Chapter 23: The Reconstruction Era
Directions: As you read Chapter 23 take notes on the key terms and events and their significance using
the chart below.
Notes - Who? When? Where? What? Importance? Impact?
Term
(Only answer the questions that are addressed in your reading)
Period after the Civil war in which Southern states were rebuilt and brought back into the
Union
Two major aims (goals)
Reconstruction o Southern states had to create new gov. loyal to Union that respected federal
23.2 authority
o Abolish slavery
Some believed reconstruction could only be achieved with a complete remaking of the
South based on equal rights and a free-labor economy
Takes office after Lincoln was assassinated
Southerner from TN
Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
President o Former Confed. state could rejoin Union once it had:
Andrew Johnson Written a new state constitution
23.2 Elected a new state government
Repealed its act of secession
Canceled its war debts
Every Southern state had to ratify the 13th Amendment
Abolished slavery throughout US
Ratified 1865
Freedom brought problems and opportunities
Freedmen’s Bureau
Thirteenth o Established March 1865
Amendment o Provided food and medical care for African Americans and whites in the South
23.2 o Helped freedmen arrange for wages and good working conditions
o Distributed land in 40-acre plots to “loyal refuges and freedmen”
o Attacked by whites because it was viewed as an example of Northern
interference in the South
o Congress refused to take land from Southern whites to give it to freedmen
o Lasting benefit = education
Southern state governments where often headed by same people who led South before the
war (plantation owners)
Passed laws to control and limit rights of former slaves
Three purposes
o Limit rights of freedmen
Black Codes Former slaves had right to marry, own property, work for wages, and
23.2 sue in court
Former slaves could NOT vote or serve on juries in South
o Help plantation owners find workers to replace slaves
Required freedmen to work – could be arrested if they didn’t have a job
Limited freedmen to farming and jobs that required few skills
o Keep freedmen at bottom of social order
Segregation of blacks and whites in public places
Notes - Who? When? Where? What? Importance? Impact?
Term
(Only answer the questions that are addressed in your reading)
End of 1865 – Johnson says Reconstruction is over
Radical Republicans disagree
o Say Reconstruction should include full rights of citizenship for freedmen
o Wanted federal gov. to take a more active role in Reconstruction – tougher
requirements for Southern gov.
Civil Rights
o Tried to enact two bills
23.3
Extend life of Freedmen’s Bureau
Civil Rights Act of 1866 – declared freedmen were full citizens with
same civil rights as whites
o Both bills vetoed by Johnson
o Vetoes overridden by Congress
Granted citizenship to anyone born in US
Guaranteed all citizens equal protection of the law
Ratified in 1868
State gov. couldn’t treat some citizens as less equal
Opposed by Johnson – asked voter to kick Republicans out of office
Fourteenth
o Republicans won 2/3rd majoring in both houses
Amendment
1896 – Supreme Court ruled that segregation of races did not violate the Fourteenth
23.3
Amendment as long as facilities for African Americans were equal to those for white
people
1954 – Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas Supreme Court case ruled that
segregated (separate) schools could never be equal and started the process of ending
segregation
Military Reconstruction Act
o Divided South into five military districts, each governed by a general supported
by federal troops
o US Army returned to South in 1857 to register voters
State governments formed under Johnson’s Reconstruction plan declared illegal – new gov.
Military formed by Southerners loyal to US
Reconstruction o New governments included both whites and African Americans
Act o Southerners who supported Confed. denied right to vote
23.3 Two acts to reduce Johnson’s power to interfere with congressional Reconstruction
o Command of Army Act – limited Johnson’s power over army
o Tenure of Office Act – banned him from firing federal officials without Senate’s
consent
Johnson impeached because he fired one of the official protected under
act
Former slaves wanted land to farm but had no money
Former slave owners needed workers to farm land but had no money to pay them
Sharecropping = farming system
Rent land to tenant farmers
Sharecropping Tenant farmers farm land and either paid rent in cash or gave landowner a portion of the
23.3 crops (1/3 to ½) they farmed
Most sharecroppers had to borrow money from plantation owners to buy food, seeds, tools,
and supplies
Few earned enough to pay back what they owed
Often led to poverty and debt
Notes - Who? When? Where? What? Importance? Impact?
