Reconstruction Period

The
Reconstruction Era

REBUILDING AMERICA AFTER CIVIL WAR

​ESSENTIAL QUESTION

How did America change during Reconstruction?

The period of time (1865–1877) that followed the Civil War is called Reconstruction.

Reconstruction also refers to the plans for bringing the Southern states back into the Union. Northern leaders began forming these plans before the war even ended.

On March 3, 1895, Lincoln and Congress established the Freedman's Bureau, an agency whose goal was to help the newly "freed men" by providing education, food, housing, and medical aid.

The bureau was understaffed and underfunded, but managed to set up schools and universities for former slaves.

On April 14, 1865, only a month after the Freedman's Bureau was established, and just days after Lee and Grant met at Appomattox to negotiate the South's surrender, President Lincoln and his wife attended a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington.

Lincoln's Vice President, former Democrat Andrew Johnson was sworn into office.

Although Johnson followed Lincoln's agenda for Reconstruction, he did not believe in racial equality, and his plan for Reconstruction was very lenient towards the South.

Every Southern state, except Texas, created new governments and Johnson approved them. Their legislatures passed new laws.

Many of the new laws were black codes, discriminatory laws that denied the civil rights of colored persons in the South and prevented the Freedmen's Bureau from doing its work.

Some members of Congress -the Radical Republicans- decided that the federal government should intervene.

Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which confirmed that colored persons were citizens, reversing the Dredd Scott decision of 1857.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1868.

It ensured that any person born in the United States was a citizen with full rights.

All of the states had to accept the amendment to reenter the Union.

In the presidential election of 1868, Democrat Horatio Seymour ran against Republican war hero Ulysses Grant. Grant won thanks to African American support.

Congress later passed the Fifteenth Amendment, making it illegal to deny citizens the right to vote based on race.

In 1870, Hiram Revels became the first African American in the US Senate, representing Mississippi.

In 1875, Blanche K. Bruce, also from Mississippi, became the second black senator.

Reconstruction ended in 1877, when Union troops left the South.

Almost immediately afterwards, Southern government officials—the “redeemers”—passed new laws that discriminated against African Americans.

These new laws made it nearly impossible for African Americans to vote. These laws enforced poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses.

Other laws also implemented segregation in the South. Segregation is the separation of races. Public places were segregated by law. The laws that required segregation were called Jim Crow laws.

SUMMARY

IN THE SUMMARY SECTION OF YOUR NOTES, ANSWER THE ESSENTIAL QUESTION OF TODAY'S LESSON.