruction

26. States Pass Harsh Black
Codes
• In 1865-66 Southern states passed black codes to help restore
order to the South.
• Similar to the old slave codes, these laws applied only to
African Americans and severely restricted their freedom.
• South Carolina and Mississippi had some of the harshest black
codes of all the Southern states.
This engraving
shows a black
man convicted of
“vagrancy” being
auctioned off to
the highest bidder.

27. Black Codes – Similar to
Slave Codes, which restricted
the freedom of movement and
limited African American rights
as free people.
As southern states were restored
to the Union under President
Johnson’s plan, they began to
enact black codes.
The Black Codes established virtual
slavery with provisions such as:
• Curfews: Generally, black people could not
gather after sunset.
• Vagrancy Laws: Freedmen convicted of vagrancy
– that is, not working – could be fined, whipped, or
sold for a year’s labor.
• Labor Contracts: Freedmen had to sign agreements
in January for a year of work. Those who quit in the middle of a
contract often lost all the wages they had earned.
• Land Restrictions: Freed people could rent land or homes only
in rural areas. This restriction forced them to live on plantations.

28. Race Riot in Memphis
In the late afternoon of May 1, 1866, long
broiling tensions between the residents of
southern Memphis, TN erupted into a three
day riot. The riot began when a white police
officer attempted to arrest a black ex-soldier
and an estimated fifty blacks showed up to
stop the police from jailing him. The victims
initially were only black soldiers, but the
violence quickly spread to other blacks living
just south of Memphis who were attacked
while their homes, schools, and churches
were destroyed. White Northerners who
worked as missionaries and school teachers
in black schools were also targeted.
By the end of May 3, Memphis’s black
community had been devastated. Forty-six
blacks had been killed. Two whites died in
the conflict, one as the result of an accident
and another, a policeman, because of a self-
inflicted gunshot. There were five rapes and
285 people were injured. Over one hundred
houses and buildings burned down as a result
of the riot and the neglect of the firemen. No
arrests were made.
The New Orleans Riot July 30, 1866 occurred when
white residents attacked Black marchers gathered
outside the Mechanics Institute, where the
reconvened Louisiana Constitutional Convention met
in response to the state legislature enacting Black
Codes and limiting suffrage.
The brutal attack led to a total of 150 casualties,
including 48 deaths (44 African Americans and three
white Radical Republicans).
Race Riot New Orleans

29. Republicans Gain Control of
Congress
• President Johnson toured the country in 1866
to support Democrats running for Congress.
But he cussed people out from the podium
• He also urged states NOT to ratify the 14th
Amendment.
• His actions helped Republicans win a landslide
victory in elections that year.
ELECTION of 1866 – 3-1 margin for
Radical Republicans
Republicans now had a “veto-proof” majority in
Congress and would take full control of
Reconstruction.
Radical Republicans Response
• Block the seating of former Confederates
• Civil Rights Act of 1866 (Johnson Veto)
• Renew the Freedmen Bureau (Johnson
Veto) VOTE

30. Johnson’s
Plan
Congress responds by:
Johnson vetoed the Congress 29 times
to block laws. Johnson was now openly
defying Congress.
The Radical Republicans that controlled Congress
did not approve of Johnson’s lack of support for
African Americans’ rights.
• Expansion of Freedmen’s Bureau to
include punishing state officials who
fail to extend civil rights to African
Americans.
• Civil Rights Act of 1866 – Ending of
Black Codes by creating a federal
guarantee of civil rights to African
Americans.

31. An inflexible President, 1866: Republican
cartoon shows Johnson knocking Blacks of the
Freedmen’s Bureau by his veto.
Congress believed Johnson was
working against Reconstruction and
overrode his veto 15 times.
President Johnson is impeached &
Congress did something
unprecedented. With the required
2/3rds majority, it passed major
legislation over a President’s veto.
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 became
law.
Congress begins its Reconstruction
Plan

32. Congressional
Reconstruction
Congress passed the 14th Amendment,
which guaranteed equality under the law
for all citizens.
Congress passed the
Reconstruction Act of 1867,
which divided the 10
southern states into 5
military districts governed
by former Union generals.
The South would be
reconstructed under the
Radical Republicans plan.
We will FORCE the
South to make all
the necessary
changes!!

33. Radical Reconstruction
• Each district placed under martial law.
• Union troops were stationed in the South to prevent violence and
protect freedmen.

