1. To Reconstruct a Nation

2. Reconstruction The entire nation felt the effects of the Civil War
Towns, factories, farm fields, and railroads lay in ruins, especially across the South.
With slavery ending, and the wealth many plantation owners had enjoyed gone, society had been forever changed.
The entire nation needed to be remade, or reconstructed, in the wake of the war’s changes.

3. Some Lose, Others Gain
Most Americans were relieved the fighting was finally over, but they mourned the loss of so many lives.
In the South, returning soldiers were shocked to see what was left of their land, their homes, and sometimes their families.
In 1865, the nation ratified the 13th amendment, which outlawed slavery in every state.
More than 275,000 black people in TN celebrated their freedom, calling the day they found out “Day of Jubilee.”
An amendment is a change or addition to a law or other important piece of writing.

4. Adjusting to a New Life What is this picture’s theme (message)?
This picture shows a man representing the Freedman’s Bureau. He is keeping the peace between black and white southerners. Why do you think the artist decided to put an American flag directly behind the man?
When the war ended, most former slaves left the plantations where they had lived all their lives. They quickly learned that freedom would not be easy. They faced many challenges as they struggled to provide for their families.

5. The Freedmen’s Bureau
The Freedmen’s Bureau is the name of the agency that was created to help former slaves.
The official name was the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.
The mission was to help former slaves and other victims of the Civil War to start or rebuild a life for themselves and to help protect the newly won rights of freedpeople.

6. Sharecropping
Sharecropping- where a farmer agrees to work land owned by someone else, and grow crops the landowner wants to grow. At harvest time, the landowner then gives a share of the crop to the sharecropper. Sharecroppers then sell their portion of the crop for whatever price they can get.
It became another way to “control” former slaves – it did not pay well, and many sharecroppers went into debt.
The sharecroppers would have to trade their share of the crop for things they needed, but their share was never enough. They still had to borrow money to buy many of the things they needed, which caused them to fall into an endless cycle of debt.

7. “I was in debt, and the man I rented land from said every year I must rent again to pay the other year, and so I rents and rents and each year I gets deeper and deeper in debt.” -John Solomon Lewis, a Louisiana sharecropper

8. Presidential Reconstruction
Lincoln’s plan:
Allow southern states back into the Union without too much anger on either side
Remake the country so the war would never happen again
But then…..

9. Lincoln is Killed
President Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. while watching a play with his wife.
John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in the head.
Booth then leapt from the balcony to the stage, broke his leg, but still managed to escape.
He was later found and killed.

10. A Tennessean in the White House
A few hours after President Lincoln was killed, Vice President Andrew Johnson was sworn in as President.
He had a very difficult task before him as America mourned its great leader.
He was a Tennessean and a Democrat
At first, President Johnson wanted to punish the Confederate leaders.

11. Presidential Reconstruction
He soon changed his mind and suggested the Confederate states be returned to the Union as soon as they ratified the 13th amendment.
Confederate leaders would have to personally seek a presidential pardon from him for their actions during the war.
Most Republicans thought this plan was too easy on former Confederates and did not honor the sacrifice and death of the war that had just been fought.
The Republicans also realized that if unprotected, the rights of the freedpeople would quickly be taken away by former slave owners.

12. Congress Takes Control
Congress attempted to take control over Reconstruction, and passed laws making things tougher on southern states.
Andrew Johnson often vetoed, or rejected these laws.
Congressional Reconstruction started when Republicans won a majority of seats in Congress. The Republicans were now able to override Johnson’s vetoes.

13. The Reconstruction Amendments
After Congress took over Reconstruction, it said former Confederate states could only be readmitted into the Union if they passed the 13th and 14th amendments.
13th- abolished slavery in the U.S.
14th- gave African Americans full rights as American citizens

14. Tennessee is Readmitted
Tennessee became the first southern state to rejoin the Union.
TN Gov. William Brownlow wanted to return to the Union quickly.
Some states did not ratify the amendments
They instead passed laws known as black codes to limit the rights of freedpeople.
Congress grew concerned and sent in troops to take over states in the period known as Military Reconstruction.

15. The Vote for Black Men
TN also became the first state to give the right to vote to black men.
Two years later, Congress passed the 15th amendment, giving African American men in every state the right to vote.
Federal soldiers tried to make sure every black man had a chance to vote, and make sure former Confederates did not vote or hold political office.

16. What different jobs do these voting men appear to have?

17. Warning Signs on the Horizon
Many southerners had opposed the federal government’s policies during Reconstruction.
In 1866, many of them were frustrated and turned to violence.

18. The Ku Klux Klan is Founded
The goal of the club was to restore what they called “southern honor.”
Even though in public they said they did not want to engage in violence, but a violent attitude was present in the KKK from the beginning.
Over the next few years, their idea spread rapidly over the entire South, making Reconstruction the second most violent time in our nation’s history.
This is why many historians today refer to Reconstruction as the Second Civil War.