A PEOPLE

& A NATION
EIGHTH EDITION
Chapter 16:
Reconstruction:
An Unfinished
Revolution,
1865–1877
Q. What was the most important political
question facing the nation immediately
after the War Between The States?
• A. How to bring the southern states
back into the nation

• Q. What was the most important

social question facing the nation
immediately after the War Between
The States?
• A. How to assimilate four million
former slaves into freedom and
citizenship 2
 Ch.16: Reconstruction, 1865–
1877
• Dramatic social/political/legal changes
• President & Congress clash over process and
nature of Reconstruction
• New amendments to the Constitution
• Yet, key developments block full potential of
Reconstruction
• Return of Democratic control to South, thwarted
efforts to bring equality to freedmen, & eventual
northern indifference

3
 Sections of this Lecture
• 1. Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan: 1863–1865
• 2. Presidential Reconstruction: 1865–
1867
• 3. Radical Reconstruction: 1867–1877
• 4. The Postwar South and the Black
Codes: 1865–1877
• 5. Grant’s Presidency: 1869–1876
• 6. The End of Reconstruction: 1873–1877

4
 Section 1

Lincoln’s 10
Percent Plan, 1863-
1865

5
 The North after the War

• Lost = 360,000
• Gained – Republican party ascendancy
o Protective Tariff
o National Bank, 1862
o Government Loans to Industry
o Homestead Act, 1862
o Transcontinental Railroad, 1862-1869

6
 The South after the War
• Lost = 258,000 / proportionally higher losses
than North
• Cities burned
• Fields laid waste or too late to plant
• The war destroyed 1/2 the region’s farm
equipment, 1/3 of its draft animals
• Slavery ended and new labor relations were
needed
• The South was technically at the mercy of the
other states. Political suicide? Conquered
territory?
7
Richmond in Ruins, 1865

8
Richmond 1865

9
 Competing Plans (1863)
• Debate on restoring Union begin during
war
• Fearing guerrilla war after South’s defeat,
Lincoln favor leniency with swift process
• Lincoln announces lenient policy in 1863
• Congress resents Lincoln’s effort to
control
• Congressmen seek to condition
readmission to Union on black suffrage
• Congress mistrusts white Southerners
10
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

11
 Lincoln’s 10 % Plan

• 10 percent of southern voters in 1860 take an

oath of allegiance to the U.S.
• States vote to end slavery
• All but a few Confederate leaders and military
leaders able to hold office; simple loyalty oath
• No African American participation
• Not accepted by Congress
• Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau,
March 3, 1865. It lasted until 1870.

12
Rep. Thaddeus Stevens believed in the
conquered province theory

13
 Wade-Davis Bill

• Majority of southern voters take an

oath of allegiance.
• Southern states repudiate war debts
• No one who supported the Confederacy
could vote or hold office
• End slavery but no provision for black
voters
• Pocket vetoed by President Lincoln
14
 Lincoln’s 10 % Plan, 1863-65
• Events
o 1863 Lincoln issues Proclamation of
Amnesty and Reconstruction
o 1864 Congress passes Wade-Davis Bill;
Lincoln pocket-vetoes it
o 1865 Lee surrenders to Grant at
Appomattox Courthouse
o Congress creates Freedmen’s Bureau
o Lincoln is assassinated; Johnson
becomes president 15
 13th Amendment
• Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the
United States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction.
• Section 2. Congress shall have the power
to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
16
 AMA missionary teaching in a
Freedmen’s Bureau school, 1866

17
 Lincoln’s funeral procession
Pennsylvania Avenue, April 1865.

18
 Section 2

Presidential
Reconstruction,
1865-1867

19
Andrew Johnson at the Helm

20
 Johnson’s Restoration Plan
• Excluded voters worth more than $20,000
• Gave pardons to excluded individuals
• Restored property rights to white land
owners
• States must ratify 13th Amendment
• Recommended limited suffrage for black
voters

21
Johnson’s Racism, Leniency, &
Pardons (1865)
• Rejecting black suffrage, Johnson refuses to
force southern states to extend the vote
• Initially bars planters from voting/politics
• But when planters take control of new state
conventions, Johnson accepts them
• Pardons planters & restores their land
• Johnson wants their support for 1866
elections
• Declares Reconstruction over (Dec. 1865)

22
 Congress vs. Johnson (1866)
• Johnson’s refusal to compromise pushes
conservatives & moderates toward Radicals
• Numerous attacks on blacks (riots in Memphis,
New Orleans) also influence Congress
• Congress overrides vetoes to continue
Freedman’s Bureau & pass Civil Rights Act of
1866, first civil rights act
• Congress also drafts new amendment
• A compromise between different Republicans

23
 XIVth Amendment
• Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the
United States, and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the United States and of
the State wherein they reside. No State shall
make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States; nor shall any State deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property, without due process of
law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction
the equal protection of the laws.

