Chapter 15Post-Civil War Reconstruction PlansKey terms: 10% Plan; Presidential Reconstruction; Radical Republicans Reconstruction; Freedmen’s Bureau; Andrew Johnson

Setting the Scene The post-war south lay in utter chaos:

Hundreds of thousands dead

Labor force gone

Economy in the tank

Property, land and countryside destroyed

Humiliated and defeated

Millions of newly freedmen without work, money or land

Increase in racial tensions and violence

President Lincoln was assassinated as the war ends, leaving a very large question mark in the box marked “reconstruction”

Enter Andrew Johnson

Southerner

Self-educated

Racist

King of the veto

The last Jacksonian

Democrat

The Plans

(1864) President Abraham Lincoln introduces the 10% Plan Southern states could be readmitted if 10% of the voting

population from the election of 1860 swore an oath of allegiance to the Union

Voters would draft a new state constitution and state government

Southerners except for high-ranking Confederate officers/government officials would receive a full pardon

(1864) Wade-Davis Bill is passed Lincoln’s 10% Plan except now 50% of the voting

population needed to swear an oath to the Union

The Plans

(1865) With Congress on break, president Johnson introduces his own plan—Presidential Reconstruction “White men alone must manage the south” Southern property is restored

Sherman Land is confiscated from freedmen States must pledge an oath to the Union and an accept the 13th

amendment Pardoned most southern elites and those involved in the war

Johnson’s policy is widely regarded as sympathetic to the south and very lenient

Several Confederate leaders regained their power and land Several states instituted Black Codes to dominate/control

freedmen

The Plans

(1866) With the republicans having a majority in both the House and Senate, they had enough power to pass/veto anything

Spearheaded by the radical republicans, Congress introduces its own reconstruction plan—Radical Reconstruction/Congressional Reconstruction No former ex-Confederates could hold office Promoted free labor Divided the southern states into 5 different military districts, each

governed by a Union general, each ruled by martial law Union troops are used to keep the peace and watch over voter

registration Southern states needed to redraft their constitutions, accept the 14th

amendment, provide suffrage to blacks in order to be readmitted into the Union

By 1870 all states had been readmitted to the Union