Chapter 16 Reading Guide – Reconstruction
NAT-2.0: Explain how interpretations of the Constitution and debates over rights, liberties, and definitions of
citizenship have affected American values, politics, and society.
POL-3.0: Explain how different beliefs about the federal government’s role in U.S. social and economic life have
affected political debates and policies.
WXT-1.0: Explain how different labor systems developed in North America and the United States, and explain their
effects on workers’ lives and U.S. society.
CUL-3.0: Explain how ideas about women’s rights and gender roles have affected society and politics
I.
Reconstruction and the Civil War ended slavery, altered relationships between the states and the
federal government, and led to debates over new definitions of citizenship, particularly regarding the
rights of African Americans, women, and other minorities.
A. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, while the 14th and 15th amendments granted African
Americans citizenship, equal protection under the laws, and voting rights.
B. The women’s rights movement was both emboldened and divided over the 14th and 15th
amendments to the Constitution.
C. Efforts by radical and moderate Republicans to change the balance of power between Congress
and the presidency and to reorder race relations in the defeated South yielded some short-term
successes. Reconstruction opened up political opportunities and other leadership roles to former
slaves, but it ultimately failed, due both to determined Southern resistance and the North’s
waning resolve.
D. Southern plantation owners continued to own the majority of the region’s land even after
Reconstruction. Former slaves sought land ownership but generally fell short of self-sufficiency,
as an exploitative and soil-intensive sharecropping system limited blacks’ and poor whites’
access to land in the South.
E. Segregation, violence, Supreme Court decisions, and local political tactics progressively stripped
away African American rights, but the 14th and 15th amendments eventually became the basis
for court decisions upholding civil rights in the 20th century.
BIG QUESTION: Was Reconstruction a failure or a success? Why?
Key Terms - 16.1
Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan (10 % Plan)
Wade-Davis Bill
Johnson’s plan
13th , 14th, and 15th Amendments
Black Codes
Freedmen’s Bureau
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Congressional elections of 1866
“Waving the bloody shirt”
Radical Republicans
Thaddeus Stevens & Charles Sumner
Reconstruction Act of 1867
Tenure of Office Act
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Election of 1868 & President Grant
Hiram Revels
Carpetbaggers & Scalawags
Ku Klux Klan
Enforcement Acts
16.2
Sharecropping/crop lien system/tenant farming
Black codes
White league/Redeemers
Whiskey Ring/Credit Mobilier
Panic of 1873
Civil Rights Act of 1875
Civil Rights Cases (1883)
Election of 1876
Rutherford B. Hayes/Samuel Tilden
Compromise of 1877
Liberal Republicans
Home rule
Amnesty Act of 1872
“40 acres and a mule”
Exodusters
16.1 – to page 492
1. What were the differences among the various plans for Reconstruction? What did they have in common?
What were the strengths and weaknesses of each plan? (see the organizer)
2. What were the motives of the Radical Republicans in choosing harsh political, social, and military
Reconstruction measures in the South?
3. Why did the Radical Republicans try to impeach Andrew Johnson and why did they fail?
4. What does this era say about the power struggles between the president and Congress?
5. What were the short-run and long-term impacts of the Civil War Amendments?
6. What was the relationship between the 15th Amendment and woman suffrage?
7. What was the plight of the freedmen in the South? How did they fare economically?
8. What were the major accomplishments of Republican Reconstruction?
9. Why did the KKK arise and how did its activities change over the course of Reconstruction?
16.2
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
How did blacks in the South fare during Congressional Reconstruction?
Compare and contrast sharecropping and slavery.
What were the political repercussions of Reconstructions for both the Democrats and Republicans?
What happened during Grant’s presidency?
What were the political scandals of his administration? What was the political impact of the scandals of the
period?
15. What happened during the Election of 1876?
16. Why did Reconstruction end? What were the short-term and long-term consequences of its end?
17. Was Reconstruction a total failure?