Life Under Reconstruction
1865-1877
GOALS #21 & #22
The Good, The Bad,
and The Ugly
Reforms made
under
Reconstruction
made the civil rights
movement possible
I. What was good about Reconstruction?

A. Freedman’s Bureau
– set up schools,
hospitals and
distributed food,
clothing and fuel for
African-Americans
What was good about
Reconstruction?

-
-
-
B. Legislation
13th Amendment – made slavery illegal in the
U.S.A.
14th Amendment – all people born in the
U.S.A. were citizens and were entitled equal
protection under the law
15th Amendment – gave all MALE citizens
the right to vote
Right to vote!
•African-Am. MEN
can vote and hold
public office for first
time
•C. Whites attempted to
limit this right by•Grandfather clause
•Literacy tests
•Poll taxes
D. New Power Structure




Most white Southerners
could not hold office
because of ironclad oath
Carpetbaggers –
Northerners who traveled to
the South for political and
financial advantage
Scalawags – Southerners
who supported
Reconstruction and were
considered traitors
African-Americans
Power shift in the South

The scalawags,
carpetbaggers and former
slaves now held all the
power in Southern state
legislatures

Southerners resented
African-Am. as lawmakers
and fellow voters
II. What was bad about
Reconstruction?

Black Codes – Laws meant to discriminate
against African-Americans- also called “Jim
Crow laws”
A. Jim Crow Laws
•Popular song in the 1800’s
• It stood for all the laws that
made it OK to separate
whites and AfricanAmericans (segregation)
No land ownership

B. Sharecropping – Land, animals, and farm tools supplied
landowner
Cropper received a share (usually 1/3rd to ½ ) for his work

African-Americans remained very poor

C. President Grant 1868-1876



Gen. Ulysses Grant –
one of our worst
Presidents
Tolerated a lot of
corruption
Let the Radical
Republicans control
the South
III. What was ugly about
Reconstruction? Southern whites
attempt to take back control
What was ugly about Reconstruction?
A. Ku Klux Klan was
formed in 1866 to scare
African-Am.

In the 1920’s, 5 million
Am. belonged to the Klan

Today may be 8,000
Klan members

Lynching

Murder by mob violence
IV. End of Reconstruction – 12
years later

Compromise of 1877
-The Deal
Republican Rutherford
B. Hayes became
President
Democrats were
promised that troops
would leave the South
What was ugly about Reconstruction?

White Southerners returned to power.
Discrimination and segregation became a
part of American society for many years