24
 XIVth Amendment
• Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among
the several States according to their respective numbers,
counting the whole number of persons in each State,
excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at
any election for the choice of electors for President and
Vice President of the United States, Representatives in
Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or
the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of
the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years
of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way
abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other
crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced
in the proportion which the number of such male citizens
shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-
one years of age in such State. 25
 XIVth Amendment
• Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or
Representative in Congress, or elector of President and
Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under
the United States, or under any State, who, having
previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or
as an officer of the United States, or as a member of
any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial
officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the
United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or
rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the
enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-
thirds of each House, remove such disability.

26
 XIVth Amendment
• Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United
States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for
payment of pensions and bounties for services in
suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be
questioned. But neither the United States nor any State
shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in
aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States,
or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave;
but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held
illegal and void.
• Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce,
by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

27
 Presidential Reconstruction,
1865-67
• Events
o 1865 Lincoln is assassinated; Johnson becomes
president
o Congress establishes Joint Committee on
Reconstruction
o 1866 Johnson vetoes renewal of Freedmen’s Bureau
charter
o Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1866 over
Johnson’s veto
o Congress drafts Fourteenth Amendment
o Johnson delivers “Swing Around the Circle” speeches

28
 Johnson Breaks with
Republicans

• Republicans pass Fourteenth Amendment

• Johnson’s National Union party runs
against Republican congressmen in
elections
• Elections of 1866 strengthen Republicans

29
 Section 3

Radical
Reconstruction,
1867-1877

30
Radical Reconstruction, 1867-1877
• Events
o 1867 Congress passes First and
Second Reconstruction Acts Congress
passes Tenure of Office Act
o 1868 House of Representatives
impeaches Andrew Johnson Senate
acquits Johnson Fourteenth
Amendment is ratified Ulysses S. Grant
is elected president
o 1870 Fifteenth Amendment is ratified
31
Radical Reconstruction, 1867-1877
• Key People
o Andrew Johnson - 17th U.S. president;
impeached by the House of Representatives in
1868 but later acquitted by the Senate
o Edwin M. Stanton - Secretary of War under
Lincoln and Johnson; was dismissed by
Johnson, prompting House Republicans to
impeach Johnson
o Ulysses S. Grant - 18th U.S. president;
formerly a Union general and, briefly, secretary
of war under Johnson
32
 Congressional Reconstruction
Plan
• Despite divisions, Congress asserts its
authority to shape Reconstruction policy
• Northern Democrats support Johnson
• Conservative Republicans favor action, but
not extensive activism pushed by Radicals
• Radicals (a minority) want to help former
slaves (vote/land) and democratize South
• Moderate Republicans in between

33
 Congress Takes the Initiative
• Congress insists on black suffrage
• Mixed motives
o Republicans expect to get black vote
o Ideological commitment to equal rights
o Fear that South would fall under great planter
control without black suffrage

34
 Johnson (1866) &
Reconstruction Act of 1867
• President tour North to argue against 14th
• Northerners reject him; re-elect moderates
& radicals with mandate to continue
activity

35
 Congressional Reconstruction
Plan Enacted
• Reconstruction Acts passed
• South under military rule until black
suffrage fully secured
• Split over duration of federal protection
o Radicals saw need for long period
o Most wish military occupation to be short
• Assumption: black suffrage sufficient to
empower freedmen to protect themselves

36
Radical Reconstruction, 1867-1877
• 1867 Act replaces “Johnson governments”
• Under military supervision, black men gain
suffrage; Confederate leaders not allowed
in politics; & South must accept 14th
• Radicals unable to confiscate planter land

37
 Land Redistribution;
Constitutional Crisis
• Radicals recognize land necessary for
former slaves to be truly independent
• Moderates & conservatives reject taking
private property from planters
• Severely limit independence of ex-slaves
• Congress pass controversial laws to
restrict Johnson’s interference
• Limit power over army, Tenure of Office
Act
38
39
 Impeachment of Johnson;
Election of 1868
• Besides many vetoes, Johnson remove
military officers who support Congress
• For first time Congress try to remove a
president for “high crimes”/abuses of
power
• Most senators vote to remove Johnson,
but Radicals miss 2/3 majority by 1 vote
• Grant (Republican) wins; Democrats
conduct openly racist campaign
40
 Section 4

