In 1871 the administration launched a legal and military offensive that destroyed the Klan. Reconstruction left a legacy of hope and violence. The Reconstruction era redefined U.S. citizenship and expanded the franchise, changed the relationship between the federal government and the governments of the states, and highlighted the differences between political and economic democracy. Violence, mass lynchings, and lawlessness enabled white Southerners to create a regime of white supremacy and Black disenfranchisement alongside a new economic order that continued to exploit Black labor. Some midwestern states adopted laws to regulate or even stop the movement of freed African Americans into those states. Although the Senate, by a single vote, failed to remove him from office, Johnson’s power to obstruct the course of Reconstruction was gone. Carpetbaggers, or recent arrivals from the North, were former Union soldiers, teachers, Freedmen’s Bureau agents, and businessmen. Reconstruction: America After the Civil War: Watch full length episodes & video clips. Although President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had ended the practice of slavery in the Confederate states in 1863, the issue remained at the national level. Arguably the most important addition to the Constitution other than the Bill of Rights, the amendment constituted a profound change in federal-state relations. Having been denied education and wages under slavery, ex-slaves were often forced by the necessity of their economic circumstances to return to or remain with their former White slave owners, working on their plantations for minimal wages or as sharecroppers. He also outlined how new state governments would be created. To be allowed to reenter the Union, the former Confederate states were required to agree to abolish slavery, but no federal law had been enacted to prevent those states from simply reinstituting the practice through their new constitutions. Guinn v. United States: A First Step to Voter Rights for Black Americans, The Civil Rights Act of 1866: History and Impact, The History of the Three-Fifths Compromise, 15th Amendment Grants Voting Rights to Black American Men, The Black Codes and Why They Still Matter Today. Many former Confederate states took advantage of this omission by instituting poll taxes, literacy tests, and “grandfather clauses” clearly intended to prevent Black persons from voting. Though freed from slavery, most Black Americans in the South remained hopelessly mired in rural poverty. Rather than sticking to the traditional narrative of North and South, Richardson includes the West. Despite being free, most southern Black Americans continued to live in desperate rural poverty. Summary: Henry Louis Gates Jr. presents the history of the years after the American Civil War. Under the plan, if one-tenth of a Confederate state’s prewar voters signed an oath of loyalty to the Union, they be would be allowed to form a new state government with the same constitutional rights and powers they had enjoyed before secession. Afterwards, the country entered what modern historians call Reconstruction. Blanche K. Bruce, senator from Mississippi. While they now worked for minimal wages or as sharecroppers, they had little hope of achieving the same economic mobility enjoyed by White citizens. Reconstruction witnessed far-reaching changes in America’s political life. United States Army troops guarded the streets of Richmond, Virginia, on May 31, 1867, but the former Rebel capital teemed with Confederate spirit. On April 11, 1865, in his last speech before his assassination, Lincoln express his opinion that some “very intelligent” Black men or Black men who had joined the Union army deserved the right to vote. Was Reconstruction after the Civil War a success or a failure? Those who refused or were otherwise unable to do so could be arrested, fined, and if unable to pay their fines and private debts, forced to perform unpaid labor. The Reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1877. Though most Southern White people hated the “regimes” and being overseen by Union troops, the Radical Reconstruction policies resulted in all of the Southern states being readmitted to the Union by the end of 1870. Within a decade after the Civil War, Congress began to abandon the promise of assistance to millions of formerly enslaved Black people. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Longley, Robert. The outcome of the 1876 presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, was decided by disputed vote counts from those three states. "The Reconstruction Era (1865–1877)." Influential Radical Republicans such as Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and Senator Charles Sumner from Massachusetts demanded that the new governments of the Southern states be based on racial equality and the granting of universal voting rights for all male residents regardless of race. Some Republicans were already convinced that equal rights for the former slaves had to accompany the South’s readmission to the Union. Longley, Robert. Omissions? There was controversy, however, on how to go about rebuilding the nation. The restrictive nature and ruthless enforcement of the Black Codes drew the outrage and resistance of Black Americans and seriously reduced Northern support for President