Name
Date
Class
CHAPTER
18
Connections With Geography
Main Idea: Reconstruction
Readmitting the Confederacy
RECONSTRUCTION
MILITARY DISTRICTS
VIRGINIA**
1870
State borders
District borders
1868 Date readmitted
250
0
0
250
500 Miles
ARKANSAS
1868
500 Kilometers
N.C.
1868
TENNESSEE*
1866
S.C.
1868
MISS.
1870
ALABAMA GEORGIA†
1868/1870
1868
TEXAS
1870
LOUISIANA
1868
**About 200,000 Union troops were stationed
across the entire South to enforce military rule.
Richmond and New Orleans each had about
1,000 soldiers. No other post had more than 500.
The Reconstruction Act of 1867 divided the
11 states of the Confederacy, except Tennessee, into 5 military districts. The army
had supreme authority over these districts.
Congress required that the southern
states in the districts take certain steps before they would be readmitted to the Union.
Each state had to write a new constitution
that approved the Fourteenth Amendment
and granted voting rights to all men. It then
had to set up a state government under the
new constitution.
The military commanders of the districts set out to register voters. During the
first year, 703,000 black men and 627,000
white men were registered. In Alabama,
Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South
Carolina, black voters were in the majority.
In other states, groups of black and white
voters joined together to form Radical Republican majorities.
In 1868, the southern states held conventions. The new constitutions they wrote called
106
Chapter 18 Interdisciplinary Connections
† Georgia was first readmitted to the Union in 1868.
However, its legislature refused to seat its new black
members, so military rule was reimposed. After seating
the black members, Georgia was readmitted in 1870.
for civil rights for African Americans and voting rights for all men.
By 1870, all 10 states had satisfied the
rules set up by Congress for statehood. The
map above shows when each state was readmitted to the Union.
1. What conditions did Congress set up in
order for southern states to regain
statehood?
2. Did the passage of new state constitutions
mean that the southern states were now
“reconstructed”? Why or why not?
A c t i v ity
Do research to learn
more about Reconstruction in one
southern state. In particular, find out what
happened in the state when it was time to
write a new constitution and what life was
like under military rule.
© Prentice-Hall, Inc.
*Tennessee was not included in a
military district because it had already
been readmitted to the Union after
approving the Fourteenth Amendment.
FLA.
1868