Presentation Transcript

1. Reconstruction

   The American Civil War Why is it called a Civil War?
2. Georgia Performance Standards SS5H2 The student will analyze the effects of Reconstruction on American life. a. Describe the purpose of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. b. Explain the work of the Freedmen’s Bureau. c. Explain how slavery was replaced by sharecropping and how African-Americans were prevented from exercising their newly won rights; include a discussion of Jim Crow laws and customs.
3. Reconstruction After the war, what did President Lincoln want to do? REBUILD!!! Why? Wanted the Union to be strong and include the states that had seceded What happened soon after Robert E. Lee (Confederacy/South) surrendered? Lincoln was assassinated Andrew Johnson became President after Lincoln died.
4. Andrew Johnson Like Lincoln, Andrew Johnson wanted to make it easy for the South to rejoin the Union. Do you think everyone agreed? Why or why not? Discuss this with a neighbor. Group of Congressmen known as the Radical Republicans wanted to force the South to accept strict conditions. Also wanted to protect the rights of newly freed African Americans in the southern states. The process of rebuilding the South after the Civil War was known as Reconstruction.
5. Reconstructing the South: Go to http://www.lexrich5.org/webpages/pmoses/socialstudies.cfm?subpage=28034 for video.
6. Key Constitutional Amendments These are also known as the Slavery Amendments or the Reconstruction Amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th ) 1865- Congress and the states ratified the 13th Amendment – What does ratify mean? 13th Amendment made slavery illegal throughout the United States Radical Republicans (in North) won control of reconstruction and passed two other key amendments. 14th Amendment -African Americans are now citizens The 15th Amendment guaranteed African American men the right to vote (women still could not vote, no matter their race.)
7. Key Constitutional Amendments The Radical Republicans forced southern states to ratify these amendments They also placed military rule over southern states until they complied with all the conditions of reconstruction. Key vocabulary: Radical Complied Ratify reconstruction How do you think the southerners felt about this?
8. The Amendments
9. Thirteenth Amendment “M” for Martin Luther King, Jr.- He stands for freedom Made slavery illegal throughout the United States.
10. Fourteenth Amendment “N” for nation: this amendment made African Americans citizens. You are a citizen of the nation you live in.
11. Fifteenth Amendment “O” is for overalls; men wear overalls. This amendment guaranteed African American men the right to vote.
12. Freedmen’s Bureau Many Southern states put laws in place that limited the rights of African Americans. Why??? They are supposed to be free! Do they sound free to you? Many African Americans left the Southern plantations where they had worked, but most of them no longer had a way to earn money. Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau to help poor whites and newly freed slaves.
13. Freedmen’s Bureau If you worked for the Freedmen’s Bureau, what things would you do to help them? Discuss with a neighbor. Set up schools, gave out medical care, and gave food and clothing Provided shelter in refugee camps Bureau also helped reunite formerly enslaved families that had been separated Before the war, it was illegal to teach slaves Most African Americans in the South could not read or write. Freedmen’s Bureau established schools in the south and put teachers who were from the North into the schools Why weren’t many of the teachers from the south?
14. Freedmen’s Bureau African Americans crowded schools for the opportunity to learn. Do you think most of the southern white people finally decided to help? They often tried to close the schools by using violence The Freedmen’s Bureau created a new economy based on employers and employees, or on free labor. African Americans could leave a job if they did not like it. How is this different from slavery? It created contracts, which are written, legal agreements between two parties. Former slaves now got paid to work. How do you think this affected the economy?
15. Freedmen’s Bureau How successful was The Freedmen’s Bureau? Unfortunately, it did not have enough support. Ended in 1869 HOWEVER, during its brief time, it helped many freed African Americans throughout the South. Look at the next slide for an example of PROPAGANDA. What is propaganda?
16. Which side does this propaganda support?
17. Freedmen’s Bureau
18. Black Codes Although slavery was over, most white southerners were not ready to accept African Americans as equals. Freedmen did not own land or have much money. White landowners took advantage of freedmen’s poverty to keep them serving whites. Before the Radical Republicans gained control of reconstruction, many southern states passed harsh laws called Black Codes.
19. Black Codes and Sharecropping The Black Codes limited the rights of former slaves to travel, vote, and work in certain jobs. They also allowed whites to arrest African Americans who were not working. Once arrested, these African Americans could be forced to work for white landowners. Black Codes kept African Americans living like slaves by keeping them on the plantations. These codes were later outlawed under Radical Reconstruction.
20. Black Codes
21. Sharecropping Another system that oppressed blacks was sharecropping. Freed slaves could own land after the war. Most African Americans knew how to farm but could not afford to by land. Plantation owners had a lot of land but not the money to pay people to work on it. This situation led to a system of farming known as sharecropping.
22. Sharecropping African Americans sharecroppers farmed land owned by white landowners. In exchange, they were given a place to live and part of the crop. He also lent him or her seeds, farm equipment, and other tools needed in farming. When the crop was harvested and sold, the landowner gave a part of the profit to the sharecropper. (Profit is the return on a business undertaking after expenses have been met.)
23. Sharecropping Dishonest landlords often cheated them and treated them like slaves. The owner took money out of the sharecropper’s money to repay the loan of seed, shelter, and farm equipment. Often the sharecropper had little to no money left over. Unable to pay their debts, sharecroppers remained forced to provide labor for white landowners. Over time, some freedmen were able to buy their own land. Most, however, could not.
24. Sharecropping
25. Jim Crow Laws The presidential election of 1876 resulted in a political compromise known as the Compromise of 1877. Democrats agreed to allow the Republican, Rutherford Hayes, to become president. In exchange, the Republicans agreed to end reconstruction. This allowed southern states to have more self-rule. Southern states soon passed Jim Crow Laws.
26. Jim Crow Laws The name Jim Crow came from a character who was an African American singer and dancer, and not a real person. The Jim Crow laws segregated, or separated, the lives of African American and white people. They could not go to the same schools or be in public together. They had separate drinking fountains, telephone booths, restrooms, hospitals, hotels, and parks.
27. Jim Crow Laws Since the Constitution guaranteed African Americans the right to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment, southern lawmakers thought of creative ways to disenfranchise blacks. ( Disenfranchise means to keep from voting.) They established poll taxes. Poll taxes required people to pay to vote. Since most African American were poor, many of them could not afford to pay the tax.
28. Jim Crow Laws Some southern states also used literacy test. Voters had to prove they could read and write. African Americans were often uneducated and had a hard time passing these tests. In South Carolina, one law said that African Americans could only work on farms or as servants. African Americans had to buy a special license if they wanted to do something else. Judges would make the cost of the license more that an African American person could afford.
29. Jim Crow Laws Finally, southern states often passed grandfather clauses. Grandfather clauses stated that men whose ancestors had voted before or served in the Confederate military could vote without having to pass a literacy test or pay a poll tax. Since it was usually only whites who met these conditions, grandfather clauses allowed poor, illiterate whites to vote while still keeping most blacks from voting. African Americans who tried to vote or challenged these laws often became victims of violence.
30. Jim Crow Laws