After the Civil War, from 1865 to 1877, the Southern States were put under a federal policy known as Reconstruction. The primary objective of Reconstruction was to rebuild the South, integrate the newly emancipated African American population as full citizens, and bring the Confederate states back into the Union. Several measures were implemented to achieve these goals:
1. Presidential Reconstruction (1865-1867):
- Amnesty: President Abraham Lincoln and his successor Andrew Johnson issued amnesty proclamations, offering pardons to most Confederate officials and supporters who pledged loyalty to the Union.
- 10% Plans: Johnson's Reconstruction plan required each Southern State to hold a constitutional convention, where at least 10% of the 1860 electorate had to take an oath of allegiance to the Union and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery.
- Reconstruction Acts: Radical Republicans in Congress, opposed to Johnson's lenient approach, enacted a series of Reconstruction Acts in 1867 that divided the South into military districts supervised by Union generals.
2. Congressional Reconstruction (1867-1877):
- Military Rule: Military governors were appointed to enforce federal laws and oversee Reconstruction in the Southern States.
- Political Reconstruction: The Reconstruction Acts required Southern States to hold new constitutional conventions, enfranchise African American men, ratify the Fourteenth Amendment (guaranteeing citizenship rights) and the Fifteenth Amendment (prohibiting discrimination in voting based on race).
- Carpetbaggers and Scalawags: Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction, often called "carpetbaggers," and Southern whites who supported Reconstruction, known as "scalawags," played a significant role in the political and social changes that occurred during this period.
3. Redemption:
- Home Rule: Southern whites launched efforts to regain political control from the Republican Party-dominated governments that had emerged after Reconstruction.
- White Supremacy: Many Southern States enacted laws designed to disenfranchise African Americans and maintain racial segregation, effectively excluding them from political participation and equal opportunities.
- Compromise of 1877: The presidential election of 1876 resulted in a disputed outcome. To resolve the crisis, a compromise was reached in which Union troops were withdrawn from the South, effectively marking the end of Reconstruction and the return of Southern states to self-government.