American History – A Survey
By Alan Brinkley
Chapter 15
• Reconstruction and The New South
o Era of Reconstruction
o To many white Southerners it was vicious and destructive experience
o Northern defenders argued that their policies were the only way to keep unrepentant Confederates from
restoring Southern society as it had been before the war
o To those of other races it was a small but important first step in the effort by former slaves to secure civil rights
and economic power
o The Problems of Peacemaking
The Aftermath of War and Emancipation
• What happened to the South in the Civil War was a catastrophe with no parallel in
America’s experience as a nation
o Almost all surviving white Southerners had lost people close to them in the fighting
• White Southerners began to romanticize the “Lost Cause” and its leaders
o Communities throughout the South built elaborate monuments to their war dead in
town squares
• As soon as the war ended hundreds of thousands of slaves left their plantations
o Most had nowhere to go
• In 1865 Southern society was in disarray
• Reconstruction became a struggle to define the meaning of freedom
Competing Notions of Freedom
• For African Americans, freedom meant above all an end to slavery an to all the injustices and
humiliations they associated with it
o Also meant the acquisition of rights and protections that would allow them to live as
free men and women in the same way that whites did
o Some demanded a redistribution of economic resources
o Others asked simply for legal equality
• For most white Southerners, freedom meant something very different
o The ability to control their own destinies without interference from the North or the
federal government
o Many white planters wanted to continue slavery in a altered form by keeping black
workers legally tied to the plantations
• March 1865, Congress established the Freemen’s Bureau, an agency of the army
o Distributed food to millions of former slaves
o Established schools
o It had authority to operate for only one year
Issues of Reconstruction
• Readmitting the South would reunite the Democrats and weaken the Republicans, many
believed
• While the Republicans were in power they instituted a number of economic programs
• Should the Democratic Party regain power, those programs could be in danger
• Many northerners believed that the South should be punished in some way for the suffering
and sacrifice its rebellion had caused
• Many Northerners believed, too, that the South should be transformed into the image of the
North
• Conservatives in Congress insisted that the South accept the abolition of slavery, but
proposed few other conditions for the readmission of the seceded states
• Radicals in Congress urged that the civil and military leaders of the Confederacy be punished,
that large numbers of Southern whites be disenfranchised, that the legal rights of blacks be
protected, and that the property of wealthy white Southerners who had aide the Confederacy
be confiscated and distributed among the freedmen
Plans for Reconstruction
• President Lincoln’s sympathies lay with the Moderates and Conservatives of his party
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, •December 1863 – Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan
o Offered a general amnesty to white southerners who would pledge loyalty to the
government and accept the elimination of slavery
Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee reestablished loyal government under
the Lincoln formula in 1864
• Wade-Davis Bill – July 1864
o Authorized the president to appoint a provisional government for each conquered
state
o When a majority of the white males of the state pledged the allegiance to the Union,
the governor could summon a state constitutional convention
o The new state constitutions had to abolish slavery, disfranchise Confederate civil and
military leaders, and repudiate debts accumulated by the state governments during
the war
o Once this was done Congress would readmit them to the Union
The Death of Lincoln
• April 14, 1865 – Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
• Lincoln’s death earned him immediate martyrdom
• April 26 – Booth cornered and shot by Union forces
Johnson and “Restoration”
• Andrew Johnson takes over after Lincoln’s death
• Johnson came up with his own plan for “Restoration”
o He offered amnesty to those Southerners who would take an oath of allegiance
o His plan resembled the Wade-Davis Bill
• By the end of 1865, all the seceded states had formed new governments and were prepared to
rejoin the Union as soon as Congress recognized them
o Radical Reconstruction
The Black Codes
• Events in the South were driving Northern opinion even more toward the Radicals
o In 1865 and 1866 state legislatures were enacting sets of laws known as the Black
Codes
Were designed to reestablish planter control over black workers
All the codes authorized local officials to apprehend unemployed blacks,
fine them for vagrancy, and hire them out to private employers to satisfy the
fine
• To most of the North, and to most African Americans, the codes represented a return to
slavery in all but name
• April 1866, Congress passed the First Civil Rights Act
o Declared blacks to be citizens of the United States and empowered the federal
government to intervene in state affairs when necessary to protect the rights of
citizens
The Fourteenth Amendment
• April 1866, Congress passed the fourteenth amendment
o Offered the first constitutional definition of American citizenship
o Everyone born in the United States and everyone naturalized, was automatically a
citizen and entitled to equal protection of the laws by both state and national
governments
The Congressional Plan
• The Radicals passed three Reconstruction bills early in 1867
• Under the congressional plan, Tennessee readmitted in 1866, which had ratified the 14th
amendment was permitted to remain in the Union
• By 1868 seven more of the former Confederate states were readmitted to the Union
• Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida
• Virginia and Texas were readmitted in 1869
• Mississippi in 1870
The Fifteenth Amendment
• The Fifteenth Amendment
• Forbade the states and the federal government to deny suffrage to any citizen on account of
“race, color or previous condition of servitude”
This study source was downloaded by 100000899606396 from CourseHero.com on 11-24-2025 05:56:15 GMT -06:00
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By Alan Brinkley
Chapter 15
• Reconstruction and The New South
