America: Pathways to the Present | Chapter 5: Reconstruction (1865–1877)
The period of Reconstruction stretched from the end of the Civil War in 1865 to the year 1877, when control of the South was put back into Southern hands. The chapter is divided into four sections: Presidential Reconstruction, Congressional Reconstruction, Birth of the “New South,” and the End of Reconstruction.
Section 1: Presidential Reconstruction
Main Ideas
- The Reconstruction plans of Presidents Lincoln and Johnson made it easy for states to rejoin the Union.
- African Americans began to experience freedom under the protection of Reconstruction laws.
Summary and Analysis
The South was devastated by the Civil War. Much of its industry, farmland, livestock, and infrastructure had been destroyed. Worse yet, the South had lost one-fifth of its adult male population, and a significant portion of the survivors were handicapped by their injuries. Furthermore, the South would have to change its way of life, now that the slaves had been freed.
President Lincoln’s plan of Reconstruction included offering pardon to all Confederate soldiers who would take an oath of allegiance to the Union and accept federal policy on slavery. Once 10% of the population had signed the oath, the state could form a new constitution and reenter the union. After Lincoln’s death, President Andrew Johnson had an even more lenient policy, allowing states to rejoin the Union without the 10% requirement.
Meanwhile, African Americans were beginning to enjoy their newfound freedom. Many began to move across the country and attempt to buy land. African Americans also started schools and churches as well as thousands of other voluntary groups and societies. The Freedmen’s Bureau was established to help the newly freed slaves and in its short existence (1865–1869) gave out clothing, medical supplies, and millions of meals to Civil War refugees.
Section 2: Congressional Reconstruction
Main Ideas
- After they reentered the Union, many states enacted laws to restrict African Americans’ liberties.
- As a result, Congress took over Reconstruction and passed laws to protect African Americans during a period called “Radical Reconstruction.”
- President Johnson becomes the first president in history to be impeached.
Summary and Analysis
As the states rejoined the Union under President Johnson’s reconstruction plan, they began to enact a series of laws, called black codes, to limit African Americans in movement, occupation, land ownership, and voting. In 1866, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment, which guaranteed citizenship and equal rights to African Americans. One major faction in Congress, known as the Radical Republicans, wanted to ensure that freed slaves achieved equality under the law. They became enraged upon hearing reports of violence against African Americans throughout the South.
President Johnson, a Democrat, did not support the Radical Republicans’ goals. In fact, he urged states not to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment. His actions set up a power struggle between himself and the Congress. Congress eventually passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which imposed military government on the South until its states ratified the Fourteenth Amendment and wrote new constitutions guaranteeing equal rights to all citizens. The Reconstruction Act also barred those who had supported the Confederacy from voting and required states to allow freed slaves to vote.
Politically motivated members of Congress impeached President Johnson, accusing him of wrongdoing in the firing of Edward Stanton, the secretary of war. Johnson avoided being convicted of wrongdoing by only one vote and thus held onto his presidency. The case set the precedent that only the most serious crimes, not partisan disagreements, could remove a president from office.
During this period, called Radical Reconstruction, freed slaves enjoyed nearly equal rights in the South. The Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed them the right to vote, and they voted in droves. African Americans were elected to many city, state, and even national positions. In 1874, Blanche K. Bruce became the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate.
Section 3: Birth of the “New South”
Main Ideas
- The freeing of the slaves forced the South to develop new patterns of agricultural production.
- Expansion of cities and industry led to limited economic growth.
- Reconstruction funding led to government corruption.
Summary and Analysis
At the end of the war, Southern landowners had to rebuild its agricultural production without the use of slavery. Finding workers was initially a difficult task. Many landowners had barely hung on to their land and had no money to pay to workers. They certainly could not compete with other industries, such as the railroad or Northern factories. The planters had land but no workers; many of the freed slaves had the ability and desire to work but no land. From these two groups came the sharecropping system, which allows workers to earn a share of the crop. The system, however, greatly favored the planters, who often charged inordinate amounts for seed, food, and housing so that the workers were perpetually in debt.
Many of South’s cities learned a lesson from the North as they began rebuilding, introducing new industries, and improving transportation. By 1872, railroad lines had increased by 40%, and cotton mills began turning raw cotton into cloth. Although the South never approached the industrialization of the North, these improvements helped to diversify the economy.
Both Congress and state assemblies agreed with Southern businessmen that diversifying the economy of the South was a good idea, and as politicians often do, they threw money at the idea, figuring that with money would come progress. Unfortunately, the easily available money encouraged corruption. The Union Pacific Railroad, for example, defrauded the government of enormous sums.
Section 4: The End of Reconstruction
Main Ideas
- Widespread corruption helped make the country wary of the Republicans and Reconstruction.
- Democrats returned to power, and Reconstruction ended with the Compromise of 1877.
Summary and Analysis
No amount of laws passed by the federal government could change some Southerners’ attitudes toward freed slaves. In 1867, former Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest became the leader of the Ku Klux Klan, a secret organization that terrorized African Americans throughout the South. They also sought to eliminate Republicans throughout the South. Although Northern outrage and its resulting laws put the Klan mostly out of business, discrimination resurfaced as federal troops were withdrawn from the South. Without federal protection, African Americans were virtually excluded from voting and public life.
Government corruption and an economic downturn in 1873 helped to bring the Democrats back into power in Congress during the 1870s. Furthermore, the Supreme Court, in several decisions during the 1870s, put the protection of civil rights into the hands of states rather than the federal government. By 1877, Reconstruction was in effect a dying issue. When the presidential election of 1877 was contested, Democrats and Republicans reached an agreement. The Democrats would support the election of Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, who had won in the Electoral College but lost the popular vote, if Hayes in return would remove federal troops from the South. The Compromise of 1877 ended the period of Reconstruction and left African Americans at the mercy of Southern state governments.
Reconstruction was successful in several areas. It did restore the Union and helped the South’s economy grow. It created the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments guaranteeing equal rights for all Americans. However, it failed to protect African Americans’ rights because it left enforcement in the hands of Southern government officials. By 1877, many freed slaves were still caught in an unfair sharecropping system that subjected them to an unending cycle of poverty.
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