1. Reconstruction
Life after the Civil War

2. Reconstruction Plans
• Once the Civil War was over the federal
government had to decide what to do about the
southern states that seceded.
• Two plans:
- Lincoln wanted to rebuild rather than punish the
South. Less harsh.
- The Radical Republicans were leaders in congress
that felt the south should be punished for causing
the Civil War. More harsh.

3. Radical Republicans

4. Abraham Lincoln

5. Reconstruction Plans
• April 14, 1865 Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by
John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at Ford’s
Theatre.
• Andrew Johnson succeeded Lincoln as the seventeenth
president of the United States.
• Andrew Johnson supported Lincolns less harsh views of
rebuilding the South.
• Radical Republicans did not like President Johnson and
attempted to have him removed from office by
impeaching him.
• Radical Republicans were unsuccessful and Johnson
remained in office due to one more vote in the Senate.

6. Lincoln Assassination

7. Lincolns Assasination

8. Lincolns Assasination

9. Andrew Johnson

10. Radical Republicans Plan
• Believed the majority of the southern states
voting population should swear allegiance to
the United States before they could be
readmitted into the Union.
• Also felt that freed slaves and their civil rights
should be protected.
• Felt that congress, NOT the president should
be in charge of the reconstruction of the
South.

11. Freedmen’s Bureau
• Created by Congress in 1865 as a relief agency
to help freed slaves.
• Provided clothes, medical attention, food,
education, and land for free slaves.
• Due to lack of support, Freedmen’s Bureau
ended in 1869.

12. Freemen’s Bureau

13. Freedman’s Bureau

14. 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
• Under the Radical Republicans, Congress passed
legislation that helped African Americans after the Civil
War.
• 13th Amendment – ended slavery throughout the
country.
• Fourteenth Amendment – granted citizenship to
African Americans and guaranteed African Americans
all the rights protected by the Bill of Rights.
• Fifteenth Amendment – guaranteed the right to vote
for African American men.
(Women still not allowed to vote)

15. Reconstruction in Georgia

16. Sharecropping and Tenant Farming
• With no money, land, or property former slaves
turned to sharecropping and tenant farming in
order to survive.
• Sharecropping – agreeing to farm a portion of a
white landowners land in return for housing and
a share of the crop.
• Tenant Farming – rented a portion of the land
from white landowners and owned the crops
they grew.
• Both meant to keep the African Americans at the
mercy of the white landowners.

17. Tenant Farming and Sharecropping

18. Georgia’s Reconstruction Government
• After the war, Georgia needed some form of
government.
• For while, the federal government took over
and appointed a provisional governor. (The
military ran the government).
• Eventually Rufus Bullock, a Radical Republican,
became governor of Georgia.
• Ratified the 14th Amendment in Georgia.

19. Rufus Bullock

20. Henry M. Turner
• One of 32 African Americans that was elected
a legislator in Georgia.
• Doubted that blacks and whites could live
peacefully together.
• Complained about the way blacks were being
treated and encouraged them to move to
Africa rather than stay in the United States.

21. Henry M Turner

22. Unrest in Georgia’s Reconstruction
• A faction of Southern Democrats plotted and
caused the expulsion of 28 African American
representatives for Georgia’s legislature.
• Other groups used violence to keep African
Americans from exercising their rights.
• One of the most infamous white supremacist
groups was the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
• KKK would dress up in white sheets and lynch
those they targeted.

23. KKK

24. KKK

25. Unrest in Georgia’s Reconstruction
• Governor Bullock was concerned about the
unrest in Georgia, and expulsion of the black
legislators in Georgia.
• Bullock asked the federal government to bring
back military rule over Georgia.
• Once the military was back in charge the black
legislators returned to office and ratified the
15th Amendment.

26. End of the Reconstruction
• In 1876 the Radical Republicans and the Southern
Democrats both claimed their candidate won the
presidential election.
• Both sides argued for months, until Republican
Candidate Rutherford B. Hayes became president
due to a compromise.
• Compromise was called the Compromise of 1877.
• Compromise states that Hayes would become
president in exchange for the Republicans
agreeing to end the Reconstruction in the South.

27. Rutherford B. Hoayes

28. End of the Reconstruction
• With the Compromise of 1877 the southern
states now could run their own governments.
• Due to the resentment of the Republican
party the south entered into a long period
called the “Solid South”.
• “Solid South” for nearly 100 years the
Democrats wont high elections in the south
giving them a “solid” grip on southern political
power.