Johnson and the Republican Party. AP.USH: KC‑5.3.II.D (KC), NAT (Theme), Unit 5: Learning Objective L. Google Classroom Facebook Twitter. Having been denied educations under slavery, many formerly enslaved people were forced by economic necessity to. The year after the war’s end, a U.S. Congress still operating without representation from most Confederate states passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, declaring Black Americans full citizens entitled to equal civil rights. However, unforeseen results of the period from 1865 to 1876 would continue to impact Black Americans and the societies of both the South and North for over a century. https://www.thoughtco.com/reconstruction-definition-1773394 (accessed January 22, 2021). However, the growing political power of Black people provoked a violent backlash from many White people who struggled to hold on to their supremacy. Three groups made up Southern Republicanism. Before the Civil War, Americans had looked to educated, propertied white men to govern. Passed during the Civil War, economic stimulus legislation such as the Homestead Act and the Pacific Railway Act opened the Western territories to waves of settlers. After the Reconstruction measures of President Andrew Johnson in 1866 resulted in the continued abuse of formerly enslaved Blacks in the South, the Radical Republicans pushed for the enactment of the Fourteenth Amendment and civil rights laws. Believing the federal government should take an active role in creating a multiracial society in the postwar South, the Radical Republicans saw the bill as a logical next step in Reconstruction. Violent controversy erupted throughout the Southover these issues. Known as the “40 acres and a mule” provision, part of Lincoln’s Freedmen’s Bureau Act authorized the bureau to rent or sell land this land to formerly enslaved persons. The result was a costly and bloody civil war. The Reconstruction Era for kids: President Ulysses S. Grant The Civil War hero and General of the Union army, Ulysses S. Grant, became the third President during the Reconstruction Era. More than a blueprint for rebuilding the postwar South, Lincoln saw the Ten Percent Plan as a tactic for further weakening the resolve of the Confederacy. A combination of personal stubbornness, fervent belief in states’ rights, and racist convictions led Johnson to reject these bills, causing a permanent rupture between himself and Congress. The Reconstruction era was the period after the American Civil War from 1865 to 1877, during which the United States grappled with the challenges of reintegrating into the Union the states that had seceded and determining the legal status of African Americans. Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States, 1860s. White supremacist organizations that committed terrorist acts, such as the Ku Klux Klan, targeted local Republican leaders for beatings or assassination. Many Black children—especially those without parental support—were arrested and forced into unpaid labor for white planters. View Reconstruction.pdf from CHST 301 at Concordia University Irvine. At Colfax, Louisiana, in 1873, scores of Black militiamen were killed after surrendering to armed whites intent on seizing control of local government. Congress decided to begin Reconstruction anew. https://www.britannica.com/event/Reconstruction-United-States-history, Texas State Historical Association - The Handbook of Texas Online - Reconstruction, PBS LearningMedia - Michael Williams: Reconstruction, Official Site of Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States, African American Registry - Biography of Ed Wilson, Reconstruction - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Reconstruction - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), United States presidential election of 1868. With the federal government no longer responsible for protecting the rights of the formerly enslaved people, Reconstruction had ended. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Andrew Johnson pardoning Confederate soldiers at the White House, Washington, D.C.; Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The second large group, scalawags, or native-born white Republicans, included some businessmen and planters, but most were nonslaveholding small farmers from the Southern up-country. Increasingly, the new Southern governments looked to Washington, D.C., for assistance. Reconstruction: America After the Civil War explores the transformative years following the American Civil War, when the nation struggled to rebuild itself in the face of profound loss, massive destruction, and revolutionary social change. