Radical Reconstruction - Part 1

The Civil War and Radical Reconstruction

(1861 - 1876)

The United States Before the Civil War

Before the Civil War started the United States was a country that was made up of 34 individual states. In addition to these 34 states, the United States also controlled large areas of land in the middle of the country that was still being settled by U.S. citizens and newly arrived immigrants to the United States.

Free States - Did not allow slavery

Slave States - Allowed Slavery

Territories - Areas that were
still being settled. These
places did not have enough
living there to become states
yet.

The United States During the Civil War

The Union - Fighting to
unite the states and prevent the spread of slavery.

The Confederacy - Fighting
for “states rights”; the right to leave the United States and the right to own slaves.

Border States - States
located on the border of the
Confederate States. These
states allowed slavery but did not leave the United States during the Civil War. The populations living in these states were heavily divided over which side to support during the Civil War.

The United States During the Civil War:

The United States Under Radical Reconstruction

After northern voters rejected President Andrew Johnson’s policies in the congressional elections of 1866, Radical Republicans in Congress took firm hold of Reconstruction in the South. In March of 1867, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which temporarily divided the South into five military districts and outlined how governments based on universal (male) suffrage were to be organized.

Radical Republicans wanted to punish the South for causing the Civil War. In order to ensure that the new state governments were committed to equality,

the Radical Republicans split the South into five

military districts, each led by a northern general.

The Reconstruction Act of 1867 also required southern

states to approve the 14th Amendment, which redefined

the word citizenship in the Constitution, granting “equal

protection” of the Constitution to formerly enslaved

people, before they could rejoin the Union.

The Radical Republicans believed that the presence of the 

military in these states would help to make the elections in the South fair.  The military was there to prevent people and politicians in these states from trying to take away the rights of the former slaves.