And Reconstruction
1865 through 1877
A time for rebuilding the South and
reunifying the country.
Causes of the Civil War
 Popular sovereignty and new territories
 Dred Scott v. Sanford
 Compromise of 1850
 Election of 1860
 Slavery
 Secession
Compare and Contrast
 Northern States
 Southern States
 Economy and its
 Economy and its
resources
 Government and
leaders
 Military strategies and
generals
 Casualties
resources
 Government and
leaders
 Military strategies and
generals
 Casualties
Problems after the war:
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Unemployment
Starvation
Illiteracy
War torn communities
Homelessness
Hatred and resentment towards Blacks
State governments in the South
Punishment: southern whites
Economic breakdown in southern (agricultural)
states
What Would I Do?
 What laws would I change or add?
 What would I do with southern plantation
owners?
 What would I do with former Confederate
soldiers and other leaders?
 What would I do with former slaves?
 How could I improve the quality of life in
the South?
A Comparison: Plans for
Reconstruction
 Presidential Plan:
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Republican
Only Black soldiers were
allowed to vote
Ex-Confederates could
vote
Planters keep land
Keep Blacks from being
citizens
Lenient
States may re-enter Union
and were pardoned
Allowed for states to
freely govern themselves
 Radical Reconstruction
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Plan: Republican
All Blacks would vote
Disenfranchisement
Planters redistribute land
to Blacks
13th, 14th, 15th
amendments
Strict
States may re-enter Union
only if they wrote new
state constitutions giving
Blacks equal rights
5 Military Districts
Analyze Amendments
 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, for each…
 Read about each amendment
 Summarize its purpose
 Explain its significance during
Reconstruction
 List positive and negative (long term or
short term) effects.
Landmark Supreme Court Cases
 Dred Scott v. Sanford
 Plessy v. Ferguson
Reconstruction Collapses
 Sharecropping/Tenant Farming
 Ku Klux Klan
 Literacy tests and other state laws
 Southern States went “unchecked” for about
100 years.
1. Black Codes
 Laws passed in the Southern states after the
Civil War. The laws controlled freedmen
and enabled plantation owners to exploit
African Americans. (Example: curfews
and contract work)
2. Thirteenth Amendment
 (1865) Federal law that abolished slavery.
3. Fourteenth Amendment
 (1868) Rights of Citizens: this federal law
made Blacks citizens….no state can deprive
its citizens of life, liberty or property
without due process…
4. Fifteenth Amendment
 (1870) This federal law prohibits the
government from denying a person the right
to vote based on race.
5. Military Districts: 1867
 Congress enacted this law that divided the
southern states into 5 military
districts…Each district was assigned a
Union general to maintain peace and to
protect the rights of Blacks.
6. Freedman’s Bureau
 A government program that helped to feed,
clothe, and educate Blacks…it also helped
to find jobs for them.
7. Plessy v. Ferguson: 1896
 In this case the Supreme Court ruled in
favor of Plessy…making “separate but
equal” state laws legal. It made segregation
legal in trains, schools, water fountains,
theaters, buses…etc….
8. Ku Klux Klan
 A southern secret society organization that
terrorized African Americans and anyone
else that was sympathetic towards the
Blacks.
9. Literacy Tests
 Southern state tests designed to keep Blacks
from voting….the tests were really really
hard!
10. Poll Tax
 Southern state laws that required registered
voters to pay to vote…kept the poor away
from the polls. Texas had a poll tax.
11. Sharecropping
 A white plantation owner would provide a
Black man and his family with seeds, tools,
and a shack to live in. The Blacks would
then work the land and grow the
crops….then they would sell them and split
the earnings….however, Blacks would go in
debt with storeowners and could never
leave the plantation.