The Reconstruction policy had a significant impact in South Carolina. Under Presidential Reconstruction, Black Codes were passed to restrict freedmen's rights and the Freedmen's Bureau helped former slaves but its land redistribution was reversed. Congressional Reconstruction established military districts, required ratification of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, and passed the 14th Amendment establishing citizenship rights. However, South Carolina refused to ratify these amendments, leading Congress to require it write a new constitution recognizing the amendments under continued military governance.

1. Reconstruction Policy & SC
8.5-1—Analyze the development of
Reconstruction policy and its impact in South
Carolina, including the presidential and the
congressional reconstruction plans, the role of
black codes, and the Freedmen’s Bureau.

2. Rewind Review
• Civil War ended
• Emancipation of
slaves
• Broke & decimated
south
• Huge life loss on
both sides
Abraham Lincoln (4:46)

3. The Reconstruction Era
• SC was broke b/c of the Civil War, but the Federal
government didn’t think it was their
responsibility to build the state back up
economically
• They left the “picking-up the pieces” to
individuals and state & local governments….
Remember SC is now BROKE!
• Reconstruction policies didn’t include the
rebuilding of destroyed towns, factories, farms,
or transpiration systems

4. The Freedman’s Bureau
• Overseen by the US Army
• 1st line of assistance for everyone effected by the Civil War, both
whites & destitute freemen
• Provided food, clothing, medical care, education, and some
protections from the hostile white environment
• Helped freemen find jobs & established courts to protect illiterate
workers
• Distributed abandoned land ( lands abandoned during the war or
confiscated as punishment for disloyalty to the Union) to freemen
• This land was taken back from the freemen when President Johnson
pardoned the white owners who were returned their property

5. The Freedman’s Bureau
• Most African Americans did not receive land
• In lieu of getting land, the Bureau established share-cropping
relationships with workerless plantation owners
• This system mired African Americans and poor whites to economic
dependency & poverty for generations
• Share-cropping played a role in the economic recovery of SC (1:39)
• Most important contribution by the Freedman’s Bureau was the
establishment of over 1,000 schools in the south

6. Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction
• Formulated before the fighting was ever over
• End the war as quickly as possible
• 10% policy
• Convince southern states to surrender
• Required states to recognize the end of slavery
• Lincoln’s Assassination did not significantly
change the plan
• President Johnson added that individual southern
elite must request a pardon from him and ratify
the 13th amendment; freeing all slaves (6:02)
“Soft on the South”

7. Congress & the Reconstruction Plan
• Passed the plan to protect the rights of newly freed slaves
& the Republican political power
• While Congress was on break, SC and other southern states
passed Black Codes & elected former Confederates to
Congress
• Congress refused to admit returning Southern officials
• Increased violence against freemen and President Johnson’s
opposition to the extension of the Freedmen’s Bureau &
the 14th amendment significantly changed the course of
Reconstruction policy
• “Radical Republicans” won the majority in the election of
1865

8. Congress & the Reconstruction Plan
• Passed a congressional plan for Reconstruction
– Military occupation of the former Confederacy
– Splitting it into 5 military districts (SC was in the 2nd
district)
– Each district had a military governor & the army was
used to enforce its provisions
– Johnson was impeached by Congress (was not
removed from office)
– Union Army attempted to enforce the 13th, 14th, &
15th amendments

9. The 13th Amendment
• Ratification & assurances that they would
abide by the 13th amendment was required of
southern states before they could make new
state governments
• Resulted in emancipation of slaves and
profound social changes for southern African
Americans

10. Southern Freedmen
• Consolidated their families
• Built communities
• Established a network churches & autonomous
institutions
• Claimed equal citizenship
• Got educated & found independence in their lives
• African Americans left white churches to attend
congregations of their own
• They moved away from the Big House slave
quarters to small houses on plots

11. Post War Southern Whites
• Little social changes in the beginning
• Social classes remained the same even with the
loss of economic status by the planter elite
• Black Codes showed that southern whites were
not willing to recognize the social and political
rights newly freed slaves (10:31)
• Both groups chose to keep a social distance from
one another
• Loss of control over the African American cause
great anxiety among the whites

12. Post War Southern Whites
• White South Carolinians resented African
Americans and feared retaliation by their
former slaves
• Formation of terrorist groups (Ku Klux Klan)
reflected the mounting racial tension & the
determination of the white population to keep
the African American population in “its place”
socially, politically, & economically (9:55)

13. 14th Amendment
• Designed to protect the political & social rights of
freedmen from intimidation
• Overturned the Dred Scot decision
• Upheld rights of all citizens to “equal protection” before
the laws & :due process” of law
• Required 2/3 votes of Congress to grant amnesty to ex-
Confederates before they could hold public offices
• Included provisions to force states to grant political rights
to freemen by reducing representation for the states that
did not allow African American to vote
• This provision proved to be ineffective

14. 15th Amendment
• Right to all males citizens to vote in the North
& South
• Would not be denied based on “race, creed or
previous condition of servitude”
• Motivated by the Republican desire to secure
its political power in the south
• Southern vote in the Election of 1868
(President Grant) was largely African American

15. SC’s Refusal & Consequence
• SC refused to ratify the 14th & 15th
Amendments
• As a result of Congressional Reconstruction,
the military governor of Military District 2
required SC to hold a convention to write a
new state constitution that would recognize
the amendments
Civil Rights Amendments & Jim Crow Laws
(9:13)