Reconstruction Part 1 What now At the end

Reconstruction Part 1

What now? • At the end of the war the Union had to decide what to do with the defeated rebel South

South • The South is completely devastated by the war • Physically destroyed, and their culture and way of life has been taken from them • Aristocratic planters find themselves broke due to destroyed property and emancipation

Freedmen • Freed slaves responded in a variety of ways to emancipation • Some immediately left the farm that they had worked on, others simply stayed as paid laborers

Freedmen’s Bureau • The Freedmen’s Bureau attempted to get the Freedmen on their feet • Their greatest success was in educating the Freedmen

Letting States back into the Union • Lincoln proposed that states should be let into the Union if 10% of their voters would pledge loyalty • President Andrew Johnson follows this policy which lets several states back into the Union and makes congress furious

Congress • As Southern states returned to the Union, many of them elected former Confederate leaders to Congress (before 1867) • Many states also got increased representation in Congress due to the Three-Fifths clause being voided

South Resists Reconstruction • Black Codes: laws that restrict the freedom of the freed men • Many of these codes would force the freedmen into a situation similar to slavery

Reconstruction Act • The Reconstruction Act of 1867 divided the South into 5 military districts and forced them to ratify the 14 th Amendment in order to rejoin the Union • It also disenfranchised many Confederate leaders

Reconstruction Amendments • 13 th Amendment- Emancipation of the slaves (1865) • 14 th Amendment- Equal protection under the law (1868) • 15 th Amendment- The right to vote for all men (1869)

Synthesis • Make a list of the problems that needed to be solved during Reconstruction.