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Document 1: The 13th Amendment (1865)
Background Information: The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed in December of
1865. It abolished slavery as a legal institution.
Lincoln correctly realized that as President, he had no legal grounds to single-handedly end the
institution of slavery—but that this had to be cone by a constitutional amendment. The
Emancipation Proclamation was simply a war powers action by the commander in chief (the
President) in which he attempted to remove all the slaves from the southern peoples “in
rebellion against the United States.” Even in this, Lincoln was very anxious about the legality of
his actions.
He recognized that the Emancipation Proclamation would have to be followed quickly by a
constitutional amendment in order to guarantee the abolishment of slavery.
Amendment:
- Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.
- Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Helpful Vocabulary:
Institution: an established law, practice, or custom
Single-handedly-done without help or permission from anyone else
Legality-aloud by the law
Constitutional Amendment- an addition or change to the constitution
Answer all questions on your note guide:
1. In your own words, summarize the 13th Amendment.
2. Why was the 13th Amendment needed?
Document 2: Carpetbaggers
Background Information: In general, the term “carpetbagger”
refers to a traveler who arrives in a new region with only a satchel
(or carpetbag) of possessions, and who attempts to profit from or
gain control over his new surroundings, often against the will or
consent of the original inhabitants.
After 1865, a number of northerners moved to the South to
purchase land, lease plantations or partner with down-and-out
planters in the hopes of making money from cotton. At first they
were welcomed, as southerners saw the need for northern capital
and investment to get the devastated region back on its feet.
They later became an object of much scorn, as many southerners
saw them as low-class and opportunistic newcomers seeking to
get rich on their misfortune.
In reality, most Reconstruction-era carpetbaggers were welleducated members of the middle class; they worked as teachers,
merchants, journalists or other types of businessmen, or at the
Freedman’s Bureau, an organization created by Congress to
provide aid for newly liberated black Americans. Many were
former Union soldiers.
In addition to economic motives, a good number of
carpetbaggers saw themselves as reformers and wanted to shape
the postwar South in the image of the North, which they
considered to be a more advanced society. Though some
carpetbaggers of course lived up to their reputation as corrupt
opportunists, many were motivated by a true desire for reform
and concern for the civil and political rights of freed blacks.
Helpful Vocabulary:
Capital-wealth in the form of money or other assets
Investment-giving your money to a company in return for profit or material gain
Opportunistic-someone who tries to get an advantage or something valuable from a situation
without thinking about what is fair or right
Answer all questions on your note guide:
1. Who are “carpetbaggers”?
2. Why did so many White Southerners hate carpetbaggers?
Document 3: Freedmen’s Bureau School
Background Information: The Freedmen’s Bureau provided food, housing and medical aid,
established schools and offered legal assistance. It also attempted to settle former slaves on
Confederate lands confiscated or abandoned during the war.
Some 4 million slaves gained their freedom as a result of the Union victory in the war, and about
95% of them were illiterate.
The bureau helped set up more than 4,300 schools for African Americans of all ages.
Answer all questions on your note guide:
1. What specific things did the Freedmen’s Bureau do for African Americans in the
South?
2. Why did the Freedmen’s Bureau make educating Blacks their number one priority?
Document 4: President Andrew Johnson
In 1865, Andrew Johnson said “white men alone must manage the South.”
About Andrew Johnson:
- Anti-Aristocrat.
- White Supremacist.
- Agreed with Lincoln that states had never
legally left the Union
- Pardoned over 13,000 former Confederates.
- Faced Impeachment
Helpful Vocabulary:
Prematurely- happening too soon or earlier than usual
Impeachment-charging the President for improper or unlawful conduct
Pardon-when someone who is guilty is allowed to go free and will not be punished
Supremacist-a person who believes that the white race is better than all other races and
should have control over all other races
Answer all questions on your note guide:
1. How did Andrew Johnson’s Presidency help prematurely bring an end to
Reconstruction?
Document 5: Military Reconstruction Act
With the Radical Republicans fully in control of Congress after the mid-term elections of 1866, they quickly
passed the Military Reconstruction Acts of 1867. These acts divided the south into five military districts to
ensure that Southern states established new governments.
Each district was placed under military leadership and new elections were held with voting only allowed
by Congress' approved voters, which were mostly former slaves. Each state was also required to ratify the
13th and 14th Amendments after drafting new state constitutions.
This could only be done after new public officials were elected that had pledged their loyalty to the Union.
Most of these were either poor whites or former slaves. This new influx of voters led to the Republican
control of a traditionally Democratic south.
-
“Date of defeat of radical Reconstruction government” indicates the date when
former Confederates reenter into political positions and withdrawal of troops from
these districts (the troops that were making sure freemen got to vote)
Answer all questions on your note guide:
1. Why does it matter that the federal troops left these states? What does this mean for
African Americans in the South?
Document 6: Sharecropping
This map shows how many farms in each
area in the south were sharecropped.
Answer all questions on your note guide:
1. How was sharecropping a no win situation for freedmen?
2. In what ways was sharecropping often worse than or just as bad as slavery?
Document 7: Establishment of Historically Black Colleges in the South
Freedom meant the right to pursue something else long denied to slaves—an
education. Freedmen flocked to schools set up by various groups.
Answer this question on your note guide:
1. What conclusions can you draw about the availability of higher education for
African Americans? (Think about the goals of Reconstruction)
Document 8: Congress c.1875, Black Senate & House Delegates
After the war, African Americans took an active role in the political process. Not only did they vote, but
for the first time they held office in local, state, and federal government. 16 of the 125 elected
Congressmen during Reconstruction were African Americans.
