The document discusses the economic, physical, and social challenges facing both the North and South after the Civil War. The North struggled with unemployment as soldiers returned home while the South's economy and infrastructure were devastated by the war. Former slaves faced uncertainty without jobs or means to provide for themselves. Early reconstruction plans aimed to restore southern states on the condition of loyalty to the Union. However, the Black Codes restricted rights of African Americans, leading Congress to take control through amendments guaranteeing rights and protections for freed slaves.

1. Reconstruction and
Changes in the United
States

2. Northern Postwar Problems
 Economic problems in the
North:
 800,000 Union soldiers
were returning to the
north where there were
no jobs
 There was no longer a
need for so many
factories, so there were a
lot of layoffs

3.  Physicallynorthern farms
and cities were hardly
touched since most battles
took place in the south

4. Southern Postwar Problems
 Financially the South
was destroyed
 Confederate money
was worthless
 The plantation
economy which had
depended mostly on
slavery was now
ended

5.  Physically the South was
Destroyed
 In some areas all homes, barns
and bridges were destroyed.
 Mostof the south’s railroads
were totally destroyed

6. Problems That Would Arise From
The Ruins
 About 4 million former
slaves were now free
(“Freedmen”) but had
little opportunity for jobs
or any hope of providing
for their families.
 Hundreds of thousands
of veterans were also
created by the war.

7. Early Steps Toward Reconstruction
 Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan (1863)
 Under this plan, a southern state could
form a new government after 10% of its
voters swore an oath of loyalty to the
United States.

8. The Freedmen’s Bureau
 Government agency formed to help former
slaves
 Gave food and clothing to former slaves
 Helped them find jobs
 Helped poor whites as well
 Provided health care for more than 1
million people

9. The Freedmen’s Bureau’s Most
Important Tasks
 Being involved in teaching former slaves
and their children to read
 The agency laid the foundation for the
South’s public school system
 It also created colleges for African
Americans

10. Johnson’s Plan
 A majority of voters from each
southern state had to pledge loyalty
to the United States
 Each state also had to ratify the
Thirteenth Amendment (1865) which
had banned slavery throughout the
nation

11. The South’s Black Codes
 African Americans couldn’t vote,
own guns or serve on juries
 They could marry legally and own
some kinds of property

12. Congress Takes Action
 Members of Congress known as Radical
Republicans vowed to take control of
Reconstruction
 Two main goals:
 They wanted to break the power of wealthy
planters who had long ruled the South
 They wanted to ensure that freedmen
received the right to vote

13. Republicans Start To Take Control
 They passed the Civil
Rights Act (1866)
however, fearing the
Supreme Court would
declare it
unconstitutional, they
proposed the 14th
Amendment

14. 14th Amendment
 Defined citizens as “all persons born
or naturalized in the United States”
 Guaranteed citizens “equal protection
of the laws”
 Forbade states to “deprive any person
of life, liberty or property without due
process of law”

15. Radical Reconstruction
 Under the Reconstruction Act (1867)
Congress threw out any state’s government
that did not ratify the 14th Amendment
 To rejoin the Union, states had to write new
constitutions and ratify the 14th Amendment

16. Johnson Is Almost Impeached
Republicans decided to remove Johnson
from office after he tried to limit what
they could do with Reconstruction
They decided to impeach him, or bring
formal charges against him.

17. Grant Is Nominated for
President
Republicans nominate
Ulysses S. Grant for
President.
Southern
governments allowed
African American men
to vote, and as a
result Grant easily
won the election.

18. The Fifteenth Amendment
 Proposed in 1869
 Forbade any state to deny any citizen
the right to vote because of “race,
color, or previous condition of
servitude”

19. Three Groups Step In As Leaders
In The South
First were the scalawags:
 Seen as traitors by some
 They were white businesspeople who had
opposed secession in 1860
 They wanted to forget the war and just rebuild the
South.

20. Second, were the carpetbaggers:
 Northernerswho came to the south
after the war hoping to get rich from
the South’s misery
Third, were African Americans
 They became sheriffs, mayors, and
legislators in the new government

21. The Rise of Vigilante Groups
 These groups were radical in their
way of thinking
 The KKK (Ku Klux Klan) frightened,
threatened, and killed African
Americans that were not obedient.

22. A Cycle of Poverty
 Sharecropping
 Freedmen and poor whites who went to
work on large plantations
 They rented and farmed a plot of land
 Planters provided seed, fertilizer, and tools
in return for a share of the crop at harvest
time

23. Life after Reconstruction
 Southerners passed poll taxes- requiring voters
to pay a fee each time they voted.
 They imposed literacy tests that required voters
to read and explain a section of the Constitution.
 Segregation became the law in the South
 Law that would separate whites and blacks

24. Plessy v. Ferguson
 The Supreme Court ruled that
segregation was legal as long as
facilities for blacks and whites were
equal.

25. The Gettysburg Address
 Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought
forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in
Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men
are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and
so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a
portion of that field, as a final resting place for those
who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It
is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.