After Reconstruction

Texas after Reconstruction

What was Texas like after the South experienced defeat in the Civil War, and Radical Reconstruction by the Republicans?

At the end of Reconstruction, life changed in many ways for Texas

• The role of women in society changed

• The treatment of former enslaved people changed

• The Texas economy changed

• The rules for Texas government changed

Several important changes occurred for the government of Texas, as well as the other southern states.

• Texas had to create a new constitution in 1876, which guaranteed civil rights to all

• The Constitution of 1876 is the Constitution for Texas today - though it has been amended many times.

Multiple Choice

True or False: Texas did not have to draw up a new Constitution as part of Reconstruction.

• True

• False

The Role of Texan women changed

Women in Texas had to take on the roles of the men who had gone to war.

Women took on the management of farms and businesses. Others provided services to the army, including medical help, and the creation of uniforms out of a cloth called 'homespun'. This was because, prior to the war, all clothing was made in northern factories.

After the war, women would become more active in society, continuing the practices they learned while the men were at war.

Multiple Choice

What changed for women during the civil war?

• They were required to fight alongside the men

• They had to learn jobs traditionally held by men

• They ran the government while the men were away

The Texas economy changed

Prior to the war, Texas was mostly agricultural. During the war, factories emerged to produce war materials.

After the war, a demand for beef in the east and north caused a boom in the cattle ranching business.

Texas could no longer rely on slave labor to drive its agricultural industry

Multiple Choice

What is one thing that changed in the Texas economy because of the war?

• Cattle ranching became a huge business

• The production of cotton was stronger than ever

• Texas became a primarily industrial state

Life for African Americans changed

• Slavery was illegal

• Southern states created a type of Virtual Slavery

• Black Codes were local laws that denied basic equality to freed slaves

• The KKK and other organizations terrorized black communities to keep them from becoming stronger

• In order to provide for themselves, many former slaves became sharecroppers

• The inability to work outside of farms, and the inability to get ahead as sharecroppers, caused the lives of many former slaves to change very little

Sharecropping

Plantation owners could not keep slaves. But Black Codes denied work for most freedmen, so they entered into contracts to work the farms like they did before.

The sharecropper would be given a patch of land to farm. The plantation owner would rent them tools and sell them seeds to plant and work the farms.

The sharecropper owed half of his crop to the plantation owner.

In the end, the farmer's share was not enough to cover his expenses, so he had to borrow more from the plantation owner the next year.

Multiple Choice

Which statement about sharecropping is true?

• Sharecropping was a new business opportunity for freedmen

• Sharecropping required plantation owners to share part of their crops with former slaves

• Sharecropping caused most freedmen to exist in a way that was not much different than slavery

Railroads

The U.S. national goal was to unite California with the rest of the nation by means of railroads.

Railroads caused a new wave of opportunity for Texans. Cattle would be driven to railheads in Kansas and Missouri, where it would be sold to the eastern states.

The Rancher and the Cowboy became a new way of life in Texas because of the Railroads.

Multiple Choice

Railroads caused all BUT the following.

• Cowboys were no longer necessary

• Cattle ranching became big business

• The railroads were designed to connect California with the eastern U.S.

• Cows could be rapidly shipped from Kansas and Missouri to the east

Multiple Select

Select ALL the changes in Texas after the war and reconstruction.

• Women became more involved in society

• Slaves were freed

• The borders of Texas were expanded

• A new constitution was required

• Cattle ranching became big business in Texas

Multiple Choice

Which is NOT a feature of sharecropping?

• Plantation owners sold seeds and tools to the sharecropper

• Sharecroppers got to keep everything they grew

• Plantation owners got half the crop

• Sharecroppers lived very much the same lives they did as slaves