Name_______________________________________________________ Notebook # _________

Reconstruction: Road to Rights

Think about it: Brainstorm a list of significant terms, people, and places you can recall on the Civil War.

13th Amendment:

End of the Civil War:

• After the chaos and confusion of the Civil War, Americans experienced the era of Reconstruction.
• _reconstruction_ was defined as the rebuilding of the South and the bringing of the Southern states
back into the union, but many had different ideas on Reconstruction.
• Some just wanted Peace, but others wanted the __punishment__of the South.
• As Reconstruction took hold in the South, it became a struggle for African-Americans searching for full
rights as_citizens__.
Politics:
The southern Republican Party during Reconstruction consisted of three groups who worked together to achieve
their goals.
● Carpetbaggers, the northerners who moved to the South after the war. This negative name came from
the misconception that they arrived with so few belongings that they carried everything in small traveling
bags made of carpeting.
● A second group was made up of white southerners who joined the Republican Party to have greater
political opportunities. Democrats who opposed the Republicans’ plan for Reconstruction called these
white southerners who changed parties scallywags. ** Switched parties to gain power
● The third and largest group of southern Republicans—African Americans—gained voting rights as a
result of the ____15th ammendment____.

Event 1:
War Ends

Event 2: Thirteenth Amendment

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished the practice of slavery. It was passed by the fall of 1865 after the
Southern states were readmitted under President Lincon’s Reconstruction Plan.
The plan called for:
• new state constitutions elected governments
• gave forgiveness of war debts
• required the acceptance of the Amendment

Event 3: Freedmen's Bureau

To assist the formerly _enslaved_in starting their new lives in freedom, Congress established the Freedmen's
Bureau in March 1865. The Bureau provided food, medical care, job assistance, and education to the freedmen
and freedwomen. In the beginning, they distributed land to “loyal refugees” and freedmen.

Event 4: Black Codes:

Black Codes. These codes limited the__freedom, rights?__of the freedmen, required them to work back in the
fields, and kept the freedmen at the bottom of the social ladder. Examples: Travel permits, can’t testify against
whites in court, can’t carry a weapon

Event 5: Fourteenth Amendment

After President Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed by
Congress in 1868_. The amendment attacked the Black Codes by declaring that formerly enslaved persons
were citizens with full civil rights. It also declared that _no one_could deny these civil rights to any person.
Event 6: Military Districts
The Military Reconstruction Act was passed in 1867. This act divided the __south?__into military districts, each
governed by a general with federal troops. The military districts were organized in the South to __ratify?__the
amendments to the constitution and to _protect?_the rights of African Americans living there.

Event 7: Johnson’s Impeachment

As Johnson continued to oppose Congress, the House of Representatives voted to impeach the president. They
charged him with violating the Tenure of Office Act by “bringing the office of the President into contempt, ridicule,
and disgrace…” Even though the majority of Congress did not agree with the president, the impeachment did,
however, further weaken__I honestly just don't know what to put in here__.

Event 8: Sharecropping
Most of the formerly enslaved struggled to build new lives. They wanted land to farm, but had no money. At the
same time, planters no longer had labor to work their fields.
This led to the__renting of land with crops__. Former plantation owners rented small plots of land to freedmen.
Freedmen paid for the lots in cash or crops. At first it looked like it would lead to independence, but instead it led
to _poverty_and _sharecropping?_– economic slavery.

Event 9: Fifteenth Amendment and New State Constitutions

The 15th Amendment was passed in 1869. This guaranteed a citizen’s_rights_, stating that the right could not
be denied based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The new state constitutions guaranteed the
right to vote, ended imprisonment for debt, and called for the establishment of ___I don't know what I’m
supposed to put in here___in the South.

Event 10 African American Office Holders

___________________________
● First African American to serve in the U.S. Congress
● (1869–1871)
● Mississippi

Event 11: White Terrorism

When whites in the South saw they would not be able to legally limit the rights of African Americans, they
resorted to _threats_and_the KKK_. Across the South, secret organizations formed to drive African Americans
out of political life, to push out the Freedmen’s Bureau workers, and to place fear and submission in African
Americans across the region. The most well formed group was the _KKK_ who wore long white robes and
terrorized their victims at night.

Summarize:
In what ways did reconstruction help move the nation toward equality?
The 3 newer amendments gave african americans more rights.
In what ways, did inequality remain?
Sharecropping, leasing convicts, the KKK