Post Civil War America

Problems, Issues, and Interpretations

In what ways and to what extent did constitutional and social developments between the years 1860 and 1877 amount to a revolution? Use the documents and your knowledge of the period from 1860 to 1877 to answer the question.

DBQ

The Nature of Change What is change?

“to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone”

“Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change - this is the rhythm of living. Out of our over-confidence, fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope. And out of hope, progress.”

--Bruce Barton

Types of Change Change/Time

Revolutionary Dramatic Significant or

Substantial Moderate Insignificant Reactionary

Agents of Change

Person Deed Event War Law Group Government

Reconstruction: Constitutional Changes

Formal Changes: Amendments

13th amendment 14th amendment 15th amendment

Informal Changes:

• Laws• Policies• Executive Orders• Policies and

Practices

DBQ: Constitutional Changes

During the Civil War, Congress passed• Morrill Act of 1862• Homestead Act of

1862 • Conscription Act of

1862 • Pacific Railway Act of

1862• National Banking Act

of 1863 Executive Naval Order

No. 4: Emancipation Proclamation

“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever, free; and the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of any such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”

ReconstructionPRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION

Lincoln/Johnson• 10% plan• Accept 13th amendment• States form new

governments Tennessee, Louisiana,

and Arkansas complied

ReconstructionCONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION

Response to passage of the ”black codes”

Response to lenient approach to reconciliation by Presidents Lincoln and Johnson

Response to new Democratic state governments

Response to anti-black riot and violence

Response to the Rise of the Ku Klux Klan

Congressional Reconstruction Wade- Davis Bill Freedmen’s Bureau Civil Rights Bill of

1866 Military

Reconstruction Act Support of the

‘radical’ Republicans Southern governments

14th amendment Force (KKK) Acts

Thaddeus Stevens

Fourteenth Amendment (1868) “All persons born or naturalized in the

United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and States wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law, which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Fifteenth Amendment (1870)

“The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on the account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

Black Reconstruction: A Social Revolution?

Economic Opportunity• Own Land• Employment• Entrepreneurship

Education• Establish schools even

colleges• Enter professions

Establish own institutions: churches and families

Rights of AmericansA Freedmen’s School

Southern Resistance

In what ways did Southerners resist the Constitutional and social changes? Was this resistance effective?

5:303:30

Compromise of 1877DISPUTED ELECTION OF 1877 INFORMAL COMPROMISE

Tilden (Dem) and Hayes (Rep) 185 electoral votes needed to

win Hayes has 165; Tilden has

184 20 votes are in dispute from

South Carolina (7), Florida (4), Louisiana (8), and Oregon (1)

Bipartisan Commission established to settle election: 8 Republicans and 7 Democrats

Hayes declared winner Remove Federal troops

from the South Assist in the construction

of a Southern transcontinental railroad

Ignore the 14th amendment

Help South industrialize