This portrait shows some of the 16 African Americans who represented Southern states in Congress
between 1869 and 1880.
Answer this question on your note guide:
1. How are these black men portrayed in this portrait? (Pay attention to posture, clothing,
facial expressions)
Document 9: Congress c. March 14, 1874
Answer all questions on your note guide:
1. Describe how the White politicians in this cartoon look.
2. Describe how the Black politicians look.
3. Based off this cartoon, what do you think the cartoonist believed about Black men
serving in congress?
Document 10: The 15th Amendment (1870)
Background Information: The 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the
right to vote, was formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution on March 30, 1870. Despite
the amendment, by the late 1870s, various discriminatory practices were used to prevent
African Americans from exercising their right to vote, especially in the South.
- The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.
- The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
- Women’s rights groups were furious that they were not granted the vote!
Helpful Vocabulary:
Discriminatory: unfairly treating a person or group of people differently from other
people or groups of people
Answer these prompts/questions in your guide:
1. In your own words, summarize the 15th Amendment.
2. Were African American men actually able to vote? Why not?
Document 11: The “Invisible Empire of the South”
Answer all questions in your guide:
1. What was the primary goal of terror groups like the Ku Klux Klan? Why?
Document 12: Poll Taxes
A poll tax is a tax citizens have to pay if they want to vote. After Reconstruction (1865–
1877)—the twelve-year period of rebuilding that followed the American Civil War (1861–
1865)—many southern states passed poll taxes in an effort to keep African Americans
from voting. As a result, many African Americans (and other poor citizens) who could not
afford to pay the poll tax were denied their rights as citizens. Poll taxes lasted until the
1960s in the South.
Answer all questions on your note guide:
1. What did poll taxes require?
2. What was the objective of a poll tax?
Document 13: “Forty acres and a mule”
FORTY ACRES AND A MULE”
During the final months of the Civil War, tens of thousands of freed slaves left their plantations to follow
General William T. Sherman’s victorious Union Army troops across Georgia and the Carolinas. In January 1865,
in an effort to address the issues caused by this growing number of refugees, Sherman issued Special Field
Order Number 15, a temporary plan granting each freed family 40 acres of land on the islands and
coastal region of Georgia. The Union Army also donated some of its mules, unneeded for battle
purposes, to the former slaves.
When the war ended three months later, many freed African Americans saw the “40 acres and a mule” policy as
proof that they would finally be able to work their own land after years of servitude. Owning land was the key
to economic independence and autonomy. Instead, as one of the first acts of Reconstruction, President
Andrew Johnson ordered all land under federal control to be returned to its previous owners in the
summer of 1865. The Freedmen’s Bureau, created to aid millions of former slaves after the Civil War, had to
inform the freedmen and women that they could either sign labor contracts with planters or be evicted from
the land they had occupied. Those who refused or resisted were eventually forced out by army troops.
Helpful Vocabulary:
Servitude: the condition of being a slave or of having to obey another person
Autonomy: the power or right of an individual or group to have control over themselves.
Answer this question on your note guide:
1. How does the failure of “40 Acres and a Mule” show that the goals of Reconstruction were not being
met?
Document 14: “Waving The Bloody Shirt!”
Political cartoons depicting the KKK and the Democratic Party as continuations of the Confederacy
White League
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Harper's Weekly cartoon (on the right) from October 1874 depicting White League and Klan opposition to
Reconstruction
The White League was an American white paramilitary group. It started in 1874 that operated to turn
Republicans out of office and intimidate freedmen from voting and political organizing. Its first chapter in
Grant Parish, Louisiana was made up of many of the Confederate veterans who had participated in the Colfax
massacre in April 1873. Chapters were soon founded in other areas of the state and in New Orleans. During the
later years of Reconstruction, it was one of the paramilitary groups described as "the military arm of the
Democratic Party." Through violence and intimidation, its members reduced Republican voting and
contributed to the Democrats' taking over control of the Louisiana Legislature in 1876.
After white Democrats regained control of the state legislature in 1876, members of the White Leagues were
absorbed into the state militias and the National Guard.
Answer this question on your note guide:
1. Temporarily banned from politics, how did White Southerners regain political power?
Document 15: The Election of 1876 (Hint: The Compromise of 1877)
The Election of 1876 Brings an End to Reconstruction
President Grant did not run for reelection in 1876. Instead, the Republicans nominated Ohio’s Rutherford B. Hayes, a former
Union general. The Democratic candidate for president was New York governor Samuel Tilden, a crusader for clean
government. Tilden won the popular vote, but his 184 electoral votes were one shy of the 185 needed to win.
The electoral votes of South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana were disputed. Republican leaders claimed that Hayes won the
most votes in those states. Democrats said Tilden won more votes. With no clear resolution, the election went to the House
of Representatives.
After weeks of secret dealing, leaders of both parties in the House arrived at an agreement known as the Compromise of
1877. Under this agreement, Hayes received the electoral votes from the three disputed states and became president. In
return, he agreed to name a Southerner to his cabinet, remove the last remaining federal troops from the South, and give
federal aid to Southern railroad construction. Much of the deal fell apart after Hayes took office, but the troops were
removed from the South, and Reconstruction was officially over.
Helpful Vocabulary:
Compromise: a way of reaching agreement in which each person or group gives up something that was
wanted in order to end an argument or dispute
Concede: to admit that you have been defeated and stop trying to win
Answer all questions on your note guide:
1. Why were Southern Democrats willing to compromise and concede the election of Tilden? Hint: think about
what promises were given to Democrats.