Center for Distance and Independent Study
8th Grade Social Studies, Part Two

Introduction

The Civil War devastated the South in several ways. First, Grant's policy of total warfare destroyed many of the South's most important cities. Richmond, Virginia, and Atlanta, Georgia, were completely devastated—hardly a building stood complete in either city. The invading Union army destroyed railroad lines and depots, cut telegraph wires, and killed livestock. Second, the South's economy was in shambles. Confederate money was not legal tender after the war, so people had no money. Also, the defunct Confederacy did not repay the money it borrowed to finance the war. As a result, many banks had to shut down, and people lost their savings. Last, slavery no longer existed. Suddenly, there were four million freedmen, the name given to the freed slaves. The majority of these freedmen had no skills, and most couldn't read or write. The problem of how to integrate them into society would be the most difficult to solve.

The North felt the effects of the war, but it was in much better shape than the South. Few battles had been fought on northern soil, so the North did not have to rebuild its cities. Northerners could resume their daily lives almost as if the war had not happened. The North did face some economic problems, however. At the end of the war, government contracts with businesses ended, yet there were hundreds of thousands of returning Union soldiers looking for work. In time, rebuilding efforts in the South meant increased demand for products in the North, so the northern economy restored itself.

Lincoln's Plan for Reconstruction

Before the war was over, Lincoln began thinking about how to rebuild the South. Lincoln firmly believed that the more quickly southern states were restored, the faster the wounds of the nation would heal. Lincoln wanted to make the process as easy as possible for southerners.

Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction is called the Ten Percent Plan. When ten percent of the population of a southern state swore loyalty to the Union, the state could form a new government and elect members to Congress. As part of the plan, Lincoln offered amnesty (another word for a pardon or forgiveness) to anyone who had supported the Confederacy but now swore loyalty to the restored Union. This did not, however, apply to the government leaders of the Confederate States of America. As fate would have it, Lincoln never got the chance to implement his plan.

An Alternate Plan

Lincoln's plan was very generous, and some Republicans in Congress objected to it. Instead of supporting Lincoln's plan, Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864. Under this plan, a majority of voters (51 percent) had to swear loyalty to the Union. Also, anyone who had fought for the Confederacy could not vote or hold political office. Lincoln vetoed the bill, so it did not take effect.

A Dark Day for the Nation

Just days after Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, Lincoln attended a popular play, Our American Cousin, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln was accompanied by his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, Clara Harris, and Major Henry Rathbone. General Grant was supposed to attend, but he declined Lincoln's invitation. His reasons for doing so are not clear, but the gossip at the time was that Grant's wife did not like Mrs. Lincoln.

The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was a well-known actor and southern sympathizer. Originally, Booth's plan was to kidnap Lincoln and exchange him for Confederate prisoners of war. The kidnapping was supposed to occur in March 1865, but a change in Lincoln's itinerary foiled Booth's plan.

On April 11, 1865, Booth attended a speech that Lincoln gave in front of the White House. In the speech, Lincoln intimated that some blacks should be given the right to vote. Booth, a racist, was incensed. He resolved to assassinate Lincoln instead.

On April 14, 1865, Booth stopped by Ford's Theatre, where he frequently worked. He heard that Lincoln would be attending the play that evening. Seeing his chance to kill Lincoln, Booth assembled his coconspirators. George Atzerodt was given the job of assassinating Vice President Andrew Johnson at his residence. Booth told Lewis Powell and David Herold to kill Secretary of State William Seward. All of the conspirators were to commit their attacks simultaneously at 10:15 that night. Booth hoped that the assassinations of the top three members of the government would throw the Union into chaos and give the Confederacy an opportunity to regroup and resume the rebellion.

Booth arrived at Ford's Theatre at approximately 9:30 p.m. He was armed with a knife and a derringer pistol, a gun that can hold only one bullet. Booth went to a saloon next to the theatre to have a drink and pass the time until 10:15. A few minutes after 10:00 p.m., Booth walked up to the State Box where Lincoln was sitting. Lincoln's bodyguard was not at this post guarding the presidential box. Lincoln was vulnerable.

