Reconstruction Timeline
How It All Went Down
Second Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln issues the second Emancipation Proclamation, emphasized as a war measure, which frees all slaves in states or parts of states that were still in rebellion against the United States.
10 Percent Plan
Lincoln issues a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which comes to be known as his 10 Percent Plan.
Wade Davis Bill
Republicans in Congress propose the Wade Davis Bill as an alternative to Lincoln's 10 Percent Plan. Lincoln pocket-vetoes it.
Military Gives 40 Acres
General William T. Sherman issues Special Field Order 15, setting aside confiscated plantation land in the Sea Islands and along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia for Black families to settle in 40-acre plots. Some 40,000 freedmen and women are living on the land by June.
Freedmen Bureau Established
The temporary Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (known as the Freedmen's Bureau) is established within the War Department.
Freedmen Savings Bank
Congress also charters the Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company, commonly called the Freedmen's Savings Bank.
Surrender at Appomattox
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders his army to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.
Booth Shoots
President Lincoln is shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. He dies the next day.
Johnson Becomes President
Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th president upon the death of Abraham Lincoln.
Presidential Reconstruction
President Johnson announces his plan of Presidential Reconstruction (1865–1867).
Pardon’s Issued
Johnson's strict pardon policy has been abandoned; wealthy planters are quickly brought back into the Union. By September, hundreds of pardons were being issued in a single day—some 13,000 in all.
Southerners Slow
Southern states elect former Confederates to public office at the state and national levels, drag their feet in ratifying the 13th Amendment, and refuse to extend the vote to Black men.
Black Codes
Southern legislatures begin drafting "Black Codes" to re-establish white supremacy.
Lincoln Conspirators
Four people are hanged in Washington, D.C., after being convicted of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.
13th Amendment Ratified
The 13th Amendment is ratified, prohibiting slavery and involuntary servitude.
Johnson Declares End to Reconstruction
President Johnson declares the reconstruction process complete. Outraged, Radical Republicans in Congress refuse to recognize new governments in southern states.
Union Demobilized
The Union Army is quickly demobilized. From a troop strength of one million on May 1st, only 152,000 Union soldiers remain in the South by the end of 1865.
South Grows
Southern towns and cities start to experience a large influx of freedmen. Over the next five years, the Black populations of the South's ten largest cities will double.
Ku Klux Klan Begins
An organization primarily composed of Confederate Army veterans founds the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a terrorist group formed to intimidate Blacks and other ethnic and religious minorities. It first meets in Pulaski, Tennessee. The Klan is the first of many secret terrorist organizations organized in the South for the purpose of reestablishing white authority.
Douglass Meets Johnson
A Black delegation led by Frederick Douglass meets with President Andrew Johnson at the White House to advocate Black suffrage. The president expresses his opposition, and the meeting ends in controversy.
Civil Rights Bill
Congress passes the Civil Rights Bill over Johnson's veto. Johnson objects to the Bill on the grounds that Blacks didn't deserve to become citizens, and that doing so would discriminate against the white race. He also thought that both the Civil Rights Bill and the Freedmen's Bureau Bill would centralize power at the federal level, depriving states of the authority to govern their own affairs (a typical prewar philosophy of government).
Racial Violence Rages
Racial violence rages in Memphis, Tennessee for three days as whites assault Blacks on the streets. In the aftermath, 48 people, nearly all Black, are dead, and hundreds of Black homes, churches, and schools have been pillaged or burned. Many more are injured.
Tennessee Returns to Union
Tennessee is the first former Confederate state readmitted to the Union.
New Orleans Riots
Riots and a race massacre break out in New Orleans, Louisiana. A white mob attacks Blacks and Radical Republicans attending a Black suffrage convention, killing 40 people.
Further Demobilization
Union Army troops are further demobilized; only 38,000 remain in the South by the fall. More than half of the ones stationed in some places, such as Louisiana, are Black.
Third Freedman Bill
Congress passes a third Freedman's Bureau bill, overriding another veto.
Presidential Reconstruction Begins
Republicans win well over a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate; the election is seen as a popular referendum on the widening divide between Johnson and the Radicals.
Black Men Vote in D.C.
Overriding President Johnson's veto, Congress grants Black male citizens in the District of Columbia the right to vote.
Radical Reconstruction Acts
Congress passes the first series of Reconstruction Acts (Military, Command of the Army, and Tenure of Office). Congressional, or "Radical" Reconstruction commences.
