The years after the Civil War1865-1877

Reconstruction

Reconstruction:The process of reuniting the nation and rebuilding the southern states in the absence of slavery (1865-1877).

1.What problems might a newly emancipated slave encounter?

The following slides are ways in which the FEDERAL government attempted to incorporate a free black population into the United States.

Amendments to the Constitution

13th Amendment: Made slavery illegal throughout the United States (January 1865).

14th Amendment: Guaranteed citizenship and equal protection under the law to all people born or naturalized within the United States (except American Indians) (1866).

15th Amendment: Gave African American men the right to vote in the United States (1870).

Reconstruction Acts of 1867

•Divided the South into five districts that were controlled by military commanders

•Southerners had to create new constitutions that supported the 14th Amendment

•States had to give African Americans the right to vote (later the 15th Amendment)

Freedmen’s BureauA federal agency established after the

war to helpblacks make the transition from

slavery to freedom

• Distributed food• Provided education and legal help

to newly freed people• Sharecropping plan: black families

would rent small plots of land in return for a portion of their crop, to be given to the landowner at the end of each year.• “40 acres and a mule”

2. How did the Federal Government attempt to aid Reconstruction in the south? Give specific examples.

Helped a Newly Freed Population

Carpetbaggers – Northern born Republicans that came to help the South during Reconstruction

Radical Republicans – Strong members of the Republican Party who opposed slavery

Thaddeus Stevens – Radical Republican that wanted equal rights and the vote for African Americans

Scalawags – Southern Republicans

President Andrew Johnson – Democrat who vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and did not support the 14th Amendment

Black Codes – Laws that limit the civil rights of African Americans

Ku Klux Klan – created in 1866, opposed African American civil rights. Used violence and terror to support their cause

Challenges to Reconstruction

Challenges ContinuedPoll tax – pay to vote Literacy test – pass to vote

Grandfather clause – if your father or grandfather could vote before 1867, you don’t need to pay or pass a literacy test to vote.

Jim Crow Laws – laws that enforced segregation

Plessy v. Ferguson – court case that ruled separate but equal facilities were legal (segregation is legal)

3.Was Reconstruction successful? Explain.

Black Codes 15th Amendment Reconstruction

Freedman’s Bureau President

Andrew Johnson Radical Republicans

Thaddeus Stevens Ku Klux Klan Civil Rights Act

President Ulysses S. Grant Scalawags

Poll Tax Grandfather clause 14th

Amendment Carpetbaggers 13th Amendment

Jim Crow Plessy v. Ferguson

Federal Government Democrats

Acrostic Poem

Very important in a democracy

Open to all U.S. citizens

Trouble for blacks to cast their ballot even after the 15th amendment

Elections of state and national governments