The Basics of Reconstruction

1. The Basics of Reconstruction United States after the Civil War

2. Journal***Quiet for the music*** • What is “Reconstruction”? How did Lincoln make readmission to the Union Easy? Why didn’t Lincoln get to finish his plan?

3. Rewind Review • Civil War ended • Emancipation of slaves • Broke & decimated south • Huge life loss on both sides Abraham Lincoln (4:46)

4. Lincoln Assassinated • On April 14, 1865, five days after the war ended Lincoln was assassinated while attending a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C. • John Wilkes Booth thought that killing Lincoln would save the confederacy.

5. Fords Theater

6. John Wilkes Booth • Gun that shot Lincoln

7. Reconstruction • The time period after the Civil War is known as Reconstruction. • After the war the south needed to be rebuilt due to total war. • ***Worksheet***

8. Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan • In order for a Confederate state to rejoin the Union they had to do the following: • Write a new state Constitution • Elect a new state government • Repeal the act of secession • Cancel all war debts against the Union • Ratify the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery.

9. Freedmen’s Bureau • A group that provided food & medical care to blacks & whites living in the south. • The bureau was necessary b/c after the war most slaves had no means to make a living.

10. The Black Codes • The black codes served three purposes. • 1-To limit the rights of freedmen. • After the war former slaves were given the right to marry, own property, work for wages, & sue in court. • However they could not vote or serve on juries in the South.

11. The Black Codes • 2-To help planters find workers to replace their slaves. • These codes required freedmen to work. • If they did not have jobs they were arrested and hired out to planters.

12. The Black Codes • 3-To keep freedmen at the bottom of the social order in the South. • Segregation in public places

14. Civil Rights Act of 1866 • This act struck back at the Black Codes by declaring all freedmen to be full citizens with the same rights as whites. • To ensure this act was followed Congress passed the 14th Amendment, which declared former slaves to be citizens with full civil rights • “No state, shall…deny to any person…the equal protection of the laws.”

15. 15th Amendment • This amendment stated that a citizen’s right to vote “shall not be denied…on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” • Its purpose was to protect the right of African American men to vote.

16. The Right to Vote? • Southern states passed laws requiring citizens who wanted to vote to pay a poll tax. • The tax was set high enough so that many African American living in the south could not afford to pay.

17. The Right to Vote? • Other Southern states required citizens to pass literacy test to show they could read before they could vote. • These test were set up to fail any African America, regardless of his education.

18. The Right to Vote? • Both of these laws applied to blacks and whites living in the south. • However, whites were excused for paying the poll tax or taking literacy tests due to the “grandfather clause.” • The clause stated taxes & tests did not apply to any man whose father or grandfather could vote on January 1, 1867. • Since no African Americans could vote on that date, the clause only applied to whites.

19. Jim Crow Laws • Laws enforcing segregation in public places in the south after the civil war.