35. Congressional Reconstruction

36. Impeachment – Accusation against a public official of
wrongdoing in office. Bringing charges against the President.
Involves two steps…
• 1st Step: U.S. House of Representatives hold hearings to decide if
there are crimes committed. They then vote on the charges and if
there is a majority, then, charges are brought against the
President.
• 2nd Step: U.S. Senate becomes a courtroom. The
President is tried for the charges brought against him.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is the judge.
Once trial is completed, Senators must vote to remove
President with a 2/3rds vote.

37. • The Presidency would suffer as a
result of this failed impeachment.
• President would be more a figure-
head.
• Saved the separation of powers of
3 branches of government.
• Brought up on 11
charges of high crimes
and misdemeanors.
• Tenure in Office Act:
Law Congress passed.
President can’t fire any
of his cabinet members
without consulting
Congress.
• Fired Edwin Stanton
• Missed being removed
from office by 1 vote.

40. Protecting the Freedmen
13th Amendment
1865
Freedmen’s
Bureau 1865
Civil Rights Act
of 1866
Reconstruction
Act of 1867
14th Amendment
1868
KKK Acts 1871
15th Amendment
1870
Civil Rights Act
(Enforcement
Acts) 1875

41. 1865-13th Amendment to the
US Constitution
• Legal Abolishment
of Slavery in all
states in the Union
• All Southern States
were required to
ratify this
constitutional
amendment for
remittance to the
Union

42. Neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude,
EXCEPT as a
punishment for crime
where of the party shall
have been duly
convicted, shall exist
within the United
States, or any place
subject to their
Ratified December 6, 1865
RECONSTRUCTION
AMENDMENTS:
13 14 15

43. Convict Leasing “Chain Gang”
States paid private contractors to house and
feed the prisoners. Within a few years states
realized they could lease out their convicts to
local planters or industrialists who would pay
minimal rates for the workers and be responsible
for their housing and feeding -- thereby
eliminating costs and increasing revenue. Soon,
markets for convict laborers developed, with
entrepreneurs buying and selling convict labor
leases. Unlike slavery, employers had only a
small capitol investment in convict laborers, and
little incentive to treat them well. Convict
laborers were often dismally treated, but the
convict lease system was highly profitable for
the states and the employers. U.S. Steel is
among American companies who have
acknowledged using African-American leased
convict labor.
The practice peaked around 1880, was formally
outlawed by the last state (Alabama) in 1928,
and persisted in various forms until it was
abolished by President Franklin D. Roosevelt via
Francis Biddle's "Circular 3591" of December
12, 1941.

44. 1866-14th Amendment to the United
States Constitution
• Made all former
slaves citizens of the
United States
• All Southern States
had to ratify this
amendment for
remittance back into
the Union

45. Thaddeus Stevens
In late April 1866, Representative Thaddeus Stevens introduced a plan that combined
several different legislative proposals (civil rights for Black people, how to apportion
representatives in Congress, punitive measures against the former Confederate States
of America and repudiation of Confederate war debt), into a single constitutional
amendment. After the House and Senate both voted on the amendment by June 1866,
it was submitted to the states for ratification.
President Johnson made clear his opposition to the 14th Amendment as it made its
way through the ratification process, but Congressional elections in late 1866 gave
Republicans veto-proof majorities in both the House and Senate.
Southern states also resisted, but Congress required them to ratify the 13th and 14th
Amendments as a condition of regaining representation in Congress, and the ongoing
presence of the Union Army in the former Confederate states ensured their
compliance.
On July 9, 1868, Louisiana and South Carolina voted to ratify the 14th Amendment,
making up the necessary two-thirds majority.

46. Fourteenth Amendment
Ratified July 9, 1868
N
RECONSTRUCTION
AMENDMENTS:
• Section 1 Naturalization Clause & the
Citizenship Clause The clause conferred
U.S. and state citizenship at birth to all
individuals born in the United States.
• Section 2 deals with the apportionment of
representatives to Congress.
• Section 3 forbids anyone who participates
in “insurrection or rebellion” against the
United States from holding federal office.
• Section 4 addresses federal debt and
repudiates debts accrued by the
Confederacy. Section 5 expressly
authorizes Congress to enforce the
Fourteenth Amendment “by appropriate
legislation.”

