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Explore the post-Civil War era known as Reconstruction, focusing on the struggle for full citizenship rights for African-Americans in the Southern United States. Follow significant events like the Thirteenth Amendment, Freedman’s Bureau, and Black Codes.
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Unit 1: Reconstruction in the South Bellringer: Brainstorm a list of significant terms, people, and places you can recall on the Civil War.
Flashback: Using the information on the maps of the United States, justify the outcome of the Civil War based on available resources.
The Civil War • Using the dates on the diary entries, form a human timeline of the Civil War events. • Read over your entry silently and become familiar with the events covered. • As we reach your date, you can read your entry aloud or summarize the events discussed. • At the end of the Civil War, what was the state of the United States of America and its people?
Road to Rights Changes in America
End of Civil War After the chaos and confusion of the Civil War, Americans experienced the era of Reconstruction. Reconstruction was defined as the rebuilding of the South and the bringing of the Southern states back into the union, but many had different ideas on Reconstruction. Some just wanted Peace, but others wanted the Punishment of the South. As Reconstruction took hold in the South, it became a struggle for African-Americans searching for full rights as citizens.
School Decisions Example • Locate yourself where you feel your student rights are in our school with the current rules and procedures. • Move 1-3 steps forward or backward with each school decision read. Toward front is full student rights Toward back is NO student rights
School Decisions • Students may eat any time they are hungry, even in class. • Students may help design the school curriculum to include classes they think are interesting and fun. • Students may get a drink or go to the bathroom without a pass. • Students will decide the punishments for students and adults who break campus rules. • Students must choose their classes from a list written by parents and teachers. • Students may go to the bathroom only during a 3-minute window in each class. • Teachers may eat and drink in class, but students may NOT. • Students can bring comfortable chairs or cushions to class. • Teachers do not have to let the students sit on their comfortable cushions or in their chairs.
The Reconstruction Road • Turn your notes page sideways and draw a road down the center. Label as below: __________________________________________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________________________ Limited Full Citizenship Citizenship • As you analyze and discuss each event, place it on the road appropriately with its event number and a brief description.
Event 1: War End What do you see? How are the people dressed in each picture? What do the pictures in the center, left, and right show? What are the differences between life “Before the War” and “Since the War”? How might freed African Americans use this document? Does this represent movement toward or away from full citizenship for African Americans? Place the event Number and Name on your road.
Event 2: Thirteenth Amendment The Thirteenth Amendment abolished the practice of slavery. It was passed by the fall of 1865 after the Southern states were readmitted under President Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan. The plan called for new state constitutions and elected governments, gave forgiveness of war debts, and required the acceptance of the Amendment.
Event 3: Freedman’s Bureau To assist the former slaves in starting their new lives in freedom, Congress established the Freedman’s Bureau in March 1865. The Bureau provided food, medical care, job assistance, and education to the freedmen. In the beginning, they distributed land to “loyal refugees” and freedmen.
Event 4: Black Codes Many of the Southern governments were still led by the same leaders as before the war. As these leaders saw the African Americans gaining rights, they lashed back with the Black Codes. These codes limited the rights of the freedmen, required freedmen to work pushing them back to the fields, and kept the freedmen at the bottom of the social ladder.
Event 5:Fourteenth Amendment After President Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed by Congress in 1866. The amendment attached the Black Coded by declaring that former slaves were citizens with full civil rights. It also declared that no state could deny these civil rights to any person.
Event 6:Military Districts The Military Reconstruction Act was passed in 1867. This act divided the South into military districts, each governed by a general with federal troops. The military districts worked in the South to enforce the amendments to the constitution and to protect the rights of African Americans.
Event 7:Johnson’s Impeachment As Johnson continued to oppose Congress, the House of Representatives voted to impeach the president. They charged him with violating the Tenure of Office Act by “bringing the office of the President into contempt, ridicule, and disgrace…” Even though the majority of Congress did not agree with the president, they did not want to vote to weaken the office. The vote to convict was one vote short. The impeachment did, however, further weaken Johnson.
Event 8:Sharecropping Most former slaves struggled to build new lives. They wanted land to farm, but had no money. At the same time, planters no longer had labor to work their fields. This led to the system of sharecropping. Former plantation owners rented small plots of land to freedmen. Freedmen paid for the lots in cash or crops. At first it looked like it would lead to independence, but instead it led to debt and poverty – economic slavery.
Event 9:Fifteenth Amendment & New State Constitutions The Fifteenth Amendment was passed in 1869. This guaranteed a citizen’s right to vote, stating that the right could not be denied based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The new state constitutions guaranteed the right to vote, ended imprisonment for debt, and called for the establishment of public schools in the South.
Event 10: African AmericanOfficeholders With the right of African Americans guaranteed and protected in the South, many African Americans were elected to office. Blacks served in every southern legislature and held high offices in three states. Twenty-two African Americans represented their states in Congress. Their success gave many other African Americans hope for a positive future.
Event 11:White Terrorism When whites in the South saw they would not be able to legally limit the rights of African Americans, they resorted to violence and fear. Across the South, secret organizations formed to drive African Americans out of political life, to push out the Freedmen’s Bureau workers, and to place fear and submission in African Americans across the region. The most well formed group was the Ku Klux Klan who wore long white robes and terrorized their victims at night.
Exit Slip • What do you think would be the mindset of Northerners versus Southerners about Reconstruction? • What specific suggestions do you have for fixing the problems of Reconstruction?
