2. 2
Index
1. Civil war:
a) Causes
b) Timeline
c) Problems following the civil war
2. Definition of reconstruction era
3. Plans for reconstruction
a) Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan
b) Johnson’s Plan
c) Radical Republicans
4. Promises of reconstruction era
5. Success & failure of reconstruction era
6. Sources
3. Civil War
3
1861-1865
Causes:
• The economics of slavery and political control
of that system (the moral issue of slavery)
• The Southern states wanted to assert their
authority over the federal government
• The South wished to take slavery into the
western territories, while the North was
committed to keeping them open to white
labor alone
• The election of a Republican, Abraham
Lincoln, as President
4. Civil War
Timeline
December 1860
- April 1861
Abraham
Lincolnis elected
president. As a
result, 11
Southern
states secede from
the Union
February 4,
1861
Representatives of
seceded states
form
the Confederate
States of America
April 12–14,
1861
The Confederate
attack on Fort
Sumter - the first
military
engagement of the
American Civil
War
July 21, 1861
The First Battle of
Bull Run (first
Manassas) ends in
a Confederate
rout of Union
forces.
September 2,
1864
General William
T. Sherman
captures Atlanta,
Georgia. Sherman
adopts a strategy
of “total war” on
his march
April 1865
General Lee is
surrounded by Grant’s
forces in Virginia, the
Confederacy collapsed,
slavery was abolished,
America is reunited
4
5. 5
Northern States Southern States
• Lost largest number of soldiers
• Factories closed
• Government canceled work orders
• Returning soldiers needed jobs
• Cities in ruins
• Money deemed worthless
• Bridges and Railroad destroyed
• Farmland burned
• Lost political influence
Problems following the Civil
War
6. Definition of reconstruction
era
6
1865 - 1877
• The period after the American Civil War
from 1865 to 1877
• The United States grappled with the
challenges of reintegrating into the Union
of states
• Southern states had seceded and were
determining the legal status of African
Americans; Northern states attempted to
give African Americans full equality
7. 7
Plans for
reconstruction
Three plans had emerged at the conclusion of the
Civil War to help rebuild the southern states
• Lincoln’s Plan
• Johnson’s Plan
• Radical Republicans
8. 8
Lincoln’s Ten
Percent Plan
Goal:
• Achieve a complete and unified
Union
• Peaceful nation instead of a fighting
one
Main Ideas:
• All southerners, except high-ranking Confederate
political and military officials, would be pardoned
and regain citizenship when they took an oath to
support the Constitution and the emancipation of
slaves
• When ten percent of the voters in a state took this
oath they could establish a legal government that
would be recognized by the President
9. 9
Johnson’s
Plan
President Andrew Johnson became
President following Abraham
Lincoln’s assassination
Agreed with Lincoln’s Plan, but was
stricter
Main Ideas:
• Pardons would be granted to those taking a
loyalty of oath to uphold the Constitution
• No pardons would be available to high
Confederate officials
• Every slave-state needed to abolish slavery before
being readmitted
• Every slave-state was required to repeal its
secession ordinance before being readmitted.
10. 10
Radical
Republican
s
Congressional Military
Reconstruction Act of 1867
Main Ideas:
• Civil rights for freed slaves
• The states had to have a military leader from the
north
• Ensure suffrage for African Americans
• Ratified the Fourteenth Amendment.
• Act banned ex-confederate leaders from voting
11. 11
Importance of
reconstruction
era
1865 - 1877
• Redefined U.S. citizenship
• Expanded the franchise
• Changed the relationship between the federal
government and the governments of the states
• Highlighted the differences between political
and economic democracy
12. 12
Promises of
reconstruction era
1865 - 1877
• Legislative changes
• Equalility in the eyes of the law
• No racial discrimination
• Voting for everyone
• Rebuilding the southern states
• Return destroyed areas to the pre-war
conditions
13. Success& Failure
of reconstruction era
Success
• The southern states were
reconstructed and America was
United
• People of color played an important
role in politics throughout the
reconstruction era
• Public schools opened by the
Freedmen's Bureau (open to all)
• Thousands of freed slaves learned to
Read and write
Failure
• Race relations didn't improve
(increased discrimination)
• Ku Klux Klan grew
• Race riots occured in the South
• Government’s corrupt practices
increased
13
14. Sources
• Civil war: https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/american-civil-war-history
• https://www.britannica.com/summary/American-Civil-War-Timeline
• Reconstruction era: https://www.britannica.com/event/Reconstruction-United-States-history
• Promises of reconstruction era: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFEiJu8tFL0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btYhwTVPDQI
• kkk:https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/grant-kkk/
• Politics while reconstruction era: https://www.britannica.com/event/Reconstruction-United-States-
history
• https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/reconstruction
•
The end of the reconstruction era: https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/compromise-of-1877
https://www.britannica.com/event/Reconstruction-United-States-history
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