American Reconstruction

Reconstruction: 1863-1877

The Reconstruction began at the end of the Civil War, when Robert E. Lee’s men stacked their guns at Appomattox, the bloodiest war in American history ended.   The south was defeated; they sustained both material and psychological wounds. By 1865 the south had lost much of its precious commodities, cotton and slaves were no longer measures of wealth and prestige. Retreating soldiers trying to prevent capture damaged most of the cotton during war, and what wasn’t destroyed was confiscated as contraband of war. In 1860 the south held about 25% of the nations wealth, and only a decade later it held less than 12%. By late 1863 union victories had convinced President Lincoln of the need to make a plan for the reconstruction of the south. He planned to bring the succeeded states back into the Union as quickly as possible. The Proclamation of amnesty and reconstruction of 1863 offered a full pardon and restoration of property to southerners willing to swear an oath of allegiance to the United States and all laws including the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln proposed the Ten percent plan which would give them the right to establish a state government once the number of voters who took the oath reached 10 percent. Lincolns amnesty plan angered the Radical Republicans, those who advocated equal rights for freedmen and a tougher stance on white southern people. They proposed a harsher alternative to Lincolns ten percent plan, The Wade-Davis bill that required 50% of succeeded states male citizens to take an oath of loyalty before elections could take place. The Radical Republicans saw reconstruction as a chance to put forth a transformation of the south; they wanted to delay the process though until after the war to limit participation to a small amount of southern unionists. In January of 1865 William T. Sherman issued Field Order15, setting aside land off the Georgia cost for exclusive settlement for just freedmen. It proposed that each family...