1. RECONSTRUCTION Cause and Effects

2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
SS.912.A.2.4 Distinguish the freedoms guaranteed to African Americans and other groups with the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution.
SS.912.A.2.5 Assess how Jim Crow Laws influenced life for African Americans and other racial/ethnic minority groups.
SS.912.A.2.6 Compare the effects of the Black Codes and the Nadir on freed people, and analyze the sharecropping system and debt peonage as practiced in the United States.

3. Reconstruction Main Idea:
After the Civil War, our country went through some challenges as the South came back to the Union.

4. What is Reconstruction?
Reconstruction is:
the period of time when the United States rebuilt after the Civil War
the process used by the federal government to let the South (Confederate States) back to the Union

5. Source http://diazsocialstudies.org/ahistory_units_1.htm#UNIT8.1

6. Challenges to Reconstruction
There were several challenges or opinions on how to get the South back into the Union:
Lincoln favored an easier way to rebuild the nation and readmit the South
After Lincoln died, Andrew Johnson favored a similar plan as Lincoln
Some Republicans (North) thought it was too easy on the South
As a result, many Republicans in Congress worked together to try to get rid of Andrew Johnson (impeach)
They also passed laws for Reconstruction that the president did agree with

7. Congress Plan for Reconstruction
Created the Freedmen's Bureau to help former slaves
The Civil Rights Act guaranteed civil rights of African Americans
The 14th Amendment made African Americans legal citizens
The 15th Amendment gave African Americans the right to vote
Only allowed former Confederate states to rejoin the Union after the states approved the 14th and 15th Amendments

8. Freedmen’s Bureau
Freedmen’s Bureau was set up to help those Freed men who were slaves.
It provided help like getting supplies: clothing, food, water, finding your family members and helping with teaching reading and writing.

9. The Civil Rights Act of 1866
 This act passed by congress granted citizenship and the same rights to all male persons in the United States
It stated "without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude"

10. 14th Amendment
The 14th amendment was passed as a part of reconstruction which gave civil rights to all races in America
The amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws
It was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War

11. 15th Amendment
The 15th amendment was passed as a part of reconstruction and this gave civil rights to all races in America.
The 15th Amendment prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

12. Effect of Reconstruction on the South
War destroyed the South's economy as farm lands were ruined
The Union began to help through public works program to repair damages and provide social services
African American took advantage of their freedoms; moving to other areas and reuniting with family members

13. Effect of Reconstruction on the South
African Americans founded their own churches
Churches became a center of African American community
1st public schools were created in the South
95% of former slaves were illiterate

14. Effect of Reconstruction on the South
African Americans took an active role in the government by voting
For the first time African Americans held office in local, state, and federal government
Hiram Rhodes Revels was elected as the 1st African American US Senator

15. Effect of Reconstruction on the South
Most plantation owners and small land-owners kept their land.
Freed African Americans and white farmers who did not own land were able to get land through sharecropping
Sharecropping is when landowners divided their land and assigned each head of household a few acres, along with seed, and tools
Sharecroppers kept a small amount of crops for themselves and gave the rest to the landowner

16. Sharecropping

17. Collapse of Reconstruction
Amnesty Act of 1872
When this passed about 150,000 former Confederates were again able to vote and hold political office
Southern Democrats regained power in the South
This lead to more segregation and discrimination towards African Americans in the South

18. Black Codes These came before the amendments were enacted
These were laws passed with the intent to restrict what African Americans could do
This included restricting:
Where they could go
Owning property
Penalized for not working

19. Jim Crow Laws
Southern States passed segregation laws limiting African Americans rights
These laws became known as Jim Crow Laws
These laws said that there should be "separate" public and private facilities for white and black people.

20. Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow Laws meant that whites and blacks had separate schools, hospitals, parks, and transportation systems throughout the south
Voting restrictions(against the 15th amendment).
Literacy Tests (officials could pass/fail as they wished)
Poll Tax-annual tax paid before being able to vote. Often too poor to pay tax
For poor white people, the grandfather clause was added so they did not have to pay poll tax

21. Debt Peonage
A system that forced a worker into slavery in order to work off a debt to the employer
It went against the 13th Amendment
It was also used by the courts to have an African American pay off any fines
If they could not pay they were forced work for an employer who would then pay the local courts to support the cost of the jail system

22. Collapse of Reconstruction
Ku Klux Klan (KKK):
A group that used violence to prevent African Americans from using their new political rights
Federal troops were sent in by the President to fight against the KKK (almost like a 2nd civil war)

23. Violence During Reconstruction
African Americans who did not follow Black Codes could face severe punishment or death.
Lynching became a huge issue
African Americans were shot, killed, hanged, and/or burned without trial
Peaked in the 1890's and continued well into the 20th century.

24. Additional Resources
The Civil War’s Legacy, an online tutorial
Crash course on Reconstruction-13 minute video
Analyze the 15th Amendment and learn about the obstacles to actual voting rights that persisted in the post-Reconstruction South (black codes, poll taxes, lynching, etc.). Students create their own political cartoon.
Reading like a Historian: Sharecropping, lesson plan that walks students through what sharecropping is.
Reading like a Historian: Reconstruction SAC, this would be a lesson you may want to break apart, contains primary source documents
14 minute PBS video on Reconstruction, black codes, government in the south, Thaddeus Stevens, 14th amendment etc.
overview of a unit on Civil War