Download Reconstruction File - Northwest ISD Moodle

The Civil War Ends
Era of Reconstruction
1865-1877
New York City Riots
• City workers start to riot because of economic
uncertainty
• Afraid of loosing their jobs due to drafts.
Congressional Medal of
Honor Winners
• Phillip Bazaar
– Was a member of the Navy
– 1st Hispanic to receive the CMH
• William Carney
– Member of the 54th Massachusettes
– 1st African American to receive the CMH
Lincoln’s Assassination
• April 14, 1865
– Lincoln and his wife attend the play Our American
Cousin
– John Wilkes Booth a famous actor of the time
– Entered Lincoln’s balcony box
– Shot Lincoln point blank in the back of the head
– Jumped onto the stage and yelled, “Sic Semper
Tyrannis!” (means - thus always to tyrants)
– Plot was to kill Lincoln, the Vice President and the
Secretary of State. The other two assailants failed
to kill their victims
• The Civil War has just ended, and the
Southern economy is in ruins. Slavery has
been abolished and President Lincoln has
been assassinated. Northerners and
Southerners feel deep anger towards one
another.
• The government now has to figure out how
to rebuild the nation while also recognizing
the rights and citizenship of over 4 million
ex-slaves.
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13 ,
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14 ,
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15
Amendments
13th, 14th, and 15th
Amendments
Free, Citizens, Vote
• 13th: Freed the slaves by outlawing the
“peculiar institution of slavery” in the United
States.
• 4 Million Slaves were freed
• 14th: Gave all people born in the United States
citizenship regardless of race**.
– Acceptance (ratification) of this amendment was
required for all Confederate states before they were
allowed back into The Union.
– **This amendment did NOT give citizenship to
Native Americans.
13th, 14th, and 15th
Amendments
• 15th: Said suffrage (the right to vote) could
not be denied based on race.
– This wording is important because later U.S. courts
would decide that this only protected African
Americans from being discriminated against due to
their race.
– It did not protect African Americans from being
denied the right to vote for other reasons
– States would begin adding poll taxes and literacy
tests to the requirements to vote so that African
Americans would hopefully not be able to
participate.
13th, 14th, and 15th
Amendments
– Women (like Elizabeth Cady Stanton) were
outraged that “uneducated former slaves and
immigrants who had never even read the
Declaration of Independence would be making laws
for educated white women.”
– Because Native Americans were not citizens this
Amendment didn’t apply to them either.
Major People involved in
Reconstruction
• President Andrew Johnson
– Served as Lincoln’s Vice President and
took office after Lincoln was assassinated
by John Wilkes Booth.
– Believed Reconstruction was his job, not
the job of Congress.
– Wanted to follow the plans outlined by
President Lincoln before his death.
– He was impeached by the House of
Representatives but managed to make it
without being removed from office by the
Senate.
Major People involved in
Reconstruction
• President Ulysses S. Grant
– Succeeded Johnson
– Scandals in his presidency caused rifts in
the republican party and weakened support
for Reconstruction.
Social Problems of the South
during Reconstruction
• 4 Millions freedmen… what to do?
– Slavery was terrible but at least slaves had
a place to work and sleep and had food to
eat. After the Civil War they had nothing.
– The Freedmen’s Bureau was created by
President Lincoln to help former slaves find
jobs and obtain much needed shelter, food,
and medical care.
– Many former slaves began attending
school after they were free and many more
moved around the country hoping to find
long-lost family and friends who had been
sold.
• Black Codes
– In order to keep former slaves “in their place” many
states created new laws that mimicked slavery.
– Laws required former slaves to work or be arrested
for vagrancy and put to work against their will on a
plantation.
– Freedmen often weren’t allowed to hold jobs other
than field work or as house servants.
– Former slaves were forced to follow strict curfews
and weren’t allowed to meet in “unsupervised”
groups or carry guns.
