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| After sweeping the elections of 1866, the Radical Republicans gained almost complete control over policymaking in Congress. Along with their more moderate Republican allies, they gained control of the House of Representatives and the Senate and thus gained sufficient power to override any potential vetoes by President Andrew Johnson. This political ascension, which occurred in early 1867, marked the beginning of Radical Reconstruction (also known as Congressional Reconstruction). |
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| Secret Society during the Reconstruction era of 1860 used terrorism to frigthen or physically bar blacks. They used the weapon of economic pressure to bar blacks from voting, owning land, have credit, be employeed, etc. |
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In 1865 and 1866, state governments in the South enacted laws designed to regulate the lives of the former slaves. These measures, differing from state to state, were actually revisions of the earlier slave codes that had regulated that institution.Some common elements appeared in many of the Codes:
- Race was defined by blood; the presence of any amount of black blood made one black
- Employment was required of all freedmen; violators faced vagrancy charges
- Freedmen could not assemble without the presence of a white person
- Freedmen were assumed to be agricultural workers and their duties and hours were tightly regulated
- Freedmen were not to be taught to read or write
- Public facilities were segregated
- Violators of these laws were subject to being whipped or branded.
Existence of the black codes was taken as evidence by many Northerners (especially the Radical Republicans ) that the South had not really been subdued. Slavery had simply taken a new form.
The Freedmen’s Bureau worked to halt enforcement of many of these laws and the Republican state governments (imposed by the North) repealed the measures.
When Reconstruction was over, many of the Black Code elements would reappear in Jim Crow legislation. |
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| Jim Crow Laws were statutes and ordinances established between 1874 and 1975 to separate the white and black races in the American South. In theory, it was to create "separate but equal" treatment, but in practice Jim Crow Laws condemned black citizens to inferior treatment and facilities. Education was segregated as were public facilities such as hotels and restaurants under Jim Crow Laws. In fact, the United States military was segregated until integrated by Harry S. Truman after World War II. |
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| an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1865, abolishing slavery. Unfortunately, the United States House of Representatives refused to pass the impending legislation. President Abraham Lincoln made the abolition of slavery a key component to his 1864 re-election campaign. Lincoln's strategy worked, and the House of Representatives passed the Thirteenth Amendment on January 31, 1865. The legislation became part of the Constitution on December 6, 1865, effectively abolishing slavery in the United States. |
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