Name Date The period after the Civil War was called Reconstruction. It changes our government and the Constitution. Three amendments, or changes to the Constitution, gave some Americans new civil rights.
Reconstruction: rebuilding or healing of the country after the war. The MAIN goal of Reconstruction was to reunite the North and South. President Lincoln came up with a plan o Former Confederate states: 10% of the citizens must swear loyalty to the United States o Representatives from that state would then be sent to Congress and the state would become a part of the U.S. again o Congress did not agree with President Lincoln They wanted majority of the citizens to swear loyalty President Lincoln did not sign the plan into law The Civil War destroyed the South White southerners were angry and resentful. They had no desire to treat freedmen as equals. Assassination On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot by John Wilks Booth as he watched a play at Ford s Theater Andrew Johnson was quickly sworn into office after President Lincoln died Andrew Johnson Johnson believed the south was to blame for the Civil War. He felt the war was caused by their dependence on slavery. Continued Lincoln s easy plan and pardoned hundreds of former Confederate Officers One GOOD thing Andrew Johnson did after he became president was that he declared secession illegal. Did not support Freedman s Bureau First President to be Impeached
Black Codes Stated that escaped slaves must be returned to their owner, even if they were in a free state. Freedmen s Bureau Many Southern states put laws in place that limited the new rights of African Americans Many African Americans left the Southern plantations where they had worked, but most no longer had a way to earn money. Congress created the Freedmen s Bureau to help poor whites and newly freed slaves. o Gave out medical care, food, and clothing. o Provided shelter in refugee camps. o Helped reunite formerly enslaved families that had been separated o Set up schools in the South. Put teachers from the North into the schools in the South. African Americans crowded schools to learn. Southern white people often tried to close the schools by using violence. o Created a new economy based on employers and employees, or on free labor. o African Americans could leave a job if they did not like it. It created contracts, which are written, legal agreements between two parties. o Former slaves now got paid to work. Congress in Charge Supported the Freedman s Bureau Created schools, hospitals, and industries. Supported Civil Rights which outlawed Black Codes Passed the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments Supported equal rights for African Americans Called carpetbaggers ( Yankee invaders ). Southerners who worked with carpetbaggers were called scalawags. (traitors)
Constitutional Amendments Thirteenth Amendment Added in 1865, ending slavery in the U.S. They still didn t have the same rights as all Americans. For example, they still could NOT vote. Fourteenth Amendment Added in 1868, granted citizenship to African Americans and protected the rights of citizens. President Andrew Johnson did not like this amendment because it took power away from the states. Earlier he had vetoed, or said no, to the Civil Rights Act of 1866 for this reason. A two-thirds majority of Congress passed the amendment to override Johnson s veto. Fifteenth Amendment Added in 1870- stopped discrimination in voting for those who were allowed to vote. African American men over 21 could now vote. African Americans could now run for office. Joseph H. Rainey from South Carolina was the first African American member of the House of Representatives.
Sharecropping Freed slaves could own land after the war. Most African Americans knew how to farm but could not afford to buy land. Plantation owners had a lot of land but not the money to pay people to work on it. This led to a system of farming called sharecropping. This unfair agreement let the owner lend the sharecropper a place to live, his seeds, farm equipment, and other tools needed in farming. When the crop was harvested and sold, the landowner gave a part of the profit to the sharecropper. Profit is the return on a business undertaking after expenses have been met. The owner took money out of the sharecropper s money to repay the loan of seed, shelter and food equipment. Often the sharecropper had little or no money left over. Over time, some freedmen were able to buy their own land. Most, however, could not.
Jim Crow Laws Laws that punished African Americans, usually by separating them from whites. Example: In South Carolina, one law said that African American could only work on farms or as servants. Example: African Americans had to buy a special license if they wanted to do anything else. Judges would make the cost of the license more than an African American person could afford. The Jim Crow law segregated, or separated, the lives of African Americans and white people. o They could not go to the same schools or be in public together. o They had separate drinking fountains, telephone booths, restrooms, hospitals, hotels, and parks.
Discussion Question: Think about how the Reconstruction might have been different if President Lincoln had not been assassinated. List three things that might have happened after the war under President Lincoln.
Vocabulary Words to Know 1. Reconstruction: The rebuilding or healing of the country after the war 2. Amendments: any change or addition made to the U.S. Constitution 3. Freedman s Bureau: agency formed by the U.S. government after the Civil War to help freed slaves. 4. Free labor: the new economy created by the Freedman s bureau, after the Civil War, which was based on the economy in the North, where there were employees and employers, not owners and slaves. 5. Contracts: agreement between two people. 6. Thirteenth Amendment: the constitutional amendment that ended slavery. 7. Fourteenth Amendment: granted citizenship to African Americans and protected the rights of citizens. 8. Vetoed: rejected of legislation by the president of the U.S. 9. Override: reversing a presidential veto by a two-thirds vote of Congress. 10. Fifteenth Amendment: forbade discrimination in voting for those who were allowed to vote. 11. Sharecropping: system of farming where plantation owners would lend previously enslaved people a place to live in return for farming crops. 12. Profit: money made from a business after expenses have been met. 13. Jim Crow Laws: laws that punished African Americans, usually by separating them from whites. 14. Segregated: separate.
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