The Postwar South

and Black Codes,
1865-1877

41
The Postwar South and the Black
Codes: 1865–1877
Events
• 1865 Southern states begin to issue black codes
• 1866 Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1866
Ku Klux Klan forms
• 1867 Radical Reconstruction begins Congress
passes First Reconstruction Act
• 1868 Fourteenth Amendment is ratified
• 1870 Fifteenth Amendment is ratified
• 1871 Congress passes Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871

42
 Meanings of Freedom
• Ex-slaves celebrate freedom (Decoration Day)
• Act with caution because of white hostility/ power
• Most end up working for former masters
• But relocate homes & try to control their labor
• Tremendous efforts to reunite families and to live
together as family & community
• Create all-black settlements to avoid white
interference & allow personal freedom

43
Freedpeople’s Desire for Land &
Education
• Recognize land necessary for independence
• Most whites reject land redistribution
• Johnson return much land to planters
• US Gov’t sell some coastal lands (SC & GA),
but lots too big for ex-slaves to afford
• Ex-slaves devote time & money to education
• Freedman’s Bureau & northern reformers help
• Start black schools & colleges in South

44
 Black Churches
• Secret slave churches move into open;
other congregations begin when blacks
organize their own congregations
• Become central to black communities
• Most become either Methodist or Baptist
• Establish independent branches

45
 Faith
Memorial
Church,
Hagley
Landing,
South
Carolina
• Churches became a center of African American life, both social and
political, during and after Reconstruction. Churches large and small,
like this one, Faith Memorial Church in Hagley Landing, South
Carolina, became the first black-owned institutions for the
postfreedom generation. 46
Aunt Phebe, Uncle Tom and Others: Character Studies Among the Old
Slaves of the South Fifty Years After by Essie Collins Matthews
 Sharecropping
• Lack of black land ownership & white
refusal to rent land, push freedpeople to
sharecropping
• An ex-slave provides labor to raise crop
• Landowner usually provides land, house,
tools, seed, and credit at “commissary”
• At harvest split/share crop with land owner
• Crop-lien system & cycle of debt

47
 The Debt Spiral of Sharecropping
• Many white yeomen become sharecroppers
because loss of land through debt
• Ex-slave use his part of crop to pay for earlier
loans from landlord/merchant
• Ever-increasing debt develops for ex-slave as his
portion of crop fails to pay for loans (or through
poor money skills)
• Southern farmers, incl. sharecroppers, grow
cotton, but cotton prices decline (late 1800s) -
sharecropper would still be liable for cost of seed
& credit extended (and owner would be out the
cost as well) 48
 Plantation Commissary & Ledger
Book, Mississippi, 1868
• Sharecropping became an oppressive system in the postwar
South. At plantation stores like this one, photographed in
Mississippi in 1868, merchants recorded in their ledger books
debts that few sharecroppers were able to repay.
49
Amistad Center for Art & Culture, Hartford, Connecticut, Simpson Collection
 Carpetbaggers, Scalawags,
Corruption
• Southerners attack Republicans w/ label
“Carpetbaggers” for migrants from North
• Ignore that most migrants want to help
South
• Discredit southern white Republicans as
“Scalawags”
• Most = yeoman farmers pursuing class
interests, not racial equality
• Both parties engage in corruption, but
Democrats tar Republicans with it 50
Ku Klux Klan (start in TN, 1866)
• Rapid spread of terrorist organization =
deathblow to Reconstruction in South
• Attack Republican leaders (white & black)
• Harassment, beatings, rape, arson, murder
• Planters organize KKK units to regain power
with return of Democratic Party control

51
Nathan Bedford Forrest, the KKK,
and the End of Reconstruction

52
Klu Klux Klan
Lynching,
1868-1871
• During Reconstruction,
especially the years 1868–
1871, the Ku Klux Klan,
and other groups like them,
terrorized and murdered
blacks as well as white
unionists or Republicans.
Their goals were to destroy
black community
development and
Republican political power.

