THE AGONY OF RECONSTRUCTION1865-1877

Chapter 16

Damage to the South

Your Turn

Many historians criticize Southern reconstruction. What would be some rules and regulations that you

would implement toward reconstruction of the South in order to allow them back in? How would

you enforce them?

Questions About Reconstruction

• How and when should the states resume their former role?

• Should the South be punished?• Equal rights for all races?• Stronger federal government?

The President Versus Congress

• The North split on reconstructing the South• White House seeks speedy reconstruction

with minimum changes in the South• Congress seeks slower reconstruction,

demands protection for freedmen• Congress mistrusts white Southerners

Reconstruction Plans

• Lincoln plan announces lenient policy in 1863 (10% plan)– Never materializes because of assassination – Gets the 13th Amendment passed in Congress

• Johnson plan in 1865 instructs Southern conventions to1. Declare secession illegal2. Pardoned Southerners who swore allegiance to the Union

3. 13th Amendment ratified • Congress upset with a lack of commitment to equal

rights, even if some did not believe in racial equality

Congressional (Radical) Reconstruction Plan 1867

1. South under military rule until black suffrage fully secured (5 districts)

2. It ordered southern states to hold new elections for delegates/constitution

3. Pass 13th and 14th Amendment 4. Ordered all qualified male voters must be allowed to vote

(assumption=black suffrage/15th Amendment)5. Barred Southerners who supported Confederacy from voting• Johnson obstructs Congressional Reconstruction gets

impeached but isn’t convicted (Republicans lose public support)

Republican Rule in the South• 1867: Southern Republican party organized

– Businesspeople want government aid in South (carpetbaggers and scalawags)

– White farmers want protection from creditors– African Americans form majority of party, want

social and political equality (Freedman’s Bureau/End Black Codes)

• Republican coalition in South is unstable and corrupt

• Republicans break up when whites leave

Reunion and the New South

• The Compromise of 1877 election ends Reconstruction

• North and South reconcile after 1877

• Terms of reconciliation– African Americans

stripped of political gains– Big business interests

favored over small farmer

Lasting Legacies of Reconstruction

• Decline of federal interest in Reconstruction permits triumph of reaction and racism

• Land reverts to white owners• Slaveowners try to impose contract labor

– Sharecropping soon becomes peonage• Black Codes lead to Jim Crow Laws

– Violence (by KKK) and discrimination continued on a large scale• Corruption and economic downturns during Grant’s years lead

to the demise of Reconstruction • Economic issues and the development of the greenback

currency

Compare P.C.