At the set time, Booth entered the box, put his gun to the back of Lincoln's head, and pulled the trigger. Major Rathbone grabbed Booth's arm, but Booth stabbed him viciously in the arm. Booth jumped off the front of the box, falling eleven feet to the stage below. The impact broke Booth's leg, yet he was able to hobble out to his horse and make his getaway. As Booth crossed the stage, some people in the audience claimed, he yelled, "Sic temper tyrannis," which means "As always to tyrants."

The other conspirators did not complete their tasks. Atzerodt did not even try to kill Vice President Johnson. Powell stabbed Seward in the face, but the wounds were not fatal; Seward was already bedridden because of a carriage accident. When Herold heard screams from inside the Seward home, he left Powell and ran to the tavern where the conspirators had planned to meet.

Herold met Booth on the way, and the two men stopped at the tavern to pick up some supplies. About 4:00 a.m., Booth and Herold arrived at the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who set Booth's broken leg and put a splint on it. Booth paid him $25 for his services. Later, when Mudd was tried as an accomplice to the conspiracy, he would claim that he did not recognize Booth that night, even though the two men had met on several occasions. Mudd testified that Booth and Herold gave fake names when they showed up at his door.

On the afternoon of April 15, Booth and Herold left Dr. Mudd's home and hid in a tobacco barn. They were asleep when federal troops surrounded them. Knowing they were trapped, Herold surrendered, but Booth refused to come out of the barn. The soldiers set the barn on fire to drive Booth out. At some point in the melee, Sergeant Boston Corbett shot and killed Booth. The soldiers found Booth's diary among his belongings at the barn, and it proved to be useful evidence, because Booth had listed the names of everyone involved in the conspiracy.

While Booth and Herold were on the run, Lincoln lay dying in Washington, D.C. He had been carried out of Ford's Theatre into a boardinghouse across the street. The bullet was lodged in his brain and not removed until after his death. Dr. Charles Leale, a young physician in attendance at the play that evening, attended to the president during the night. Lincoln never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead at 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865.

Lincoln's funeral procession marched through the streets of Washington, D.C. He was then transported to Springfield, Illinois, where he was buried. There were repeated attempts to steal Lincoln's body from its grave, so Robert Todd Lincoln exhumed the remains and reinterred them in concrete several feet thick.

All of the conspirators were arrested and put on trial. Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, David Herold, and Mary Surratt were hanged on July 7, 1865. Surratt owned the tavern where the conspirators met, and she had assisted the conspiracy in several ways. Dr. Mudd, Michael O'Laughlen, and Samuel Arnold were given life sentences. O'Laughlen died in prison, and President Andrew Johnson pardoned Dr. Mudd and Samuel Arnold in 1869.

Plays are still performed at Ford's Theatre. If you visit, you can also see the box where Lincoln sat, because it is preserved as it appeared that night. The boardinghouse across the street is also a national historic site, and you can view the room and the bed where Lincoln died. Don't miss these sites if you're ever in Washington, D.C. After George Washington, historians typically regard Lincoln as one of our country's greatest presidents.

The Presidency of Andrew Johnson

As provided for in the U.S. Constitution, Vice President Andrew Johnson became president upon Lincoln's death. Johnson immediately began implementation of his own plan for Reconstruction. Johnson's plan required that a majority of voters in southern states swear loyalty to the Union. Additionally, each state had to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Congress had passed the Thirteenth Amendment, which made slavery illegal in the United States, in January 1865.

When southern states had complied with Johnson's conditions, they set up their new state governments and held elections for Congress. Many of the same people who had served in the Confederacy were now elected to Congress. Republicans believed that this was intolerable and set in motion a plan to usurp Johnson's authority.

