How radical was congressional reconstruction?

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Figure false: State Convention at Richmond, Virginia
Figure false: Between 1867 and 1869, every southern state except Tennessee held a convention to draft a new constitution. In Virginia, where blacks were more than 40 percent of the population, they made up about 20 percent of the convention. Richmond History Center.

CHRONOLOGY

1866

  • – Congress approves Fourteenth Amendment.
  • – American Equal Rights Association is founded.

1767

  • – Military Reconstruction Act.
  • – Tenure of Office Act.

1868

  • – Impeachment trial of President Johnson.

1869

  • – Congress approves Fifteenth Amendment.

BY THE SUMMER OF 1866, President Andrew Johnson and Congress had dropped their gloves and stood toe-to-toe in a bare-knuckle contest unprecedented in American history. Johnson made it clear that he would not budge on either constitutional issues or policy. Moderate Republicans responded by amending the Constitution. But the obstinacy of Johnson and white Southerners pushed Republican moderates ever closer to the radicals and to acceptance of additional federal intervention in the South. Congress also voted to impeach the president. In time, Congress debated whether to make voting rights color-blind, while women sought to make voting rights sex-blind as well.