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Black Codes
To thwart any social and economic mobility that Black people might take under their status as free people, southern states beginning in late 1865 with Mississippi and South Carolina enacted Black Codes, various laws that reinforced Black economic subjugation to their former slaveowners. These laws passed by southern sates after the Civil War denied ex-slaves the civil rights enjoyed by whites, and punished them for vague crimes such as failing to have a labor contract. -
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The Reconstruction Period from 1865-1876
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Sherman Order No.15 (1865)
On this day, General William Tecumseh Sherman issued Field Order No. 15, which redistributed roughly 400,000 confiscated acres of land in Low country Georgia and South Carolina in 40-acre plots to newly freed Black families. When the Freedmen’s Bureau was established in March 1865, created partly to redistribute confiscated land from southern whites, it gave legal title for 40-acre plots to African Americans and white southern unionists. This was a big Order because it gave land to black people. -
Freedmen’s Bureau
Government organization created in March 1865 to aid displaced blacks and other war refugees. Active until the early 1870s, it was the first federal agency in history that provided direct payments to assist those in poverty and to foster social warfare. The Freedmen's Bureau was helpful for early post American Civil War Reconstruction, assisting freedmen in the South. -
Lincoln to Johnson
After Lincoln’s assanination in April 1865, his successor, Andrew Johnson, hostile to Congress, unilaterally offered the South easy terms for reentering the Union. His presidency went the other direction from the goals of Lincoln. Exploiting this opportunity, southerners adopted oppressive Black Codes and put ex-Confederates back in power. Now there were problems because Johnson’s morals didn’t align with Lincoln’s. -
Reconstruction Amendment: 13th Amendment
The ratification of the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, with the “exception as a punishment for a crime.” Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 only covered the 3 million slaves in Confederate-controlled states during the Civil War. The 13th amendment was the first of three Reconstruction amendments. -
Reconstruction Act of 1867
The Reconstruction Act of 1867 outlined the terms for readmission to representation of rebel states. An act that divided the conquered South into 5 military districts, each under the command of a U.S. general. To reenter the Union, former Confederate states had to grant the vote to freedmen and deny it to leading ex-Confederates. After meeting the criteria related to protecting the rights of African Americans and their property, former Confederate states could gain full recognition in Congress. -
Election of 1868
Republican Ulysses S. Grant defeated Democrat Horatio Seymour in the presidential election of 1868. Grant, a former general and war hero, easily won the Electoral College vote, although the popular vote was much closer. It was the first presidential election after the Civil War. It was the first election in which African Americans could vote in the reconstructed Southern states, in accordance with the First Reconstruction Act. -
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Johnson clashed with Congress over the South's Reconstruction, vetoing legislation to protect slave rights. This clash culminated in the House of Representatives voting, on February 24, 1868, to impeach Johnson. The final event that resulted in a third and successful impeachment action was the firing of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, a Lincoln appointee and ally of the Radical Republicans in Congress. Johnson hoped to replace him with Ulysses S. Grant aligned more with his political views. -
Reconstruction Amendment: 14th Amendment
The 14th amendment granted citizenship to all persons "born or naturalized in the United States," including former enslaved persons, and provided all citizens with “equal protection under the laws,” extending the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states. The amendment authorized the government to punish states that abridged citizens’ right to vote by proportionally reducing their representation in Congress. -
Hiram R. Revels
Hiram Revels, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, became the first African American to serve in Congress when he was elected by the Mississippi State Legislature to finish the last two years of a term. During Reconstruction, 16 African Americans served in Congress. By 1870, Black men held three Congressional seats in South Carolina and a seat on the state Supreme Court—Jonathan J. Wright. Over 600 Black men served in state legislators during the Reconstruction period. -
Reconstruction Amendment: 15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment prohibited states from disenfranchising voters “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The amendment left open the possibility, however, that states could institute voter qualifications equally to all races, and many former confederate states took advantage of this provision, instituting poll taxes and literacy tests, among other qualifications. Despite limitations the 15th Amendment was an astonishing feat. -
Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871
Introduced by Representative Samuel Shellabarger of Ohio, the KKK Act—officially known as an “Act to enforce the Provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other Purposes”—was the third of a set increasingly detailed efforts to curb the violence and protect African Americans and Reconstruction authorities in the South from the the Ku Klux Klan who were a group of ex-Confederates and other white supremacist groups that carried out a reign of terror. -
Women Suffrage Denied: Minor v. Happersett
Virginia Minor applied to register to vote in Missouri. The registrar, Reese Happersett declined. She sued. Supreme Court decision in 1875 that ruled that suffrage rights were not inherent in citizenship and had not been granted by the 14th Amendment, as some women’s rights advocates argued. Women were citizens, the Court ruled, but state legislatures could deny women the vote if they wished. This showed that women roles in society had no room in the Reconstruction era and wouldn't change. -
Civil Rights Act of 1875
The last major piece of major Reconstruction legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1875, guaranteed African Americans equal treatment in public transportation, public accommodations and jury service. In 1883 the decision was overturned in the Supreme Court, however. Justices ruled that the legislation was unconstitutional on the grounds that the Constitution did not extend to private businesses and that it was unauthorized by the 13th and 14th amendments.