(bold print = vocabulary word)

Some questions were resolved at the end of the war

• Slavery was over
• The North won the war (means that the political system, economic system, and ideology that existed in the south would change)

Issues/questions that were unresolved at the end of the war

• Suffrage: who is going to allowed to vote (blacks? women?)
• Land ownership in the South: one of the most important issues
• Rebuilding the Union: Under what terms can the former Confederate states rejoin the Union?
• Confederate leaders/soldiers: What should happen to them? Should they be pardoned? Should their future be limited?

Reconstruction = rebuilding of the South

First phase = "Presidential Reconstruction", 1865 - 1866

• President Andrew Johnson wanted to restore the Union ( restore= return something to it's former condition)
  • He wanted easy terms for Southern states to rejoin the Union
• Johnson granted many pardons to former Confederate leaders
• Johnson was inclined to be lenient and not harsh

Second phase = "Radical Reconstruction", 1866-1876 (a response to Presidential Reconstruction and Black Codes); worked because Northerners were interested in the South

• Radical Republicans were unhappy with Johnson and his actions and with the Black Codes (= many laws that made conditions as much like slavery as possible, for example curfews, requirements to carry money, etc.)
• Radical Republicans wanted to reconstruct the South
• The Federal government sent the military into the South, in five districts, to protect the rights of Blacks in the South
• Radical Republicans wanted former Confederates to be punished
• Three amendments to the constitution were ratified: the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments
• Radical Republicans wanted southern States to rejoin the Union only after ratifying the three new amendments; they wanted states to rejoin under strict terms
• Under Radical Reconstruction, there was a huge change in Southern society: blacks voted, blacks participated in local and national politics and held elective office, and there was an attempt to protect blacks from violence
• However, many whites in the South were against Radical Reconstruction, violently resisted change in the South, and hated the Federal government

Third phase = "Redemption", 1876 - ---- (possible because Northerners lost interest in the south)

• White southern Redeemers regained control of the southern state governments
• Redeemers wanted to undo Radical Reconstruction; wanted to go back to pre-war conditions in the South
• The Ku Klux Klan, a large and secret organization of whites, grew and used terror and violence against blacks