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Congressional Reconstruction

Aim: Was the Radical Republican plan for Reconstruction too extreme?

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I. Congressional Reconstruction

  • Some Radical Republicans (Stevens, Sumner) advocated land redistribution in the South
  • Civil Rights Act (1866) – required an end to legal discrimination against African Americans
    • Johnson vetoed; Congress overrode his veto
  • Fourteenth Amendment – Made all native-born or naturalized persons American citizens; guaranteed citizens due process and equal protection

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Congressional Reconstruction

  • Military Reconstruction Act – divided the ten unreconstructed states into five military districts with Union generals in charge or political reform
    • Would guarantee black male suffrage and equal rights
    • States must ratify the 14th Amendment before readmission to Union
    • Johnson vetoed; Congress overrode veto
    • African Americans began serving in state legislatures and in Congress

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II. Impeaching President Johnson

  • Congress enacted the Tenure of Office Act in 1867
  • Johnson fired Sec of War Edwin Stanton
  • Congress impeached Johnson, bringing him up on formal charges (House) and trying him (Senate)
  • Johnson was not convicted
  • After this ordeal, he made a truce with Congress and did not interfere w/ their plans
    • Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment, giving black men the right to vote (excluded women)

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III. Southern Economy

  • Southern economy destroyed
    • Land, infrastructure, banks, etc.
  • Without slavery, South moves toward industrialization πŸ‘ͺ New South
  • Carpetbaggers – Northerners who move South to take advantage of poor economy
  • Scalawags – Southern Republicans who support Reconstruction
  • Freedmen’s situation
    • Sharecropping – former slaves rented land from former owners and paid with share of their crop
    • Tenant Farming – former slaves rented land
    • Debt Peonage – former slaves were trapped in cycle of debt