Reconstruction in the South

1. Unit 1:
Reconstruction in the South
Bellringer:
Brainstorm a list of significant terms,
people, and places you can recall on the
Civil War.

2. Flashback: Using the information on the maps of the United States,
justify the outcome of the Civil War based on available resources.

3. The Civil War
• Using the dates on the diary entries, form a
human timeline of the Civil War events.
• Read over your entry silently and become
familiar with the events covered.
• As we reach your date, you can read your entry
aloud or summarize the events discussed.
• At the end of the Civil War, what was the state
of the United States of America and its people?

4. Road to Rights
Changes in America

5. End of Civil War
After the chaos and confusion of the Civil War, Americans
experienced the era of Reconstruction.
Reconstruction was defined as the rebuilding of
the South and the bringing of the Southern
states back into the union, but many had different
ideas on Reconstruction.
Some just wanted Peace, but others wanted the
Punishment of the South.
As Reconstruction took hold in the South, it became a
struggle for African-Americans searching for full rights
as citizens.

6. School Decisions Example
1. Locate yourself where you feel your student
rights are in our school with the current rules
and procedures.
2. Move 1-3 steps forward or backward with
each school decision read.
Toward front is full student rights
Toward back is NO student rights

7. School Decisions
• Students may eat any time they are hungry, even in class.
• Students may help design the school curriculum to include
classes they think are interesting and fun.
• Students may get a drink or go to the bathroom without a pass.
• Students will decide the punishments for students and adults
who break campus rules.
• Students must choose their classes from a list written by parents
and teachers.
• Students may go to the bathroom only during a 3-minute
window in each class.
• Teachers may eat and drink in class, but students may NOT.
• Students can bring comfortable chairs or cushions to class.
• Teachers do not have to let the students sit on their comfortable
cushions or in their chairs.

8. The Reconstruction Road
• Turn your notes page sideways and draw a road down the
center. Label as below:
__________________________________________________
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
__________________________________________________
Limited Full
Citizenship Citizenship
• As you analyze and discuss each event, place it on the road
appropriately with its event number and a brief
description.

9. Event 1:
War End
1. What do you see? How
are the people dressed in
each picture?
2. What do the pictures in
the center, left, and right
show? What are the
differences between life
“Before the War” and
“Since the War”?
3. How might freed African
Americans use this
document?
4. Does this represent
movement toward or
away from full citizenship
for African Americans?
Place the event Number
and Name on your road.

10. Event 2:
Thirteenth
Amendment
The Thirteenth
Amendment abolished the
practice of slavery. It was
passed by the fall of 1865
after the Southern states
were readmitted under
President Johnson’s
Reconstruction Plan. The
plan called for new state
constitutions and elected
governments, gave
forgiveness of war debts,
and required the
acceptance of the
Amendment.

11. Event 3:
Freedman’s Bureau
To assist the former slaves
in starting their new lives
in freedom, Congress
established the
Freedman’s Bureau in
March 1865. The Bureau
provided food, medical
care, job assistance, and
education to the
freedmen. In the
beginning, they distributed
land to “loyal refugees”
and freedmen.

12. Event 4:
Black Codes
Many of the Southern
governments were still led
by the same leaders as
before the war. As these
leaders saw the African
Americans gaining rights,
they lashed back with the
Black Codes. These codes
limited the rights of the
freedmen, required
freedmen to work pushing
them back to the fields,
and kept the freedmen at
the bottom of the social
ladder.

13. Event 5:
Fourteenth
Amendment
After President Johnson
vetoed the Civil Rights Act
of 1866, the Fourteenth
Amendment was passed
by Congress in 1866. The
amendment attached the
Black Coded by declaring
that former slaves were
citizens with full civil
rights. It also declared
that no state could deny
these civil rights to any
person.

14. Event 6:
Military Districts
The Military
Reconstruction Act was
passed in 1867. This act
divided the South into
military districts, each
governed by a general with
federal troops. The
military districts worked in
the South to enforce the
amendments to the
constitution and to protect
the rights of African
Americans.

15. Event 7:
Johnson’s
Impeachment
As Johnson continued to
oppose Congress, the House
of Representatives voted to
impeach the president.
They charged him with
violating the Tenure of
Office Act by “bringing the
office of the President into
contempt, ridicule, and
disgrace…” Even though the
majority of Congress did not
agree with the president,
they did not want to vote to
weaken the office. The vote
to convict was one vote
short. The impeachment
did, however, further
weaken Johnson.

16. Event 8:
Sharecropping
Most former slaves struggled
to build new lives. They
wanted land to farm, but had
no money. At the same time,
planters no longer had labor
to work their fields. This led
to the system of
sharecropping. Former
plantation owners rented
small plots of land to
freedmen. Freedmen paid for
the lots in cash or crops. At
first it looked like it would
lead to independence, but
instead it led to debt and
poverty – economic slavery.

17. Event 9:
Fifteenth Amendment &
New State Constitutions
The Fifteenth Amendment
was passed in 1869. This
guaranteed a citizen’s right
to vote, stating that the
right could not be denied
based on race, color, or
previous condition of
servitude. The new state
constitutions guaranteed
the right to vote, ended
imprisonment for debt,
and called for the
establishment of public
schools in the South.

18. Event 10:
African American
Officeholders
With the right of African
Americans guaranteed and
protected in the South,
many African Americans
were elected to office.
Blacks served in every
southern legislature and
held high offices in three
states. Twenty-two
African Americans
represented their states in
Congress. Their success
gave many other African
Americans hope for a
positive future.

19. Event 11:
White Terrorism
When whites in the South saw
they would not be able to
legally limit the rights of
African Americans, they
resorted to violence and fear.
Across the South, secret
organizations formed to drive
African Americans out of
political life, to push out the
Freedmen’s Bureau workers,
and to place fear and
submission in African
Americans across the region.
The most well formed group
was the Ku Klux Klan who
wore long white robes and
terrorized their victims at
night.

20. Exit Slip
• What do you think would be the mindset of
Northerners versus Southerners about
Reconstruction?
• What specific suggestions do you have for
fixing the problems of Reconstruction?