US History & Government
Reconstruction
DO NOW: Reconstruct means to construct or build again. In 1865 what needed to be reconstructed? Why?
“….With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let
us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne
the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace
among ourselves and with all nations.”
Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln
1.
What is Lincoln saying?
2.
What were the three parts of Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan?
1
2
3
3.
How is Lincoln treating the defeated South? Why?
4. Lincoln chose Andrew Johnson to be his running mate in the Presidential Election of 1864. Why was
Johnson and strange choice for Vice President?
The Black Codes
“No negro or freedman shall be permitted to rent or keep a house within the limits of the town under any
circumstances.”
“No negro or freedman shall reside within the limits of the town . . . who is not in the regular service of some
white person or former owner.”
“ No public meetings or congregations of negroes or freedmen shall be allowed within the limits of the town”
“ No freedman ... shall be allowed to carry firearms, or any kind of weapons”
5.
The South instituted the Black Codes. What was the purpose of these laws?
Hanging of Amy Spain
Harper’s Weekly September 30, 1865
One of the martyrs of the cause which gave freedom to her race was that of a colored woman named Amy
Spain, who was a resident of the town of Darlington, situated in a rich cotton-growing district of South
Carolina. At the time a portion of the Union army occupied the town of Darlington she expressed her
satisfaction by clasping her hands and exclaiming, "Bless the Lord the Yankees have come!" She could not
restrain her emotions. The long night of darkness which had bound her in slavery was about to break away ….
A section of Sherman's cavalry occupied the town, and without doing any damage passed through. Not an insult
nor an unkind word was said to any of the women of that town. The men had, with guilty consciences, fled; but
on their return, with their traditional chivalry, they seized upon poor Army, and …. hung her to a sycamore-tree
standing in front of the court-house, underneath which stood the block from which was monthly exhibited the
slave[s] …. that were struck down by the auctioneer's hammer to the highest bidder.
Amy Spain heroically heard her sentence, and from her prison bars declared she was prepared to die. She defied
her persecutors; and as she ascended the scaffold declared she was going to a place where she would receive a
crown of glory. She was rudely interrupted by an oath from one of her executioners. To the eternal disgrace of
Darlington her execution was …. witnessed by most of the citizens of the town.
5.
How is Amy Spain portrayed?
What is the point of view (bias) of the article?
What does the author hope will happen as a result of this article?
Why would many more black southerners be lynched (illegally hanged) by whites after the Civil War than
before the war?
6.
Who were the Radical Republicans and how were they different to Lincoln?
7.
What was the purpose of the Freedman’s Bureau?
8.
Why did the Radical Republicans turn against Johnson?
“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on
Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
-US Constitution
9. For what reasons may a government official be impeached?
Tenure of Office Act: (passed over the veto of President Andrew Johnson) in 1867, stated that federal officials
could not be fired without the consent of the Senate.
Later, Johnson fires his Secretary of War Andrew Stanton, because of his opposition to Johnson’s policies on
Reconstruction.
10
Johnson was accused of
What happened to Johnson in the House of Representatives?
What happened to Johnson in the Senate?
What do you think was the real reason that Congress created the Tenure of Office Act?
11. How do the Radical Republicans respond to lynching, Confederates in government and attacks on
Northerners in the South?
12. What three groups did the Radical Republicans depend on in the South?
1
2
3
13. How did Southerners respond to this?
The Civil War Amendments
Amendment
13
(1865)
14
(1868)
15
(1870)
What did the amendment do?
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except as a punishment for crime whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist
within the United States, or any place subject to
their jurisdiction.”
“All persons born or naturalized in the United
States …..are citizens of the United States and
of the State wherein they reside. No State shall
make or enforce any law which shall abridge
the privileges or immunities of citizens of the
United States;
“The right of citizens of the United States to
vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any state on account of
race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
14. How does the South change during Reconstruction?
15. Presidential Elections
Who won the election of 1868? ___________________________ What party did they belong to? D or R
Who won the election of 1872? ____________________________ What party did they belong to? D or R
Who won the election of 1876? ___________________________ What party did they belong to? D or R
16. Why is the Compromise of 1877 needed?
What does the North get from the Compromise?
What does the South get from the Compromise?
17. How did the Compromise of 1877 affect the South socially and politically?
Socially:
__________________________________________________
Politically: __________________________________________________
18. What does the term “redeem” mean? Who were the “Redeemers?”
19. What was the economic situation of the South after the Civil War?
20. What was the significance of the Supreme Court Case Plessy v. Ferguson?
Define Jim Crow
21. What is disenfranchisement? Identify three ways in which African-Americans were disenfrancised?
1.
_______________________
2.
_______________________
3.
_______________________
Why did the South become known politically as the “Solid South” until the 1970’s?
22. In what states was sharecropping mostly found? How did sharecropping keep former slaves in poverty?