Reconstruction Review

Reconstruction Era

One of the biggest challenges of the Reconstruction Era was creating a system to give land to freedmen so they could farm and make a living. This system never developed due to political disagreements. The South experienced poverty for

generations with sharecropping and tenancy replacing
slavery, while northern businesses prospered.

Though passed during the Civil War, the Homestead and
Morrill acts provided new opportunities after the country was no longer at war.

Reconstruction Era, Major Events

13th

14th

& 15th

Amendments

Radical Reconstruction

Andrew Johnson

Sharecropping

Carpetbaggers and Scalawags

Compromise of 1877

FREE

CITIZENS

VOTE

Unit Vocabulary-Reconstruction Era
Reconstruction– process of rebuilding the Union with

the readmission of the southern states

sharecropping– the practice of receiving a portion of

the crops in exchange for living and farming on a large
estate

carpetbagger– referred to Northerners who moved to

the South following the Civil War to take advantage of
the unsettled political situation

scalawag– referred to Southerners who cooperated

with federal authorities during Reconstruction, often
gaining an advantage

homestead– a tract of land with a home on it

Related Vocabulary:

Reconstruction Era

✔Legislation

✔Black Codes

✔Land Grant

✔ Amendment

✔ Civil Rights

✔ Due Process

Reconstruction
Amendments

13th

Amendment

14th

14th Amendment

15th

Amendment

FREE

CITIZENS

VOTE

Reconstruction
Amendments

13th

Amendment“FREE”

Abolish Slavery
Freed all enslaved people without compensation to

slave holders.

Legally forbade slavery in the United States.

Reconstruction
Amendments

14th

Amendment“CITIZENS”

Gave citizenship and equal protection to anyone born in the U.S.

Protect the rights of citizens
Citizenship (equal protection clause and due process clause).

Reconstruction
Amendments

15th

Amendment“VOTE”

Granted African American men the right

to vote

Universal male suffrage
Granting voting rights to formerly enslaved males

Multiple Choice

The 13th Amendment

• Abolished Slavery except as a punishment for a crime.

• granted citizenship to all persons "born or naturalized in the United States," including formerly enslaved people

• Gave all males the right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

• Freedom of

  Religion

  Assembly

  Press

  Petition

  Speech

Multiple Choice

The 14th Amendment

• "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."

• granted citizenship to all persons "born or naturalized in the United States," including formerly enslaved people

• 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.

• Freedom of

  Religion

  Assembly

  Press

  Petition

  Speech

Multiple Choice

The 15th Amendment

• "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."

• granted citizenship to all persons "born or naturalized in the United States," including formerly enslaved people

• 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.

• Freedom of

  Religion

  Assembly

  Press

  Petition

  Speech

Multiple Choice

(RAAPS) Freedom of

Religion

Assembly

Press

Petition

Speech

• 15th Amendment

• 14th Amendment

• 13th Amendment

• 1st Amendment

Radical Reconstruction Congress
Legislative Reform Programs

Freedmen’s
Bureau

Established in the War
Department (in March, 1865).

Federal agency that supplied
the newly freed slaves with
money, education, houses
and protection.

The Bureau also assumed custody of confiscated lands

or property in the former Confederate States, border
states, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory.

Multiple Select

The purpose of the Freedmen's Bureau was to provide the following to assist formerly enslaved persons. (Choose all that apply).

• Money and Education

• Housing and Protection

• 40 acres and a mule

• Revenge

Multiple Choice

The Freedmen's Bureau was also responsible for which of the following?

• Taking custody of confiscated property or lands.

• Serving as judges in the military districts.

• Hunting down former Confederate Officers.

• Writing legislation in the southern states.

Radical Reconstruction Congress

Legislative Reform Programs

Military Reconstruction Act of 1867

To enforce Reconstruction laws in the South.

Split the former Confederacy into 5 occupied military districts.

Strict guidelines on representation and requirements for readmission to Union.

Five Occupied Military Districts

Multiple Choice

How many military districts did the south create during Radical Reconstruction?

• 5

• 13

• 6

• 12

Multiple Choice

Texas and Louisiana were combined into which district?

• District 1

• District 3

• District 4

• District 5

Radical Reconstruction Congress
Legislative Reform Programs

Civil Rights Act of 1866
First time Congress passed a law protecting racial minorities.

Granted citizenship to persons born in the United States, except members of American Indian tribes

–

Problems
During Reconstruction

How to readmit the southern states back into the Union.

Passage of the Reconstruction Act

• divided the Southern states into 5 military districts.

The Reconstruction Act

• Supported by Radical Republicans (northern congressmen), who were resented by many Southerners.

