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Lesson #8: The Lost Promise of Reconstruction
(1865-1877)
Directions: As you read through the lesson, use this worksheet to
help organize your thoughts and newfound information. Answer these
questions carefully and review them before completing the
corresponding submission.
I. Introduction
A. What will I learn about in this lesson?
B. How does this lesson relate to previous lessons?
C. What do I already know about this lesson’s topic?
II. The Politics of Reconstruction
A. Why was Reconstruction a tug of war for power?
B. What did Congress do to prevent civil war from happening
again?
C. What did the war do to the North?
D. What did the war do to the South?
E. Who were freedmen?
F. How did Northern businessmen and Southern landowners think
differently about African Americans in the South?
G. What is the main idea of this section?
Presidential Reconstruction
A.
What did Lincoln's plan to restore political order in the South
include?
B.
How did President Johnson’s plan for reconstruction favor the
South?
C.
Why did Southern states create Black Codes?
D. What restrictions did Black Codes put on African Americans?
E.
What were vagrancy laws?
F.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
The Freedman's Bureau
A.
What did the Freedmen's Bureau do for African Americans?
B.
What did the Freedmen's Bureau do with confiscated land?
C.
How did the Freedmen's Bureau help African Americans with
labor contracts?
D. How did the Freedmen's Bureau help African Americans with
court cases?
E.
Why did Northerners and Southerners dislike the Freedmen's
Bureau?
F.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
Southern Terrorism
A. Who were the targets of the Ku Klux Klan?
B. Why was the period from 1865 to 1877 called the "second civil
war"?
C. What were some violations that freedmen were regularly
beaten and killed for?
D. What is the main idea of this section?
III. Congressional Reconstruction
A.
Why did Congress push Reconstruction and pass laws that
President Johnson could not overrule?
B.
What was the Civil Rights Act of 1866?
C.
What is the main idea of this section?
Military Occupation and the Civil War Amendments
A.
What were the Reconstruction Acts of 1867?
B.
What did Congress do to help stop the victimization and
murder of African Americans?
C.
What were the requirements for Southern states to rejoin the
Union?
D. What were the Civil War Amendments and what did they do
for African Americans?
E.
Which state legislatures rejected the Civil War Amendments?
F.
Why did some leaders of the women's movement resent the
Fifteenth Amendment?
G. What is the main idea of this subsection?
African American Education
A.
How did the Freedmen's Bureau help fund African American
education?
B.
Who else helped fund African American education?
C.
What was the American Missionary Association and why did
African American communities disagree with it?
D. What is the main idea of this subsection?
Reuniting With Families
A.
What methods did African Americans use to locate loved ones
after the war?
B.
What were broomstick ceremonies?
C.
Why did many African Americans marry during the early years
of Reconstruction?
D.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
The Union League and the African American Vote
A.
What was the Union League of America?
B.
Who or what did the Union League support?
C.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
State Constitutional Conventions
A.
What did the new state constitutions do for African
Americans?
B.
How did the role of African Americans in state legislatures
begin to change?
C.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
IV. The Economics of Reconstruction
A.
What did the war do to the South's economy and land?
B.
What did many African Americans see as a pathway to
independence?
C.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
The Issue of Land
A.
What did the Johnson administration do with land that had
been confiscated and promised to freedmen?
B.
What was the Southern Homestead Act of 1866 and how did it
help African Americans?
C.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
Wage Labor and Sharecropping
A.
What kind of work did African Americans do if they could not
purchase land through the Homestead Act?
B.
What did the labor shortage force plantation owners to do for
African Americans and poor white workers?
C.
How did plantation owners take advantage of African
American farmhands?
D. What was sharecropping?
E.
What were working conditions like for sharecroppers?
F.
How did plantation owners take advantage of sharecroppers
working their land?
G. What were the benefits of sharecropping?
H.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
Work in the Industrial North
A.
How did white skilled workers view African Americans in the
workplace?
B.
Why did urban employers hire black workers during strikes?
C.
What did urban employers do with black strikebreakers once a
strike was over?
D. What was the National Negro Labor Union?
E.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
V. Action Against the KKK
A.
What was the KKK's reaction to new Republican governments
in the South?
B.
How did local governments try to combat the KKK and other
secret societies?
C.
What were the Enforcement Acts?
D. How did the army and federal agents cause the Klan to
disband in 1872?
E.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
VI. The End of Northern Support
A.
Why did the North stop supporting African Americans in the
South?
B.
How did northern Democrats turn Northerners against
Reconstruction and the Republican Party?
C.
Why did the Freedmen's Bureau fold in 1867?
D. How were African Americans affected by the Bureau’s closing?
E.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
The Panic of 1873 and the Elections of 1874
A.
What happened in the Panic of 1873?
B.
Why did voters turn against the Republican Party?
C.
What caused the political upheaval in the elections of 1874?
D.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
VII. The End of African American Political
Power
A.
How did the position of African Americans change with the
1874 elections?
B. What is the main idea of this section?
Virginia, Texas, and Tennessee
A.
How did Virginia, Texas, and Tennessee avoid drafting new
state constitutions and ratifying the Fifteenth Amendment?
How did they exclude African Americans from holding office?
B. What is the main idea of this subsection?
Georgia
A.
What did white politicians claim was the reason for removing
28 African American legislators from the general assembly?
B.
How did Congress react to the politicians' decision to remove
the African American legislators?
C.
How did Georgia rejoin the Union?
D.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
Arkansas
A.
What was the Brooks-Baxter War and how did it end?
B.
Who supported candidates Reverend Joseph Brooks and Elisha
Baxter?
C.
What happened after the Democrats won the 1874 election?
D.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
Mississippi
A.
What happened at the July 4th parade in Vicksburg,
Mississippi, in 1874?
B.
Why did Adelbert Ames's plan to use black militia fail in
Mississippi?
C.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
Louisiana and South Carolina
A.
What was the Colfax Massacre?
B.
What was the Battle of Liberty Place?
C.
What is the main idea of this subsection?
VIII. The Death of Reconstruction
A. What was the Compromise of 1877?
B. What happened to Republican legislators after the
Compromise?
C. What methods were used to suppress black voters?
D. Who returned to power after the Compromise?
E. How did education change after the Compromise?
F. What is the main idea of this section?
The Supreme Court Rolls Back Reconstruction
A. What did the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Reece
do to voting rights for African Americans?
B. What reasons could states use to deny voting rights?
C. How did the Supreme Court decision in United States v.
Cruikshank affect African Americans?
D. What is the main idea of this subsection?
IV. Lesson Review
A. In a paragraph, describe the main ideas/themes of this lesson.
B. How did this lesson relate to your prior knowledge of these
topics and prior lessons in this course?
C. Are there any topics you would like to know more about? Are
there any you feel that you need to review before taking the
submission?