Black Codes

Southern states passed the Thirteenth Amendment so they could elect members to Congress again; however, they also passed a series of laws limiting the freedom of black people. Collectively, these laws are called black codes. The black codes prevented blacks from voting, owning guns, and serving on juries. Some states required blacks to sign contracts promising to work for at least a year. Other states restricted the kinds of jobs black people could be hired to do. While African Americans gained some freedoms, southern states were clearly trying to keep them in a state of servitude.

Black people were also the frequent targets of violence. Whites attacked blacks identified as trying to move "above their station." In other words, a black person who talked about voting or tried to get a job as something other than a servant or farm laborer was often beaten by groups of white vigilantes. Black churches and schools were vandalized and sometimes burned.

The Radical Republicans Take Power

Outraged by southern treatment of freedmen, a group of Republicans formed an alliance. This group became known as the Radical Republicans. The group hoped to achieve two things: they wanted to give freedmen the right to vote, and they wanted to take political power away from wealthy plantation owners who controlled southern governments. The leaders of the Radical Republicans were Thaddeus Stevens, a congressman from Pennsylvania, and Charles Sumner, a senator from Massachusetts.

Fourteenth Amendment

One of the first acts of the Radical Republicans was to propose the Fourteenth Amendment. They worried that, because of the Dred Scott decision two decades earlier, blacks would be denied their rights on the grounds that they were not citizens of the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment provided that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" were citizens. This definition would include freed slaves. In essence, the Fourteenth Amendment legally prohibited discrimination based on race.

Why was it so important to guarantee citizenship to black people? Because of the Fourteenth Amendment, states could not deny a man the right to vote based solely on the color of his skin. Radical Republicans believed that amending the Constitution would ensure that blacks could vote. If black people could vote, then they could protect their rights.

Unfortunately, things didn't work out exactly as the Radical Republicans hoped. Southerners found other ways to deny African Americans their basic rights.

The Fifteenth Amendment

One more change was made to the Constitution in the years immediately following the Civil War. In 1869, Congress proposed the Fifteenth Amendment, prohibiting any state from denying any citizen the right to vote based on race or because a person was previously a slave. The amendment was ratified in 1870.

If you want to read more about the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution, review pages 243–245 in your textbook, explore your local library, or visit the U.S. National Archives Constitution Web site.

Radical Reconstruction

In the congressional election of 1866, Republicans gained majorities in both houses. There was not a presidential election that year, but President Johnson faced opposition to his policies in Congress and mounting public disapproval of his presidency.

The Radical Republicans passed the Reconstruction Act in March 1867. The Reconstruction Act divided the South into five military districts. Each district was under the control of an army officer who was given almost complete authority over the district. In addition, any southern state government that had not approved the Fourteenth Amendment was removed from power. Tennessee was the only southern state to ratify the amendment and was spared the wrath of Congress on this measure.

In the state elections that followed, Confederate officers were prohibited from voting. In protest, many other white voters stayed away from the polls. The army guarded polling stations, guaranteeing that freedmen could vote without harassment. When the votes were counted, all of the new state governments in the South were Republican.

Of course, southerners saw the tactics of the Radical Republicans as another way punish them for the Civil War. It was also more evidence that northerners did not approve of the South's way of life. Southerners were bitter about the treatment they received during this time, which is often referred to as the period of Radical Reconstruction. A very helpful chart on page 554 compares the Johnson Plan to Radical Reconstruction.

Johnson is Impeached

President Johnson did not support Radical Reconstruction, and he did everything he could to prevent the Republicans from carrying out their plans. He vetoed laws, fired military officers, and spoke openly of his opposition. He was a thorn in the side of every Republican in Congress, so they decided to impeach him.

Impeachment is the bringing of formal charges against a public official. Article II of the Constitution provides for removal of a president from office, if he is found guilty of "high crimes and misdemeanors." Since removing a public official from office is a serious matter that should be done only in extreme circumstances, the process is rather complicated.

