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Lincoln Announces 10% Reconstruction Plan
Lincoln's 10% Reconstruction Plan was an early plan to readmit the Confederate states and bring back a better Union as quickly and efficiently as possible. It was supported by his Vice President Andrew Johnson, who was fiercely opposed by the Radical Republican Congress after Lincoln's assassination. This plan never went in to effect, and if it had, it might have been better for the South as a whole. Only 10% had to pledge alligence to the Union to be readmitted as a state. -
Lincoln assassinated
8 days after the Civil War ended, Lincoln and his wife were seeing My American Cousin,a comedy, at Ford's Theater, to celebrate the end of the war with friends. It was supposedly an extremely funny comedy, and as far as we know Lincoln was thoroughly enjoying his evening. Little did he know that John Wilkes Booth, an actor who was also a Southern sympathizer, had snuck up behind into the president's booth with a plan to be infamous for the rest of history. Booth shot Lincoln. -
Freedman's Bureau established
The Freedmen's Bureau was a primitive welfare system for free blacks that was proposed and established at the end of Lincoln's presidency. Things it accomplished were the set up of education in the South for blacks in public schools and the establishment of freedmen sympathizers from the North in the South. However, this didn't always go well for the Southerners who were being ruled by black symathizers. It may have even been racist. Blacks were elevated from bondage and whites were demoted. -
Ku Klux Klan founded
The Ku Klux Klan was and is an organization designated to the betterment of whites and white supremacy. It is against integration of any other race except white protestants. It is extremely racist, not accepting of other cultures, and is, in a sense, a nightmare for those other races. It was founed by white supremists in the Old South in the 1860s. The KKK, as it was and is called, is infamous for the lynching of black freedmen in the late 1800s. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment backed up the Civil Rights Bill and put it into the Constitution, but did not hold up against the anti-black feelings in the South because it wasn't specific enough. It was later re-enforced by the 15th Amendment. -
Ex parte Milligan
Ex parte Milligan was a Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for military tribunals to try civilians. It came about around the time of the Reconstruction Act, when the South was divided into 5 military districts and Union troops occupied the entire South. -
Reconstruction Act
The Reconstruction Act was a harsh act passed by Congress which divided up the South into 5 military districts controlled by Union officers and stationed troops all over the South, especially in major cities. It redefined the terms of readmission into the Union for states and was overall unaccepted and hated by the South. -
15th Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment specifically outlined that no one could be denied the right to vote on the basis of "race, color, or previous servitude". It guaranteed black suffrage. It also allowed Congress to allow any enforcement of this amendment so that those who had been denied the right to vote now had their right upheld. -
Force Acts
the Force acts were designed to destroy the KKK's rule of the South and advance black civil rights. It didn't work because it was impossible to enforce. the KKK had many resources and could do what they willed because they had the support of almost all white officials. -
Reconstruction ends
Reconstruction ended because the country decided there were better things to do and they were stuck in a deadlock. They had achieved black suffrage and established them as citizens of the United States with the addition of rebuilding the South and attempting to bring it back to some of its former glory. All in all, Reconstruction was a complete failure and caused lots of trouble in later years.
