TheReconstruction

Era1865 - 1877

Freedmen in the South Carolina Sea Islands

http://web.gc.cuny.edu/ashp/toer/looking.html

13th Amendment

While Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation officially freed the slaves in the South this amendment officially ended Slavery in the United States.

Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan• -Reunite Union quickly• -Southern state could form

a new government after 10 % of its voters swore loyalty to U.S.-States also had to abolish

slavery• -Many in Congress didn’t

like Lincoln’s plan & wanted a stricter form of Reconstruction

• Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865

• Andrew Johnson became President

http://www.archives.gov/research/civil-war/photos/images/civil-war-202.jpghttp://www.archives.gov/research/civil-war/photos/images/civil-war-198.jpgJohn Wilkes Booth

Reconstruction Plan of Andrew Johnson• In each southern state,

a majority of voters must swear loyalty to the U.S.

• Each state must approve the 13th Amendment

• Then each state could rejoin the Union

Andrew Johnson, Vice President & President

Radical Reconstruction• Radical Republicans in

Congress decide to take over Reconstruction– They wanted to break the

power of the southern planters and to make sure African Americans had the right to vote.

Radical Reconstruction (continued)

• 14th Amendment, 1868 – All people born in the U.S. are citizens. No state may take away rights of citizens.

• 15th Amendment, 1870 – The right to vote cannot be denied to citizens because of their race or color or because they were once enslaved.

• Radical Republicans eventually impeach Johnson.

Freedmen’s BureauThe Freedmen’s Bureau was

created to help former slaves with

becoming educated.finding employment.Housing, food, and clothing.

Election of 1876

Rutherford B. Hayes became president in 1877, in part by making a secret agreement with politician in the South to end Reconstruction if they helped him get elected

Changes in the South • Southern Republicans (scalawags), whites from the

North (carpetbaggers), & freed African Americans played important roles in southern governments.

• Landless black and white sharecroppers became locked in a cycle of poverty.– Sharecroppers: person who farms land owned by another

in exchange for a share of the crops

Writing Prompts

• In your own words, what was the Reconstruction Era? What was being “reconstructed?”

• What were the different plans? •What where the problems that the country was facing?

•How did reconstruction change the country?