According to C.L. Lincoln in his book, The Negro Pilgrimage in America, the Civil War ended at Appomattox Courthouse in central Virginia on April 9, 1865. There were some cries of vengeance by the Northerners for “treason” by the Southerners. Jefferson Davis, the Confederate President, was never brought to trial for his role. There were no harsh and protracted war trails due to the mass imprisonment of war criminals.
The conflict had settled two issues. The Union was to remain intact and enslaved people were freed. Beyond the restoration of the Union and emancipation of enslaved people, there was little agreement between the regions on what should be done. Prior to the Confederate surrender, President Lincoln had a plan for reconstructing the nation. With the exception of high Confederate officials, he intended to grant amnesty to Southerners if they swore further allegiance to the United States. When one tenth of the state’s 1860 electorate had taken an oath and established a government consistent with the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln planned to recognize the state; then it would be readmitted to the Union. Black people were excluded from participating in the political reconstruction.
After the Civil War, the South eventually returned to the Union. Reconstruction consisted of the first twelve years after the war. The federal government sent troops and agents to restore order and help formerly enslaved people transition to freedom. Federal and private agencies opened schools, supplied medication and food, and intervened in legal disputes between freed people and their new neighbors. Many members of Congress felt Lincoln’s reconstruction plan was too lenient. They passed the Wade-Davis Act in July 1864. This act provided that an oath that past as well as future loyalty be taken. President Lincoln vetoed this act because he felt it rejected the Christian principles of forgiveness on terms of repentance.
After President Lincoln’s assassination on April 15, 1865, Vice President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee became President. Over his veto, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act granting civil rights and citizenship to Black Americans. The same year, the Ku Klux Klan was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee. Congress carried out impeachment proceedings against President Johnson but he was acquitted when the Senate fails by one vote to reach the two-third votes needed for conviction. On July 28, 1868, Black people finally became citizens of the United States with the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. While that Amendment was awaiting ratification, the South moved to re-shackle Black people with a series of “Black Codes.”
C.L. Lincoln described the “Black Codes” as an interlocking system of social, economic, and political controls aimed at placing Black people in a position below any white person in the general population. The Codes dealt with apprenticeships, labor contracts, migration, vagrancy, civil and legal rights. Free Black people without lawful employment were declared vagrants; they were not allowed to purchase or lease land except in incorporated cities; they could not enter any occupation except that of a farmer or servant without a special license. The Black Codes implied that Black people were to be a supporting caste, both economically and psychologically for the defeated South.
Congress moved rapidly against the Black Codes and enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866. In March 1867, Congress passed the First Reconstruction Act aimed at defeating the conservative reconstruction policies of President Johnson. On July 24, 1866, Tennessee was the first state readmitted to the Union. Tennessee ratified the Fourteenth Amendment a week before its readmittance. The Reconstruction Act provided for military rule in the South until individual Southern states met certain political conditions. The bill divided the former states, excluding Tennessee, into five military districts. As a result, Tennessee became the sole state that escaped the jurisdiction of military rule. The other Southern states had to approve the Fourteenth Amendment before they were readmitted. Congress declared that no state could be represented in national legislature or be returned to civilian control until a duly elected state convention ratified the “ Civil War Amendments” to the Constitution; tied to that provision that Black people be given the right to vote. Southerners who held high military or political positions in the Confederacy were barred from taking active roles in the state conventions.
In 1869, Congress proposed the Fifteenth Amendment to protect the rights of citizens of the United States to vote. In 1870, it was ratified. There was a Black majority of Southern voters because many white people could not take an oath that they had not given aid and comfort to enemies of the United States. The new laws also benefitted poor white people because for the first time, they were freed of restrictive property qualification and were able to register and vote.
The Reconstruction Act sent Black men to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. The elections also sent several Black men to high public office in Southern state governments. Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Act, also called the Enforcement Act, to protect voting rights. This act made it a federal offense to interfere with franchise rights guaranteed by the Fifteenth Amendment. In 1875, Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, guaranteeing Black Americans access to public accommodations.
Francie Mae, May 22, 2021.
Reference
C. Eric Lincoln. November 1967. The Negro Pilgrimage In America. Bantam Pathfinder Books.