In the case of the president of the United States, the Constitution says that the House of Representatives brings the charges or conducts the impeachment. After impeachment, the Senate holds a trial. Two-thirds of the Senate has to agree that the president is guilty of the charges against him in order to remove him from office.

In the end, the Radical Republicans were not able to make their scheme work. Even some Republicans refused to vote guilty. It was clear that the charges were politically motivated and that Johnson had not committed any crimes. In a close vote of 35 to 19, Johnson was cleared of all charges.

This story proves how important a single vote can be. If just one more senator had voted guilty, then Johnson would have been removed from office. If anyone ever tells you that one vote doesn't count, you can reply that President Johnson would have disagreed.

There has been only one other impeachment in the history of the United States, and it occurred fairly recently. President Clinton was impeached in the 1990s. That impeachment was a lengthy and complicated ordeal, much like Johnson's impeachment more than a hundred years before. Clinton was not found guilty by the Senate.

In the following presidential election, in 1868, Ulysses S. Grant ran as a Republican. As a war hero, he had broad support in the North. In the South, blacks also supported Grant's candidacy. Grant easily won the election and became the eighteenth president of the United States.

The New South

After the Civil War, southerners were busy rebuilding their lives. Homes, churches, and other buildings were rebuilt in the cities. New stores opened to supply the increased demand for lumber, tools, and other building materials.

The South also saw an increase in industrial capabilities. Textile mills were built to process cotton into cloth. The furniture industry blossomed, as did mining for resources such as coal and iron ore.

The infrastructure was repaired and expanded. Southern states laid thousands of miles of railroad track. They put up telegraph lines, improved roads, and built bridges. The South after the war seemed to be a modern society. It was a New South.

Carpetbaggers and Scalawags

The booming economy of the New South drew many entrepreneurial northerners to the region. They hoped to get rich capitalizing on the building trade or some other lucrative enterprise. Southerners started to refer to these northerners as carpetbaggers, because they had been in such a rush to get to the South that they only had time to pack a few things in a carpetbag, which is a cheap suitcase.

Some southerners also saw opportunity for power as the South changed. When the Radical Republicans were installing new state governments in the South, some southerners supported the Republicans in their efforts. White southern Republicans were referred to as scalawags, or broken-down old horses.

Life for Blacks in the New South

Most white southerners could not accept that black people were now equal to them in the eyes of the law. They resented allowing blacks to vote and participate in government. Moreover, whites did not believe it was right for blacks to be able to own property, get an education, and hold professional jobs.

Many of the topics discussed in this section are covered in more detail at PBS's "The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow" Web site. This Web site also provides more information about Reconstruction and the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as issues of equality that we will study in following lessons.

The Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan was formed around 1867. Klansmen believed their purpose was to protect themselves and the southern way of life from the Reconstruction policies of the North. In practice, the Klan terrorized schoolteachers working for the Freedmen's Bureau and whites they identified as carpetbaggers and scalawags. The Klan is also responsible for murdering hundreds—maybe thousands—of black and white people.

Blacks, though, were the primary targets of Klan hatred. Dressed in white robes with their faces covered by pointed hoods to conceal their identities, Klansmen threatened blacks by burning giant wooden crosses at night in front of houses where blacks lived.

Northerners were outraged by the activities of the Klan and pressured Congress to do something about it. Congress passed the Klan Act in 1871, which made it possible to prosecute Klansmen in federal court and to use federal troops, rather than state militias, to enforce civil rights laws. These measures led to a decrease in Klan activity, but did not stop it entirely. Sadly, the Ku Klux Klan is still an active organization today.

Poverty

Congress created the Freedmen's Bureau to provide assistance to former slaves after the war. The Freedmen's Bureau offered a variety of services including help finding jobs, medical care, and education. The Bureau also provided basic necessities such as food and clothing.

Even though the government attempted to help former slaves adjust to freedom, very little changed in the South. They had their freedom, but few blacks left the plantation. Where would they have gone? What would they have done to make a living? They had grown up on the plantation, and it was the only life they knew.

