Reconstruction Era: 1865-1877

• The 13th Amendment abolished slavery.

Presidential Reconstruction (1865-1867)

• The 10% Plan stipulated that former Confederate states could rejoin the Union once 10% of their population swore allegiance to the U.S., Confederate leaders renounced slavery, and pledged their loyalty.
• The Radical Republicans believed President Johnson's approach to the South was too lenient.
• Johnson did not adequately protect formerly enslaved people.
• Southern states elected former Confederate leaders to the U.S. Congress.

Black Codes

• Black Codes mandated that formerly enslaved people possess passes for travel.
• Black Codes prohibited formerly enslaved people from owning land.
• Black Codes compelled many formerly enslaved people to work on their old plantations again.
• Formerly enslaved people were barred from voting or serving on juries.

Freedmen’s Bureau

• The Freedmen's Bureau offered aid, education, and assistance to formerly enslaved people in dealing with new employers, often their former masters.
• The Bureau struggled with insufficient funding and opposition from hostile Southerners.

40 Acres and a Mule

• General Sherman's Field Order 15 called for the confiscation of Confederate land.
• The order intended to provide formerly enslaved people with 40 acres of land and a mule.

Sharecropping

• Sharecropping involved formerly enslaved people leasing land in exchange for giving landowners a percentage of their crops.
• Landowners further deducted money for housing, food, and farming supplies.
• This system trapped formerly enslaved people and many poor whites in continuous debt for generations.

Congressional Reconstruction (1867-1877)

• Republicans were angered by the Black Codes.
• Republicans gained over a 2/3 majority in both houses of Congress in the 1866 election.
• The Civil Rights Bill of 1866 was passed to overturn the Black Codes.

14th Amendment

• The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to formerly enslaved people.
• The 14th Amendment overturned Dred Scott.
• The 14th Amendment ensured due process and equal protection under the law.
• The 14th Amendment blocked former Confederate officers from holding state and federal office in Congress if formerly enslaved people were denied the right to vote.

1867 Military Reconstruction Act

• The act divided the South into five military districts run by the military.
• This lasted until Southern states were readmitted into the Union.
• President Johnson vetoed too many of these reconstruction laws and violated the Tenure of Office Act.
• The Tenure of Office Act stated that the president cannot fire a federal appointee without Congressional approval.
• Congress attempted to impeach Johnson but missed it by one vote.

15th Amendment

• The 15th Amendment granted universal male suffrage.
• All men could vote, regardless of race.

Post Reconstruction Era

• Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African American in Congress.
• Scalawags was a derogatory term used by Southern Democrats for Southern Republicans.
• Carpetbaggers was the nickname for Yankees who moved South.
• Southern backlash against Reconstruction led to the creation of the KKK.
• Force Acts and KKK Acts aimed to dismantle the KKK.
• The Panic of 1873 caused Republicans and Northerners to prioritize the economy over Reconstruction in the South.
• The Compromise of 1877 resulted in Hayes and the Republican Party winning the presidential race in exchange for ending Reconstruction.
• Jim Crow laws, including poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses, were used to deny African Americans the right to vote.
• Plessy vs. Ferguson established the "separate but equal" doctrine.
• The ruling led to segregation.
• Jim Crow laws equaled segregation.
• Brown vs. Board of Education ended segregation.

Explore the Reconstruction era following the Civil War, including Presidential Reconstruction plans, Black Codes, and the role of the Freedmen's Bureau in aiding formerly enslaved people.