47. Civil Rights Protection under the
14th Amendment
• The most commonly used -- and frequently litigated -- phrase in the amendment
is "equal protection of the laws", which figures prominently landmark cases,
including Brown v. Board of Education (racial discrimination), Roe v.
Wade (reproductive rights), Bush v. Gore (election recounts), Reed v. Reed (gender
discrimination), and University of California v. Bakke (racial quotas in education
“Affirmative Action”).
• In Elk v. Wilkins, 112 U.S. 94 (1884), the Supreme Court held that children born to Native
American tribes governed by local tribal governments were not automatically granted citizenship
under the Fourteenth Amendment. Congress, however, granted citizenship to Native Americans in
1924 when it passed the Indian Citizenship Act.
• In United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), the Supreme Court ruled that a child born
in America to non-citizen Chinese parents, that child is a United States citizen.
• State Action
– The State Action Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment declares that a state cannot make or
enforce any law that abridges the privileges or immunities of any citizen. In the Civil Rights
Cases, 109 U.S. 3 (1883), the Supreme Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which
prohibited racial discrimination in public accommodations, was unconstitutional because it
tried to regulate private actors.
– In a number of cases, the Court has continued to limit state action claims against private
individuals.

48. 15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment
Gave African-American
Males the Right to Vote

49. Background of the 15th Amendment
• With the adoption of the 15th Amendment in 1870, a politically
mobilized African American community joined with white allies in the
Southern states to elect the Republican Party to power, which
brought about radical changes across the South. By late 1870, all the
former Confederate states had been readmitted to the Union, and
most were controlled by the Republican Party thanks to the support
of Black voters.
• Today, people in power are still trying to control who votes
The main impetus behind the 15th Amendment was the
Republican desire to entrench its power in both the North and
the South. Black votes would help accomplish that end. The
measure was passed by Congress in 1869, and was quickly
ratified by the requisite three-fourths of the states in 1870.

50. 13th Amendment
Abolished slavery
(1865)
14th Amendment
Provided citizenship &
equal protection under
the law. (1868)
15th Amendment
Provided the right to vote
for all men which
included white and black
men. (1870)
Giving the Black man the
right to vote was truly
revolutionary……..
A victory for democracy!

51. 1st Black Senators & Congressmen, 1872
• 90% of all African American men voted when they had the opportunity.
• Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to
effectively disenfranchise African Americans. It would take the passage of the Voting Rights
Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote.

52. Hiram Revels was the first African American
elected to the Senate. Mississippi
Who was
Hiram Revels?
In 1870 he replaced
the seat vacated by
Jefferson Davis.
During Reconstruction, African Americans held the largest majority in the
Republican-controlled state legislature.

53. Blanche K. Bruce
Richard H. Cain
Henry P. Cheatham
Robert C. DeLarge
Jeremiah Haralson
John A. Hyman
John M. Langston
Jefferson F. Long
Thomas E. Miller
George W. Murray
Charles E. Nash
James E. O'Hara
Joseph H. Rainey
Alonzo J. Ransier
James T. Rapier
Hiram R. Revels
Robert Smalls
Benjamin S. Turner
Robert B. Elliott
John R. Lynch
Josiah T. Walls
George H. White
African-Americans in
Congress

54. State
Number of
Officeholders
Alabama 173
Arkansas 46
District of Columbia 11
Florida 58
Georgia 135
Louisiana 210
Mississippi 226
Missouri 1
North Carolina 187
South Carolina 316
Tennessee 20
Texas 49
Virginia 85
Total 1517
Black Officeholders during
Reconstruction By State
Black Officeholders during
Reconstruction: Federal
Title Number of Officeholders
Ambassador 2
Census Marshal 6
Census Taker 14
Clerk 12
Congressman: Senate 2
Congressman: House of
Representatives
14
Customs Appointment 40
Deputy US Marshal 11
Engineer 1
Mail Agent 14
Pension Agent 1
Postmaster/Post Office
Official
43
Register of Bankruptcy 1
Timber Agent 1
US Assessor 10
US Grand Jury 3
US Land Office 5
US Treasury Agent 3
Unidentified Patronage
Appointment
2
Total 185