Term
(Only answer the questions that are addressed in your reading)
US Army returned to register voters since former Confed. were banned from voting
Three groups had right to vote
o Freedmen – most joined Republican party
o White Southerners who opposed war – many were poor farmers who’d never
voted – most supported Republican party
o Northerners who moved South after war
Election of 1868
Called CARPETBAGGERS by Southerners
23.4
Viewed as fortune hunters
Republican pres. candidate =Ulysses S. Grant
o Supported Reconstruction and promised to protect African Americans’ rights
Democratic pres. candidate – Horatio Seymour
o Wanted to end Reconstruction and return South to traditional leaders
Grant won
Declared states can’t deny anyone right to vote
Ratified in 1870
1960 – Few African Americans in Southern states could vote because of laws (including
Fifteenth imposing taxes and property requirements and making them pass literacy tests – If you
Amendment could not read or write, you could not vote)
23.4 o These tests included questions that were impossible to answer
After Bloody Sunday (March on Selma) President Lyndon Johnson put voting rights
legislation before Congress
Voting Rights Act of 1965 – Supported the Fifteenth Amendment
Delegates elected to constitutional conventions – ¼ elected were African American
Wrote new constitutions for states
New State Guaranteed every adult male had right to vote, ended debtors’ prison, established first
Constitutions public schools in South
and Elections to fill state offices
Governments o Majority elected are Republicans
23.4 o 1/5 were African American
South had to raise taxes to repair damaged roads, railroad, bridges, etc.
o Built schools and hospitals
Democrats tried to win black voters away from Republican party – failed
Democrats attempted to prevent African Americans from voting or taking office
o Refused to seat elected black lawmakers
Ku Klux Klan formed to drive African Americans out of political life
Treatment of
o Used violence and intimidation to threaten black voters and officeholders
African
Enforcement Acts
Americans in the
South o Three laws to combat violence against African Americans – made it illegal to
23.5 prevent another person from voting by bribery, force, or scare tactics
o Troops sent to South to enforce but few people were convicted
Amnesty Act of 1872
o Allowed most former Confed. to vote
o Helped Democrats regain control of most Southern state governments
Dem. nomination = NY governor Samuel Tilden
Rep. nomination = Rutherford B. Hayes
The Election of Tilden won popular vote and electoral college but didn’t have enough electoral votes to be
1876 and The declared president
Compromise of Congress (controlled by Republicans) decided to give Hayes the 20 electoral votes he
1877 needed to win election
23.5 Compromise of 1877
o Democrats accepted allowing Hayes to be president
o Hayes agreed to remove any federal troops still in Southern states
Notes - Who? When? Where? What? Importance? Impact?
Term
(Only answer the questions that are addressed in your reading)
When Southern Democrats regained control of state governments they cut spending on
education
o Caused many public schools to close
o Only half of all black children in South able to attend school
Southern states passed laws requiring citizens who wanted to vote to pay a tax that made
voting a luxury
Jim Crow Laws o Prevented many African Americans from voting
23.6 Some Southern states required citizens to pass a literacy test to vote
o Designed so any African American would fail
Didn’t violate 15th Amendment because laws technically applied to both whites and blacks
Whites were excused from tax and literacy test because of the “grandfather clause” that said
taxes and tests didn’t apply to any man whose father or grandfather could vote on Jan., 1,
1867 (No African Americans were allowed to vote at this time)
Jim Crow laws – laws that enforced segregation
Homer Plessy – African American man who was arrested for refusing to obey a Jim Crow
law
Took case to Supreme Court
Plessy vs. Supreme Court ruled that segregation laws didn’t violate Fourteenth Amendment as long as
Ferguson “somewhat” equal facilities were available for both races
23.6 Caused states to enact more Jim Crow laws
o Separate schools
o Separate parks
o Separate sections of the movie theaters
