Download Reconstruction

Reconstruction
(1863-1877)
Imagine you are either a former slave or former
slave owner in 1865.
• How will your life be different from before the
war?
• What expectations or challenges do you have
for the future?
• What are your goals?
Reconstruction
• rebuilding the former Confederate States and
reuniting the nation
Essential Questions 1
 What hopes and expectations did African
Americans in the South have for their lives as
freed people?
• How did President Lincoln and Congress
differ over plans for Reconstruction?
• How did President Johnson’s programs benefit
former Confederates?
• How did the Black Codes affect freed people?
African Americans
• wished to establish churches and schools
• hoped to legalize marriages
• hoped to find family members who had been
sold away
• desired ownership of land
• expected basic human rights
13th Amendment (1865)—abolished
slavery
President vs. Congress
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Lincoln’s Plan
wanted to abolish slavery
wanted ten percent of voters
to pledge loyalty to the
union for that state to rejoin
offered amnesty (full
pardon) to almost all
Southerners who would
accept new laws and swear
allegiance (1863)
wanted the union restored
quickly
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Wade-Davis Bill
wanted to abolish slavery
wanted a majority of each
state’s voters to pledge
loyalty for that state to
rejoin
did not trust Confederates to
become loyal citizens or to
protect the rights of former
slaves
wanted to delay
Reconstruction
Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes
Booth days after Lee’s surrender
Andrew Johnson
• became president. His plan:
• --pardoned all rebels except officeholders and
the richest planters
• --made it easy for states to return to the Union:
they had to nullify their acts of secession,
abolish slavery, and refuse to pay war debts
Black Codes
• --tried to deprive freed people of equality
• --re-established white control over African American
labor
• --African Americans in Mississippi could not:
• hold meetings without whites
• own guns
• attend white schools
• serve on juries
• travel without permits
• live in towns and states without signing long-term
labor contracts
Essential Questions 2
• What issues divided Republicans during the early
Reconstruction era?
• Why did moderates and Radical Republicans join
forces and what actions did they take on behalf of
African Americans?
• Why was President Johnson impeached and why did
the Senate not remove him from office?
• Why were African Americans crucial to the election
of 1868, and how did Republicans respond to their
support?
Republicans
Moderate Republicans
• restore the union
• give African Americans
some civil equality
• keep former
Confederates out of
government
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Radical Republicans
create an entirely new
South
give African Americans
the right to vote
punish the rebels
give land to former
slaves
President vs. Congress
• Freedmen’s Bureau—provided federal aid to freed
people, clothing, medical supplies, food, and the
establishment of schools
• Civil Rights Act of 1866—declared everyone born in
the U.S. should have equal Civil Rights (except
voting).
• Johnson vetoed these two acts, which were
successfully overridden by Congress (first time in
U.S. history) as moderate and radical Republicans
united against him
Important Legislation
• 14th Amendment (1868)—gave all citizens
equal rights under the law, required states to
extend rights to all, and was an extension of
the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
• Reconstruction Acts (1867)—divided the
Confederacy into five military districts and set
up new state Constitutions, in response to
spreading violence
Johnson’s Impeachment
• Johnson violated Tenure of Office Act—President could not
remove a cabinet appointee without Senate approval, when he
dismissed his Secretary of War
• Congress disliked his lenient Reconstruction policies
• Johnson acted inappropriately in speeches and acts
• He was acquitted by one vote. Supporters felt that it was a
weak case, that Congress was overly critical, and that it would
weaken future presidents and the checks and balances system
Election of 1868
• African American votes were crucial to getting
Ulysses S. Grant elected
• 15th Amendment (1870)—extended the vote
to African American men
Essential Questions 3
• How did African Americans attempt to
improve their lives during the Reconstruction
era?
• What reforms did Republican governments
enact?
• How did some African Americans respond to
harassment by the Ku Klux Klan?
• What caused Reconstruction to end?
African Americans
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registered to vote
joined and formed political organizations
lobbied for political equality
built churches and schools
served as delegates to state constitutional
conventions
Republican Support in the South
• carpetbaggers—Northern Republicans who
moved to the South
• scalawags (scoundrels)—Southern whites who
became Republicans, usually poor and hoped
to work with the North toward economic
development
Republican Government Reforms
• creation of new state constitutions
• abolition of property qualifications for jurors
and candidates
• raised taxes to finance road, bridge and
railroad construction
• increase in services such as education
Ku Klux Klan
– formed in 1866 by six ex-Confederates
– focused on destroying Republican party and keep
blacks from voting
– assaulted and murdered thousands
– burned homes, churches, and schools
– Enforcement Acts—used government protection
against the Klan through the use of the military
End of Reconstruction
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economic depression—Panic of 1873
immigrants supported Democratic Party
increasing white violence in the South
focus shifted to industry and to the West
disputed election of 1876 Tilden (D, NY) vs. Hayes
(R, OH)
• Compromise of 1877—withdrawal of federal troops
in the south in exchange for supporting Hayes as
president
• Redeemers—supporters of white-controlled
governments
Sharecropping
• farmer would work a parcel of land for a share of the crop, a
cabin, seed, tools, and a mule.
• poor southerners—(whites and most blacks) in the South
worked
• gave people a place to live and work without close supervision
• no income until harvest time
• usually required farmers to rely on only one crop
• left farmers and the region dependent on outsiders for their
food supply (since cotton was the main crop)
• crop-lien system led sharecroppers into debt with bad credit
(they sold goods to merchants in exchange for supplies)
• Trace the evolving nature of citizens’ rights (e.g., Alien and Sedition Acts,
civil rights laws, women’s suffrage/rights).
• Compare and contrast various American beliefs, values and political
ideologies (e.g., political parties, nativism, Manifest Destiny).
• Evaluate the role and impact of the individual on historical events (e.g.,
Susan B. Anthony, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr.).
• Analyze man-made factors that cause human movement (e.g., imperialism,
discrimination, war, economic opportunity).
• Describe examples of laws that have been modified to meet the changing
needs of society.
• Give examples of how individuals or groups have worked to expand or
limit citizens’ rights in the United States and other nations of the world.
• Analyze historical and contemporary examples of the need to ensure
human rights at both the national and international levels.
• Jim Crow laws—passed by state legislatures to enforce
segregation (separation of the races)
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)—Supreme Court ruled that
segregation was legal. Homer Plessy (one-eighth black) was
denied a seat in a first-class railway car
• poll taxes—fixed taxes imposed on every voter
• literacy tests—tests that barred those who could not read from
voting
• Booker T. Washington—wanted African Americans to
achieve economic independence, discouraged protesting
• Ida B. Wells—urged African Americans to protest
discrimination and to leave the South