Chapter 22

• With the Civil War over, the nation faced the difficult problems of rebuilding the South, assisting the freed slaves, reintegrating the Southern states into the Union, and deciding who would direct the Reconstruction process.

• With the South in shambles after the Civil War it was now time to rebuild it. Abraham Lincoln had planned to let the Southern states come back into the Union by pledging their allegiance to the U.S. and promising never to secede again. Unfortunately he is assassinated and Andrew Johnson is set as the president of the United States.
• The Confederate generals who were in charge of the rebel forces were to be charged with treason but on the other hand many of them were left to go back home and serve no punishment whatsoever.
• With new laws being forced against the Confederates the government divided the South into certain provinces in which Union generals would see over and keep order.
• African Americans were now free and were given the right to vote by the end of the war. With a large population of uneducated people though, the government decided to create programs to teach the ex-slaves.
• The Freedmans Bureau was one of those programs founded by the government to help educate the new population of ex-slaves. It had great success but it ended up expiring because the white supremacist ideas still spread in the nation.
• The Wade-Davis Bill was made in 1864 and was Johnsons way of bringing the Southern states back into the Union. 50% of the states voters take an oath or allegiance and demanded more safeguards to their readmission.
• The Black Codes and the Jim Crow Laws were created in the South to keep the blacks and whites segregated. It also created another type of slaverysharecropping.
• Johnson begins to get rid of his programs to help African Americans to try and gain support back with the Southerners but by promoting more racism he was beginning to clash with Congress itself.
• The Union generals put in control of these military districts in the South were in often times very cruel and unforgiving of the war and sought revenge on the South. They seen themselves as the supreme rulers of their districts and did what they would see fit.
• Ex-Confederates and other white supremacists created African American terror groups known as the KKK to keep blacks from voting and expressing their new rights.

Jim Crow Laws mandated separate but equal status for the African Americans.   This almost always led to treatment inferior to those provided to white Americans.  The most important laws required public schools, public places, and public transportation.

Alex Z. wrote:

---

Curt[is] said...
With new laws being forced against the Confederates the government divided the South into certain provinces in which Union generals would see over and keep order.

Whoa - Dynasty Warriors, anyone?
Seriously, do you guys think the government was justified in doing this thing? I mean, I know it was right after a time of war and all, but this seems like a really dangerous move during reconstruction...

---