53
Harper’s Weekly, March 23, 1867
 Black Codes
• North is upset by return of planter control and
their defiance (slow to repudiate secession)
• Northern frustration grows when southern
governments merely revise old slave laws
• Place numerous restrictions on ex-slaves
• To North, South seems unrepentant
• Congress refuses to recognize southern
governments & challenge Johnson’s leniency

54
 Triumph of Republican
Governments
• New southern constitutions (1869–70) more
democratic w/ reforms (public education)
• Republicans, including some blacks, win election
to new governments in South
• Republicans, esp. blacks, advocate leniency to
ex-Confederates
• Realize whites = majority & planters own best
land
• Not disfranchise planters or take their land

55
 The South’s New Leadership in
1867
• ¼ of the South’s males were ineligible to vote
• Who could vote?
• Black Republicans
• White Unionists of the South (Scalawags)
• White northerners who came to the South
(Carpetbaggers)
• By 1872 most all white males could vote due to
Congressional amnesty to former Confederates

56
 Political Reconstruction in the
South
• 1867--Southern Republican party
organized
o Businesspeople want government aid
o White farmers want protection from creditors
o Blacks form majority of party, want social and
political equality
• Republican coalition unstable
• Republicans break up when whites leave

57
Republican Policies; The Myth of
“Negro Rule”
• Promote industry with loans, tax exemptions
• Establish public schools
• White Republicans reject integration
• Debate among African American Republicans
• White southerners claim blacks dominate new
governments; claim = myth
• 400 participate, but blacks do not hold office in
proportion to share of populace

58
 Southern Republican Rule
• Republicans improve public education,
welfare, and transportation
• Republican state legislatures corrupt
o Whites control most Radical state
governments
o African-Americans given blame for corruption
• Most significant mistake of Republicans in DC
and in South = no land programs

59
 Blanche Bruce

Hiram Revels
Two U.S.
Senators from
Mississippi 60
 The New South
• Southern "Redeemers" favor commerce,
manufacturing over agriculture
• Gain power by doctrine of white
supremacy
• Redeemers seek to make South a
modern, industrial society

61
 Redeemer Regimes
• Welcome Northern investment, control of
the Southern economy
• Neglect problems of small farmers
• Begin process of legal segregation
• Work to deny voting rights to blacks

62
 Section 5

Grant’s Presidency,
1869-1877

63
Grant’s Presidency, 1869-1877

64
Grant’s Presidency: 1869-1877
• Events
o 1868 Ulysses S. Grant is elected president
o 1869 Fisk-Gould Gold scheme evolves
o 1871 Tweed Ring is exposed
o 1872 Liberal Republican Party emerges Grant
is reelected Crédit Mobilier scandal is exposed
o 1873 Depression of 1873 hits
o 1874 Whiskey Ring scandal occurs
o 1875 Congress passes Resumption Act

65
Grant’s Presidency: 1869-1877
• Key People
o Ulysses S. Grant - 18th U.S. president; served two terms marred
by corruption and scandal
o Horatio Seymour - Former governor of New York; 1868
Democratic presidential nominee
o William “Boss” Tweed - Corrupt Democratic politician from New
York who took advantage of immigrants and the poor, promising
improved public works in exchange for votes
o Samuel J. Tilden - Famous New York prosecutor who brought
down “Boss” Tweed in 1871 on corruption charges; later ran for
president in 1876
o Horace Greeley - Former New York Tribune editor; Democratic
and Liberal Republican nominee for president in 1872

66
 President Grant; 15th
Amendment (1869–1870)
• Vacillates in supporting Reconstruction
• At times uses troops to quell white violence
• Demobilization leaves few troops in South
(“military rule” = myth)
• Radicals push 15th to protect black male
suffrage, but it does not guarantee right to
vote
• North want ability to deny suffrage to women
& other groups (Chinese)

67
 XVth Amendment
• Section 1. The right of citizens of the
United States to vote shall not be denied
or abridged by the United States or by any
State on account of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude.
• Section 2. The Congress shall have
power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.

68
 Spoilsmen Versus Reformers
• Rumors of corruption during Grant's first
term discredit Republicans
• 1872--Grant wins reelection over Liberal
Republican, Democrat Horace Greeley
• Grant’s second term rocked by scandal

69
 Rise of the Money Question
• Grant elected 1868, 1872 as war hero
• Panic of 1873 raises “the money question”
o Debtors seek inflationary monetary policy by
continuing circulation of "greenbacks"
o Creditors, intellectuals support hard money
• 1875--government commits to hard
money
• 1876--Greenback party formed, makes
gains in congressional races

