Reconstruction

Westward Expansion Continues

Homestead Act May 1862
Passed during Civil War to dismantle slavery in the West
Gave settlers 160 acres of western land had to live on it and farm it
Opportunity for poor, former slaves, and free blacks to own land and have independence

Morrill Act July 1862

Land grants from the government for states to build agricultural colleges
Innovations and inventions from educated farmers could improve farming (without slavery)
Opportunity for farmers and working people to achieve higher education

Pacific Railway Act 1862

Government supports the building of the Transcontinental Railroad
Finished in 1869 allowed western settlement and opened new markets for goods
 Reconstruction 1865-1877
Period of time after the Civil War
Efforts to rebuild the political, social, and economic structure of the South
Incorporate former slaves into free society

Challenges
How will southern states reenter the Union? Can the nation be reunited?
How can the southern economy recover? What labor system will replace slavery?
How will former slaves survive? Will former slaves receive equal citizenship rights?
 Presidential Reconstruction
Lincoln: hoped for a compassionate reunion; envisioned a forgiving nation that could move
forward

10% Plan pardons offered to any confederate who swore an oath of loyalty to the U.S.
o states can reenter once 10% of their people were pardoned

Freedmens Bureau (1865-1872)

o Helped former slaves transition into a free society
o Provided food, clothing, medical support, and education

Congressional Opposition: Radical Republicans believed the South must be punished

o Lincolns Plan would allow the planter class to regain power
 Johnsons Plan
May 1865: Lincoln is assassinated and Andrew Johnson (Tennessee)
becomes president

Plan: pardon to all white southerners except Confederate leaders and

wealthy planters
o States could elect new representatives and form new governments
o States had to ratify the 13th amendment (outlawing slavery)
o Southern land seized during the war returned to previous owners
o White southerners in charge of transition out of slavery
Former slaves given no role or political power
 Black Codes
Black Codes: laws passed severely restricting legal rights and economic
opportunities of freedmen
Many ex-confederate leaders returned to power in state and local
governments
Designed to limit the effects of the 13th amendment
Poll taxes; no serving on juries; no owning a weapon; vagrancy; no
public assembly

Radical Republicans refuse to seat former confederates in Congress and take

over reconstruction
 Congressional Reconstruction
Passed the 13, 14, and 15 amendments
Radicals fought to prevent white elites from controlling
the South

Civil Rights Act 1866

Granted citizenship to all people born in the United States
Granted all citizens certain rights under the law
First time Congress protected racial minorities
Vetoed by Johnson, overridden by Congress led to 14 th
Amendment
 Congressional Reconstruction
14th Amendment (1868)
Granted citizenship to all people born in the United States
All citizens get equal protection and due process regardless of
race
Passed to combat southern Black Codes
Reversed the Dred Scott Decision from 1857
o Most southern states refused to ratify it

Military Reconstruction
Divided South into 5 military districts under military rule
Required state governments to ratify 14th amendment
Barred ex-confederates from voting
Required states to allow former slaves (adult males) to vote
 Congressional Reconstruction
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
After vetoing 29 bills Johnson was impeached for firing a cabinet
member
One vote short of being removed from office
Mostly powerless for the rest of his term

President Ulysses S. Grant

Elected in 1868 as a Republican elected largely by southern
black voters
Worked with Radical Republicans to continue Reconstruction
 Congressional Reconstruction
15th Amendment (1870)
No citizen denied the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude
Passed to protect voting rights of African American men women still not granted suffrage

African Americans elected in the South

22 black candidates were elected to the U.S. House of Reps. In 1870
Hiram Rhodes Revels first African American senator; from Mississippi
No other African American elected to U.S. Senate until 1967
 Life in the South
South was ruined physically and economically after the war
Banks failed; businesses were bankrupt; railroads, farms, home were
destroyed; crop failures
Infrastructure Spending
o Government money spent on rebuilding cities, railroads, and buildings
o Southern whites hated the taxes required for rebuilding
o Already furious about political and social changes
o Blamed Radical Republicans for their troubles
 Life in the South
Sharecropping
Replaced slave labor; land owner leased land equipment to
former slaves
Led to a cycle of debt that kept them in poverty

Ku Klux Klan
Secret society established by white supremacists to terrorize
freedmen
Targeted African Americans and anyone supporting/helping
them
 Wednesday April 19th 2017
Pick up your spirals/folders from the front, take out a pen/pencil and
your Reconstruction notes.

We are finishing notes and completing study questions today.

Reconstruction Quiz Friday

Also, expect random non-open note vocabulary quizzes from now on.

Bellwork: Under 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments write:

Amendments are more permenant and harder to change than ordinary
laws.
Also write down the following
Under Civil Rights Act of 1866 write: Laws can be
changed, why amendment was needed.

Under Military Reconstruction write: enforced

Congressional Reconstruction.
 End of Reconstruction
Radical Republicans lose power
Scandal and corruption cause Grant and Republicans to lose power
Panic of 1873 stock market crash caused unemployment
Groups like the KKK restrict republican voting in the South

Election of 1876
Voting was disputed between Republican (Rutherford Hayes) and
Democrat (Samuel Tilden)
 End of Reconstruction
Compromise of 1877
Unwritten, informal agreement that basically ended reconstruction
Hayes is president in exchange for removing all federal troops from
the South

Redemption southern democrats back in power

Cut funding for public education; restricted voting rights; passed
segregation laws
 Equality and Race Relations
Jim Crow laws passed all over the country, even in North, limiting rights of African Americans

Lynching unlawful execution by hanging, usually by a mob, of someone accused of a

crime
o Thousands of African Americans are lynched after Reconstruction & into 20 th century

Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s

Nearly 100 years passed before the racial inequalities were addressed again
 Equality and Race Relations
Womens Rights
The 15th amendment did not apply to women
19th amendment (1920) finally gave women constitutional suffrage

Native Americans
Dawes Act (1877) allowed the president to break up reservations into
small sections
o Goal was to force natives to become farmers and abandon tribal society
o Lost most of their land and remaining freedom
Attempt to assimilate them into American society
For Questions
Does not have to be complete sentences

Use detail! There are many 2 part questions, even if

there arent 2 question marks.