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.