Download Reconstruction after the Civil War

Reconstruction of America post-Civil War
• Objective: Students will review vocabulary of the
Civil War in order to connect its significance to
Reconstruction. Students will also be introduced
to Reconstruction and analyze how
Reconstruction affected different Americans.
• WARM UP: Take the vocabulary word you were
assigned and:
– 1. Define the word and it’s significance to the topic of
slavery/Civil War
– 2. ILLUSTRATE the word to help you understand the
definition (stick-figures are fine)
Overview of the Civil War
• Goals and Strategies to winning the war:
– North: (Not all Northerners were abolitionists, so
Lincoln had to define goals carefully)
TO SAVE THE UNION
- South: to be left alone with slavery unchanged
- (had to prepare for invasion from the North)
• COTTON DIPLOMACY: Greatest strength of the South was
their production of cotton (Exported to the North and Europe)
Tried to use cotton as bargaining tool to get financial help from
the British
Emancipation Proclamation
• January 1st, 1863 Abraham Lincoln issue the
statement/document
• The Proclamation freed the slaves in all areas
that were in rebellion against the United States
• Allowed slavery to continue in states that were
still in the Union
– And it didn’t apply to areas that had already been
conquered from the Confederates.
WHY WAS IT IMPORTANT THAN?
Freedmen in North vs. Conscription in South
Conscription = The draft (forced service in military)
- The Confederate Army enacted the first draft in
American history in April 1862
- At first it was men between 18-35, by end of war it
was 17-50 years old
- Dodging the Draft ($$) Became a poor man’s war
Freedmen = emancipated slaves
- Emancipation Proclamation encouraged freedmen to
serve in the Union’s military
- Served in segregated units in the North
NORTH = LOT OF SOLDIERS vs. SOUTH = LACK OF SOLDIERS TO FIGHT
Reconstruction of the United
States after the Civil War
Ms. Power
US HISTORY II
Answer the following questions with
your partner
• What do you think freedom meant to the
slaves?
Answer the following questions with
your partner
• Was “freedom” a reality after the Civil
War?
• Did all ex-slaves gain equal treatment after
they gained their freedom?
• If not, what factors contributed to the
different treatment?
Reconstruction after the Civil War
• South was devastated in the war
– Economically broke
– Physically TORN UP landscape, farms ruined
• Nothing like FEMA in 1865 (Federal Emergency Aid)
– Morally defeated – Lost war, under North’s control
– Millions of new citizens with little capital (money) or
education/marketable skills
How to bring these states back into the Union was the
major question of Reconstruction
- North decided to control/oversee rebuilding
process of the South (new laws, new agencies)
Atlanta after the Civil War
Devastation of the South
• Troops trampled through and fought
battles throughout the South
• Property loss:
– Farms valued at less
– Land seized
– Land ruined by neglect (no men, no slaves)
Freedman’s Bureau
• Set up at the end of the war to help the thousands of
blacks and white southerners uprooted by the fighting
Freedman’s Bureau helped freed
slaves find jobs and deal with
hardships
African American hardships after
the Civil War
• No money, no education, no established
system of support
• Freedman’s Bureau tried to help with jobs
and complaints
– Not enough resources, tensions in the South
• Unfair contracts
– SHARECROPPING and TENNANT FARMING
– BLACK CODES  People couldn’t get OUT of their
work contracts, no matter how bad things were
Freedman’s Bureau tried to settle
differences in the South
Lincoln’s Reconstruction vs.
Congress
• Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction (1863)
• 10 Percent Plan
• Wade-Davis Bill
– Lincoln vetoed the Bill
– Upset A LOT of his supporters
Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes
Booth
Funeral on Pennsylvania Ave
Andrew Johnson and
Reconstruction
• Humble backround like Lincoln, but a
Southerner
• Hatred for elite planting class
• Wanted all rich southerners to be pardoned by
the President to be let back in Union
• No set # or % of people in a state had to express
loyalty before being let back in Union
– Southerners liked it, but Northerns thought he wasn’t
HARSH enough
Black Codes: laws designed to
keep freedmen dependent on
whites
KKK
• Ku Klux Klan
• Started in1866
13, 14, 15 Amendment
• 13: Prohibits slavery
• 14: Granted citizenship to all persons born
or naturalized in the U.S.A.
