Transcript Reconstruction

Reconstruction
Thirteenth Amendment
• abolished slavery
throughout the
nation (1865)
Freedmen
• former slaves
What was the United States going to
do with nearly 5 million freed slaves?
Most Freedmen……
1. could not read or write
2. did not have money
3. did not own land or a
house
Restricting Freedmen’s Rights
• Conservatives: Southern Whites who held
power before the Civil War. They felt the
government should be run by “White Men”
Black Codes
• Southern laws that severely limited the
rights of African Americans after the Civil
War.
• Blacks could marry, own some kind of land,
and had to work under a 1year contract.
• Blacks could NOT vote, own a gun, hold
political office or serve on juries.
Ku Klux Klan
• A secret society or
group whose objective
was to keep blacks
from voting and
getting jobs.
• They used violence
and lynching to
prevent blacks from
voting.
Poll Taxes
• A tax voters paid at
the polls before
casting their vote.
• Conservatives knew
African Americans
had little to no money,
preventing them from
voting.
Literacy Tests
• Before voters could
cast their vote, they
had to pass a literacy
test.
• The test consisted of
reading and explaining
portions of the
Constitution.
Grandfather Clause
• Voters could vote if
their father or
grandfather had been
eligible to vote on
January 1, 1867.
• African Americans
couldn’t vote until
1868.
Jim Crow Laws
• Laws that legally
separated or segregated
blacks from whites
throughout the south.
• Schools, restaurants,
theaters, trains,
playgrounds, hospitals,
and even cemeteries
Help for the Freedmen
• Radical Republicans:
Their goal was to limit
the power of the
southern white planter
and to make sure that
Freedmen received
their rights under the
13th, 14th, and 15th
amendments.
Fourteenth Amendment
• Guaranteed American
citizens equal
protection of the laws
(1868)
• Known as the “equal
rights” amendment
• Defined “citizen”
Fifteenth Amendment
• Forbids any state to
deny African
Americans the right to
vote because of race
(1869)
Freedman’s Bureau
• Designed throughout the
south to help the freed
slaves and poor whites
with food, clothing,
housing, medical care,
jobs and schooling.
• 1st form of welfare or
public assistance
“40 acres and a mule”
• A promise made to
freedmen which never
came about
• Confiscated land
during the Civil War
Sharecropping
• Work someone else’s land
and in return you got to
keep a share of the crop.
• Some sank further in debt
if harvest didn’t yield a
good crop, therefore, loans
from the spring could not
be re-paid.