Section 17.4: Reconstruction Ends

1. Section 17.4:Reconstruction Ends

2. In February 1870, the 15th Amendment guaranteed suffrage, or the right to vote, to all citizens except women and American Indians • Southerners were concerned that African Americans could decide the outcome of an election • Some southern states prevented African Americans from voting

3. Some states passed laws with grandfather clauses that made many African Americans ineligible to vote • Any adult could vote if his grandfather was a registered voter on January 1, 1867 • Whites organized secret groups such as the Klu Klux Klan • The KKK wanted to keep African Americans from voting, to punish the scalawags, and to make the carpetbaggers leave the South • They used violence to scare their victims; it sometimes led to murder

4. Problems Grant Had • President Grant found that being President was very different from serving as a general • Grant’s administration was hurt by several scandals • He appointed his friends to government jobs; many friends were not honest • They tried to get rich by using the power of the government offices • Shortly after President Grant began his second term, the country went into a depression that lasted for almost 4 years

5. How Did Reconstruction End • After 10 years of the reconstruction, northerners grew tired of the high taxes and felt the Southerners should take care of themselves • Grant’s two terms had been full of corruption • The election of 1876 called for a President who could restore the people’s trust in the government • The Republicans chose Rutherford B. Hayes, as their candidate • The Democrats chose Samuel J. Tilden as their candidate

6. Tilden won the popular vote, but neither candidate won a majority of electoral votes • An Electoral Commission decided the election • Rutherford B. Hayes told southern Democratic leaders that he would end Reconstruction if they would support him • With southern support, the House of Representatives agreed with the Electoral Commission’s decision to make Hayes President • Hayes took office in March of 1877 and, within a few months, all federal troops left the southern states • Reconstruction had come to an end

7. The country celebrated its centennial in 1876 • A centennial is the 100th year celebration of something • There were still social and political problems • Some Americans still did not get along with African Americans • African American voters helped elect two African-American senators and 15 African-American representatives between 1865 and 1877 • After reconstruction, southern state governments began denying African Americans racial and social equality and the right to vote • In some states, conditions for African Americans were not much better than they had been before the Civil War

8. 17.4 PowerPoint Questions 1.) A secret society called the ___ used violence to prevent African Americans from voting. 2.) The presidency of ___ was marked by corruption. 3.) After Reconstruction, most African Americans were ____ most of their rights. 4.) The United States celebrated its centennial in ___. 5.) When federal ___ left the South, Reconstruction ended. C.T.) Grant chose friends to fill important government positions. If you were President, how would you choose people to fill these positions?

9. Chapter 17 Review: Identifying FactsAndrew Johnson 14th Amendment Ku Klux KlanExposition Reconstruction Civil Rights Act of 1866Freedman’s Bureau sharecroppers impeachmenttenant farmers 15th Amendment John Wilkes BoothUlysses S. Grant • The ___ to the United States Constitution gave African-Americans men the right to vote in elections. • The first ___ act divided the South into five regions and placed federal troops there to maintain order. • ___ was Lincoln’s Vice President and became President after Lincoln died. • The ___ was an agency that was supposed to help formerly enslaved people and some white southerners find jobs. • African Americans were given equal protection under law by the ___. • Most ___ were freedmen who were allowed to farm the land by giving much of their harvest to landowners. • Americans celebrated the nation’s centennial with a Centennial ___ in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. • The Congress tried to get rid of President Johnson by holding hearings and voting on ___. • Abraham Lincoln was shot to death by ___, who supported the southern cause. • A secret organization, the ___, was formed to keep African Americans from voting and living free under the Constitution. • Congress passed the ___ before the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified. • ___ was elected President because people thought he had saved the Union during the Civil War. • ___ rented their farms from landowners.

10. Chapter 17 Review: Understanding Main Ideas • What was the South like right after the Civil War ended? • What did “Radical Republicans” in Congress want to do to the South? Why? • Why did Congress establish the Freedmen’s Bureau? • How did the plantation system change after the Civil War? • What were some of the problems that Grant faced as President?