Following the defeat of the Confederacy, eleven states had to be brought back into the Union. Frederick Douglass warned that slavery would not truly end until Black men held the ballot. This episode traces the first years of Reconstruction: Lincoln's amnesty proclamation, Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15 and the land it promised, the Black Codes that followed Andrew Johnson's pardons, and the 1867 elections in which formerly enslaved men registered to vote and helped elect biracial state legislatures.

Key Takeaways

• Reconstruction began before the war ended. In December 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, offering amnesty to former Confederates who swore allegiance to the United States and to its laws on slavery.

• Frederick Douglass set the standard in a speech titled “In What New Skin Will the Old Snake Come Forth?” His position was that slavery was not abolished until the Black man had the ballot.

• On January 12, 1865, General William Tecumseh Sherman met Black leaders in Savannah. Garrison Frazier, a 68-year-old Baptist minister who had bought his own freedom, answered that they wanted to be placed on land until they could buy it and make it their own.

• Four days later Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 15, reserving a strip of coastal land and authorising plots of up to 40 acres for Black families. The order became known as “40 acres and a mule,” but it contained no mule. Brigadier General Rufus Saxton sometimes loaned surplus Army animals.

• Confederate President Jefferson Davis spent two years at Fort Monroe and was never prosecuted. Robert E. Lee applied for a pardon in 1865 and signed the oath, but his application was never processed.

• After Lincoln's assassination, Andrew Johnson issued thousands of individual pardons, allowing former Confederates to regain property and political power. They passed Black Codes restricting occupation, voting and movement. Mississippi titled its code “An Act to Confer Civil Rights on Freedmen, and for other Purposes.”

• In 1867, formerly enslaved Black men registered to vote and took part in elections on whether constitutional conventions would be held. In 1868 and 1869 they voted on the resulting constitutions and helped elect biracial state legislatures.

• The Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th Amendment granted citizenship to all people born or naturalised in the United States, overturning the 1857 Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford.

Sign up here to be the first to know about new History250 releases, content & resources!

Questions & Answers:

Q1: What was “40 acres and a mule”?

It was the popular name for Special Field Order No. 15, issued by General William Tecumseh Sherman on January 16, 1865. The order reserved a strip of coastal land for settlement by freedpeople and authorised plots of up to 40 acres of tillable land for Black families. The order itself never promised a mule. Brigadier General Rufus Saxton, who administered the distribution, sometimes loaned or distributed surplus Army mules to settling families, which is where the phrase came from.

Q2: Did formerly enslaved families keep the land?

Largely, no. After Lincoln's assassination, President Andrew Johnson issued thousands of individual pardons that allowed former Confederates to regain their property and political power. Over time the freedmen lost most of the land granted under Sherman's order, and where they had received mules under the Army's practice, they generally lost those as well.

Q3: What were the Black Codes?

Black Codes were state laws passed by Southern legislatures after the Civil War that restricted Black citizens in their occupations, voting and movement. They allowed authorities to arrest Black citizens under broadly defined vagrancy laws and hire out their labour to white employers as punishment or to satisfy fines and court costs. Mississippi titled its code “An Act to Confer Civil Rights on Freedmen, and for other Purposes.”

Q4: Was Jefferson Davis ever tried for treason?

No. Davis spent two years in prison at Fort Monroe but was never prosecuted. His captors initially placed him in leg irons, which were removed after protests from his doctor and others. He was covered by President Johnson's general amnesty of Christmas Day 1868 and lived as a free man until 1889.

Q5: Did Robert E. Lee receive a pardon?

Not in his lifetime by the normal process. Lee applied for a government pardon in 1865 and signed the requisite oath, but his application was never processed. He died in 1870.

Q6: When did formerly enslaved men first vote?

In 1867, formerly enslaved Black men registered to vote and participated in elections to determine whether constitutional conventions would be held and who would serve as delegates. In 1868 and 1869 they voted on the resulting constitutions and helped elect new biracial state legislatures.

Q7: How did the 14th Amendment change citizenship?

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th Amendment, ratified two years later, granted citizenship to all people born or naturalised in the United States. In doing so the amendment overturned the Supreme Court's 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which had held that people of African descent could not be citizens.

Which Way Would Reconstruction Move?