Social Problems of the South
during Reconstruction
• Ku Klux Klan: a “secret” group that aimed at
keeping blacks from getting full equality by
using fear, violence, and intimidation tactics.
– The Klan wanted Democrats from the South to be in
charge so that former slaves would be kept
powerless.
– To intimidate former slaves, the KKK often burned
down people’s homes, beat people (especially
successful African Americans), and sometimes
even lynching them on the spot for no reason.
Civil Rights Act of 1866
• “All persons born in the United States," with
the exception of American Indians, were
"hereby declared to be citizens of the United
States."
• Andrew Johnson vetoed the Bill.
– Congress over-rode the vero.
Economic Problems of the
US during Reconstruction
•
The Contract System
– Former slaves got jobs (contracts) to work on plantations
– Better than slavery because their families were safe and couldn’t
be split up
– However, workers were paid very little and were often mistreated
or cheated by land owners.
– Under the contract many freedmen were forced to bring their
whole families to work for just one wage and often they weren’t
allowed to leave the plantations without permission.
– It was against the law to break contracts even if their boss was
abusing them.
Carpetbaggers
– a person from the northern states who went to the South after
the Civil War to profit from the Reconstruction.
Scalawags
– a white Southerner who collaborated with northern Republicans
during Reconstruction, often for personal profit.
Economic Problems of the
US during Reconstruction
•
Sharecropping and Debt
– Former slaves often worked on plantations for former slave
owners.
– The Freedmen were in charge of planting and tending to the
crops and in exchange would get a percentage of the harvest.
– All the sharecropper’s supplies would have to be purchased on
credit from the landowner’s store while he and his family were
waiting for harvest time.
– Sharecroppers didn’t usually make enough money to pay their
debts (or they were cheated by the land owner) and stayed in
debt, owing more and more each year.
– This cycle kept them in poverty and didn’t allow them to have a
life much better than when they were slaves.
Economic Problems of the
US during Reconstruction
• Panic of 1873
– Several banks ran out of money after
making bad loans.
– A panic soon swept the nation and banks
all over the country closed.
– The stock market collapsed
– This caused an economic depression (low
business activity and high unemployment)
Economic Problems of the
US during Reconstruction
• Panic of 1873 Cont.…
– The railroad industry was hit hard by all the bank
closings and many railroads were forced to close
which in turn caused problems for farmers because
they couldn’t ship their goods and many were
financially ruined.
– The depression lasted 5 years and was blamed on
the Republicans so the Democrats became very
popular at this time.
Radical Reconstruction
Congress
• Radical Republicans R-Reps wanted to
Punish the South
• Wanted the federal government to play an
active role in reconstruction.
• Demanded full and equal citizenship for
African Americans.
• Wanted to destroy the South’s old ruling class
and turn the South into a region of small
farms, free schools, respect for labor, and
political equality for all.
Radical Reconstruction
Congress
• Reconstruction Acts of 1867
– Split the South into 5 districts and each district was
run by the military.
– Members of the ruling class prior to 1861 lost voting
rights.
– Stated that before a state could be readmitted to the
Union it must:
• Approve a new state constitution that gave the right to
vote to all adult men.
• Must ratify the 14th Amendment recognizing that all
people born in the US were citizens and have the
right to due process under the law.
Economic Differences of regions
in the US during Reconstruction
• The North was still the major manufacturing
base for the United States.
• The South was trying to maintain it’s former
way of life growing cash crops but was
struggling and would eventually become more
and more industrialized.
Johnson’s Impeachment Trial
• Radical Republicans disagreed with
Johnson’s reconstruction plan.
• Radical Republicans charge Johnson with
“Improper Conduct”
• Hold an Impeachment Trial
• Johnson escapes removal by one vote.
• After the impeachment trial Johnson had little
impact on reconstruction
Hiram Rhodes Revels
• Born a Free Man in North Carolina in 1827
• Moved to Mississippi
• Was elected to the Mississippi House of
Representatives in 1870
Elements
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