3. The Beginning of Reconstruction
• President Lincoln started
his second term as
president as the Civil War
was ending.
• He said that a state could
rejoin the union when 10%
of the state voters took an
oath to support the Union.
6. Lincoln’s Assassination
• Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14,
1865 by John Wilkes Booth
• Assassination means a murder of a public
figure by surprise attack
7. Problems in the South
• The war left many people in the south with no
money.
• The south also had few police, no judges and
no courts. Some people tried to take the law
into their own hands.
10. Reconstruction
• Reconstruction was the rebuilding of the south
after the Civil War
• During the beginning of reconstruction, Andrew
Johnson became President.
• Andrew Johnson tried to follow Lincoln’s
Reconstruction plan.
11. Thirteenth Amendment
• On December 6, 1865 the Thirteenth
Amendment was passed
• This amendment abolished slavery.
12. Freedom! What does it mean?
• Free to
– Travel
– find opportunity
– find family
– marry
– get an education
– own land
13. Freedom??
• “We have turned, or are about to turn, loose 4
million slaves without a hut to shelter them or
a cent in their pockets…..we had better left
them in bondage.” ~Congressman Thaddeus
Stevens
• Stevens proposed giving plantation land to the
freed slaves, “forty acres and a mule.”
• Congress did not agree with this plan.
14. Think about it…..
• What if you were
“emancipated” today,
meaning that you were
basically told to go take
care of yourself – totally!
• Could you do it?
• Would you need some
help from parents,
friends, church or
government?
• What would you do?
15. Should government
help?
• 2 views of
Freedman’s
bureau – govt.
aid to former
slaves.
• What do you
see here?
16. Freedman’s Bureau
• Union government sets up program to help
former slaves (and poor whites) living in the
South.
• Provided food, clothing, education and
medical care.
• Also, gave legal assistance
• No land in the south,
however.
17. Remember…..
• Like science…..
• For every action, there is an equal and
opposite reaction!
• What do you suppose was the reaction to the
Freedman’s Bureau?
18. Black Codes
• Black Codes prevented former African America
slaves, now called “Freedmen” from owning
certain kinds of land, voting, and working certain
skilled jobs.
• These Codes were found in many Southern
states, and many members of Congress felt that
they proved that the southern states did not
intend to end slavery.
20. Reconstruction Act
• Johnson announced that all states except for
Texas have been re-admitted to the Union, but
congress did not agree.
• Reconstruction was over.
• Congressman
Thaddeus Stevens
21. Radical Republicans
• In 1865, members of Congress who opposed
President Johnson’s Reconstruction act were
called Radical Republicans (Thaddeus Stevens,
was one of these).
President and congress
on collision course.
22. Radical Republicans cont.
• Radical Republicans
wanted to punish the
South for the trouble they
caused the nation.
• These Radical Republicans
wanted equal rights for
all, where President
Johnson believed the
white citizens of the south
should manage the
South’s recovery.
• Explorepahistory.com
24. South under military rule
• South resents the government
control of the reconstruction.
• Carpetbaggers (similar to
overnight bag)– those who
come to the south for short
stays to make money.
25. The New Voters
• Former Confederates
barred from voting.
• Left to Freedmen,
poor farmers, and
Northerners.
• These new voters
elect Ulysses S. Grant
(former Union
General)
26. 15th Amendment
• Voting rights to all regardless of “race, color or
previous condition of servitude.”
27. Sharecropping – the new slavery?
• White plantation owners needed farm
workers.
• Farm workers (former slaves) needed work.
• Farm owners divided their land into small
plots and allowed “tenant farming” (farm
workers rented the land to grow crops)
• Also known as “sharecropping,” never led to
the equality and opportunity it promised.
