Download Reconstruction Era Notes - Cherokee County Schools

Reconstruction Era
1865-1877
► Main
The End of Slavery
Lesson 4
Idea – The country faced many
difficult challenges after the Civil War
ended, including rebuilding the South and
protecting the rights of newly freed African
Americans.
Before and After the Civil War
Before the war, slaves
had been:
►
mistreated
separated from family
members
►
provided with food,
shelter, and clothing
►
After the war, freed
slaves:
struggled to survive
because they had no
place to go
► had no jobs, money, or
education
►
had no guarantee of
food, shelter, or clothing
►
Reconstruction
► The
time after the Civil War was known as the
Reconstruction Era.
► It was a time of rebuilding and coming back
together for the United States.
► President Johnson worked to carry out fair
treatment for the South, while enforcing the 13th
Amendment, which abolished slavery.
Lincoln is Assassinated
► After
being shot by John Wilkes Booth, President
Abraham Lincoln died on April 15, 1865 in
Washington, DC.
► Until that time, no U.S. President had ever been
assassinated.
Lincoln’s Conspirators
A New President
► Vice
President Andrew Johnson became the new
President.
► The former senator from Tennessee intended to
carry out Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction.
► One of the first steps toward reconstruction was
ending slavery throughout the country.
► The Thirteenth (13th) Amendment, which
abolished slavery in the United States, took effect
of December 18, 1865.
President Andrew Johnson
th
13
► Abolished
Amendment
Slavery – The 13th Amendment to the
Constitution made slavery illegal in all states in the
United States of America.
► It gave freedom to those who had been enslaved. It
did NOT give them the same rights as all Americans.
Johnson’s Plan
► Johnson
had a plan to readmit the former
Confederate states into the Union.
► Each state had to
 form a new state government.
 pledge to obey all federal laws.
 agree to deal fairly with newly freed African
Americans.
► By
the end of 1865, President Johnson
believed that Reconstruction was complete.
Black Codes
► Under
Johnson’s plan, Southern states were free
to pass laws call black codes.
► Black codes were laws that denied African
American men the right to vote or act as jurors in
a trial.
► Black people also could not own guns, take certain
jobs, or own land.
► African Americans who were out of work might be
fined or arrested.
► The laws had the effect of making an African
American’s life much the same as it had been
under slavery.
Slaves Codes and Black Codes
Slave Codes (before the
Civil War)
Slaves couldn’t gather
together in groups
Slaves couldn’t buy or sell
goods
Slaves couldn’t leave the
master’s property
Slaves couldn’t learn to
read or write
Black Codes (after the
Civil War)
Blacks couldn’t vote
Blacks couldn’t own
property or work in
certain businesses
Blacks couldn’t travel
freely
Blacks could be forced to
work in fields without pay
Congress
► Many
representatives in Congress were angered
by the black codes.
► Many people thought Johnson’s Reconstruction
Plan was too easy on the South.
► The Republicans, who had a majority in both
houses of Congress, did not trust Johnson, who
was a Southerner and had been a Democrat
before becoming Lincoln’s Vice President.
► Members of Congress began developing a new
plan of Reconstruction.
Reconstruction Under Congress
► Congress
passed the first Reconstruction Act in
1867.
► The former Confederate States were divided into
five military districts, and about 20,000 federal
troops were sent to the South.
► The troops, led by military governors, were
responsible for maintaining order, supervising
elections, and preventing discrimination against
African Americans.
Reconstruction Under Congress
► The
Reconstruction Acts required Southern
states to write new state constitutions
giving African American men the right to
vote.
► The Acts also prevented former Confederate
leaders and military officers from voting or
holding elected office.
Freedmen’s Bureau
► The
Freedmen’s Bureau was established by the
government to help the 4 million freedmen, or
former slaves, after the war.
► The Freedmen’s Bureau:
Provided shelter in refugee camps
gave food and supplies to freed slaves
built hospitals and schools
hired black and white teachers from the North and the
South to teach in schools built for freed slaves
 Helped reunite enslaved families that had been
separated