55. Black Officeholders during
Reconstruction: State and
Major Black State Officials
Constitutional Convention
1867-1869: Delegate
267
Legislator: House of
Representatives
683
Legislator: Senate 112
Lieutenant Governor 6
Militia Officer 60
Secretary of State 9
Speaker of House 4
State Commissioner 5
Superintendent of
Education
4
Lunatic Asylum, Board of
Regents
7
Lunatic Asylum, Assistant
Physician
1
Deaf and Dumb Asylum,
Superintendent
1
County or Local
Assessor 32 Harbor Master 3
Auditor 7 Health Officer 1
Board of Education 79 Inspector 10
Board of Health 1 Jailor 9
Chancery Clerk 1 Judge 11
Charitable
Institutions,
Supervisor of
1 Jury Commissioner 1
City Attorney 1
Justice of the Peace or
Magistrate
232
City Clerk 1 Lumber Measurer 1
City Council 146 Mayor 5
City Marshal 7 Notary Public 5
City Officer
(unidentified)
3 Ordinary 3
City Public Works
Commissioner
2 Overseer of Poor 7
Claims Commissioner 1 Overseer of Roads 1
Clerk 12 Park Commission 1
Clerk of Court 24 Police Officer 71
Clerk of Market 2 Recorder 9
Constable 41 Register of Bankruptcy 1
Coroner 33 Register of Deeds 2
County Attorney 1
Register of Mesne
Conveyances
1
County Clerk 2 Registrar 116
County Commissioner 113 Sheriff 41
County
Superintendent of
Schools
14 Solicitor 1
County Treasurer 17 Street Commissioner 5
Deputy Sheriff 25
Streetcar
Commissioner
1
Detective 2 Tax Collector 35
District Attorney 1 Trustee 2
District Clerk 1 Warden 4
Election Officer 52 Weigher 4

56. African Americans help republican candidate and
former Union general, Ulysses S. Grant elected
President.
Grant was against the policies of Andrew
Johnson. Initially, Grant wanted to delay the 15th
amendment, but evolved his views in its support
In 1869, Congress
passed the 15th
Amendment forbidding
any state from denying
suffrage on the grounds
of race.

59. The Freedmen’s Bureau’s goal was to provide food, clothing,
healthcare, and education for both black and white refugees in
the South.
The Bureau also helped to:
1. Reunite families that
had been separated
by slavery and war.
2. Negotiate fair labor
contracts between
former slaves and
white landowners.
3. Helped represent
African Americans in
courts.
Historical Significance: Established the
precedent that black citizens had legal
rights.

60. The Freedmen’s Bureau!
Aid Organization
1. Provide Food
2. Provide Clothes
3. Provide Money
4. Legal Services
5. Labor Contracts
6. Create Schools
7. Medical Care
For Whites/Blacks
Howard University
Food Lines
Make Clothes
Provide Money / Legal Adv.
Labor & Land Contracts
Public Schools

65. 40 Acres & a
Mule
A term of compensation that was
awarded to freed slaves after the
Civil War by Gen. Sherman.
President Johnson ordered that the
original landowners be allowed to
reclaim their land and evict the
former slaves.
Congress passed the 1866 Southern
Homestead Act. This set aside 44 million
acres in the South for freed blacks, but the
land was swampy and unsuitable for farming.
•The Truth Behind ’40 Acres and a Mule

66. 40 Acres & A Mule
Most freedmen wanted/expected
land to help them transition to
freedom
• Rumor spread that the
government would give all ex-
slaves forty acres and a mule to
start their newlives
• Radical Republicans proposed
taking away land from plantation
owners and giving it to freed
people, butthe idea did not have
enough support in Congress to
pass
• Many felt that civil/voting
rights were enough
• Land reform would be too
harsh onSoutherners
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z
IeiIgHl7A

67. During the war, the demand for Southern cotton had begun to drop
as other countries increased their production. As a result, prices
plummeted after the war.
1869 17 cents per pound
1879 8 cents per pound
Southern planters tried to make up
for the lower prices by growing more
cotton – an oversupply that only
drove down prices even further.
What should’ve the farmers
tried instead of growing more
cotton?

