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Ten Percent Plan
In December 1863, Lincoln proposed a program that would allow previously confederate states to establish new state governments after 10% of their voting population took an oath of loyalty to the U.S and recognized the permanent freedom of formerly enslaved people. -
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Reconstruction Era Timespan
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Abraham Lincoln Assassination
John Wilkes Booth's assassination of Lincoln led to the presidential inauguration of Andrew Johnson. -
Freedmen's Bureau
Congress passed “An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees” to provide practical aid to nearly 4,000,000 newly freed African Americans in their transition from slavery to freedom. -
13th Amendment Ratified
The 13th Amendment effectively abolished slavery as an institution within the United States. In addition to banning slavery, the amendment outlawed the practice of involuntary servitude and peonage. The amendment was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House of Representatives on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the required 27 of the then 36 states on December 6, 1865, and proclaimed on December 18. -
Congress Passes the Civil Rights Act
The Civil Rights Act declared all people born in the United States to be citizens, "without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude." However, the legislation was vetoed by Andrew Johnson. -
Military Reconstruction Act
The Act temporarily divided the South into five military districts and outlined how governments based on universal suffrage should be organized. The law also required southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment, which broadened the definition of citizenship, granting “equal protection” of the Constitution to formerly enslaved people, before they could rejoin the Union. Congress approved the bill in February 1867, and then on March 2 it overrode Johnson’s veto. -
Andrew Johnson Impeached
The Committee on Reconstruction approved an impeachment resolution in a 7–2 party-line vote. The resolution read, "That Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors in office." -
14th Amendment Ratified
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States, including formerly enslaved people, and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.” -
15th Amendment Ratified
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government and each state from denying or abridging a citizen's right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." -
Rutherford B. Hayes Elected as President
Rutherford B. Hayes defeated Samuel Tilden in the presidential election of 1876. Hayes oversaw the end of Reconstruction, began the efforts that led to civil service reform, and attempted to reconcile the divisions left over from the Civil War. -
Compromise of 1877
The Compromise of 1877 was an unwritten deal to settle the disputed 1876 presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden. It effectively ended the Reconstruction era as Southern Democrats' promises to protect the civil and political rights of African Americans were not kept, and the end of federal interference in southern affairs led to widespread disenfranchisement of Black voters.