Freedman’s Bureau
► The
Freedman’s Bureau created a new
economy based on employers and
employees, or on free labor.
► African Americans could leave a job if they
did not like it.
► It created contracts, which are written, legal
agreements between two parties.
► Former slaves now got paid to work.
African Americans Elected
► For
the first time in U.S. history, African Americans
became elected officials.
► In Mississippi, two African Americans were elected
United States Senators.
 1870 - Hiram R. Revels, a minister and a teacher, was
elected to the Senate.
 1874 – Blanche K. Bruce, a former slave, was elected to
the Senate.
► Twenty
other African Americans from the South
were also elected to the House of Representatives.
African American Senators
Blanche K. Bruce
Hiram Revels
Changes
► Many
white Southerners
did not like the changes
brought by
Reconstruction.
► Some whites resented
the new state
governments.
► Some were angered by
Northerners who moved
south to start businesses.
These Northerners were
called carpetbaggers.
More Changes
► New
leaders raised taxes to help rebuild
roads, railroads, and schools. Many
Southerners had a hard time paying these
taxes because they were trying to rebuild
their own farms and businesses.
► Some whites objected to the rights gained
by African Americans.
► After the new state governments repealed
black codes, a small group of white
Southerners formed the Ku Klux Klan.
KKK
Southerners continued to rebel against the
changes of Reconstruction.
► They found ways to keep African Americans
from their rights by running for political office
and writing new state laws such as the Black
Codes.
► Many joined hate groups such as the Ku Klux
Klan. The goal of the KKK was to restore
white control over the lives of African
Americans. The KKK used violence against
African Americans and anyone else who
helped them. They burned schools and
homes, and attacked blacks for trying to vote.
►
New Amendments
► Before
being readmitted into the Union,
former Confederate states had to accept
two new amendments.
► 1868 – 14th Amendment
► 1870 – 15th Amendment
th
14
►The
Amendment
14th Amendment made African
Americans citizens and protected
people born in the U.S. from state
laws that tried to take away the
rights of a citizen.
th
15
Amendment
The 15th Amendment protected
the right to vote for ALL men
over the age of 21, regardless of
skin color.
Women
The 15th Amendment
did not give women
the right to vote.
This angered many
women who
thought that
women and African
Americans should
have the right to
vote.
Impeachment
► The
Republicans in Congress were angry about
Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan.
► Members of Congress tried to remove Johnson as
President by impeachment.
► Impeachment is the bringing of charges against
an elected official by the House of
Representatives. If found guilty in a Senate trial,
an impeached President is removed from office.
► Johnson avoided being removed from office by
one vote in May 1868, but his ability to lead the
nation was weakened.
Newspaper Clipping of the Trial
Reconstruction Ends
► By
1870 all of the former Confederate states had
met the requirements of Reconstruction, and they
were readmitted to the Union.
► Many Northerners were tired of having their taxes
used to help rebuild the South. In 1877, the
remaining federal troops were withdrawn from the
South.
► Reconstruction had some successes. A public
school system was established and many
industries were expanded.
Jim Crow Laws
To fight the new rights of African Americans, Southern
lawmakers made state and local laws call Jim Crow laws.
► The name “Jim Crow” came from an African American
character that was a singer and a dancer.
► Jim Crow laws segregated the lives of African Americans
and white people. Blacks had separate businesses, train
cars, and hotels.
► Whites tried to prevent blacks from voting in several ways.
►
They set up voting booths far from black communities,
They changed the location of booths without informing blacks.
Some states required a poll tax, or a payment, in order to vote.
In some places, blacks were forced to take a reading test before
voting.
 A “grandfather clause” was added to some state constitutions that
said that men could vote only if their father or grandfather had
voted before 1867.




“Jim Crow”
Sharecropping
►
►
►
►
African Americans were freed, but they did not have land or
jobs. Many former slaves went back to work on farms and
plantations.
Many blacks as well as whites became trapped in a system
called sharecropping.
Workers rented the land from landowners. They paid for
their rent with a portion of their crop.
A landowner gave workers a cabin, mules, tools, and seed.
The worker then farmed the land. At harvest time the crops
were harvested and sold. The landowner gave a part of the
profit to the sharecropper. Often the sharecropper had no
money or very little money left over.
Sharecropping
(continued)
► Sharecropping
gave landowners the help they
needed to work the fields.
► It gave former slaves work for pay.
► It was a hard way to make a living because when
crops failed, both landowners and workers went
into debt.
► Even in good times, most workers’ shares were
very small if they got anything at all.
► Usually the costs of sharecropping were so high
that the workers stayed in debt.
Sharecropping in the South
After the Reconstruction Era
► Slavery ended with the 13th Amendment.
► The federal government had established its
power
over individual states.
► The 14th and 15th Amendments provided a
constitutional basis for equal rights, but it would
take a long time for these rights to be recognized.
► The nation continued expanding westward and
building a strong economy.
► The South, continued to rely on an agricultural
economy, and it remained the poorest section of
the country.