Outline

I. The Problems of Peace

1. After the war, there were many questions over what to do with the free Blacks, how to reintegrate the Southern states into the Union, what to do with Jefferson Davis, and who would be in charge of Reconstruction.

2. The Southern way of life was ruined, as crops and farms were destroyed, the slaves were now free, and the cities were bombed out, but still, some Southerners remained defiant.

II. Freedmen Define Freedom

1. At first, the freed Blacks faced a confusing situation, as many slave owners re-enslaved their slaves over and over again after Union troops left.

i. Other planters resisted emancipation through legal means, citing that emancipation wasn’t valid until local or state courts declared it.

ii. Some slaves loyally stuck to their owners while others let out their pen-up bitterness in their freedom, pillaging their former masters’ land, property, and even whipping them.

2. Eventually, even resisting plantation owners had to give up their slaves, and afterwards tens of thousands of Blacks took to the roads to find new work or look for lost loved ones.

3. The church became to the focus of the Black community life in the years following the war.

4. Emancipation also meant education for Blacks, but despite all the gains Blacks made, they still faced severe discrimination and would have to wait a century before attaining their rights.

III. The Freedman’s Bureau

1. In order to train the unskilled and unlettered freed Blacks, the Freedman’s Bureau was set up on March 3, 1865; Union General Oliver O. Howard headed it.

2. The bureau taught about 200,000 Blacks how to read, since most former slaves wanted to narrow the literary gap between them and Whites and also read the word of God.

3. However, it wasn’t as effective as it could have been, as evidenced by the further discrimination of Blacks, and it expired in 1872 after much criticism by racist Whites.

IV. Johnson: The Tailor President

1. Andrew Johnson came from very poor and humble beginnings, and he served in Congress for many years (he was the only Confederate Congressman not to leave Congress when the rest of the South seceded).

2. Feared for his reputation of having a short temper and being a great fighter, but he was a dogmatic champion of states’ rights and the Constitution, and he was a Tennessean who never earned the trust of the North and never regained the confidence of the South.

V. Presidential Reconstruction

1. Since Abraham Lincoln believed that the South had never legally withdrawn from the Union, restoration was to be relatively simple: the southern states could be reintegrated into the Union if and when they had 10% of its voters pledge an oath to the Union and also acknowledge the emancipation of the slaves; it was called the Ten Percent Plan.

2. The Radical Republicans feared that such a lenient plan would allow the Southerners to re-enslave the newly freed Blacks again, so they rammed the Wade-Davis Bill, a bill that required 50% of the states’ voters to take oaths of allegiance and demanded stronger safeguards for emancipation than the 10% Plan, through Congress.

i. However, Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill by letting it expire, and the 10% Plan stayed.

3. It became clear that there were now two types of Republicans: the moderates, who shared the same views as Lincoln and the radicals, who believed the South should be harshly punished.

4. When Andrew Johnson took power, the radicals thought that he would do what they wanted, but he soon proved them wrong by basically taking Lincoln’s policy and issuing his own Reconstruction proclamation: certain leading Confederates were disfranchised, the Confederate debt was repudiated, and states had to ratify the 13th Amendment.

VI. The Baleful Black Codes

1. In order to control the freed Blacks, many Southern states passed Black Codes, laws aimed at keeping the Black population in submission; some were harsh, others were not as harsh.

i. Blacks who “jumped” their labor contracts, or walked off their jobs, were subject to penalties and fines, and their wages were generally kept very low.

ii. The codes forbade Blacks from serving on a jury and some even barred Blacks from renting or leasing land, and Blacks could be punished for “idleness” by being subjected to working on a chain gang.

2. Making a mockery out of the newly won freedom of the Blacks, the Black Codes made many abolitionists wonder if the price of the Civil War was worth it, since Blacks were hardly better after the war than before the war.

VII. Congressional Reconstruction

1. In December, 1865, when many of the Southern states came to be reintegrated into the Union, among them were former Confederates and Democrats, and most Republicans were disgusted to see their former enemies on hand to reclaim seats in Congress.

2. During the war, without the Democrats, the Republicans had passed legislation that had favored the North, such as the Morrill Tariff, the Pacific Railroad Act, and the Homestead Act, so now, many Republicans didn’t want to give the power that they had gained in the war.

3. Northerners now realized that the South would be stronger politically than before, since now, Blacks counted for a whole person instead of just 3/5 of one, and Republicans also feared that the Northern and Southern Democrats would join and take over Congress and the White House and institute their Black Codes over the nation, defeating all that the Civil War gained.

4. On December 6, 1865, President Johnson declared that the South had satisfied all of the conditions needed, and that the Union was now restored.

VIII. Johnson Clashes with Congress

1. Johnson repeatedly vetoed Republican-passed bills, such as a bill