Reconstruction (1865-1877)

  1. 2 main issues:
    1. Reconstruction failed to alter the South's social structure or its distribution of wealth and power which disadvantaged African-Americans.
    2. Reconstruction left significant legacies, including the 14th and 15th amendments which would be used 100 years later to protect minority rights.
    3. 3 different kinds/plans:
      1. Executive
      2. Legislative
      3. Judicial
  2. Executive Reconstruction
    1. Lincoln
      1. 1863 Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (10% Plan)
        1. 10% of voters in 1860 election had to take oath of allegiance to Union and accept emancipation
      2. Radical Republicans wanted slower readmission process
        1. Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
          1. 1/2 of eligible voters had to take oath of allegiance
      3. 13th Amendment
    2. Andrew Johnson (Lincoln's VP) rolled back many gains
      1. Black Codes
        1. racial segregation in public places
        2. prohibition of interracial marriages
        3. prohibition of jury service by blacks
        4. blacks couldn't testify against whites
        5. blacks w/o lawful employment arrested as vagrants and auctioned off to employers who paid their fines
  3. Congressional Reconstruction
    1. Republican goal of maintaining power; saw prospect of using southern black vote
    2. Joint Committee on Reconstruction (Dec 1865)
    3. 14th Amendment
    4. Reconstruction Act of 1867
    5. 15th Amendment
    6. Civil Rights Act of 1875
  4. Judicial Reconstruction
    1. Ex parte Milligan (1866)
    2. Texas v. White (1869)
    3. U.S. v. Reese (1876)
    4. U.S. v. Cruikshank (1876)
  5. Legacies of Reconstruction
    1. Success or failure?
      1. A misguided scheme that collapsed because of radical excess, or
      2. A democratic experiment that did not go far enough?
    2. Lack of land and reforms which would give African-Americans power to defend their interests as free citizens
    3. Reconstruction left significant legacies, including the 14th and 15th amendments which remain as symbols of the democratic idealism that swept Congress in the 1860s