1. Reconstruction: The End of Slavery
NCSCOS Goal 3
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2. Destruction following the Civil War
SOUTHERN ECONOMY
- Economy was totally destroyed
Charred buildings, twisted railroads, demolished roads
-Currency worthless
Citizens have little to no money
-No transportation system
Destroyed during war
Destruction following the Civil War

3. Destruction following the Civil War

4. SOUTHERN ECONOMY - No government authority
Rebuilding state governments
-Loss of slave labor
13th Amendment
No one to farm
- Growth of government to provide public services
Built roads, bridges, schools, hospitals all with government money;
Citizens have no money

5. LANDOWNERS
-Plantation owners hardest hit
Slaves gone
Crops destroyed
Fortunes lost
Homes looted
-Some radicals thought land should be divided to slaves as payment for slavery:
“40 acres and a mule” for every slave
-Land was never given to
slaves

6. -Many slaves left the plantations Moved toward cities to look for jobs
AFTER SLAVERY
-Many slaves left the plantations
Moved toward cities to look for jobs
-Looked for missing family
Separated during slavery, wanted to reunite
-Others simply moved to new areas
-Most did not have the money to buy any land
Will still be tied to land on plantations
“For we colored people did not know how to be free and the white people did not know how to have a free colored person about them.”
Houston Holloway

7. PLANTATIONS RESTORED -poor could not leave -Tenant farming
Rent land from farmers, can keep all harvest
-Sharecroppers
Given plot of land, must share harvest with landowner
-The absent idea of “40 acres and a mule”
-Cotton no longer king
Cotton prices plummet as other nations produce own cotton
South turns to textile and tobacco-product mills

8. ~Robert Fitzgerald from Delaware, 1867
FREEDMAN’S BUREAU
-Created to help former slaves adjust
Created and funded by Congress over Johnson
-Provided education and schooling
For all ages
-Helped former slaves find work
-Was never able to really help most former slaves
-Land reform was most basic need of former slaves – needed land
“I came to Virginia one year ago, erected a school, organized and named the Freedman’s Chapel School…have about 60 who have been for several months engaged in the study of arithmetic, writing, etc…their progress has been surprisingly rapid.”
~Robert Fitzgerald from Delaware, 1867

9. The Freedman's Bureau, established in 1865, provided relocation, education and medical relief to newly freed Africans, as well as Southern whites displaced during the Civil War. In 1866 the Freedman's Bureau opened 45 million acres of public lands in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Florida to settlers regardless of race. Many freedmen took advantage of the homestead opportunity, creating the first major wave of African-American land ownership.

10. Many people opposed the Freedman’s Bureau.