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments went largely unenforced, setting the stage for the civil rights movement of the 1960s. So-called “Black supremacy” never existed, but the advent of African Americans in positions of political power marked a dramatic break with the country’s traditions and aroused bitter hostility from Reconstruction’s opponents. At the national level, new laws and constitutional amendments permanently altered the federal system and the definition of American citizenship. To Lincoln, the plan was an attempt to weaken the Confederacy rather than a blueprint for the postwar South. During a brief period in the Reconstruction era, African Americans voted in large numbers and held public office at almost every level, including in both houses of Congress. In the South, a politically mobilized Black community joined with white allies to bring the Republican Party to power, and with it a redefinition of the responsibilities of government. Though they were repeatedly either ignored or flagrantly violated, the anti-racial discrimination Reconstruction amendments remained in the Constitution. Reconstruction in the South meant a massive social and political upheaval and a devastated economy. Nonetheless, the political revolution of Reconstruction spawned increasingly violent opposition from white Southerners. First, the war had revolutionised the idea of American citizenship. In 1863, months after signing his Emancipation Proclamation, President Abraham Lincoln introduced his Ten Percent Plan for Reconstruction. Shortly thereafter, Congress approved the Fourteenth Amendment, which put the principle of birthright citizenship into the Constitution and forbade states to deprive any citizen of the “equal protection” of the laws. Reconstruction: America After the Civil War explores the transformative years following the American Civil War, when the nation struggled to rebuild itself in the face of profound loss, massive destruction, and revolutionary social change. Reconstruction. A comprehensive and compelling history of the United States immediately following the Civil War. From the beginning of Reconstruction, Black conventions and newspapers throughout the South had called for the extension of full civil and political rights to African Americans. In 1874, Black members of Congress, led by South Carolina Representative Robert Brown Elliot, were instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, outlawing discrimination based on race in hotels, theaters, and railway cars. Long portrayed by many historians as a time when vindictive Radical Republicans fastened Black supremacy upon the defeated Confederacy, Reconstruction has since the late 20th century been viewed more sympathetically as a laudable experiment in interracial democracy. In the 1866 mid-term congressional elections, Northern voters overwhelmingly rejected President Johnson’s Reconstruction policies, giving Radical Republicans nearly total control of Congress. In early 1866, Congress refused to recognize or seat representatives and senators who had been elected from the former Confederate states of the South and passed the Freedmen’s Bureau and Civil Rights Bills. Now controlling both the House of Representatives and the Senate, Radical Republicans were assured the votes needed to override any of Johnson’s vetoes to their soon-to-come Reconstruction legislation. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. All Black persons living in the states that enacted Black Code laws were required to sign yearly labor contracts. Hiram Revels (seated at far left) of Mississippi, the first African American U.S. senator, along with black members of the House of Representatives (seated, left to right) Benjamin S. Turner of Alabama, Josiah T. Walls of Florida, and Joseph H. Rainey and Robert Brown Elliott of South Carolina and (standing) Robert C. Delarge of South Carolina, and Jefferson H. Long of Georgia. The backlash succeeded, and the promises of Reconstruction were mostly unfulfilled. They also offered lavish aid to railroads and other enterprises in the hope of creating a “New South” whose economic expansion would benefit Blacks and whites alike. Give an example from Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s documentary series, Reconstruction: America After the Civil War, explores the transformative years following the American Civil War, when the nation struggled to rebuild itself in the face of profound loss, massive destruction, and revolutionary social change. The first extended the life of an agency Congress had created in 1865 to oversee the transition from slavery to freedom. In his last speech, on April 11, 1865, Lincoln, referring to Reconstruction in Louisiana, expressed the view that some Blacks—the “very intelligent” and those who had served in the Union army—ought to enjoy the right to vote. Reconstruction addressed how the eleven seceding states would regain self-government and be reseated in Congress, the civil status of the former leaders of the Confederacy, and the Constitutional and legal status of freedmen, especially their civil rights and whether they should be given the right to vote. For decades, most Southern Black people were forced to remain propertyless and mired in poverty. The Civil Rights Act was the first significant bill that became a law despite a presidential veto. The Civil War which ended in 1865, demolished slavery and emancipated four million human beings. Ratified on February 3, 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment prohibited the states from limiting the voting rights of their male citizens “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” However, the amendment did not prohibit the states from enacting restrictive voter qualifications laws that applied equally to all races. Once these conditions were met, however, the newly restored Southern states were allowed to manage their governments and legislative affairs. The Reconstruction Era (1865–1877). In the fall 1866 congressional