Reconstruction 1865 -1877

The Reconstruction Era can be found in Chapter 15. It was a long process to "reconstruct" the South and the nation after the war.

Here are major topics we covered on Monday:

Major Changes during Reconstruction (Social, Political, Economic and Constitutional)

Ratification of the 13th Amendment

Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty or 10% plan

Wade-Davis Bill

Johnson's Reconstruction Plan

Free Society

Freedom to travel without the "pass system"

Finding lost family

The creation of a new black society - schools, churches, fraternal orders, benevolent societies, newspapers

Church membership and its importance in society

Freedom to worship without white supervision

Land and Labor
"40 Acres and a Mule"
Special Field Order No. 15 - set aside the Sea Islands and land along the South Carolina coast for freed families. Each family was to receive 40 acres and the loan of an army mule.

Thaddeus Stevens proclaimed that only land would give the freed people control over their own labor.

Southern land was divided into 40 acre plts and given to freed people but President Johnson stopped land distribution and gave land back to former owners which displaced many freed slaves. This led to disappointment and betrayal.

"Sharecropping"

Def: A system for renting farmland in which tenant farmers give landlords a share of their crops, rather than cash, as rent.

Many sharecroppers found themselves in debt to landowners because of loans of seed, equipment, etc. This led to "crop liens". As sharecroppers found themselves heavily in debt to landowners, sharecropping began to resemble slavery.

The White South - Confronting Change

Before the war, few white southerners owned slaves, and very few owned large plantations and large numbers of slaves.

Some small-scaled farmers resisted secession and welcomed the Yankees.

Most white-southerners shared the "bitterest hatred toward the North" - even those not associated with slavery.

The yankee presence during reconstruction built animosity toward the north.

Between 1865 and 1866, state legislatures started to pass "black codes" which included vagrancy laws.

Reconstruction also led to the emergence of the KKK whose major goal was to restore white supremacy and destroy the Republican Party.

Read about the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

1868 - 14th Amendment