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Unit 3: The Civil War
and Reconstruction
Slavery Becomes an Issue
 Important questions of the time
 Social: Was slavery moral or
immoral?
 Economic: What economic
factors allowed slavery to
remain in the South?
 Political: How will the US
decide the slave status of its
new western territories?
Economic Factors Supporting Slavery
 Agricultural necessity
 Northerners had farms
too
 So why the discrepancy?
 COTTON!
The Civil War: Why Secession?
 Election between Lincoln,
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Douglas, and Breckenridge
Votes split leaving Lincoln
the winner
The South viewed Lincoln as
an abolitionist president
SC secedes first
Virginia followed after Fort
Sumter
Ft. Sumter: Southern forces
take the fort in 1861
Lincoln retaliates with force
Two Nations: The United States
 a.k.a. the Union
 President: Abraham
Lincoln
 General: Ulysses S. Grant
 Advantages:
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More men, money,
manufacturing, and
railroads
 Strategies:
 Naval blockade, control
Mississippi River
The Confederate States of America
 a.k.a. The Confederacy
 President: Jefferson Davis
 General: Robert E. Lee
 Advantages:
 Fighting defensive war
 Better military leaders
 Knowledge of land
Major Events of the Civil War
 Battle of Manassas
 Merrimack & Monitor
 Battle of Antietem
 Emancipation Proclamation
 Battle of Shiloh
 Battle of Vicksburg
 Battle of Gettysburg
 Gettysburg Address
 Election of 1864
 Appomattox Courthouse
Lincoln’s Controversial Wartime
Actions
 Issued 1st Draft
 Suspended Free Press
 Suspended Habeas Corpus
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Ex Parte Merriman
Ex Parte Milligan
Reputation as the “Great
Emancipator”
 Allowing African-American Regiments to Fight
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54th Massachusetts
“Glory”- Movie
 The Emancipation Proclamation
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January 1, 1863
“Freed” slaves in rebelling states (not border)
Made ending slavery an official war goal
 Pushing for the Ratification of the 13th
Amendment- “Lincoln”- Movie
Lincoln’s With Malice Towards
None Speech- March 1865
Lincoln wants to Forgive
With malice toward none; with charity for
all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us
to see the right, let us strive on to finish the
work we are in; to bind up the nation's
wounds; to care for him who shall have borne
the battle, and for his widow, and for his
orphan -- do all which may achieve and
cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among
ourselves, and with all nations”
“
March 1865 Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln’s Assassination- 1865
 At Ford’s Theater in
Washington DC
 Shot by John Wilkes Booth
 Andrew Johnson, a Southern
Democrat, becomes 17th
President
The Funeral Train
Plans for Reconstruction
 Lincoln’s Plan – When 10% of
voters swore an oath to the
Union, they could return if they
adopted the 13th Amendment
 Congressional Plan –
Required a majority of voters to
take an oath to the Union
 Freedmen’s Bureau – set up
to help former slaves adjust to
freedom (gave food, clothes,
supplies, settled disputes, etc.)
Radical Republicans & Radical
Reconstruction
 13th Amendment (1865) –
ended slavery in the US
 14th Amendment (1866) –
gave African Americans
citizenship and equal
protection under the law
 15th Amendment (1870) –
gave voting rights to males
of all races over 21
 Reconstruction Acts of
1867 – created 5 military
districts in the South.
Forced South to accept 14th
Johnson’s Impeachment
 House impeached Johnson
on a minor offense
 Was not removed
 Precedent: president
wouldn’t be removed due to
disagreements and minor
offenses
 Left powerless after
impeachment
Reconstruction in the South
 Carpetbaggers –
nickname given to white
Northerners who traveled
to the South thought to be
taking advantage of the
political situation in the
South
 Scalawags – nickname for
southern whites who sided
with the northern view of
reconstruction
Reconstruction Amendments
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13TH AMENDMENT- ABOLISHED SLAVERY
14TH AMENDMENT- EQUAL PROTECTION
UNDER THE LAW, DEFINES CITIENSHIP
15TH AMENDMENT- VOTING RIGHTS
CANNOT BE DENIED BASED ON RACE,
COLOR OR PREVIOUS CONDITIONS OF
SERVITUDE
Gains of the Freedmen
 Sixteen African Americans
won Congressional seats in
southern states.
 Hiram Revels was the 1st
African American Senator
from Mississippi followed by
Blanche Bruce
Compromise of 1877
 Rutherford B. Hayes won
presidential election based on
a promise to Southern
Democrats to pull all remaining
federal troops out of the South
 Ends Military Reconstruction
 Start of the Jim Crow South
Southern Whites Fight Back
 Ku Klux Klan- set out to terrorize
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and prevent Af. Am. from exercising
their new freedoms and voting.
Sharecropping – Af. Am. & poor
white farmers that worked on
someone’s farm for a small share of
the crops as payment. (seen as an
alternative to slavery)
Tenant Farming- farmers that paid
cash to farm a portion of a
plantation owners farm.
Poll Taxes- fee required to vote
that made it hard for the poor to
vote.
Literacy Tests- reading test that
needed to be completed in order to
vote.
Southern Whites Fight Back Cont.
 Grandfather Clause –
exemption to the literacy test
if your grandfather had voted
before 1867.
 Jim Crow Laws – local laws
that allowed segregation to
be legal in places like school,
restaurants, hospitals, hotels,
train, etc.
 Plessy v. Ferguson- upheld
laws which segregated
based on race as long as
“Separate but Equal”
conditions existed .