Rebuilding the Union (pp. 517-521)
Define Reconstruction.
The process the U.S. government used to readmit the Confederate states to the Union after the Civil War.
What were the two Reconstruction goals of the congressmen known as Radical Republicans?
1.
2.
Use federal power to create a new order in the South
Promote full citizenship for freed African-Americans
What was the purpose of Lincoln’s Freedmen’s Bureau?
1.
2.
Set up schools and hospitals
Distribute clothes, food, and fuel
For African Americans
What were the “black codes”? Give at least two examples.
*laws which limited the freedom of former slaves
1. African-Americans had to carry proof of employment, or were put to work on a plantation
2. African-Americans cannot meet in unsupervised groups or carry a gun
What were southerners accused of by passing the “black codes”?
Trying to bring back the “old South”
What do the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment have in common? Who supported these
acts – President Johnson or the Radical Republicans?
Both laws gave citizenship to African-Americans who were born in America.
They were supported by the Radical Republicans.
Under the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, how could southern states be readmitted into the Union?
1.
2.
Approve new state constitutions that gave the vote to ALL adult men
Ratify the 14th Amendment
Who is Hiram Revels?
He was one of the first African-American U.S. Senators.
What did the Radical Republicans hope to gain by impeaching President Johnson?
Strengthen Congress’s role in Reconstruction.
Reconstruction and Daily Life (pp. 524-528)
List three ways freed slaves responded to their freedom.
1.
2.
3.
Leave plantations
Went looking for more economic opportunity
Traveled in search of family members
Describe two ways freemen’s schools benefitted freed slaves.
1.
2.
Children learned how to read and write
Children taught their parents how to read at home
How was the contract system different from slavery?
African Americans could decide whom to work for, and planters could not abuse them or split up families.
They also were paid for their labor.
Describe the two main problems with the sharecropping system.
Farmers were not allowed to grow food for their families, they had to grow cash crops for the landlord.
Most farmers did not have the money to pay for goods and were caught in a cycle of debt to the landlord.
What are two ways that some white southerners kept many freed slaves from prospering?
1.
2.
Ku Klux Klan beat African Americans
KKK burned homes and lynched African Americans
End of Reconstruction (pp. 529-533)
What are two ways in which President Grant helped African Americans in the early 1870s?
1.
2.
15th Amendment – votes for ALL adult males
Passed the Anti-Klan bill in 1871
What caused support for Republican reconstruction to weaken?
1.
2.
3.
Scandal
The financial Panic of 1873 which caused an economic depression.
Political corruption
How did Supreme Court rulings in the 1870s affect African Americans’ efforts to gain civil rights?
The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could not punish individuals who violated the civil rights of
African Americans. The SC stated that the 15th Amendment did not give everyone the right to vote.
Describe how Reconstruction both hurt and helped African Americans.
African Americans could vote and hold public office., but they continued to face widespread violence and
prejudice.