Reconstruction Notes
A. Laws and Legislation: Passed during the Reconstruction Period
1. Freedmen’s Bureau Acts (1865-1866)- offered assistance, such as
medical aid and education, to freed slaves and war refugees.
2. Civil Rights Act of 1866- Granted citizenship and equal protection
under the law to African Americans.
3. Fourteenth Amendment (1868) makes all people born or
naturalized in the US citizens
4. Reconstruction Act of 1867- Abolished governments formed in
the former Confederate states, made 5 military districts- rules set
for readmission to Union.
5. Fifteenth Amendment (1870)- states that no one (male) can be
kept from voting because of “race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.
6. Enforcement Act of 1870- Protection the voting rights of African
Americans and gave the federal government power to enforce 15th
Amendment.
B. Civil Rights Setbacks in the Supreme Court
1. Slaughterhouse cases (1873)- Most civil rights were ruled by the
state, rather than the federal, rights are therefore unprotected by
the 14th Amendment
2. US v Cruikshank (1876) The 14th Amendment was ruled not to
grant the federal government power to punish whites who
oppressed blacks.
3. US v Reese (1876)- The 15th Amendment was determined not to
grant voting rights to anyone, but rather to restrict types of voter
discrimination.
C. The Compromise of 1877- it ends Reconstruction
1. Samuel Tilden (Democrat) has more popular vote than Rutherford
B. Hayes but not enough Electoral votes to win.
2. The Republican controlled election commission chooses Hayes for
President (1st time ever popular vote does not win).
3. Democrats agree provided they get:
a. Withdrawal of federal troops from Louisiana and South Carolina
b. Federal money to build a railroad from Texas to West Coast,
and money for improvements to harbors, rivers and bridges.
c. Hayes had to appoint a Southern Conservative in his Cabinet
D. The South wins home rule, and pass laws that restrict rights of
African Americans, wipe out social programs, slash taxes, and dismantle
public schools.