History 2013 U.S History II
Marina Garcia
Ch. 15 Section Questions
August 25, 2014

1. Lincoln devised the Ten percent plan, meaning those who were Confederates and had taken an oath of loyalty could rejoin the Union only if they had approved of the Thirteenth Amendment (abolishing slavery.) That being said most of the Southern states refused to do so, leaving that at a failed attempt. Thus the Wade-Davis Bill was brought about, it required fifty percent of a states white males take a loyalty oath to be readmitted to the Union. In addition the states were also required to give blacks the right to vote. Lincoln eventually pocket vetoed the bill and it ended up dying off (Pg. 447). Johnson though would think to reconstruct by pardoning those who went against the Union, and would swear to allegiance to the United States (except high ranking Confederates). Under provisional governors appointed by him, the Southern states held conventions that voided or repealed their ordinances of secession, abolished slavery, and (except South Carolina) repudiated Confederate debts (Pg. 448). 2. The Radical Republicans believed blacks were entitled to the same political rights and opportunities as whites. The Southern states began to issue black codes, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 giving former slaves citizenship and duel process. The Congress passes The Reconstruction Act of 1867. This act divided the South into five military districts each under the command of a Union general, each had to supervise constitutional conventions, they were required to register all eligible adult males (including blacks), and ensure the guarantee of black suffrage. Johnson vetoed, Congress overrode Johnson’s veto of the Reconstruction Act and, in many failed attempts to use his power of presidency to fix things, Johnson was introduced articles of impeachment. He was in the end not impeached. In 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, and in 1869 the Fifteenth Amendment was introduced, protecting the rights of male citizens to vote no matter the race, color or previous condition of servitude. Because of this it allowed protest and poll taxes to be established (Pg. 452-453) 3. Freedmen’s goal of landownership clashed with the goals of northern Republicans and of southerners by seizing control over plantations. Johnson had his amnesty plan in effect, allowing pardoned Confederates to recover the property they owned during the war, which had shot the hopes of freedmen. They couldn’t imagine giving land to the freed slaves, thus starting out their freedom as poor and homeless nonetheless. So sharecropping was established allowing those with nothing become renters, trading their labor for the use of land, housing, implements, and at times seeds and fertilizer. And with that being done, the generous action was a hidden nightmare for those involved. Making those in the sharecropping industry bankrupt and back to square one. (Pg. 461) 4. Black communities were developed during Reconstruction, with the main institutions being black churches. They built networks of religious worship and aid to sustain one another in order to get through the toughest of times. With the churches built they were not just place of worship, they were schools, social centers, and meeting halls. These were places that the blacks were allowed to go and learn without the discrimination of being black, and without the worry of white people beating on them or not allowing them in. Their priorities were to allow them to get an education, to learn the ways of the world. So they too can finally stop being called ignorant and become uplifted because of their race instead or denounced because of it. (Pg. 465) 5. Several factors that undermined the Republicans control of the federal government during the 1870s were the severe depression that had hit in 1873. It had triggered bankruptcy for the Northern Pacific Railroad. And raised suspicion that the Republicans had financial manipulation, which was the cause of the depression. The prices of crops had gone down, and the iron manufacturing had come to a complete halt. All the things that the southern Republicans were going to do cost a great deal of money, and federal support wasn’t going to be able to help. With the South’s economy growth going slower than anticipated the growth was also but at a halt. Corruption was revealed, promises from past Democrats were the basic damaged of the Reconstruction. (Pg. 466-467) 6. The decline of the Radical Republican power in the South had occurred after the end of the Reconstruction. Many Redeemers began getting power through violence. Grover Cleveland was elected president, which terrified the freedpeople because they believed he would overturn the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery. Gratefully the South did not go back to its ways, and the freedpeople began to establish their own ways of living. Giving them the right to marry, worship, travel, read and write, and made it to where they were not easy to revoke. The Reconstruction made it that it was no longer a white man’s country. No one ever appealed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, allowing them to remain in the Constitution allowing those to think of equality.