68. Contract System vs. Sharecropping
Contract System Sharecropping System
freedmen worked on plantation Freedmen rented a plot of
in exchange for wages, shelter, land in exchange for a share
and food of the crop
Pros:
• African Americans could decide
whom to work for
• Planters could not abuse them or
split up families
Cons:
• Like in slavery, workers couldn’t
leave the plantation without
permission
• Planters cheated the workers in
wages and benefits
• Laws punished workers for breaking
contracts even if they were cheated
Pros:
• Families without land had a place to
farm and call home
• Landowners had a source of cheap
labor
Cons:
• Farmers wanted to grow food crop for
their families, but landowners wanted
them to grow cash crops like cotton.
Surplus

69. SHARECROPPERS

70. Farming in the South created a
cycle of debt, which began
with sharecropping.
Sharecropping – A system in which
landowners give farm workers land,
seed, and tools in return for a part
of the crops they raise.
Tenant Farming – A system in
which farm workers supply
their own tools and rent
farmland for cash.
At harvest time, each worker
gave a share, usually half, to
the landowner.
In theory, “croppers” who saved
a little and bought their own
tools could drive a better
bargain with landowners.
They might even be able to
become a tenant farmer.

71. The Barrow plantation, 1860-1881
Before the Civil War, about 135 slaves worked on the plantation, supervised by an overseer
and a slave foreman. After the war, the former slaves who remained on the plantation signed
labor contracts with owner David Barrow. Freedmen grew cotton for wage, but they disliked
the new arrangement. In the late 1860s, Barrow subdivided his land into tenant farms of
twenty-five to thirty acres, and freedmen moved their households from the old slave quarters
to their own farms. By 1881, 161 tenants lived on the Barrow plantation, at least half of them
children. One out of four families was named Barrow.

72. Realities of Sharecropping
• Planters needed to enter into sharecropping agreements with their former
slaves because they needed workers to plant and harvest crops.
• Small farmers were angry and often hostile towards African American
sharecroppers. They believed the African Americans created unfair
competition.
• Sharecroppers were often in debt they could not repay. The crop lien
system perpetuated the endless cycle of debt. POVERTY

73. Benjamin & Isiah Montgomery
and Mound Bayou

74. UNDERFUNDED
Re-chartered annually until it
was abolished in 1872.
Northern Cartoon
(Pennsylvania, 1866)
Met with resistance in
both North and South

75. The Ku Klux Klan
The first Klan was founded in Pulaski,
Tennessee, on December 24, 1865, by six
former officers of the Confederate army
The first two words of the organization’s
name supposedly derived from the Greek
word “kyklos,” meaning circle and Klan
means family. In the summer of 1867, local
branches of the Klan met in a general
organizing convention and established what
they called an “Invisible Empire of the
South.” Leading Confederate
general Nathan Bedford Forrest was chosen
as the first leader, or “grand wizard,” of the
Klan; he presided over a hierarchy of grand
dragons, grand titans and grand cyclopses.

76. The Ku Klux Klan
1. Adopted white costumes:
robes, masks, and conical hats,
to be terrifying, and to hide
their identities.
2. Desired to rid the South of
all Northern influence.
3. Advocated white supremacy,
white nationalism, and anti-
immigration/catholic/Jew.
4. Soon the Klan turned into a
violent organization practicing
domestic terrorism. Its major
goal was to restore white
supremacy and prevent
African Americans from
exercising their political rights

78. KKK Got to Go Away
I met four white men about six miles south of Keachie, De Soto Parish. One of them asked me who I
belonged to. I told him no one. So him and two others struck me with a stick and told me they were
going to kill me and every other Negro who told them that they did not belong to anyone. One of them
who knew me told the others, "Let Henry alone for he is a hard-working nigger and a good nigger."
They left me and I then went on to Shreveport. I seen over twelve colored men and women, beat, shot
and hung between there and Shreveport.
• Henry Adams

79. Stephens, a white
republican, stated that
3,000 A.A. voters had
supported him and he
would not abandon
them.
Stephens
was
assassinated
by the KKK
in 1870.
NC Senator
John Stephens
KKK mask from the
Reconstruction Era –
N.C. Museum of
History

80. The Ku Klux Klan Hearings
1871 congressional hearings for “Reconstruction
Violence and the Ku Klux Klan Hearings.” The
hearings detailed severe violence in the South
against African-Americans and sympathizers by
Klan members in the aftermath of the Civil War and
after passage of the reconstruction amendments.
Congressional testimony estimated that anywhere
from 20,000 to as many as 50,000 people, mostly
black, died in violence between 1866 and 1872, he
said. As a result of the congressional investigation,
federal grand juries issued about 3,000 indictments
in connection with the killings. Hundreds of
defendants pleaded guilty in return for suspended
sentences, and the Justice Department dropped
charges against nearly 2,000 others in order to keep
the court system from being clogged. Of those who
did face trials, about 600 were convicted and 250
were acquitted. Only 65 individuals were
imprisoned.

