1. Reconstruction
1865-1877

2. Review of Lincoln
• http://vimeo.com/38541961

3. The Beginning of Reconstruction
• President Lincoln started
his second term as
president as the Civil War
was ending.
• He said that a state could
rejoin the union when 10%
of the state voters took an
oath to support the Union.

4. Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural address
• http://www.history.com/topics/reconstruction
/videos#lincolns-most-pivotal-speech

6. Lincoln’s Assassination
• Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14,
1865 by John Wilkes Booth
• Assassination means a murder of a public
figure by surprise attack

7. Problems in the South
• The war left many people in the south with no
money.
• The south also had few police, no judges and
no courts. Some people tried to take the law
into their own hands.

8. The Devastated South

9. Reconstruction video
• http://www.history.com/videos/the-failure-ofreconstruction#the-failure-of-reconstruction

10. Reconstruction
• Reconstruction was the rebuilding of the south
after the Civil War
• During the beginning of reconstruction, Andrew
Johnson became President.
• Andrew Johnson tried to follow Lincoln’s
Reconstruction plan.

11. Thirteenth Amendment
• On December 6, 1865 the Thirteenth
Amendment was passed
• This amendment abolished slavery.

12. Freedom! What does it mean?
• Free to
– Travel
– find opportunity
– find family
– marry
– get an education
– own land

13. Freedom??
• “We have turned, or are about to turn, loose 4
million slaves without a hut to shelter them or
a cent in their pockets…..we had better left
them in bondage.” ~Congressman Thaddeus
Stevens
• Stevens proposed giving plantation land to the
freed slaves, “forty acres and a mule.”
• Congress did not agree with this plan.

14. Think about it…..
• What if you were
“emancipated” today,
meaning that you were
basically told to go take
care of yourself – totally!
• Could you do it?
• Would you need some
help from parents,
friends, church or
government?
• What would you do?

15. Should government
help?
• 2 views of
Freedman’s
bureau – govt.
aid to former
slaves.
• What do you
see here?

16. Freedman’s Bureau
• Union government sets up program to help
former slaves (and poor whites) living in the
South.
• Provided food, clothing, education and
medical care.
• Also, gave legal assistance
• No land in the south,
however.

17. Remember…..
• Like science…..
• For every action, there is an equal and
opposite reaction!
• What do you suppose was the reaction to the
Freedman’s Bureau?

18. Black Codes
• Black Codes prevented former African America
slaves, now called “Freedmen” from owning
certain kinds of land, voting, and working certain
skilled jobs.
• These Codes were found in many Southern
states, and many members of Congress felt that
they proved that the southern states did not
intend to end slavery.

19. Ku Klux Klan

20. Reconstruction Act
• Johnson announced that all states except for
Texas have been re-admitted to the Union, but
congress did not agree.
• Reconstruction was over.
• Congressman
Thaddeus Stevens

21. Radical Republicans
• In 1865, members of Congress who opposed
President Johnson’s Reconstruction act were
called Radical Republicans (Thaddeus Stevens,
was one of these).
President and congress
on collision course.

22. Radical Republicans cont.
• Radical Republicans
wanted to punish the
South for the trouble they
caused the nation.
• These Radical Republicans
wanted equal rights for
all, where President
Johnson believed the
white citizens of the south
should manage the
South’s recovery.
• Explorepahistory.com

23. 14th Amendment
• Overturns Dred Scott decision in order to
define anyone born in the US as a citizen.

24. South under military rule
• South resents the government
control of the reconstruction.
• Carpetbaggers (similar to
overnight bag)– those who
come to the south for short
stays to make money.

25. The New Voters
• Former Confederates
barred from voting.
• Left to Freedmen,
poor farmers, and
Northerners.
• These new voters
elect Ulysses S. Grant
(former Union
General)

26. 15th Amendment
• Voting rights to all regardless of “race, color or
previous condition of servitude.”

27. Sharecropping – the new slavery?
• White plantation owners needed farm
workers.
• Farm workers (former slaves) needed work.
• Farm owners divided their land into small
plots and allowed “tenant farming” (farm
workers rented the land to grow crops)
• Also known as “sharecropping,” never led to
the equality and opportunity it promised.

29. Jim Crow Laws

30. Plessyvs Ferguson
• Supreme court case stating that “separate but
equal” is constitutional.

31. Videos on Plessy
• http://goanimate.com/videos/0pRfUKHbFKQg
• http://vimeo.com/41216726

32. Reconstruction Ends
• 1877
• With election of president
Rutherford B. Hayes

33. Essential Question
• Did the nation maintain American ideals
during the Reconstruction era?