"What Is Freedom?”: Reconstruction, 1865–1877
Chapter Study Outline
Aftermath of Civil War
Casualties: 620,000 killed, 700,000 wounded
Massive destruction of Southern Infrastructure
Destruction of Southern Economy
Abolishment of slavery
Destroy the things that has value in the South
The South is lagging because of no factory production unlike the North
Charleston, SC—very damaged from the Civil War
Lincoln did not really get any votes from the South simply because his position against slavery
Reconstruction
Unpaid Labor—Are they really going to be free?
End of Reconstruction
Gov’t not going to intervene the states
Sea Island Experiment (Special Order 15)
Directed by William Tecumseh Sherman
AA was looking for economic independent; they want to grow their own things without any interventions from the others
The Northern investors paid the former slaves “Forty acres and a mule” for growing cotton, which they see cotton as a profit.
AA wants freedom and acquisition of the land, not a job on plantation , one provision of the law establishing the bureau gave it the authority to divide abandoned and confiscated land into forty acre plots for rental and eventual sales to the former slaves, BUT…
Johnson: RACIST; “Give the land back to the former slaves, you have no right to live and grow things there.”
Howard: inform the AA on Sea Island , AA don’t believe and protest
Former Slaves—Problem: Acquisition of land, eventually they have to work for somebody, usually their former owners, after Johnson said… AA women usually work as maid and men usually does farm work, get a low pay
AA: You did not improve our living even after we are freed, it’s the same as our slavery lives
Sharecropper
Compromise set up between the blacks’ desire for land and the planters’ demand for labor discipline
The whites rent a portion of the plantation to the AA and the AA have to plant things and divide the crops they have at the end of the year among the owner and themselves.
A stable resident labor force for owners
A gang labor for AA: the prospect of work without white supervision everyday
However, sharecropping becomes more and more oppressive over the years
The price of the farm products suffered a prolonged decline—economic opportunities severely limited

Freedmen’s Bureau (1865-1870)
Directed by O.O. Howard
Established schools, provide aid to the poor and the aged, settle disputes between whites and blacks and among the freed people, and secure for former slaves and white Unionists equal treatment before the courts
Less than 1000 agents even at its peak
Achievement: education and health care
Coordinated and helped to finance the activities of northern societies committed to black education; by 1867, 40% of the AA children attending school
Assumed control of hospitals established by army during the war, and expanded the system into new communities
Provided medical care and drugs to black and southern whites
Presidential Reconstruction
Lincoln’s ten percent plan- 10% of the states swear loyalty to the US and they would support the emancipation and they would get recognition by the national government
13th Amendment(1865)- outlawed the slavery
Amnesty & pardon, including return of property (except former slaves) to Southerners who took oath of allegiance to the constitution and union
Confederate leader and wealthy planters have to apply for personal pardon
Recognized reconstructed NC and set terms for 10 other former Confederate states, ratify 13th Amendment, renounce secession, repudiate Confederate debts, and hold elections for states and Congress.
By the end of 1865, all seceded states have their own government
Congressional Reconstruction
Equality for all Americans
Charles Sumner- a senator from MA
Thaddeus Stevens-a lawyer and iron manufacture who represented PA in the House of Representatives, aim: confiscate the land of disloyal planters and divide it among former slaves and northern migrants to