Richmond, Virginia - 1865

After the Confederacy surrendered to end the Civil

War, the U.S. government faced the question of how to

deal with the defeated southern states. Those states not only needed to be rebuilt due to the devastation of the

war but they had to be re-admitted back into the Union.

This period in American history is known as…

RECONSTRUCTION

Plans of ReconstructionThere were four different plans for

Reconstruction:

• Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan• Wade - Davis Bill

• Andrew Johnson’s Plan• Reconstruction Act

Ten Percent Plan (1863)

Proposed by:President Abraham Lincoln

Conditions for former Confederate states to rejoin the Union:

• Ten percent of voters must swear loyalty to the Union.

• Must abolish slavery.

Lincoln’s plan made it easy for the nation to be united again. Lincoln, however, could not

see his plan through.

On April 14, 1865 President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth while

attending a play with his wife.

Wade - Davis Bill (1864)Proposed by:

Republicans in Congress

Conditions for former Confederate states to rejoin Union:

• Majority of white men must swear loyalty.

• Former Confederate volunteers cannot vote or hold office.

U.S. Senator

Henry W. Davis

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Andrew Johnson’s Plan (1865)

Proposed by:Andrew Johnson

Conditions for former Confederate states to rejoin Union:

• Majority of white men must swear loyalty.

• Must ratify Thirteenth Amendment.

• Former Confederate officials may vote and

hold office.

Reconstruction Act (1867)Proposed by:

Radical RepublicansConditions for former

Confederate states to rejoin Union:• Must disband state

governments.• Must write new

constitutions.• Must ratify the

Fourteenth Amendment.

• African Americans must be allowed to vote.

Amendments and Laws to help Freed Slaves

1.Thirteenth Amendment

2.Fourteenth Amendment

3.Fifteenth Amendment

4.Freedmen’s Bureau

•Granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States. This gave most African Americans citizenship.

•Guaranteed equal protection of the laws.

•Declared that no state could “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.

Forbade any state to deny African Americans the

right to vote because of their race.

• Gave food and clothing to former slaves.

• Tried to find jobs for freedmen.

• Helped poor whites as well.

• Provided medical care for over 1 million people.

FREEDOM…

BUT NOT EQUALITY!

Laws against Equality

Southern states pass laws that separated blacks and whites in

schools, restaurants, theaters, trains, streetcars, playgrounds, and even

cemeteries.

JIM CROW LAWSJIM CROW LAWS

Plessy V.

Ferguson

The Supreme Courts decision ruled that segregation was legal so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were

equal…

Separate is NEVER equal.

Plessy v. Ferguson

VIOLENCE

Lynching

KKK

Spreads

Terror

Voting restrictions forAfrican Americans

•Poll Taxes: required voters to pay a fee each time they voted…

Freedmen could rarely afford to vote.

•Literacy Tests: required voters to read in order to vote.

Freedmen had little education.

•Grandfather Clauses: If voters father or grandfather had been eligible to vote in 1867 the voter did not have to take the literacy test.

This increased the number of eligible white voters.