–

Five Occupied Military Districts

Problems
During Reconstruction

How to rebuild the southern economy

A system of sharecropping
developed to replace enslaved labor

In the sharecropping system
plantation owners provided land to
formerly enslaved people in
exchange for a share of the crop

Formerly enslaved people also
became tenant farmers, paying rent
to plantation owners to be able to
farm a plot of land

Sharecropping

–

Multiple Choice

After the Civil War ended and the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the us, what type of economy developed in the south?

• Mining

• Northern style factories

• Sharecropping

• Slavery continued illegally

Multiple Select

How did sharecropping contribute to the cycle of poverty? (select all that apply)

• Sharecroppers often purchased food, clothing and other items from their landlords on credit.

• Sharecroppers paid 50% of their harvest in exchange for renting the land and seed.

• Sharecroppers didn't work very hard because they were lazy.

• At harvest time the tenant farmer (sharecropper) often doesn't earn enough money to pay off their debt and ends up owing the landowner.

Problems
During Reconstruction

How to provide for the basic needs of formerly enslaved people

Freedmen’s Bureau was created

• the bureau’s chief focus was to provide
  food, medical care, help with resettlement,
  administer justice, manage abandoned and
  confiscated property, regulate labor, and establish schools.

• Over 1,000 schools were built and some
  services were provided, but most people were
  not given what was promised

Problems
During Reconstruction

How to extend citizenship to formerly enslaved people

Fourteenth Amendment

• added to the U.S. Constitution
  granting citizenship to
  formerly enslaved people.

Fifteenth Amendment

• added to the U.S. Constitution
  granting voting rights to
  formerly enslaved males

Problems
During Reconstruction

Impact of these problems on different groups

Southerners- found ways to go around the federal laws put in place to protect formerly enslaved people.

• Designed to restrict freed black's activity and ensure their availability as a labor force now that slavery had been abolished.

• Black Codes – laws passed in the South during Reconstruction to limit the opportunities for African Americans.

Problems
During Reconstruction

Impact of these problems on different groups

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws passed from the end of Reconstruction in 1877 through the mid-1950s by which white southerners reasserted their dominance by denying African Americans basic social, economic, and civil rights, such as the right to vote.

Laws enforcing racial segregation

Problems
During Reconstruction

Impact of these problems on different groups

Ku Klux Klan

• a secret society formed to undermine Republican rule and terrorize African Americans and their supporters (including white
  Republicans, carpetbaggers,
  teachers in African American
  schools, and others who
  assisted African Americans)

Problems
During Reconstruction

Political and social divisions resulted

• After Reconstruction ended, the Democratic Party controlled southern politics for over 100 years.

• The clear division between northern and southern society extend far into the next century

• Scalawags and Carpetbaggers

Multiple Choice

During the Reconstruction Era what were black codes?

• Laws passed to limit the freedoms of freed African Americans.

• Laws passed by the Freedmen's Bureau

• The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments

• A new computer program.

Multiple Choice

All of the following are example of Black Codes EXCEPT?

• Laws prohibiting African Americans from voting.

• African Americans were not allowed to serve on juries.

• African Americans were prohibited from testifying in court.

• Mandatory education for all African Americans through 8th grade.

Multiple Choice

State and local laws passed from the end of Reconstruction in 1877 through the mid-1950s by which white southerners reasserted their dominance by denying African Americans basic social, economic, and civil rights, such as the right to vote.

• Reconstruction Amendments

• Jim Crow Laws

• Black Codes

• Bill of Rights

Multiple Choice

What were the main purpose of Jim Crow laws?

• To force African American assimilation into white society.

• To make sure the Reconstruction Amendments were unenforceable.

• To enforce segregation.

• To make the South pay for the war.

Scalawags

Southerners who worked with the Republicans (seen as traitors by the Southerners) gained political power.

Lived in the South
but supported the

Union.

Carpetbaggers

Carpetbaggers, so named for the luggage they carried

• Northerners who went to the South and became
  involved in the new state politics.

Lived in the North but
moved to the South
and took advantage
of the chaos. (Political Office, and economic opportunities).

Multiple Choice

A Scalawag was

• A northerner that came south to take advantage of Reconstruction.

• A southerner who was viewed as a traitor for going along with the Reconstruction government

Multiple Choice

A Carpetbagger was

• A northerner that came south to take advantage of Reconstruction.

• A southerner who was viewed as a traitor for going along with the Reconstruction government

Hiram Rhodes Revels

• American clergyman and educator

• Became the first African American citizen to be elected to
  the U.S. Senate (1870-1871)
  during Reconstruction.

• He performed competently in office, advocating desegregation
  in the schools and on the
  railroads.

Hiram Rhodes Revels

In 1870, the Mississippi state legislature chose Revels to fill a
seat in the Senate that had been vacant since the start of the
Civil War. Although he served only a brief term, Revels was

seated as the first African American senator, against the
objection of white Southerners. As a senator, Revels won

notice for speaking out for racial equality.