82. • In response, the Reconstructionist Congress passed a series of Enforcement Acts
(also known as the Force Acts) to curb such violence and empower the president to
use military force to protect the rights of African Americans.
• The Third Force Act (KKK or the Civil Rights Act of 1871) empowered President
Ulysses S. Grant to use the armed forces to combat those who conspired to deny
equal protection of the laws. After the act’s passage, the president for the first time
had the power to suppress state disorders on his own initiative and suspend the right
of habeas corpus. Grant did not hesitate to use this authority.
• Shortly after Congress approved the law, nine counties in South Carolina, where
KKK terrorism was rampant, were placed under martial law and thousands of
persons were arrested.
Civil Rights Act of 1871

83. • In United States v. Harris, also known as the Ku Klux case,
four men were removed from a Crockett County, Tenn., jail by
a KKK-affiliated group led by County Sheriff R.G. Harris.
They were beaten and one of them was killed. A deputy sheriff
tried, but failed, to prevent what occurred. The court ruled that
an act to enforce the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause
applied only to state action and not to state inaction. Under this
thinking, the 14th Amendment authorized the federal
government to take remedial action only when state actions, not
those of individuals, violated the amendment.
• Since then, the Civil Rights Act of 1871 has been the subject of
voluminous interpretation by the courts. The legal pendulum
swung back in 1961, when the high court ruled that the statute
could be applied to “override certain kinds of state laws”; to
offer “a remedy where state law was inadequate”; and to
provide “a federal remedy where the state remedy, though
adequate in theory, was not available in practice.”
Today, sections of the 1871 Civil Rights Act that have survived
court scrutiny can be invoked whenever a state actor violates a
federally guaranteed right. They are most commonly employed to
redress violations of constitutional protections against
unreasonable search and seizure and in lawsuits alleging false
arrest and police brutality.
United States v. Harris,
Ku Klux case

84. The 1873 Colfax Massacre
Crippled the Reconstruction Era
One of the worst incidents of racial violence after the Civil
War set the stage for segregation
• The Colfax Massacre occurred on April 13, 1873. The
battle-turned-massacre took place in the small town of
Colfax, Louisiana as a clash between blacks and
whites. Three whites and an estimated 150 blacks died in
the conflict.
• On March 28, local white Democratic leaders called for
armed supporters to help them take the Colfax Parish
Courthouse from the black and white GOP officeholders on
April 1. The Republicans responded by urging their mostly
black supporters to defend them. Although nothing
happened on April 1, the next day fighting erupted between
the two groups.
• A total of 97 white militia men were arrested and charged
with violation of the U.S. Enforcement Act of 1870 (also
known as the Ku Klux Klan Act).
• A handful of them were convicted but were eventually
released in 1875 when the U.S. Supreme Court in United
States v. Cruikshank ruled the Enforcement Act was
unconstitutional.
• If a mob kills you, the Court said you were not denied
your rights as long as its private individuals and not a
Federal Crime but a State crime.
U.S. v. Reese &
U.S. v. Cruikshank
weakened federal
power to enforce the
Force Acts

85. Judicial blocks of Reconstruction
• Slaughterhouse Cases 1873: 14th/15th Amendment do not protect
individual rights against discrimination by their own state government.
(most citizenship rights stayed with state governments) basically meaning
the states could decide what rights African Americans had at times.

86. Growing Disenchantment
• Economic Panic of 1873 (lasted for six years)
• People’s attention became focused on their pocketbooks
rather than on abstract ideals of equality and justice in the
South
• The United States was experiencing growing pains of
modernization and during Reconstruction, the Republican
Party went through a battle for its soul. By 1874, the strength
of the Radical Republicans Thaddeus Stevens and Charles
Sumner were dead
• Republican Party became a protector of privilege rather than
a guarantor of basic rights; Republicans and Democrats
joined hands in conservative support of railroad and
industrial interests
• In 1874 Midterm elections, Democrats gained control of the
House and gained seats in the Senate with help from KKK’s
actions, changing Republican Party, and ECONOMY

