1. The years after the Civil War 1865-1877
Reconstruction
The years after the Civil War

2. Reconstruction:
The process of reuniting the nation and rebuilding the southern states in the absence of slavery ( ).

3. What problems might a newly emancipated slave encounter?

4. The following slides are ways in which the FEDERAL government attempted to incorporate a free black population into the United States.

5. Amendments to the Constitution
13th Amendment: Made slavery illegal throughout the United States (January 1865).
14th Amendment: Guaranteed citizenship and equal protection under the law to all people born or naturalized within the United States (except American Indians) (1866).
15th Amendment: Gave African American men the right to vote in the United States (1870).

6. Reconstruction Acts of 1867
Divided the South into five districts that were controlled by military commanders
Southerners had to create new constitutions that supported the 14th Amendment
States had to give African Americans the right to vote (later the 15th Amendment)

7. Freedmen’s Bureau A federal agency established after the war to help
blacks make the transition from slavery to freedom
Distributed food
Provided education and legal help to newly freed people
Sharecropping plan: black families would rent small plots of land in return for a portion of their crop, to be given to the landowner at the end of each year.
“40 acres and a mule”

8. 2. How did the Federal Government attempt to aid Reconstruction in the south? Give specific examples.

12. Helped a Newly Freed Population
Carpetbaggers – Northern born Republicans that came to help the South during Reconstruction
Radical Republicans – Strong members of the Republican Party who opposed slavery
Thaddeus Stevens – Radical Republican that wanted equal rights and the vote for African Americans
Scalawags – Southern Republicans

13. Challenges to Reconstruction
President Andrew Johnson – Democrat who vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and did not support the 14th Amendment
Black Codes – Laws that limit the civil rights of
African Americans
Ku Klux Klan – created in 1866, opposed African
American civil rights. Used violence and terror to support their cause

14. Challenges Continued Poll tax – pay to vote
Literacy test – pass to vote
Grandfather clause – if your father or grandfather could vote before 1867, you don’t need to pay or pass a literacy test to vote.
Jim Crow Laws – laws that enforced segregation
Plessy v. Ferguson – court case that ruled separate but equal facilities were legal (segregation is legal)

17. 3.Was Reconstruction successful? Explain.

18. Acrostic Poem
Black Codes 15th Amendment Reconstruction Freedman’s Bureau President Andrew Johnson Radical Republicans Thaddeus Stevens Ku Klux Klan Civil Rights Act President Ulysses S. Grant Scalawags Poll Tax Grandfather clause 14th Amendment Carpetbaggers th Amendment Jim Crow Plessy v. Ferguson Federal Government Democrats

19. Very important in a democracy
Open to all U.S. citizens
Trouble for blacks to cast their ballot even after the 15th amendment
Elections of state and national governments