1. The American Civil War 1861-1865
A house divided against itself cannot stand … I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

2. General Ulysses S. Grant
North vs. South
The North
Abraham Lincoln
Union Army
General Ulysses S. Grant
Yankees
New ideas
Industrialization
Abolitionists
Urbanization
The South
Jefferson Davis
Confederates
General Robert E. Lee
Dixies
Old traditions, customs
Plantations
Pro-slavery
Rural

3. Outbreak of the War
• November 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the USA.
• December 1860, 11 states decided to leave the USA
• A new country was formed called the Confederate States of America (CSA), or the Confederacy.
• Jefferson Davis was chosen as the President for the Confederacy.

4. Outbreak of the War
• On January 1st 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which granted slaves their freedom. This brought to an end 250 years of slavery.
• 1863, the Union began to officially recruit black soldiers

5. Outbreak of the War
• Mixed units were unthinkable and blacks were made to serve in separate regiments
• The 1st all black regiment were the 54th Massachusetts Regiment

6. The 13th Amendment (1865)

7. The Freedmen’s Bureau
• March 1865, the Freedmen’s Bureau was established to help the newly freed slaves adjust to their freedom.

8. Reconstruction

11. Confederate Prison Camp

15. The Reconstruction Period
Reconstruction is the name given to the period of American history after the civil war.
It is also known as the “Tragic Era,” as blacks did not fully benefit from their freedom

16. The Reconstruction Period
14th Amendment was in 1866, which granted blacks equal civil rights
15th Amendment was in 1870, which granted blacks the right to vote

18. Voting Rights 3 ways that black Americans were stopped from voting:
Poll tax: A tax on every person that many poor blacks could not afford to pay.
Literacy Tests: People had to explain the meaning of a legal document in order to qualify to vote. Many blacks could not read and those who could almost always failed it because the tests that were given to them were more difficult
Grandfather Clause: If your grandfather was a slave, you lost the right to vote

19. Reconstruction State land in the South was opened up to black settlers
The Freedmen’s Bureau (1865) operated hospitals and schools for blacks.

20. Sharecropping
Many blacks did not want to work for wages because it kept them under the direction of whites and reminded them of slavery
A new agricultural system known as sharecropping emerged

21. Sharecropping
Plantation-owners broke up their estates into small parcels of land for sharecropping
In return for seed and equipment, the sharecropper would give the landowner a 1/3 or ½ of his crop
They could never raise enough cash to buy their own land and equipment, which trapped them into debt and poverty

27. Black Codes Southern rules Blacks could not own guns
They could only own property in the ‘black’ part of town (less desirable areas).
Not allowed to testify in court
They could be arrested for being rude to whites or for not having a job.

28. Black Convicts

29. Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow was a character in a 1828 song that was made popular by a white comedian, Thomas (Daddy) Rice
This song made fun of black people
The term Jim Crow was then used for a set of laws that were passed by the Southern States
The term Jim Crow was then used for a set of laws that were passed by the Southern States

30. Jim Crow
These laws discriminated against blacks and established segregation
Segregation meant that black people were kept separate from whites
Blacks were not allowed to use the same public facilities as whites and were treated as 2nd class citizens

35. Jim Crow Laws
Homer Plessey, a black man, challenged a Louisiana railroad company because they made him sit in a ‘coloured only’ carriage
The Supreme Court supported the railroad company and in 1896 declared the laws legal
This allowed the Southern States to make up more laws

36. Jim Crow Laws
Marriage between blacks and whites was illegal in some states
They were not allowed to use the same hotels, theatres and restaurants as whites
There were black only carriages on trains and they had to sit in the back of buses

37. Jim Crow Laws There was segregation in the armed forces
There were separate residential areas and schools
The American Red Cross kept black people’s blood segregated in blood banks until the 1940s.

46. 1940’s Louisiana Highly Rural except New Orleans (trade)
Under Jim Crow Laws until the 1960’s