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Ten Percent Plan
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction which became known as the Ten Percent Plan. The plan consisted of a minimum of 10 percent of the qualified voters from 1860. They took an oath to the Union and then they could organize a state government. The new state constitution had to be republican to form, abolish slavery, and provide for black education, but Lincoln did not insist that high-ranking Confederate leaders be barred from public life (p. 440-441). -
Freedmen's Bureau Established
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)The task of supervising the transition from slavery to freedom on southern plantations. Assigned the task of protecting freed-people's economic rights, approximately 550 local agents supervised and regulated working conditions in southern agriculture after the war. The racial attitudes of Bureau agents varied greatly, as did their commitment and competence. With this, they then had to depend on the army to enforce their decisions (p. 451). -
Presidential Reconstruction
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)With the assassination of Lincoln, Johnson took the role as president. His plan for the Reconstruction was similar to Lincoln's but more lenient. He prescribed a loyalty oath that white southerners would have to take to regain their civil and political rights and to have their property, except for slaves, restored. Once a state had drafted a new constitution and elected state officers and members of Congress, he would revoke martial law and recognize the new state government (p. 442). -
Black Codes
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)They legalized marriages performed under slavery and allowed black southerners to hold and sell property and to sue and be sued in state courts. The new freedman could not serve on juries, testify against whites, or work as they pleased. Some states had their own codes such as not allowing blacks to engage in any labor except argiculture without a special licence, buying or renting farmland, or could be arrested and hired out to landowners (p. 442). -
Ku Klux Klan Begins
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)The Ku Klux Klan was a part of the paramilitary organizations who broke up Republican meetings, terrorized white and black Republicans, assassinated Republican leaders, and prevented black citizens from voting. This type of group functioned as an unofficial arm of the Democratic Party. Part of the Klan's mission was to recoup contested ground and to limit the ability of African Americans to use the night as they pleased (p. 456). -
Fourteenth Amendment Ratified
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)The amendment guaranteed repayment of the national war debt and prohibited repayment of the Confederate debt. It disqualified prominent Confederates from holding office and only Congress by a 2/3 vote could remove this penalty. The most important provision defined an American citizen as anyone born in the United States. It also prohibited states from abridging "the privileges or immunities of citizens, depriving any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law" (p. 443-445). -
Fifteenth Amendment Ratified
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Part](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)This Amendment forbade any state to deny the right to vote on grounds of race, color, or previous condition of servitude (p. 454). -
Tilden/Hayes Election
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)The Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes to oppose Samuel Tilden. Violence gave way and prevented millions of Republicans from voting. Tilden had a clear majority in the popular vote, but there were three states that remainded claimed by both parties in the Electoral College. To arbitrate the disputed returns, Congress established a 15-member electoral commission. By a straight party vote of 8 to 7, the commission awarded the disputed electoral votes--and presidency--to Hayes (p. 458). -
Compromise of 1877
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)When angered Democrats threatened a filibuster to prevent the electoral votes from being counted, key Republicans met with southern Democrats in Washington. There they reached an informal understanding. Hayes's supporters agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South and not oppose the new Democratic state governments. For their part, southern Democrats dropped their opposition to Hayes's election and pledged to respect the rights of African Americans (p. 458).
