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Ten Percent Plan
Lincoln proposed the Ten Percent Plan, which offered a plan that would grant amnesty (official pardoning) to ex-Confederates after 10 percent of voters swore an oath of loyalty to the U.S. and supported the abolition of slavery through the Thirteenth Amendment. -
Wade-Davis Bill
Confederates rejected the Ten Percent plan, and in July 1864, Congress proposed the Wade-Davis Bill in response to Lincoln. The bill would make it more difficult for seceded states to rejoin the Union by requiring 50 percent of voters to take a loyalty oath, governments not formed by those who had taken arms against the Union, and exclusion of Confederate officials and leaders from voting. However, the bill was pocket vetoed by Lincoln, who instead aimed for compromise. -
Thirteenth Amendment Passed
States, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." -
Black Codes
As a result of Johnson’s program, Black Codes were enacted by southern state legislatures with the intent to preserve plantation labor, enforce racial segregation, and limit the rights and freedoms of African Americans. Black men were criminalized for not having a job, failing to pay certain taxes, or other laws intended to disenfranchise them. Such measures included the grandfather clause, which prevented most black men from voting due to not having an ancestor that was a voter. -
End of Civil War
The end of the Civil War was set in motion after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia. As the news spread, more Confederate troops began to surrender. -
Lincoln's Death
Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, leaving the presidency and plans for reconstruction in the hands of Andrew Johnson. -
Meeting of Congress
Congress assembled and rejected Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction by refusing to admit southern delegations and calling for equality in new southern governments. The Black Codes were declared as a violation of the Thirteenth Amendment. The Freedmen’s Bureau was established to aid displaced blacks and other war refugees, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 granted formerly enslaved people citizenship and equal protection and rights of contract with full access to the courts. -
Memphis Riot
Outraged by the presence of black veterans, whites in postwar Memphis rioted and burned black neighborhoods, churches, and schools; raped African American women; and killed dozens of black residents as well as two whites. As a result, support increased for Radical Reconstruction and decreased for Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction. -
Fourteenth Amendment Passed
States, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” -
Reconstruction Act
Divided the South (excluding Tenessee who had already been readmitted) into five military districts and outlined the conditions for the readmission of former Confederate states into the Union. -
Johnson's Impeachment
After violating the Tenure of Office Act, the House of Representatives impeached Andrew Johnson, but in the end, he was found not guilty by one vote. -
Presidential Election
With his status amongst the Republican party, Ulysses S. Grant easily won the 1868 election against New York governor Horatio Seymour, receiving 214 out of 294 electoral votes. -
Fifteenth Amendment Passed
States, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” -
Enforcement Act
Also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, the bill authorized the president to suppress the Ku Klux Klan and other conspiracies to deprive citizens of rights and equal protection. -
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Rejection of Equal Rights
The Supreme Court limited the “privileges and immunities” of U.S. citizenship through their interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment in the Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) and U.S. v. Cruikshank (1876). The Court also struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875 in the Civil Rights Cases (1883). -
End of Reconstruction
Following the Supreme Court’s decisions, overall support for racial egalitarianism faded and the South continued to perpetuate white supremacy. Additionally, the Republican Party faced a political crisis due to corruption and economic depression within the administration of Ulysses S. Grant. In the 1876 election, the Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes and the Democrats nominated Samuel B. Tilden. With close votes and accusations of electoral fraud, the results were heavily disputed. -
The Compromise of 1877
The Compromise of 1877 required that Republicans withdraw all federal troops in the South in exchange for the Democrats’ agreement to Hayes's victory and protection of the civil and political rights of Black people. Following the compromise, power had been restored to Democrats all across the South. Without federal interference, Democrats quickly disenfranchised Black voters and began to establish Jim Crow laws, officially marking the end of the Reconstruction era.