Download Name - Wsfcs

The Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Page 26
How did slavery cause the U.S. to divide in the 1850s?
What defined the Civil War? How did the Civil War redefine America?
How can we learn from the good and bad of Reconstruction to succeed at current
reconstruction efforts?
The Road to the Civil War
From 1850 to 1861, the North and South grew increasingly divided over the issue of states’ rights,
particularly on the matter of slavery. A viscous cycle had the popularity of abolitionism in the North
increasing in response to every occasion the South tried to reaffirm slavery, expand slavery to new
states, or further limit the freedoms of slaves. The issue of whether new states would be slave or free
was particularly divisive. The new Republican Party located exclusively in the North largely based their
political platform on not expanding slavery. Eventually, the lower South secedes when Lincoln is elected
without even appearing on the ballot in those states.
Free Soil Party
Compromise of 1850
Fugitive Slave Law
Kansas-Nebraska Act
“Bleeding Kansas”
Sumner-Brooks incident
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Dred Scott v. Sanford
Lincoln-Douglas debates
Harpers Ferry raid
election of 1860
Abraham Lincoln
Confederacy
Jefferson Davis
The Civil War
The upper South will join the Confederacy when Lincoln asked states to provide troops after the
Confederates took Fort Sumter. Four slave states, known as the border states, did not secede. The Civil
War had begun. The North’s advantages included numbers and manufacturing. The South’s advantages
included its defensive position and superior military leadership. The Union expected a quick war, while
the Confederacy would look to Europe for recognition and help to ensure its ability to hold the South as its
own. The Civil War is sometimes referred to as the first modern war because of the technology used,
such as the telegraph, photography, and new weapons capable of killing many people from greater
distances. As the war dragged on, the Union would try to attack the South’s willingness to fight, as seen
in Sherman’s March to the Sea, and Lincoln would try to keep Europe from recognizing the Confederacy
by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation (this also encouraged African Americans to join the Union
army). Lincoln went through a series of generals to find a leader that might defeat Robert E. Lee, finally
settling on Ulysses S. Grant. The South would become more desperate as resources dwindled, including
Lee’s failed attempts to win a battle in Union territory. During the Civil War, Lincoln set a precedent for
expanded executive powers in time of war, such as by suspending writ of habeas corpus. Support for
war lessened with time, including draft riots. Without the Southern Democrats in Congress, Republicans
were able to pass legislation that Southern Democrats might have otherwise blocked, such as those
promoting westward migration. The Union eventually won, ending the debate over states’ rights, slavery,
and Lincoln’s life when he was assassinated five days after Appomattox.
Fort Sumter
Union
Anaconda Plan
First Bull Run
Robert E. Lee
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
“Tardy” George McClellan
Antietam
Emancipation Proclamation
Gettysburg
Gettysburg Address
Ulysses S. Grant
Vicksburg
March to the Sea
election of 1864
Copperheads
Appomattox Courthouse
John Wilkes Booth
Reconstruction
Reconstruction was the time period from 1865-1877 defined by the Confederate states reentering the
Union. The Constitution does not say what branch of government might oversee states reentering the
union, leaving the President and Congress will compete for this responsibility. Even before the Civil War
ended, Lincoln had devised his Ten Percent plan to bring the Southern states back as quickly as
possible. Radical Republicans saw this as too lenient on the South, so they devised their own plan that
served to punish the South. After Lincoln’s death and with Congress in recess, Andrew Johnson carries
out his own plan for Reconstruction that is the most lenient on the South of all. The South largely returns
to how it was before the war but without slavery, though the Black Codes and sharecropping leave
African Americans in a lifestyle very similar to slavery. Congress returns from recess to begin
Congressional Reconstruction, led by the Radical Republicans in Congress. This includes a number of
acts passed to support the well-being and equal rights of African Americans in the South as well as
attacks on Johnson. The South’s stubbornness in accepting change outlasts the North’s interest in
reconstructing the South. Racist terrorist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, fight to keep the ways of the
Old South. Northern political scandals, such as the Whiskey Ring scandal, turns Northerners’ focus back
to the North. Finally, the Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction by pulling the federal troops out that
were enforcing the new laws. The successes of Reconstruction included permanent laws for equality
(though not enforced). The failures include Jim Crow laws and a solidly Democrat South that would last
until the mid-20th century.
13th Amendment
Ten Percent Plan
Radical Republicans
Wade-Davis Bill
Presidential Reconstruction
sharecropping
tenant farming
Black Codes
Congressional Reconstruction (a.k.a. Radical Reconstruction)
Freedmen’s Bureau
Civil Rights Act of 1866
14th Amendment
Military Reconstruction
Tenure of Office Act
impeachment of Johnson
15th Amendment
scalawags
carpetbaggers
Ku Klux Klan
Whiskey Ring Scandal
Compromise of 1877
Jim Crow
Solid South