Reconstruction Era 1865-187716.1

How do you rebuild a nation....?

Title your paper: Reconstruction: Key QuestionsItem #1

Vocabulary Basics:✤ Construct - to build

something

✤ Reconstruct - to build something after it has been destroyed

✤ Reconstruction - was the process of reuniting the nation and rebuilding the southern states without slavery.

✤ Reconstruction Era = 1865-1877

(regarding American history...)

What needed reconstruction?

✤ Cities, towns and farms = ruined

✤ Crop failures and high priced food = starvation

✤ Confederate economy = in ruins

✤ Millions of freed slaves unsure where to go and what to do.

Key QuestionsKey Questions

1. How do we1. How do webring the Southbring the Southback into the back into the

Union?Union?

1. How do we1. How do webring the Southbring the Southback into the back into the

Union?Union?

2. How do we 2. How do we rebuild the rebuild the

South after itsSouth after itsdestruction destruction

during the war?during the war?

2. How do we 2. How do we rebuild the rebuild the

South after itsSouth after itsdestruction destruction

during the war?during the war?

3. How do we3. How do weintegrate andintegrate andprotect newly-protect newly-emancipatedemancipated

black freedmen?black freedmen?

3. How do we3. How do weintegrate andintegrate andprotect newly-protect newly-emancipatedemancipated

black freedmen?black freedmen?

4. What branch4. What branchof governmentof governmentshould controlshould controlthe process ofthe process of

Reconstruction?Reconstruction?

4. What branch4. What branchof governmentof governmentshould controlshould controlthe process ofthe process of

Reconstruction?Reconstruction?

Next lesson: Items #2 and #3Next lesson: Items #2 and #3

• #2 (worksheet activity) “Report Cards” on #2 (worksheet activity) “Report Cards” on Reconstruction PlansReconstruction Plans

• #3 (homework worksheet) “My A+ Plan” #3 (homework worksheet) “My A+ Plan” for Reconstructionfor Reconstruction

Item #4: 16.1 Item #4: 16.1 Rebuilding the South Rebuilding the South

• Cornell-style notesCornell-style notes

The Ten- Percent Plan

✤ Through it, Lincoln offered southerners amnesty (official forgiveness or pardoning) for all illegal acts and rebelling.

✤ To receive amnesty, southerners had to...

✤ 1. Swear an oath of loyalty to the U.S.

✤ 2. Agree that slavery was illegal

✤ Once 10 % of voters in a state did pledge these two things, they could form a new state gov. and join the Union again.

10 %...

Wait Abe! Not so fast!

You are being too

easy on the South!

Henry DavisBenjamin Wade

Wade-Davis Bill

✤ Congressmen Wade and Davis propose another plan to reconstruct the South. FYI it will be vetoed by Lincoln. (duh, he likes his plan better!)

✤ 1. The state had to ban slavery

✤ 2. The majority of southern males in the state had to take an oath of loyalty

What were the differences?

10 % Plan vs. Wade Davis Bill

Wade-Davis Bill continued...

✤Lincoln refused to sign the bill because he thought that few southern states would agree to meet its requirements. He believed that his plan would help restore order more quickly.

African Americans are freed...

✤ December 1865- 13th Amendment passes and makes slavery illegal all throughout the U.S.

✤ couples get married

✤ families search for lost relatives

✤ free traveling

✤ people take new last names

✤ demanding equal rights

“Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot [vote].” –Frederick Douglass

Freedman’s Bureau Est. March 1865

✤ It was an organization established by Congress that provided relief for not only freedpeople of the South, but white refugees as well. A part of the army.

✤ It established schools and increased efforts to educate free slaves (children and adults)

✤ Provided food, supplies, and medical services to the poor

✤ Set up hospitals

✤ Arranged work opportunities (jobs) and transportation

Freedmen’s Bureau Seen Through Southern Eyes

Freedmen’s Bureau Seen Through Southern Eyes

Plenty to eat and

nothing to do.

Freedmen’s Bureau School

Freedmen’s Bureau School

• Date: April 15, 1865

Lincoln’s Assassination• Ford’s Theater, Washington D.C

• Five days after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, Lincoln and

his wife attend a play

Date

• John Wilkes Booth, a Southerner who opposed Lincoln’s policies, sneaks into the theater box and shoots Lincoln.

• Lincoln dies the following day.

Somebody else must lead the nation...

Video clip: Lincoln’s Assassination

From The Civl War by Ken Burns

President #17: Andrew Johnson

✤ Vice president sworn in as new president (1865)

✤ former slave holder

✤ stubborn

Johnson’s reconstruction plan

✤ Similar plan to Lincoln’s, but declares that former Confederate leaders needed a presidential pardon to receive amnesty

✤ He pardons 7,000 people by 1866, upsetting radical republicans

Johnson’s plan continued...

✤ Temporary governor given to each state

✤ States had to revise their constitutions

✤ Voters elect state and fed representatives

✤ State govs had to declare secession was illegal

✤ had to ratify the 13th amendment

By the end of 1865...

✤ All southern states except Texas had created new governments.

✤ Congress refuses to readmit the southern states into the Union because many of their new leaders were their old enemies - the leaders of the Confederacy.

✤ The nation remains divided