Reconstruction's 3 eras:

1. Lincoln - 1863 to 1865

• Dec. 1863 decree of "soft plan"
  
  • 1. amnesty - if took loyalty oath (during mil occup of Tenn, La, Ark)
    
  • 2. readmission - if 10% took oath & agreed to emancipation
    
• Tenn, La, Ark by 1864, but refused by Congress
  
• no Wade-Davis Bill by Radicals - majority pop must take oath, no Confed voters, officeholders
  
• * Recon to be under President not Congress
  
• Lincoln shot Apr 14, d. Apr 15 at 7:55 am
  

2. Andrew Johnson - 1865 to 1867

• Dem from Tenn - poor white - no ed - self-taught and self-made - fought for free schools and prop tax ag wealthy planters -slaveholder but indifferent - more sympathy for white workingman - voted for Homestead Act -
  
• * rep class conflict - Eric Foner's Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men
  
• 2 Proclamations May 29, 1865 of a modified "soft plan"
  
  • 1. amnesty - if took loyalty oath, but not allowed for 14 classes - esp 14th class - if owned $20,000+ property
    
  • 2. "restoration" - ff. pattern of NC (AJ appt'd scalawag Unionist William Holden as Gov of NC) - AJ appt'd provisional governors who called conventions to (1) repudiate secesion (2)debts (3) 13th amend (soon to be ratified in 1865, 8 mos after war ended)
    
• Why AJ soft? (1) conservative - feared social change & reform, pro-states rights, pro-workingman ag priviledge of aristocracy (2) Democrat - ag. Radical Repubs in Congress (3) personality - stubborn, inflexible, inferiority complex
  

3. Congressional "hard plan" - 1867-1877

• 39th Congress began Dec. 4, 1865
• Senate - Charles Sumner of Mass. - emph voting
  
• House - Thad Stevens of Pa - emph equality, land
  
  • mulatto housekeeper/mistress Lydia Smith
    
  • abolitionist, free schools, antimason - was idealist
    
  • but also political opportunist - build Repub party
    
• Repub moderates - Sen. John Sherman of Ohio - emph economic - RR, banks
  
• * 3 motives: (1) idealistic - help blacks (2) political - control govt (3) economic - exploit South
  
• Wendell Phillips public letter July 16, 1865, to get the black vote

Joint Committee on Reconstruction:

• 15 members (only 3 Dem) - chmn Wm Fessenden of Maine (conserv) - held hearings thru March 1866 - 5 issues caused conflict w/ President Johnson:
  

1. Black Codes

• convict labor, vagrancy, must have home and means of support
  
• in Miss, blacks forbidden to rent or own land outside towns
  
• in SC, black children could be apprenticed to whites if parents did not educ
  
• pt. = keep blacks in slavery - insure labor supply; restore preCW race relations
  
• enforced by southern "county militia" and helped by Union troops, e.g., Gen George Crook in N Car - feared Emanc Day riot Jan 1, 1866 & gave arms to co. militia - gun battles, looting, "reallocation" of livestock acquired by freedmen during war
  

2. Pardons

• 13,500 by AJ, incl 4 Confed generals (Wade Hampton of SC - gov in 1876
  
• why? (1) poor admin (2) states rights (3) pro-Dem party
  
• R. E. Lee - indicted for treason, but never brought to trial - applied for pardon, but never granted - became pres. of Washington College (Wash & Lee Univ) - avoided politics - d. 1870 at age 63 - never regained Arlington
  

3. D.C. suffrage bill

• passed House Jan 24, 1866 - opp'd in public by AJ - 1st time - bill not passed
  
• signif= step toward 14th Amendment and civil rights; much opp to black vote; conflict with AJ
  

4. Freedmen's Bureau

• Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, & Abandoned Land created Mar 3, 1865 in War Dept - Gen O.O. Howard - emph relief - opened stores - - but also reform:
  
• (1) land - Port Royal, S. Car. since 1861 - 40,000 got land - 40 acres (image) - under Gen Rufus Saxton, but removed by AJ in Jan. 1866 & land returned - also Davis Bend, Miss (25 mi south of Vicksburg) - 6 plantations of Jeff Davis to 1800 blacks - earned profit - but AJ returnd land to whites - Davis imprisoned until May 13, 1867, then released - lost land but lived in Gulf coast of Miss - never requested pardon & avoided politics
• (2) education - many white teachers from north (image)
• (3) courts - but AJ allowed trials in state civil courts (image)
• AJ vetoed renewal of Bureau Feb. 19, 1866 - but amended bill passed over veto
  

5. 14th Amendment

• passed Congress June 13, 1866 - ratified 1868 - because AJ vetoed Feb 1866 Civil Rights Bill - 3 amendments to the Constitution 1865-70 - first since 1804, no more until 1913 (13th - abol slavery; 14th - civil rights; 15th - voting rights) - Tenn 1st to ratify - readmitted into Union July 24, 1866 but other states refused - waited for 1866 congressional elections
  
• defined national citizenship (all born or naturalized) but not specific rights
  
• prohib states from abridging rights
  
• prohib states from depriving citizens without "due process of law"
  
• no ex-Confed officeholders to vote
  
• abolished 3/5 rule in Section II
  

Transition to Radical Reconstruction:

1. The 1866 Elections

• many riots - New Orleans July 30, 1866 - blacks demonstrated for vote at a convention - whites oppd - 48 killed
  
• Memphis May 1 - 46 blacks killed - 91 homes burned , 4 churches, 12 schools
  
• Thomas Nast used the pen to oppose Johnson in the pages of Harper's Weekly
• see the
• Harper's Weekly illustrations fromHarpWeek, and biography of Thomas Nast
• results:
  
  • Repub won 2/3 majority in both houses, won every state leg & govt. in North
    
  • clear repudiation of AJ and his National Union Party of conservatives
    
  • began transition to Radical Reconstruction
    

2. The 3 Acts of March 2, 1867:

• passed over AJ's veto - AJ complied - sent 20,000 troops - 703,000 blacks and 627,000 whites registered
  
• conventions called to write new constitutions w/ 14th amendment and suffrage
  
• all states reorganized and admitted to Congress by 1870
  
• "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags" play key role in southern state governments.
  

Links:

• Birth of a Nation film notes
• Harper's Weekly illustrations from HarpWeek
• Fourteenth Amendment from NARA Charters of Freedom exhibit
• 13th and 14th and 15th Amendments from Cornell
• Andrew Johnson and his 1868 impeachment index from Yahoo
• Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center
• Gateway to African-American History from State Department
• Black History Pages
• Without Sanctuary exhibit of lynching postcards from James Allen
• Freedmen's Bureau Online