U.S. History Bell Ringer

Imagine you are a parent who is having a disagreement with your son, who thinks your rules are too stringent. After the argument, your son steals $500 dollars and runs away.

What would you do when he returns? Would you punish him harshly to teach him a lesson or let him off easy to welcome him back to the family?

In your journal, give what you think are the pros and cons for each choice, and decide which course you think is the best.

True or False– Since the South started the war, they should pay back what

it cost the Northerner taxpayers to pay for it.

– The leaders of the South that led them to secede were traitors, and should not be allowed to return to power.

– Now that the war is over, the defeated Southerners can be trusted to be true Americans again.

– The war was so terrible that the best thing to do is to let the Southern states back into the union with as little conflict as possible so we can all move on.

– Some of the land from the large plantations should be taken from the owners and given to slaves, so they can support themselves.

True or False– The war might be over, but I will keep fighting to protect

the South however I can.

– We lost the war, the best thing to do is to move forward and accept the North’s plans for rebuilding the South

– The Northerners are only here to punish and humiliate us and should not be trusted.

– The former slaves can be trusted to be good citizens and not seek revenge against their former masters.

Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address:

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Wendell Phillips, “We have a right to trample it (the South) under the heels of our boots. That is the meaning of the war”

Freedmen’s Bureau:Meet immediate needs such as

– Food– Clothing– Medical attention.

Aid the transition from slavery to freedom• Education• Legal assistance• Assist with finding work and negotiation of labor

contracts

“Whenever respectable negroes, heads of families, shall desire to settle on land, … each family shall have a plot of not more than (40) forty acres of tillable ground.”

Special Field Order 15, General Sherman

States re-admitted by Johnson sent to Washington as congressmen representing their states:

• 9 Confederate generals

• 2 Confederate cabinet members, including the vice president of the Confederacy

Today’s Theme and Central Question

Multiple Themes

◦ How did the South choose to

reconstruct themselves

immediately after the war?

U.S. HISTORY JOURNAL

Please respond in your journal to the following question:

Imagine you are an ex-confederate legislator in the South. All the old slave laws are obviously void now that slavery is abolished. President Johnson has basically left up to your state legislature to write the new laws concerning the freed slaves. In your journal, write two laws to propose to the legislature regarding how to integrate the freed slaves into the post war society

Closing Question

Please respond in your journal to the following closing question:

Write one thing you feel could be considered a success of Presidential Reconstruction and one that could be considered a failure.