The freedmen who stayed on the plantations and worked the land became sharecroppers. They farmed the land and used seed and tools borrowed from the plantation owner. When their crops were harvested, they gave a large share of it to the plantation owners as rent for the land. Many freedmen hoped eventually to own the land they farmed. In reality, the sharecropping system kept blacks poor with no way to escape the poverty.

Equality Denied

Even though the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments prohibited discrimination because of skin color, southerners found ways around these. To deny blacks the right to vote, southerners enacted poll taxes, required literacy tests, and instituted grandfather clauses. These policies also prevented many poor whites from voting.

In order to vote, a person had to pay a fee, or poll tax, which most black people could not afford. To pass the literacy tests, a voter had to read and explain a part of the U.S. Constitution. Most blacks were illiterate, because education had been denied to them when they were slaves. Because of grandfather clauses, only persons whose grandfathers had been eligible to vote on January 1, 1867, could become registered voters. This precluded all black people from voting, because no black man had been allowed to vote on January 1, 1867.

Southerners also devised a system of segregation to separate the races legally. Jim Crow Laws made it legal to segregate every facet of society; restaurants, schools, trains, theaters, and hospitals were all segregated. Blacks were not allowed to eat among whites, to sit among whites, to use the same public facilities as whites, or even to be buried with whites.

Plessy v. Ferguson

Blacks and whites began working to repeal the Jim Crow Laws. A group of citizens in New Orleans persuaded Homer Plessy to test segregation. Plessy, who was one-eighth African, bought a first-class ticket on a train leaving the city. Plessy got on the train and took a seat in the white section; then, he told the conductor that he was black. The conductor ordered Plessy to move to the "blacks only" car. When he refused, Plessy was arrested.

In 1896, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. Plessy's lawyer argued that segregating blacks and whites implied that blacks were inferior and that was in violation of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. In an 8-to-1 decision, the Supreme Court upheld Louisiana's Jim Crow Laws. The Court said that segregation does not imply that one race is inferior to another. Furthermore, the Court said that separate facilities are legal as long as those facilities are equal.

This "separate but equal" doctrine, legitimized by the United States Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson, emboldened southerners. Segregation was public policy in the South and spread to other parts of the country as well. The legal basis for segregation would persist in our country until 1954 when the case of a black schoolgirl in Topeka, Kansas would shine light on its injustice. But that's a topic for another lesson!

Reconstruction Ends

The presidential election of 1876 marked the last breath for Reconstruction. The Republicans had been losing support for several reasons. First, most people were tired of hearing about the problems in the South and thought that southerners should be allowed to run their own states. After all, the war had been over for twelve years.

News of corruption among the Republicans also eroded their power. Grant had given government jobs to many of his friends. There were also instances of using government money to make personal purchases and even to gamble.

In the 1876 election, the candidates were Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. Tilden won the popular vote, but he was one vote shy of winning the electoral college. There were twenty votes in dispute, however, and it was up to Congress to resolve the votes. The Republicans gave all twenty votes to their candidate, Hayes, without knowing that Hayes had secretly made a deal with the Democrats to end Reconstruction if he won the election. When he took office, Hayes withdrew all federal troops from the South. Reconstruction was over.

Conclusion

When the Civil War ended, the South was destroyed, and the spirit of southerners was devastated. Even so, southerners did not accept defeat, and most held tightly to their former way of life. When southerners rebuilt their cities they instituted a new kind of oppression to replace slavery. Jim Crow Laws and segregation kept African Americans in poverty and denied them their rights.

As the era of Reconstruction ended, most black people found themselves no better off than before the Civil War. In some ways, their lives were worse and their suffering greater than before. On the other hand, blacks had gained their freedom, which is the most valued of all possessions. It would take another hundred years for Thomas Jefferson's words in the Declaration of Independence finally to be meant for them: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."