1. Texas and Reconstruction, Pt. 1
Essential Question:
Identify significant individuals and events concerning Texas and Reconstruction
Main Idea:
Reconstruction in Texas involved readmission to the Union addressing the rights of former slaves.

2. What is Reconstruction?
The period after the end of the Civil War during which Southern states were brought back into the Union.
Much of the South lay in ruins, though Texas had been largely spared.
African Americans were free, but many were w/out food or shelter, and the differences b/w the N & S remained.

3. What is Juneteenth?
On June 19, 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, Gen. Gordon Granger landed in Galveston and announced that all slaves were free.
The day African Americans received freedom was called Juneteenth, and it became a great day of celebration.

4. Two Presidential Plans
Lincoln had wanted a moderate policy of Reconstruction.
New President Andrew Johnson set up a provisional government in each Southern state and appointed officers until the state is readmitted to the Union.
To be readmitted to the Union, each Southern state had to abolish slavery and nullify its ordinance of secession.

5. Hamilton Restores Statehood
Andrew Jackson Hamilton, who had been against secession, was named provisional governor of Texas in June 1865.
He sympathized with Texas people, and many pledged cooperation, but others were openly hostile to him.

6. The Freedmen’s Bureau
Operated for 5 years, helping find jobs for freed Texans and issuing food and clothing to the sick, aged, and poor. It established the first public schools in Texas for African American children.
Many white Texans accused agents meddling in local matters, wasting taxpayers’ money, and strengthening the Republican Party.

7. Government Restored in 1866
Hamilton appointed hundreds of state and local officers.
Delegates met in Austin to write a new state constitution, which states:
Made secession illegal
Abolished slavery
Canceled state war debts
Gave blacks certain legal rights (voting not one)

8. People Moving
Ports and roads in Texas filled with travelers during Reconstruction.
Travelers came to Texas in search of a better life.
Freedmen had ability to travel in search of loved ones.
Radical Confederates emigrated out of the state.