Transcript Reconstruction

1865-1877
 April
1865 Union
forces surrounded
Lee’s army near the
town of Appomattox
Courthouse, Virginia
 General Lee
surrendered to
General Grant on
April 9, 1865 – this
officially ended the
Civil War.
 On
April 15, 1865 –
six days after Lee’s
surrender – President
Abraham Lincoln is
assassinated by John
Wilkes Booth at
Ford’s Theatre in
Washington, D.C.
“There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen.
Now he belongs to the ages.” -Edwin M. Stanton
About 620,000 Americans lost their lives in the
Civil War, making it the deadliest conflict in U.S.
history. (North – 370,000 and South – 250,000)
 Some 90,000 Texans served, thousands were
wounded or killed during the Civil War.

“I came home in May 1865, not scrappy as I started but, well versed
in hardships, privations, dangers and the art of war. All I wanted in
this life was some old clothes and something to eat.”

The cotton trade collapsed in Texas and the State
Government ran to Mexico and no one knew who
was in charge.
Left: Atlanta after Civil War;
Above: Ruins of Richmond
 After
the end of the Civil War slaves in
Texas didn’t know about the
Emancipation Proclamation
 Union General Gordon Granger landed
in Galveston in June 19, 1865 and read
the Proclamation
 This let all the slaves in Texas know they
were free – it is now celebrated each year
as Juneteenth
“We were working one day
when somebody came by and
told us we were free, and we
stopped working. The boss
man came up, and he said he
was going to knock us off the
fence if we didn’t go back to
work. He called for his
carriage, and said he was
going to town to see what the
government was going to do.
Next day he came back and
said, “Well you’re just as free
as I am.”
General Gordon Granger
 Many
former slaves now Freedpeople left
the plantations for the first time and
traveled the roads of Texas.
 Many went to the court house to get their
marriage legalized.
 Others searched for family members who
had be separated/sold away from them
 Some gathered at military post hoping
for jobs and protection.

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The U.S. government wanted
to help freedpeople and bring
the southern states back into
the Union. This was known as
Reconstruction and lasted
from 1865-1877.
The 13th Amendment
abolished slavery.
The U.S. Government tired to
help freed slaves find jobs
and homes and legal aid.
The Freedmen’s Bureau was
created to help freed slaves
out.
 Because
they had no jobs freedpeople
went back to the plantations to get work.
 The Freedmen's Bureau help make
contracts between the owners and the
workers.
 Helped start schools
• By 1870 more than 9,000 African Americans
were enrolled in 150 schools.
 Became
President after Lincoln was
assassinated
 Voters had to take an oath of loyalty to the U.S.
 High-ranking Confederate officials and wealthy
people had to apply for a presidential pardon.
 Before a state could come back into the union
they had to make a new state constitution.
 Then the states had to ratify, or pass, the 13th
Amendment.
 This is known as Presidential Reconstruction
Andrew Johnson
17th President of the United States
 Many
southern legislatures passed Black
Codes
 These laws denied African Americans
their Civil Rights
• Individual rights guaranteed by the U.S.
Constitution
 Radical
Republicans
• Believed the U.S Congress should take a greater
role in the Reconstruction of the South
 Civil
Rights Act 1866
• Gave citizenship to African Americans and
guaranteed them basic rights
• President Johnson veto this act
• Congress overrode Johnson veto
 14th
Amendment
• Granted citizenship and equal rights to African
Americans
• However, most of the South refused to ratify it
 Reconstruction
Acts – March 1867
• Marked the beginning of Congress taking
control of Reconstruction – this is known as
Congressional Reconstruction
 Congress
divided the South into 5 military
districts
 States had to write a new constitution giving
black men suffrage, or the right to vote and
ratify the 14th Amendment
 President Andrew Johnson tried to block
Congress Reconstruction and they impeached
him
• Impeach means to bring charges of wrongdoing
against a public official
 In
1868-1869 Texas convened a
Constitutional Convention – it was largely
controlled by the Radical Republicans.
 Gave equal rights to African Americans and
the right to vote
• 15th Amendment – gave the right to vote to African
Americans
 Term
of governor was moved for 2 to 4
years.
 Attendance at school was required by law.
 In
1870 President
Ulysses S. Grant
signed an act to
restore Texas to the
Union.
 Southerners
had nicknames for people
after the Civil War:
• Scalawags were Southerners who supported the
Republicans
• Carpetbaggers were Northerners who came to
the South after the war to make money. Their
bags were made out of carpet.
 Obnoxious Acts
• The laws passed by the Republicans
• Obnoxious means very unpleasant.
Cartoons depicting Carpetbaggers in the South
 On
December 24, 1865 six middle-class
Confederate veterans from Tennessee
created the Ku Klux Klan.
 Southerners seemed to take out on
blacks all their anger at the Federal
government. They casually attacked and
killed blacks whose bodies were left on
the roads. This kept freedmen from
expressing their political views.
A political cartoon
depicting the KKK and
the Democratic Party as
continuations of the
Confederacy.

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
Reconstruction started to
end when Democrats
started to be elected to
public offices
Richard Coke was
elected Governor of
Texas in 1873
January 19, 1873 marked
the end of
Reconstruction in Texas
Richard Coke

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Once the Democrats got
power back they wanted
a new Constitution.
They undid basically
everything that the
Constitution of 1869 did –
weakened power of the
governor.
Governor Coke’s marked
a 100 year period of
Democratic rule in Texas.
 Redeemers
• Southern Democrats who wanted to restore the
South to the way it was before the war
 Segregation
• The Forced separation of people of different
races in public
 Jim
Crow Laws
• The laws that the Democrats passes that
enforced segregation
 Tenant Farmer
• People who couldn’t afford land would rent land
to grow crops
• Often had to give part of the crops they raised to
pay rent
 Sharecroppers
• Farmers who lacked land, and supplies to farm
had to share land and materials
• Had to grow the most valuable crop—cotton to
pay off debt