Second Reconstruction Act
Congress passes the Second Reconstruction Act; military commanders in each southern district are to register all qualified adult males to vote.
Seward’s Folly
The U.S. buys Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million (1.9¢ per acre); this is dubbed a foolish purchase at the time, named "Seward's Folly" after the Secretary of State (William Henry Seward) who negotiated it.
Midway Islands Annex
The U.S. occupies (annexes) the Midway Islands in the Pacific.
Third Reconstruction Act
Congress passes the Third Reconstruction Act. Registrars are directed to go beyond the loyalty oath by determining the eligibility of each person who wants to take it; district commanders are authorized to re-take control by replacing the preexisting state officeholders.
Tenure of Office Act
Johnson intentionally violates the Tenure of Office Act when he suspends Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and replaces him with General Ulysses S. Grant during a congressional recess. The Senate refuses to confirm the action, Grant returns the office to Stanton, but the President names Gen. Lorenzo Thomas to the post instead. Impeachment proceedings follow in 1868.
Reconstruction Elections
By the end of 1867, new elections have been held under the Radical Reconstruction plan in every southern state except Texas.
Houses Impeaches Johnson
The House of Representatives votes to impeach the president. 11 articles of impeachment are drawn up for the trial, with the Senate presiding.
Congress Removes Court Power
Congress removes from the Supreme Court the power to review cases under the Habeas Corpus Act of the previous year (constitutionally, the legislative branch can determine the jurisdiction of the Court).
Johnson Avoids Removal
President Andrew Johnson avoids removal from office by one vote (35–19) in the Senate. He will not get the Democratic nomination in the upcoming presidential election.
Arksansas Returns to Union
Arkansas is readmitted to the Union.
Southern States Readmitted
Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina are readmitted to the Union.
Alabama Readmitted
Alabama is readmitted to the Union.
14th Amendment Ratified
The 14th Amendment is ratified: it revokes the three-fifths compromise in the Constitution and creates a new federal category of citizenship. It is quite possibly the most important constitutional amendment ever ratified.
Thaddeus Stevens Dies
Thaddeus Stevens, Radical Republican leader in Congress, dies at age 76.
Black Officials Ousted
Black elected officials are ousted from the Georgia state legislature; "The Negro is unfit to rule the State," the Atlanta Constitution declares. The Black legislators appeal to President Grant to intervene to get them readmitted, which takes a year.
Opelousas Massacre
The Opelousas Massacre in Louisiana. An estimated 200 to 300 Black Americans are killed.
Grant Wins
Election of Ulysses S. Grant, Republican, to the presidency.
Texas v. White
In its 5 to 3 Texas v. White decision, the U.S. Supreme Court declares Radical Reconstruction constitutional, stating that secession from the Union is illegal.
First Black to Haiti
Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett is appointed minister to Haiti—the first Black American diplomat and the first Black American presidential appointment. For many years into the future, both Democratic and Republican administrations will follow a tradition of appointing African Americans as ministers to Haiti and Liberia.
Black Friday
Black Friday on the New York gold exchange. Financiers Jay Gould and Jim Fisk attempt to corner the available gold supply, and try unsuccessfully to involve President Grant in the illegal plan.
Black Violence Continues
Violence against Blacks continues throughout the South; in October, Georgia legislator Abram Colby is kidnapped and whipped.
South School Progress
By year's end, the Freedmen's Bureau tallies nearly 3,000 schools, serving over 150,000 students, in the South; the first public school system in the South outside of North Carolina.
Dominican Republic Plan
Grant proposes a treaty of annexation with Santo Domingo in an attempt to find land for freed slaves to settle. Under Grant's plan, freed slaves will be able to relocate to the Caribbean island (the Dominican Republic today). The treaty is opposed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, headed by Charles Sumner, and will never be confirmed.
Virginia Readmitted
Virginia is readmitted to the Union.
Mississippi Readmitted
Mississippi is readmitted to the Union.
Hiram Revels First African-American Senator
The first African-American senator—Hiram R. Revels (Republican) of Mississippi —takes office, though he serves only one year.
15th Amendment Ratified
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified: universal male suffrage is now the law of the land.
Texas Readmitted
Texas is readmitted to the Union.
Department of Justice Created
Congress creates the Department of Justice.
