1. Reconstruction
Goal 3 Final PowerPoint

2. Reconstruction Focus Questions
What group made up the majority of Southern Republicans?
Name five (5) ways the lives of Southern African Americans changed during reconstruction.
What is meant by the phrase “40 acres and a mule”?
What were the goals of the KKK?
What were the failures of Reconstruction?
What were the successes of Reconstruction?

3. Important Vocabulary for Reconstruction
Thirteenth Amendment
Andrew Johnson
Reconstruction
Radical Republicans
Freedman’s Bureau
Black codes
Fourteenth Amendment
Fifteenth Amendment
Scalawags
Carpetbaggers
Hiram Revels
Sharecropping
Tenant Farming
Ku Klux Klan
Redemption
Rutherford B. Hayes
Compromise of 1877

4. Lincoln’s Assassination
Five days after the Civil War ended, Lincoln was assassinated while watching a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC.
His assassin was John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Southern sympathizer.
Booth escaped and was found days later in a barn.
Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated.
Vice President Andrew Johnson became President.

5. Reconstruction
Reconstruction was the time period after the Civil War in which the nation was rebuilt, especially the South
The South was physically, economically, and politically destroyed.
What would all of these freed slaves do?

6. Radical Republicans
During Reconstruction, a group called the Radical Republicans controlled Congress. Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner led this group.
They wanted to destroy the power of former slaveholders.
They wanted African Americans to have full citizenship, including suffrage (the right to vote).

7. 13th Amendment Outlawed slavery in America
Many former slaves were reunited with their families.
Many became sharecroppers or tenant farmers.
Sharecroppers: farmers who worked someone else’s land & gave at least ½ of the profit to the landowner at harvest time .
People in the North called sharecropping the “continuation of slavery”.
Tenant Farmers: Rented the land and kept the profit from the harvest.

8. Reconstruction Plans Describe the Plan Reconstruction Plan
Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan
Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
Reconstruction Act of 1867 (Congressional Reconstruction)

9. How to implement Reconstruction?
Different groups had different ideas on how to rebuild.
Was the Executive Branch or the Legislative Branch in charge of Reconstruction?

10. Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan
Reconstruction Plan
Describe the Plan
Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan
The government would pardon all confederates who swore allegiance to the Union, except high ranking officials
After 10% of those who voted in 1860 took the oath & wrote a Constitution, they could form a new state government and gain representation in Congress

11. Johnson’s Plan (Presidential Reconstruction)
Reconstruction Plan
Describe the Plan
Johnson’s Plan
(Presidential Reconstruction)
Each confederate state could be readmitted to the Union if it would meet several conditions
Each would have to withdraw its secession, swear allegiance to the Union, annul Confederate war debts, and ratify the 13th Amendment.

12. Reconstruction Act of 1867 (Congressional Reconstruction)
Reconstruction Plan
Describe the Plan
Reconstruction Act of 1867 (Congressional Reconstruction)
Divided the confederate states into 5 military districts, each headed by a Union general.
The voters in the districts (including blacks) would elect delegates to conventions in which new state constitutions would be drafted
In order to reenter the Union, state constitutions had to ensure that black men could vote & the state had to ratify the 14th Amendment

14. Freedmen’s Bureau
During Reconstruction, Congress approved the passage of the Freedmen’s Bureau.
It assisted former slaves and poor Southern whites by distributing food and clothes, and establishing hospitals, teacher training programs, schools, and industrial institutions.

15. Carpetbaggers
Carpetbaggers were Northerners who came to the South during Reconstruction to take advantage of the turmoil in the South
Many came for humanitarian reasons, like to be teachers or work for the Freedmen’s Bureau
Some came to start businesses and take advantage of Southern poverty

16. Scalawags
Scalawags were Southerners who became members of the Republican party
Southerners were Democrats during the Civil War
To become a member of the Republican party meant you were a traitor

17. Important Reconstruction Legislation
Civil Rights Act of gave African Americans citizenship and forbade states from passing discriminatory laws (called black codes)
14th Amendment- made all people born or naturalized in the U.S. citizens. Also gave citizens equal protection under the law
15th Amendment- no one could be denied the right to vote because of race, color or previous condition of servitude

18. Conflict between the President and Congress
With the passage of the Reconstruction Act of 1867, Congress was in charge of implementing Reconstruction.
Andrew Johnson did not agree that Congress should be in charge.
Johnson fired the Secretary of War, who was a Radical Republican.
This violated the Tenure in Office Act, which limited the power of the President to hire & fire government officials. (Loophole: Lincoln had appointed the Sec. of War).

19. Johnson Impeached
Led by Radical Republican, Thaddeus Steven, Congress voted to impeach Johnson.
He was found not guilt by one vote.
Johnson did not run for re-election.

20. Ulysses S. Grant becomes President
Former Union General, Ulysses S. Grant, was elected President of the United States.
He was a good general, but not a good politician.
His administration was plagued with corruption.

21. Democrats Come to Power
With the efforts of the KKK, the Democrats came to power again in the South.
This time period is known as “redemption”.
Democrats controlled the state governments in the South .
They also gained power in Congress.

22. Compromise of 1877
The Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction.
In the election of 1876, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was elected President by one electoral vote.
Instead of the Democrats making a big issue out of the election results, they made a deal with the Republicans.
The Democrats would allow Hayes to stay President, if the Republicans would pull the military out of the South.

23. Rutherford B. Hayes

24. What group made up the majority of Southern Republicans?
African American men who could vote for the first time

25. Name five (5) ways the lives of Southern African Americans changed during reconstruction.
Searched for loved ones
Went to school
Able to hold paying jobs
Established churches
Could travel freely
They could run for political office & vote

26. Hiram Revels, 1st African American Senator

27. What is meant by the phrase “40 acres and a mule”?
General Sherman promised freed slaves who followed his army 40 acres per family and use of an army mule
Some actually received this as payment
Today, this has come to imply that African Americans deserve payment (reparations) for the work their ancestors did for this country as slaves

28. What were the goals of the KKK?
To restore white supremacy
To prohibit African Americans from exercising their rights as citizens *
To terrorize those who wanted progress for African Americans

29. What were the failures of Reconstruction?
Discrimination and racist attitudes still existed
Jim Crow laws established (segregation laws; laws that separated the races)
Examples: literacy tests, poll taxes, Grandfather clause

30. What were the successes of Reconstruction?
The 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments gave rights to African Americans
African Americans established churches, schools, and civic organizations

31. Thanks to Ms. Shannon Brayboy for allowing the use of her slides in this PowerPoint.