Hiram Rhodes Revels

Historic African American Congressional Representation

• 1869-1901 - 20 representatives and 2 senators served, all from the South (1 senator from Louisiana was denied his seat)

• No African American served as a representative again until 1929, and none from the South until 1973

• No African Americans served as a senator again until 1967 with a total of 9 having served to date.

CONGRESS

Multiple Select

Which of the following choices apply to Hiram Rhodes Revels? (choose all that apply)

• Clergyman and educator

• Frist African American elected to the Senate.

• Spoke out for racial equality

• Was a Democrat

Legislative Acts

�Homestead Act

�Morrill Act

�Dawes Act

What is Congress’

main job

reasonability?

Homestead Act

Overview: law that a person could claim 160 acres of land
in the western territories. (Sooners)

-Granted adult heads of families 160 acres of
surveyed public land for a minimal filing fee.
Claimants were required to “improve” the plot
by building a dwelling and cultivating the land.
After 5 years on the land, the original filer was
entitled to the property, free and clear, except
for a small registration fee. Most of the land

went to speculators, cattlemen, miners,

lumbermen, and railroads. Of some 500 million

acres dispersed by the General Land Office

between 1862 and 1904, only 80 million acres

went to homesteaders.

Homestead Act

Impact: Accelerated the settlement of the western territory.

Morrill Act

Overview: land grant that established
agricultural-universities. (Texas A&M)

-This act made it possible for new western states to

establish colleges for their citizens. The new
land-grant institutions, which emphasized

agriculture and mechanic arts, opened

opportunities to thousands of farmers and working
people previously excluded from higher education.

The act committed the Federal Government to

grant each state 30,000 acres of public land issued
in the form of “land scrip” certificates for each of
its Representatives and Senators in Congress. The

Morrill Act of 1890 established sixteen higher

education institutions specifically dedicated to the

education of African Americans.

Morrill Act

Impact: major universities such as Nebraska, Washington State,
Clemson, and Cornell were chartered as land-grant schools. The Morrill
Act of 1862 facilitated the founding of the University of Texas and Texas A&M
University. When Texas rejoined the Union after the Civil War, the state legislature
authorized the first Texas public college, Agricultural and Mechanical College of
Texas (Texas A.M.C., now Texas A&M) in 1871. State colleges brought higher
education within the reach of millions of students, a development that could not
help but reshape the nation’s social and economic fabric.

Dawes Act

Overview: Allowed Native Americans the right to own their
own land in reservations and established a path to citizenship.

-The law allowed for the President to
break up reservation land, which was
held in common by the members of a

tribe, into small allotments to be
parceled out to individuals. Thus,

American Indians registering on a tribal

"roll" were granted allotments of

reservation land.

IDENTIFY THE EFFECTS OF LEGISLATIVE ACTS (9D).

Including, but not limited to:

Dawes Act

Impact: the purpose of the Dawes Act and the subsequent acts that
extended its initial provisions was purportedly to protect Indian property
rights, particularly during the land rushes of the 1890s, but in many instances
the results were vastly different. The land allotted to the Indians included desert
or near-desert lands unsuitable for farming. In addition, the techniques of
self-sufficient farming were much different from their tribal way of life. Many Indians
did not want to take up agriculture, and those who did want to farm could not afford
the tools, animals, seed, and other supplies necessary to get started.

Multiple Choice

The Homestead Act had what impact on American society?

• Accelerated the settlement of the western territory.

• Helped to establish agricultural universities like Texas A&M

• Allowed Native Americans to own their own land and established a path to citizenship.

Multiple Choice

The Morrill Act had what impact on American society?

• Accelerated the settlement of the western territory.

• Helped to establish agricultural universities like Texas A&M

• Allowed Native Americans to own their own land and established a path to citizenship.

Multiple Choice

The Dawes Act officially was an act to ...?

• Accelerated the settlement of the western territory.

• Helped to establish agricultural universities like Texas A&M

• Allow Native Americans to own their own land and established a path to citizenship.

Multiple Choice

The Dawes Act had what impact on Native American society?

• Accelerated the settlement of the western territory.

• Helped to establish agricultural universities like Texas A&M

• It allowed the President to break up reservation land, undermining the tribal structure.

Compromise of 1877

• President Rutherford B. Hays promises to remove federal soldiers from the South if they vote for him as President. The South agrees.

• It was an unwritten, informal compromise between the Republicans and Democrats in Congress.

• Included measures to appease the south (removal of all federal troops from the southern states, appointment of at least one Southern Democrat to Hayes’s Administration, construction of a second transcontinental railroad in the South, and legislation enacted to help industrialize the South)