Georgia Readmitted
Georgia is the last former Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union.
Joseph Rainey First African-American Congressman
Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina takes his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first Black congressman.
Enforcement Acts
The first of the Enforcement Acts are passed in response to KKK violence.
Ku Klux Klan Act
Congress passes the Ku Klux Klan Act, a more far-reaching reform than the Enforcement Acts. This is the first time that specific crimes committed by individuals are deemed punishable by federal law.
Martial Law Declared in South Carolina
Grant declares martial law in South Carolina; mass arrests follow, and by the following month, prosecutors are indicting Klan members under the Klan and Enforcement Acts (the testimony of freed slaves is solicited).
Liberal Republican Convention
The Liberal Republican Convention meets at Cincinnati. Leaders of the group include many prominent Republicans unhappy about what they perceive as vindictive Reconstruction policies and corruption in government, which they call Grantism. New York newspaperman Horace Greeley receives their nomination. Greeley's earlier radicalism, high tariff views, and well-known eccentricity repel many who oppose Grant. The Democrats, on July 9th, also nominate Greeley.
Amnesty Act
Grant signs the Amnesty Act, although the final legislation is less generous than he had wanted. Now only a few hundred former Confederates are excluded from political privileges.
Credit Mobilier Scandal
The New York Sun charges that Vice President Schuyler Colfax, vice-presidential nominee Henry Wilson, James Garfield, and other prominent politicians are involved in the operations of the Crédit Mobilier, a corporation established by the promoters of the Union Pacific railroad to siphon off the profits of transcontinental railroad construction. Ultimately, two congressmen will be censured for their part in the swindle and many other politicians will be damaged in reputation.
Grant Reelection
Reelection of Ulysses S. Grant with a landslide victory. Grant invites Black people to the inaugural ball for the first time in American history.
First Black Governor
P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first Black man to serve as an acting state governor in Louisiana, for one month (until January 13th, 1873). He assumes the office upon the impeachment and removal of predecessor Henry Clay Warmouth, for corruption. Due to white resistance, his tenure is extremely short.
Panic of 1870
Financial panic and depression follow the failure of the Philadelphia investment house owned by Jay Cooke, who had helped finance the Union war effort by selling federal bonds to farmers and workers. Of the country's 364 railroads, 89 will go bankrupt. Some 18,000 businesses will fail in the next two years.
Freedmen Bank Fails
The Freedmen's Savings Bank fails, with only $31,000 to reimburse its 61,000 remaining depositors. The average loss is $20 per customer.
United States v. Cruikshank
In United States v. Cruikshank, the Supreme Court asserts that, 15th Amendment notwithstanding, the Constitution "has not conferred the right of suffrage upon anyone." The decision emphasizes that the right to vote in the U.S. comes from the states, though "the right of exemption from the prohibited discrimination" comes from the federal government. This decision echoes Minor v. Happersett, which is passed the same year.
Whiskey Ring Scandal
The Whiskey Ring scandal is exposed; a group of public officials and liquor distillers have defrauded the federal government of millions by bribing liquor tax collectors. Orville E. Babcock, Grant's private secretary, was involved in the scandal and only acquitted through the personal intervention of the president.
Mississippi Democrats Win
Mississippi election returns Democrats to power.
Bruce Takes Seat
The first African American to serve a full six-year term as senator, Blanche Kelso Bruce (Republican) of Mississippi takes his seat in the United States Senate. Not until 1969 would another Black American begin a Senate term.
Johnson Serves in Senate
Andrew Johnson becomes the first and only former president to serve in the Senate.
Clinton Massacre
More than 20 Black Americans are killed in a massacre in Clinton, Mississippi.
South Carolina Riots
A summer of race riots and terrorism directed at Blacks commences in South Carolina. President Grant sends federal troops to restore order.
High Unemployment
Unemployment has risen to 14%.
Election Too Close
In the presidential election, the outcome in the Electoral College appears too close to be conclusive in the campaign of Samuel Tilden (Democrat) versus Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican).
Hayes Wins Election but Loses Popular Vote
Republican Rutherford B. Hayes is declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden won the popular vote.
Reconstruction Ends, "Redemption" Begins
Almost immediately after taking office, Hayes withdraws the federal troops from the South (the last states remaining under Reconstruction are Louisiana and South Carolina). The last Radical state governments collapse and the Redemption Period begins.