87. Civil Rights Act of 1875
U.S. legislation (last of the
major Reconstruction
statutes) which guaranteed
all persons the enjoyment of
transportation facilities, in
hotels and inns and in
theaters and places of public
amusement regardless of
race, color or previous
condition of servitude
Also, African-Americans can
service on juries

88. Retreat from Reconstruction
By 1876, all the elements were present
for a national retreat on
Reconstruction:
– the distraction of economic
distress
– a deep desire for unity among
whites
– the respectability of racism
– a frustrated weariness with
black problems
– a growing conservatism on
economic and social issues
– a changing political climate
featuring a resurgence of the
Democratic Party
– a general public disgust with
the failure of Reconstruction.
Have White Men Any Rights Left

89. Supreme Court Civil Rights Cases 1883
The Civil Rights Cases of 1883 combined five different cases that revolved around the 1875 Civil Rights Act.
Although privately owned establishments, they were viewed by Congress to be quasi-public facilities carrying out
public functions for the benefit of the public and therefore were subject to regulation. The Supreme Court
examined the 1875 Civil Rights Act in light of the 13th and 14th amendments:
• By an 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the 1875 Civil Rights Act was
unconstitutional.
• Neither the 13th or 14th amendments empowered Congress to pass laws that prohibited racial
discrimination in the private sector.
• The 14th Amendment, read narrowly by the Supreme Court, applied only to state, not
individual actions.
• In regard to the 13th Amendment, the discrimination by individuals in these cases were
"ordinary civil injuries" rather than "badges of slavery." The Supreme Court also emphasized
at the end of its decision that the time had come where former slaves were to be considered
normal citizens rather than a special group favored by the law.

90. Broken Promises

91. Among the most notorious scandals were:
i. Credit Mobilier Scandal: Railroad officials impoverished the
railroad, then bribed members of Congress to block any
investigation.
ii. “Whiskey Ring”: Internal Revenue collectors accepted bribes
from whiskey distillers who wanted to avoid paying taxes on
their product.
Grant’s strength, however, were those
of a military leader, not those of a
politician or government leader.
Scandals and corruption
damaged Grant’s
administration, which
diverted attention away from
the conditions in the south.

92. Carpetbaggers & Scalawags
1. A Northerner who went to the
South after the Civil War for
political or financial advantage.
2. An outsider, especially a
politician, who seeks a position
or success in a new locality.
1. a scamp; rascal.
2. a white Southerner who
supported Republican policy
during Reconstruction, often
for personal gain.

93. View of Reconstruction
became it was a burden
Carpetbaggers –
Northerners who came
South after Civil War. Voted
Republican; viewed
negatively by southerners;
held high offices.
Scalawags – White
southerners who joined
blacks and carpetbaggers in
Republican Party. Viewed
as traitors by most
southerners.

94. Grant’s Challenges!

95. Grants Shortcomings

96. As the evidence
mounted, there was
increasing disgust
with the blatant
corruption in Grant’s
administration.
Grant did not seek
reelection in 1876.
See you all later. I need to
go back in time and fight in
the Civil War. I’m not too
good at this new job.

97. Election of 1876
Tilden (D) v. Hayes (R)
Historical Significance:
Democrats now had Home Rule –
the ability to run state governments
without federal intervention.
Tilden won the popular vote, but
needed one more electoral vote
to win the presidency.
A deal was made called the
Compromise of 1877.
Republicans Get
1. Hayes becomes President.
Democrats Get
1. Withdraw remaining federal
troops from the South, thus
ending Reconstruction.
2. Name a southerner to his cabinet.
3. Support federal spending on
internal improvements in the
South.

98. The withdrawal of federal troops enabled white
These so called redeemers set out to rescue the South
from what they viewed as a decade of mismanagement
by northerners, republicans, and African Americans.
Various methods
were used to curb the
rights of African
Americans, and by
1900, their civil rights
had been sharply
limited.
southerners to eliminate
any political advances
A.A. had made during
Reconstruction.

99. Plessy vs. Fergusson!
• Case that came before the Supreme court in 1896.
• Ruled that “Separate but Equal is Legal”
• Not undone until 1954 Case- Brown vs. Board

100. 4. Southern states est. public
school system.
1. Union is restored.
5. K.K.K. & other
groups terrorize A.A.
2. A.A. gain citizenship & voting rights.
6. Sharecropping system takes
hold in the South.
3. South’s economy and infrastructure
are improved.