Following the end of America's Civil War, the time had come to reconstruct the eleven states that had seceded from the Union. In a speech titled “In What New Skin Will the Old Snake Come Forth?” Frederick Douglass gave his estimation of the immediate future: slavery is not abolished until the Black man has the ballot. While the legislatures of the South retained the right to pass laws making any discrimination between Black and white, he argued, slavery still lived there. Douglass was partly right. Slavery ended with the defeat of the Confederacy and the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, but the new birth of freedom Lincoln envisioned would not come easily.

Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty

Reconstruction began, in part, months before Lincoln's assassination. In December 1863 the president issued his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. Those who had been Confederates could take an oath of allegiance to the United States and to all its laws and proclamations concerning slavery, and thereby receive amnesty. Not everyone qualified. Officials of the Confederate government and the highest ranking military officers were exempt.

Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee

Confederate President Jefferson Davis spent two years in prison at Fort Monroe, although he was never prosecuted. His captors initially placed him in leg irons; after protests from his doctor and others, the irons were removed. Robert E. Lee applied for a government pardon in 1865 and signed the requisite oath, but his application was never processed.

Sherman Meets the Savannah Ministers

On January 12, 1865, General William Tecumseh Sherman met with Black leaders at the home of Charles Green in Savannah, Georgia. Sherman asked what they wanted. Garrison Frazier, sixty eight years old, a former slave who had bought his freedom at the beginning of the war and a longtime Baptist minister, replied: we want to be placed on land until we are able to buy it and make it our own.

Special Field Order No. 15

Four days later Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 15. The order reserved a large strip of coastal land for settlement by freedpeople and authorised plots of up to 40 acres of tillable land for Black families. It came to be known as “40 acres and a mule,” but it contained only the reallocation of land, not a guarantee of a mule or any other livestock. Brigadier General Rufus Saxton, who administered the distribution, sometimes loaned or distributed surplus Army mules to the families who settled the land.

Andrew Johnson and the Pardons

Following Lincoln's assassination, a series of events upended Sherman's order. Vice President Andrew Johnson, a Southern Democrat who had been loyal to the Union, took control of the Oval Office. He issued thousands of individual pardons, allowing many former Confederates to regain property and political power.

The Black Codes

Former Confederates seized the opportunity to pass what came to be known as Black Codes. Such laws restricted Black citizens in their occupations, voting and mobility. The codes allowed Southern authorities to arrest Black citizens under broadly defined vagrancy laws and hire out their labour to white employers as punishment or to satisfy fines and court costs. Euphemistically, Mississippi called its Black Code “An Act to Confer Civil Rights on Freedmen, and for other Purposes.”

The Land Is Taken Back

Early in his presidency, Andrew Johnson appointed provisional governors for seven of the former Confederate states; governors loyal to the Union were already in place in Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee and Virginia. Most served only a few months until elections produced new state governments later in 1865. As for the freedmen promised 40 acres, over time they largely lost the land granted them under Sherman's order, and where they had received mules under the Army's practice, they generally lost those as well.

Amnesty on Christmas Day, 1868

On Christmas Day 1868, President Johnson issued a general amnesty to all and every person who directly or indirectly participated in the late insurrection or rebellion. Though he was not named individually, Jefferson Davis was covered under the proclamation. Lee died in 1870. Davis lived as a free man until 1889, and New Orleans held an enormous funeral procession in his memory.

The Ballot at Last

What Frederick Douglass had called for developed as part of reconstructing the former Confederate states. In 1867, formerly enslaved Black men registered to vote and participated in elections to determine whether constitutional conventions would be held and who would serve as delegates. In 1868 and 1869, Black men also voted on the resulting constitutions and helped elect new biracial state legislatures.

The Fourteenth Amendment Overturns Dred Scott

These victories came amidst a wave of legislation passed by Congress. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th Amendment, ratified two years later, granted citizenship to all people born or naturalised in the United States. In doing so, the constitutional amendment overturned the 1857 Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sandford.

Military Reconstruction and Thaddeus Stevens

Between 1867 and 1868, Congress passed a series of four Reconstruction bills, including the Military Reconstruction Act, which split the South into districts governed by the United States military. The bill also required the ten unreconstructed Southern states to register male citizens aged twenty one or older of whatever race, colour, or previous condition, to vote. The eleventh former Confederate state, Tennessee, had already been reconstructed.

Helping to pass this legislation was Thaddeus Stevens, a representative from Pennsylvania and leader of the Radical Republicans, whose efforts triumphed despite repeated vetoes from President Johnson. Johnson and the Radical Republicans were about to confront each other in a first for the nation: a presidential impeachment.