Slavery in North America existed since settlement began in the 17th century. Within the United States, by the time of the start of the civil war slavery had become extinct in the northern states, defined largely as north of the Mason-Dixon line that forms the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Slavery continued to exist in the south until put down by the Union Army and abolished officially by the 13th amendment to the Constitution in The international slave trade was ended by the British Navy in the early 19th century.
Carpetbagger by Thomas Nast. Carpetbaggers was the term used to refere to Northerners who moved to the south during Reconstruction to profit from the situation in the territory. The name was a referece to the carpet bag luggage that many of the Northerners used. Scalawags were Southern whites who supported the Republicans and the various policies of Reconstruction in the south.
The name was originally a reference to low-grade farm animals. It has had three different manifestations in three different eras. The first era, when the group was founded, was in the aftermath of the Civil War, particularly during Reconstruction. The Klan operated as a vigilante group that targeted newly freed black populations and Republican politicians in the Reconstruction governments of the former Confederacy. Though it was officially disbanded in , it continued to function well into the the early s.
The Federal government passed a variety of laws and acts to dismantle the Klan in that period which had some success. The KKK did not resurface again until the beginning of the 20th century. Nathan Bedford Forrest July 13 - October 29 Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Confederate cavalry leader. After the war he served in the Ku Klux Klan but distanced himself from them by denying any formal connection.
He was responsible for officially dissolving the first incarnation of the Klan in though they continued to operate afterwards for many years.
Andrew Johnson December 29, — July 31, Andrew Johnson was Lincoln's last Vice-President and succeeded to office as the 17th President following Lincoln's assassination. A white slaveholding south that had built its economy and culture on slave labor was now forced by its defeat in a war that claimed , lives to change its economic, political and social relations with African Americans. Reconstruction is generally divided into three phases: Wartime Reconstruction, Presidential Reconstruction and Radical or Congressional Reconstruction, which ended with the Compromise of , when the U.
Freedmen's School in Beaufort, South Carolina, c. With the exception of top Confederate leaders, the proclamation also included a full pardon and restoration of property, excluding enslaved people, for those who took part in the war against the Union.
They considered success nothing less than a complete transformation of southern society. Passed in Congress in July , the Wade-Davis Bill required that 50 percent of white males in rebel states swear a loyalty oath to the constitution and the union before they could convene state constitutional convents. The Wade-Davis Bill was never implemented. After the war was over, President Andrew Johnson returned most of the land to the former white slaveowners.
Just 41 days before his assassination, the 16th President had used his second inaugural address to signal reconciliation between the north and south. First, troops were required to move in and take up residence in the confederate states of the south. Secondly, any state that wanted back into the union was only allowed to do so when and if they changed their 14th amendment.
They had to agree that all men born in the U. Later, in , black men were also granted the vote…but this would come later. Now, the Reconstruction Act looked really good on paper, but as usually happens in politics somebody rocked the boat. The shake up took place in the presidential election. In the end, the result was the Compromise of In this compromise, Hayes was declared the winner, and this was agreed on by both parties.
The real kicker was the other stipulation, though. The military occupation of the southern states was put to an end.
No big deal, right? Without military force to back them up, the freed slaves living down there were without safety. There was nothing to keep the southerners from taking advantage of the freed men, and this is exactly what they did. So, even though protection laws were in place, they did little good with nobody to enforce them. At this point Reconstruction ended. Since the time it began people have been debating that question.
Once ten percent of the voting population of a seceded state took the oath of allegiance, Lincoln authorized these individuals to form a state government that was loyal to the United States government. States like Louisiana and Arkansas, where Union troops had firm control, quickly applied for readmission to the Union.
By pursuing a relatively lenient policy towards the seceded states and former Confederates, Lincoln tried to persuade reluctant Confederates to return to the United States. He hoped to bring the Civil War to an early conclusion. The United States Congress was less forgiving than Lincoln was. Radical Republicans wanted to give African-American men the right to vote. The Radicals, as well as more moderate Republicans in Congress, did not want to give former Confederates an equal voice in the government.
Under this bill, fifty percent of Southern voters would have to swear allegiance to the United States before a seceded state could form a new state government. Only people who could swear that they never willingly supported the rebellion would be permitted to vote and have a say in the formation of the new state government.
Lincoln refused to sign the bill, effectively vetoing it. As a result of this split between the president and Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate refused to accept Unionist representatives and senators from Louisiana and Arkansas in Before a compromise between the President and the Congress could be reached, Lincoln died from an assassin's bullet on April 15, , less than a week after the official end of the Civil War.
Andrew Johnson, the vice-president of the United States, took control of Reconstruction after Lincoln's death. Johnson's administration was contentious primarily because of his Reconstruction plans. Upon assuming office, Johnson retained all of Lincoln's cabinet officials. He at first followed a harsh policy toward the defeated Southerners, denying political rights to anyone who had supported the Confederacy in a military or governmental role during the rebellion.
He also agreed to the arrest of several prominent Confederate officials. Johnson, however, did not want to punish all Southerners for the Civil War. He blamed wealthy and powerful planters for the conflict.
Johnson wanted to reunite the nation as quickly as possible while punishing the leaders of the rebellion. He granted political rights to all Southerners who swore allegiance to the United States except for wealthy landowners and Confederate officials.
Those Southerners that Johnson excluded from political rights could attain them by seeking a pardon directly from him. During late , Johnson pardoned hundreds of applicants every day. He granted pardons to roughly 90 percent of the people who asked for them.
By December , Johnson also had allowed 10 of the 11 seceded states back into the Union. His only conditions were that the states adopt a constitution that repudiated secession, acknowledged the end of slavery, and repudiated any debts that the states had entered into during the Civil War. The Radical Republicans in Congress were angered by Johnson's actions. They refused to allow Southern representatives and senators to take their seats in Congress.
In , Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill, which granted African Americans equal protection under the law, and also renewed the Freedmen's Bureau that same year. President Johnson vetoed both of these bills, but Congress overturned both vetoes. Following the congressional elections of , the Republican Party controlled more than two-thirds of the seats in both houses of Congress.
As a result of the Republican election victory in , Congress now dictated how the reconstruction of the Union would proceed. The first action that the Republican majority took was to enact the First Reconstruction Act in spite of Johnson's veto.
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