70
 Liberal Republican Revolt
(1872)
• Oppose continued US intervention in South
• Bolt party w/ their own nominee (Greeley)
• Grant wins, but his tepid support for
Reconstruction decline
• Congress pardons most ex-confederates
(Amnesty Act, 1872)
• Corruption scandals also weaken Grant and
Republicans; Democrats take House (1874)

71
 Section 6

The End of
Reconstruction,
1873-1877

72
 The End of Reconstruction,
1873-1877
Events
• 1873 Depression of 1873 hits
• Supreme Court hears Slaughterhouse Cases
• 1874 Democrats become majority party in House of
Representatives
• 1875 Civil Rights Act of 1875 passed
• 1876 Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes both
claim victory in presidential election
• 1877 Congress passes Electoral Count Act
• Hayes becomes president
• Hayes removes remaining troops from the South to end
Reconstruction
73
 The End of Reconstruction
1873-1877
• Key People
o Rutherford B. Hayes - Ohio governor chosen to run
against Democrat Samuel J. Tilden in the presidential
election of 1876; received fewer popular and electoral
votes than Tilden but became president after
Compromise of 1877
o Samuel J. Tilden - Famous New York prosecutor;
ran for president on Democratic ticket against
Rutherford B. Hayes in election of 1876; fell one
electoral vote shy of becoming president

74
Shift in Northern Attention away
from South
• Rapid industrialization & immigration monopolize
Northern concerns
• Panic of 1873 starts 5 years of contraction
• Accelerate class tensions (debtor vs. creditor)
• In West, whites use violence & discriminate
against Indians, Hispanics, & other non-whites
• Nationwide, greater focus on race
• North also debate further territorial expansion
(Alaska & Midway Islands, 1867)

75
 Retreat from Reconstruction
• North loses interest in Reconstruction (1870s) as
undergo rapid industrialization, etc.
• Always more interested in suppressing rebellion
than helping blacks
• Democrats “redeem” southern governments with
KKK violence and grow stronger in North
• Congress passes KKK laws; little enforcement
• Northerners reject idea US Government should
protect civil rights

76
 Judicial Retreat from
Reconstruction
• Inactive after Dred Scott & during war,
Supreme Court reasserts itself post-1865
• Slaughter-House (1873) deny that 14th
makes US Gov’t protector of civil rights
• Narrows 14th with stress on state power
• Bradwell (1873) dismisses claim that 14th
outlaw gender discrimination
• Court later upholds restrictions on suffrage
• Civil Rights Act of 1875

77
 Disputed Election of 1876;
Compromise of 1877
• Tilden (Democrat) wins slightly more popular
votes, but needs 1 more electoral vote to win
• 19 votes in dispute (fraud)
• Voting by party, congressional commission
gives 19 votes to Hayes (Republican)
• Democrats accept outcome in return for
promise of federal aid & troop removal
• African Americans anxious about future

78
 The Compromise of 1877

• Special Congressional commission gives

disputed vote to Rutherford B. Hayes
• Southern Democrats accept on two
conditions
o Guarantee of federal aid to the South
o Removal of all remaining federal troops
• Hayes’ agreement ends Reconstruction

79
Presidential Election of 1876 and the Compromise of 1877
In 1876 a combination of solid southern support and Democratic gains in the North
gave Samuel Tilden the majority of popular votes, but Rutherford B. Hayes won the
disputed election in the electoral college, after a deal satisfied Democratic wishes for
an end to Reconstruction.
80
Rutherford B. Hayes and the
Compromise of 1877

81
The Cost of Sectional Reunion
• Redeemer Democrats systematically
exclude black voters
• Lynching—187 blacks lynched yearly
1889-1899
• U.S. Supreme Court decisions gut
Reconstruction Amendments 1875-1896
• “Reunion” accomplished as North tacitly
acquiesces in Southern discrimination

82
 Benefits of Reconstruction
• Universal manhood suffrage
• Repair and rebuilding of the South
• Industrialization
• Social reforms
o No debtors’ prison
o Married women’s property rights
o Taxes overhauled
o End apprenticing of black children to former
masters
o Money for benevolent institutions
• Education– 4,300 schools for freedpeople

83
Summary: Discuss Links to the
World & Legacy
• Global response to Grants’ Tour (1877-79)
• Grant as celebrity & symbol of USA on world
stage
• Grant’s motive?
• How “Lost Cause” a legacy of
Reconstruction?
• How did southern whites (e.g., ex-
Confederates, UDC) seek to shape historical
memory?
• Downplay slavery; emphasize states rights
84