– June 1866
• 15: Guaranteed every MALE had the right
to vote
– No vote for women
Impeachment
• Charging President with a crime – once
impeached by the House of
Representatives, the President is tried by
the Senate (2/3 vote needed)
• 2 President in our history have been
impeached
Carpetbaggers and Scalawags
• Scalawags: a scoundrel and traitor in the
eyes of former Confederates
• Carpetbaggers: Those from the North who
came south to take part in the region’s
political and economic rebirth.
– Southerners scorned them as UNWANTED,
and sticking their heads where they didn’t
belong
– Carpet bag was a large, cheap suitcase
Opportunity for African Americans
during Reconstruction
Opportunities
• Look on page 419
• What kind of opportunities where available
for freed slaves and other African
Americans that weren’t there before the
War
Southern Homestead Act
• 45 million acres of government owned
lang in southern states would be provided
for African Amerians
• But few freedmen had the MEANS to buy
seed, animals, equipment (stuff other than
the land)
• Only about 4,000 families took advantage
of the offer
Sharecropping and tenant farming
• Never-ending cycle of debt and dependency
• Sharecropping: Instead of working for wages,
workers received a share of their employer’s
crop
– Employer provided land, seed, tools, a mule and a
cabin to live in
– Could charge more for supplies than workers were
getting back in their percentage
• Tenant Farming: rented the land they farmed
from the landowner (Grew whatever crops they
wanted to grow)
Violent opposition to change in the
South
• KKK – white social hierarchy
– Main target was African Americans, but
terrorized whites as well with threats, house
burnings and murder
– Murdered thousands of people who were
working to change the social, economic and
political make up of the South (intergrate)
– Many people (carpetbaggers, African
Americans) resigned from political positions in
fear
Enforcement Acts
• Laws passed to set penalties for blocking
a qualified person from voting
• Many southerners claimed they squashed
individual freedom
Reconstruction starts to crumble
• 1865-1877 – 12 years and there still was
little peace/prosperity in the South
– Northerners were dismayed by the lack of
progress
– African Americans were still stuck in poverty
– Southerners were dismayed by their region’s
poor economic condition
Decisions of the Supreme Court
weakened Reconstruction
• Slaughterhouse Case (1873)
– Civil Rights was a STATE issue
• United States v. Cruikshank (1876)
– 14th Amendment did not give federal govt.
power to punish whites who denied rights to
African Americans (???!!!)
• United States v. Reese
– 15th Amendment did not protect voting rights if
they were denied for another reason
15th Amendment
• Right for all MALES to vote
• U.S. VS. Reese – 15th Amendment doesn’t
protect voting rights if they are denied for
another reason
– GRANDFATHER CLAUSE
– POLL TAX
– OBSCURE LOCATION OF VOTING BOOTH
Reconstruction “loopholes”
• Jim Crow Laws
• Black Codes
• Lack of funds in Freedmen’s Bureau tied
poor economic conditions of freedmen
Jim Crow
Redeemers
• By 1876 only South Carolina, Lousianna
and Florida remained under Republican
rule and Federal control (Federal troops)
• In the other states Democratic
REDEEMERS ran the governments – they
worked to ‘win back’ their states from the
Republican rule
Elections and Compromises
• Election of 1876
– Tilden wins by a small margin (too small to
count as a win)
– 20 DISPUTED votes (voting fraud, confusion)
•Compromise of 1877
•Rutherford B. Hayes for President in return
for the END of Reconstruction efforts in the
South (removal of troops)
Changed Lives During
Reconstruction
• With a partner read and explore the
documents on page 428 and 429
• Then answer question number 4 together.
– Only one sheet is required to turn in for each
group.