1. Reconstruction Study Guide

2. Reconstruction Who: African Americans, KKK, Freedmen’s Bureau
What: The United States plans to rebuild the U.S. after the Civil War
Where: Southern States
When:
Why: It helped shaped, good and bad, our nation after the Civil War. It helped to incorporate African Americans into our free society even despite negative feedback from the South.

3. Lincoln Assassination
Who: Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth
What: Abraham Lincoln was shot by Booth
Where: Fords Theater
When: April 14, 1865
Why: Booth shot Lincoln because Lincoln represented everything Booth was against – Freedom vs. Slavery. It also set the tone that the South would not stop fighting for what they believed in.

4. Andrew Johnson Who: President of the US
What: He attempted and failed to follow through with Lincoln’s Reconstruction plans because Congress was not in session. Many southern states established their own laws with how they were going to deal with the new freed men.
Where: The U.S.
When:
Why: He failed in his efforts to help rebuild the country and was later impeached (kicked out) for misconduct in office.

5. Freedmen’s Bureau Who: An government organization
What: They helped build schools, hospitals, find families, resolve labor contracts, and more for African Americans
Where: The South
When:
Why: They helped with supporting and establishing African Americans into our society.

6. KKK Who: Southerners/Angry Confederates
What: They caused terror, shot, hung and intimated African Americans
Where: Mainly in the South
When: Post Civil War - Present
Why: They were an influential group that tried to destroy the efforts of Reconstruction.

7. Sharecropping Who: African American, poor whites and land owners
What: African Americans would rent land, supplies, food and more from the land owner to help grow their crops.
Where: The South
When: Post Civil War
Why: The people who rented the land would be in a constant state/cycle of debt with the land owner.

8. Jim Crow Laws Who: Whites against African Americans
What: Laws that were passed to segregate African Americans from whites
Where: The South
When:
Why: These laws set the tone of how Southern society was going to treat African Americans.

9. 13th Amendment Who: African Americans What: Abolished slavery
Where: The U.S.
When: 1865
Why: It gave African Americans freedom and was
the first attempt to include them in society

10. 14th Amendment Who: African Americans
What: It gave citizenship to people born or naturalized in the United States
Where: The US
When: 1868
Why: It helped African Americans gain equality.

11. 15th Amendment Who: African Americans
What: It allowed all men the right to vote
Where: United States
When: 1870
Why: It improved the equality amongst African Americans and gave them a voice in society

12. Plessy v. Ferguson Who: Homer Plessy
What: A colored group wanted to challenge the 14th Amendment and a segregation law.
Where: Louisiana
When: 1896
Why: It challenged the 14th Amendment, but the Supreme Court established the term “separate but equal” was legal