o Era of Reconstruction
o To many white Southerners it was vicious and destructive experience
o Northern defenders argued that their policies were the only way to keep unrepentant Confederates from
restoring Southern society as it had been before the war
o To those of other races it was a small but important first step in the effort by former slaves to secure civil rights
and economic power
o The Problems of Peacemaking
The Aftermath of War and Emancipation
• What happened to the South in the Civil War was a catastrophe with no parallel in
America’s experience as a nation
o Almost all surviving white Southerners had lost people close to them in the fighting
• White Southerners began to romanticize the “Lost Cause” and its leaders
o Communities throughout the South built elaborate monuments to their war dead in
town squares
• As soon as the war ended hundreds of thousands of slaves left their plantations
o Most had nowhere to go
• In 1865 Southern society was in disarray
• Reconstruction became a struggle to define the meaning of freedom
Competing Notions of Freedom
• For African Americans, freedom meant above all an end to slavery an to all the injustices and
humiliations they associated with it
o Also meant the acquisition of rights and protections that would allow them to live as
free men and women in the same way that whites did
o Some demanded a redistribution of economic resources
o Others asked simply for legal equality
• For most white Southerners, freedom meant something very different
o The ability to control their own destinies without interference from the North or the
federal government
o Many white planters wanted to continue slavery in a altered form by keeping black
workers legally tied to the plantations
• March 1865, Congress established the Freemen’s Bureau, an agency of the army
o Distributed food to millions of former slaves
o Established schools
o It had authority to operate for only one year
Issues of Reconstruction
• Readmitting the South would reunite the Democrats and weaken the Republicans, many
believed
• While the Republicans were in power they instituted a number of economic programs
• Should the Democratic Party regain power, those programs could be in danger
• Many northerners believed that the South should be punished in some way for the suffering
and sacrifice its rebellion had caused
• Many Northerners believed, too, that the South should be transformed into the image of the
North
• Conservatives in Congress insisted that the South accept the abolition of slavery, but
proposed few other conditions for the readmission of the seceded states
• Radicals in Congress urged that the civil and military leaders of the Confederacy be punished,
that large numbers of Southern whites be disenfranchised, that the legal rights of blacks be
protected, and that the property of wealthy white Southerners who had aide the Confederacy
be confiscated and distributed among the freedmen
Plans for Reconstruction
• President Lincoln’s sympathies lay with the Moderates and Conservatives of his party
This study source was downloaded by 100000899606396 from CourseHero.com on 11-24-2025 05:56:15 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/7772553/chapter-15/
, •December 1863 – Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan
o Offered a general amnesty to white southerners who would pledge loyalty to the
government and accept the elimination of slavery
Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee reestablished loyal government under
the Lincoln formula in 1864
• Wade-Davis Bill – July 1864
o Authorized the president to appoint a provisional government for each conquered
state
o When a majority of the white males of the state pledged the allegiance to the Union,
the governor could summon a state constitutional convention
o The new state constitutions had to abolish slavery, disfranchise Confederate civil and
military leaders, and repudiate debts accumulated by the state governments during
the war
o Once this was done Congress would readmit them to the Union
The Death of Lincoln
• April 14, 1865 – Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
• Lincoln’s death earned him immediate martyrdom
• April 26 – Booth cornered and shot by Union forces
Johnson and “Restoration”
• Andrew Johnson takes over after Lincoln’s death
• Johnson came up with his own plan for “Restoration”
o He offered amnesty to those Southerners who would take an oath of allegiance
o His plan resembled the Wade-Davis Bill
• By the end of 1865, all the seceded states had formed new governments and were prepared to
rejoin the Union as soon as Congress recognized them
o Radical Reconstruction
The Black Codes
• Events in the South were driving Northern opinion even more toward the Radicals
o In 1865 and 1866 state legislatures were enacting sets of laws known as the Black
Codes
Were designed to reestablish planter control over black workers
All the codes authorized local officials to apprehend unemployed blacks,
fine them for vagrancy, and hire them out to private employers to satisfy the
fine
• To most of the North, and to most African Americans, the codes represented a return to
slavery in all but name
• April 1866, Congress passed the First Civil Rights Act
o Declared blacks to be citizens of the United States and empowered the federal
government to intervene in state affairs when necessary to protect the rights of
citizens
The Fourteenth Amendment
• April 1866, Congress passed the fourteenth amendment
o Offered the first constitutional definition of American citizenship
o Everyone born in the United States and everyone naturalized, was automatically a
citizen and entitled to equal protection of the laws by both state and national
governments
The Congressional Plan
• The Radicals passed three Reconstruction bills early in 1867
• Under the congressional plan, Tennessee readmitted in 1866, which had ratified the 14th
amendment was permitted to remain in the Union
• By 1868 seven more of the former Confederate states were readmitted to the Union
• Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida
• Virginia and Texas were readmitted in 1869
• Mississippi in 1870
The Fifteenth Amendment
• The Fifteenth Amendment
• Forbade the states and the federal government to deny suffrage to any citizen on account of
“race, color or previous condition of servitude”
This study source was downloaded by 100000899606396 from CourseHero.com on 11-24-2025 05:56:15 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/7772553/chapter-15/
