Reconstruction

Emancipation Proclamation, 1863• "That on the first day of January, in the year of

our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State … in rebellion against the United States, shall be…forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

The War Ends

• The war ended on April 9, 1865, when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union general Ulysses Grant in the small Virginia town of Appomattox Court House.

• President Lincoln is assassinated on April 14, 1865 while watching a play.

• His vice-president, southern Unionist Andrew Johnson takes over.

The secession of the South had cost the United States 600,000 American casualties—a whole generation of young men were killed in the South. Land and livestock (farm animals) had been destroyed. Southern towns had been destroyed. Should the South be allowed to return to the United States without any punishment? Be ready to explain.a. Yes b. No

The secession of the South had cost the United States 600,000 American casualties—a whole generation of young men were killed in the South. Land and livestock (farm animals) had been destroyed. Southern towns had been destroyed. Should the South be allowed to return to the United States without any punishment? Be ready to explain.a. Yes b. No

Why Reconstruction?

• Letting the South come back: easy or hard punishments?

• Freedmen (former slaves): 4 million illiterate, jobless and homeless blacks

• Reconstruction of destroyed southern cities and infrastructure

Use the following video to fill in the chart on Reconstruction. Then, use

the following slides to fill in anything the video did not cover.

Reconstruction Plans for Readmittance

• Lincoln: – 10% of voters oath of

allegiance (said they would follow US laws)

– abolish slavery– Pardon (forgiveness) to

all who took an oath except for important confederate political and military leaders

• Johnson– Same as Lincoln’s

except rich southerners had ask him for a pardon (he didn’t like rich southerners; Johnson had been a poor southerner)

• Radical Republicans– Abolish slavery – right to vote for

Blacks– Take land from

whites and give it to freedmen

– Republicans should control the South

Republican Political Accomplishments

• 13th Amendment (1865): ends slavery

• 14th Amendment (1868): Citizenship to all who are born in the U.S.

• 15th Amendment (1870): Black male suffrage (right to vote)

Republican Political Accomplishments

• Freedmen’s Bureau: provided food, medicine and education for blacks and whites

• Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and 1868: South under military control until governments could be set up

White Resistance• Redemption: restore power

to native born whites• Hated being governed by:– freedmen: freed blacks– carpetbaggers: northerners

who came to “exploit” the South

– scalawags: white southerners who cooperated and worked with Republicans

• Hated paying taxes for black social programs

• Redemption: restore power to native born whites

• Hated being governed by:– freedmen: freed blacks– carpetbaggers: northerners

who came to “exploit” the South

– scalawags: white southerners who cooperated and worked with Republicans

• Hated paying taxes for black social programs

• Terrorist groups: Most famous was the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

• Intimidated Blacks by burning crosses and buildings, beatings and lynchings

• “Hooded horsemen” who paid visits at night

As you watch the next video, answer the following question on the margins of your paper or on a separate piece of paper.

• How did members of the KKK justify the need for their organization?

• Explain some of their tactics.

Republican Political Accomplishments

• 1868: Republican presidential candidate Ulysses Grant becomes the 18th president

• Grant prosecutes (takes to court) KKK members

• Also sends the U.S. Army to protect freedmen from white terrorist groups

Grant and White Terrorism

• As you watch the next video, answer the following question on the margins of your paper or on a separate piece of paper.

• Why and how did President Grant deal with the rising problem of white terrorism?

Life for African Americans

• Families reunited: Blacks now had control over their families and children

• Blacks move off of plantations; churches and schools become the new centers for community life

African Americans hold public office:•Many serve on state legislatures•Blanche K. Bruce and Hiram Revels became U.S. senators

A New Form of Servitude• tenant farmers (paid rent)

and sharecroppers (paid with crops)– applied to both blacks and

poor whites– crop liens: farmer’s forced to

do business only with the person who let him borrow supplies (subject to high prices)

– peonage: debtors were locked in to working a piece of land until his debts were paid off

– a form of slavery

• Voting Laws: – grandfather clauses:

allowed whites to vote without taking literacy tests or paying taxes, which Blacks had to do

– literacy tests: very difficult government tests

– poll taxes: voting taxes “By the way, what’s that big word?”

Jim Crow Laws or Black codes: Laws that segregated (separated) the races in the South

Jim Crow Laws or Black codes: Laws that segregated (separated) the races in the South

Plessy v. Ferguson: Supreme Court case declares that the “separate but equal” facilities were fair and legal.

Plessy v. Ferguson: Supreme Court case declares that the “separate but equal” facilities were fair and legal.

• Use the following video and slides to explain the political cartoon on your answer sheet.

The Election of 1876

Republican Rutherford B. Hayes

Democrat Samuel Tilden

Electoral votes (needed 185 to win)

Hayes: 165Tilden: 184

•Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina were disputed (20 electoral votes total).

The Election of 1876

Republican Rutherford B. Hayes

Democrat Samuel Tilden

Electoral votes (needed 185 to win)

Hayes: 165Tilden: 184

•Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina were disputed (20 electoral votes total). The Sell OutThe Sell Out

• Republican leaders struck a deal with the Democratic leaders

• Hayes would get the 20 electoral votes in return for removing the federal troops from these states

• Racist Democrats would get to run their states

• Reconstruction had no more protection; Blacks felt abandoned by the government.

1. Whose Reconstruction plan called for the redistribution of land?

a. President Lincoln’s b. President Johnson’s c. Radical Republicans

2. The Freedmen’s Bureau helped poor southern blacks with all of the following EXCEPT:

a. foodb.medicinec. entertainmentd.education

• 3. For what purpose did President Ulysses Grant send U.S. troops into the South?

a. to readmit them to the Unionb.to make sure they enforced the 13th

Amendmentc. to protect freedmen from white terroristsd.to recover debts owed to the government

4. White southerners hated being ruled by all of the following groups of people EXCEPT:

a. freedmenb.Democratsc. Republicansd.Scalawags

5. The Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson said Jim Crow Laws were legal as long as they provided...

a. separate but equal facilitiesb.integrated and equal facilitiesc. separate and integrated facilitiesd.no segregation at all