SSUSH10 The student will identify legal, political, and social dimensions
of Reconstruction.
a. Compare and contrast Presidential Reconstruction with Radical
Republican Reconstruction.
b. Explain efforts to redistribute land in the South among the former
slaves and provide advanced education (Morehouse College) and
describe the role of the Freedmen’s Bureau.
c. Describe the significance of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments.
d. Explain Black Codes, the Ku Klux Klan, and other forms of resistance to
racial equality during Reconstruction.
e. Explain the impeachment of Andrew Johnson in relationship to
Reconstruction.
f. Analyze how the presidential election of 1876 and the subsequent
compromise of 1877 marked the end of Reconstruction
.
• a. Compare and contrast Presidential
Reconstruction with Radical Republican
Reconstruction.
Presidential Reconstruction
• Andrew Johnson takes over after death of
Lincoln just five days after the surrender at
Appomattox Courthouse in April 1865.
• Johnson comes up with his own plan called
“Presidential Reconstruction.”
• Johnson was sympathetic towards the South
and true to the Union.
4 Stages
• 1- Southerners who swore allegiance to the
Union were pardoned
• 2- Former Confederate states could set up
constitutional conventions to set up state
governments.
• 3- States had to void secession and ratify the 13th
amendment.
• 4- Once the 13th amendment was ratified, states
could hold elections and be part of the Union.
Radical Reconstruction
• Radical Republicans thought that Johnson was
being too easy on the South and demanded
stricter guidelines.
• They also believed that Congress, not the
President should oversee the Reconstruction.
6 Stages
• 1- The Southern states were put under military rule.
• 2- Southern states had to hold new constitutional
conventions.
• 3- African Americans were allowed to vote
• 4- Southerners who had supported the Confederacy
were not allowed to vote(temporarily)
• 5- Southern states had to guarantee equal rights to
African Americans.
• 6- Southern states had to ratify the 14th amendment.
• b. Explain efforts to redistribute land in the
South among the former slaves and provide
advanced education (Morehouse College) and
describe the role of the Freedmen’s Bureau.
New way of life..
• Though free, former slaves did not have any land
or money.
• Their solution was to turn to sharecropping- this
was when former slaves would work a piece of
land for a white landowning family and in return
they got housing and a share of the crop.
• Another solution was tenant farming- The former
slaves paid rent to farm the land and owned the
crops they grew.
Freedmen’s Bureau
• FIRST federal relief agency in U.S. history.
• The Bureau provided clothes, medical
attention, food, education and land to African
Americans coming out of slavery.
• Problem: The Bureau started in 1865 and
ended in 1869 due to lack of funding.
• c. Describe the significance of the 13th, 14th,
and 15th amendments.
13th Amendment
• Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for crime
whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United States,
or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
• Significance: Officially abolishes slavery.
14th Amendment
• Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the
United States, and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the United States and of
the State wherein they reside. No State shall
make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or 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.
• Significance: Gave equal rights to all citizens.
15th Amendment
• Section 1. The right of citizens of the United
States to vote shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or by any State on
account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.
• Significance: Right to vote by all citizens.
• Did African Americans get the right to vote as
well?