elections, Northern voters overwhelmingly repudiated Johnson’s policies. However, the more moderate Republican majority in Congress favored working with President Johnson to modify his Reconstruction measures. Reconstruction refers to the period immediately after the Civil War from 1865 to 1877 when several United States administrations sought to reconstruct society in the former Confederate states in particular by establishing and protecting the legal rights of the newly freed black population. Perhaps more significant to the eventual outcome of Reconstruction, the Black Codes gave the more radical arm of the Republican Party renewed influence in Congress. Reconstruction, in U.S. history, the period (1865–77) that followed the American Civil War and during which attempts were made to redress the inequities of slavery and its political, social, and economic legacy and to solve the problems arising from the readmission to the Union of the 11 states that had seceded at or before the outbreak of war. In 1864 Congress enacted (and Lincoln pocket vetoed) the Wade-Davis Bill, which proposed to delay the formation of new Southern governments until a majority of voters had taken a loyalty oath. Corrections? While U.S. Pres. Serving an expanded citizenry, Reconstruction governments established the South’s first state-funded public school systems, sought to strengthen the bargaining power of plantation labourers, made taxation more equitable, and outlawed racial discrimination in public transportation and accommodations. As a Union victory became more of certainty, America’s struggle with Reconstruction began before the end of the Civil War. Senator Charles Sumner had prophetically called them “sleeping giants” that would be awakened by future generations of Americans struggling to at last bring true freedom and equality to the descendants of slavery. Democrats argued that the Republican’s Reconstruction plan’s exclusion of the South’s “best men”—the White plantation owners—from political power was to blame for much of the violence and corruption in the region. This video is part of the Civil War Trust's In4 video series, which presents short videos on basic Civil War topics. Grant was reelected in 1872 in the most peaceful election of the period. By 1869 the Republican Party was firmly in control of all three branches of the federal government. 15 of January 1865, which set aside a large swath of land along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia for the exclusive settlement of Black families, and by the Freedmen’s Bureau Act of March, which authorized the bureau to rent or sell land in its possession to former slaves. The twelve years that composed the post-war Reconstruction era (1865-77) witnessed a seismic shift in the meaning and makeup of our democracy. This exhibit examines one of the most turbulent and controversial eras in American history. … In December 1863, less than a year after he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Pres. We know about aspects of slavery and the Civil War, but what happened after the slaves were freed? For African Americans living in the former Confederacy, Reconstruction was what historian W. E. B. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The former slaves also demanded economic independence. The effectiveness of the Reconstruction Acts and constitutional amendments was further diminished by a series of Supreme Court decisions, beginning in 1873. Under it, when one-tenth of a state’s prewar voters took an oath of loyalty, they could establish a new state government. HipHughes gives you a hug and then a big fat slug as he guides you through U.S. Reconstruction. Reconstruction was the period after the Civil War that extended from roughly 1865-1877 in the span of American history immediately following the Civil War and involved the re-integration of states of the Confederacy. Andrew Johnson attempted to return the Southern states to essentially the condition they were in before the American Civil War, Republicans in Congress passed laws and amendments that affirmed the “equality of all men before the law” and prohibited racial discrimination, that made African Americans full U.S. citizens, and that forbade laws to prevent African Americans from voting. In 1867, U.S. Civil Rights Bill of 1866 and Freedmen’s Bureau. The national debate over Reconstruction began during the Civil War. Reconstruction helped set the pattern for future race relations and defined the federal government's role in promoting racial equality. As a Union victory became more of certainty, America’s struggle with Reconstruction began before the end of the Civil War. In March 1865, Congress, at the recommendation of President Abraham Lincoln, enacted the Freedmen’s Bureau Act creating a U.S. government agency to oversee the end of slavery in the South by providing food, clothing, fuel, and temporary housing to newly freed enslaved persons and their families. Thereafter, the federal government would guarantee all Americans’ equality before the law against state violation. Republican Ulysses S. Grant was elected president that fall (see United States presidential election of 1868). Henry Louis Gates Jr. presents a vital new four-hour documentary series on Reconstruction: America After the Civil War. 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