Reconstruction Reconstruction Time period after the Civil War

Reconstruction

Reconstruction • Time period after the Civil War when the south was rebuilt

Reconstruction Lasted • From 1865 - 1877 • That would be 12 years and involved four presidents!

What were some of the problems facing newly freed African Americans?

Freedom! Limitations/Needs Facing The Freedmen • • They Need Housing They Need Food They Need Clothing They Need Jobs

What were some of the new opportunities facing African Americans?

Freedom! The Joys • • • Move/Travel Freely Founded Schools Establish Religion Marry Legally Own Land

Who was responsible for addressing the freedmen issues?

13 th Amendment • ABOLISHED SLAVERY!

14 th Amendment • Gave African Americans citizenship

The Fourteenth Amendment • Guarantee rights as citizens • Guaranteed citizenship to every person born in the U. S. • Made each person a citizen of the state • Defined specific rights of citizens –Protected them against power of state governments

The Fourteenth Amendment • Due process of law • Threatened to deprive states of representation in Congress –Three-fifths clause abolished –Reduce representation if adult males not permitted to vote

15 th Amendment • Voting!

The Fifteenth Amendment • Forbade states from excluding citizens from voting “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. ” – Does not guarantee the right to vote • • Women Poll taxes Literacy tests Property qualifications

Sharecropping • Farmers who kept part of the crop in return for their labor

Sharecropping • A landowner allows person to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land (50% split), but. . . l Anything borrowed and/or rent also had to be paid with the remainder of the crop

Tenant Farming • Farmers who paid rent on their land • Only slightly better…these farmers have purchased their own equipment and only rent the land.

Result of Sharecropping and Tenant farming… • CYCLE OF DEBT

Carpetbaggers • Northern Republicans who moved south

Freedmen’s Bureau • Succeeded in helping supply clothing, medical care, food and education to many freed people

Freedmen’s Bureau School

Students standing outside a freedmen’s school known as James’ Plantation School (North Carolina)

As a Result, the Freedmen’s Bureau • Could not overcome Southern hostilities • Lacked political support from both Northern and Southern government officials • Ended in 1872

Black Codes/Jim Crow Laws • Limits rights and opportunities • Limits jobs to farm work or unskilled labor • Set curfews • Establishes punishments for vagrancy (not working)

Black Codes • Southern states restricted the rights of former slaves by make laws (called black codes).

Goals of the KKK • prevent African Americans from exercising their rights

KKK Rally in Delmar, DE 1920

During Reconstruction… • Many blacks were elected into government!

Black Politics • Blacks “flocked” to Republican Party (1, 465 black men held political office in the south) • Blanche K. Bruce and Hiram Revels (Mississippi US Senator) • 14 in House of Reps. and 6 Lt. Gov • Many were well qualified- some wealthy and a few were former slave owners

Black Politics Black Politicians demanded: 1. Civil Rights (equal access) 2. Equal pay and treatment in the labor force 3. Land property protection Blacks staged sit-ins and strikes Ultimately, disagreements amongst themselves, lack power and support to affect a change…