Module 19

Reconstruction
Essential Question
To what extent did Reconstruction achieve its goals?

About the Photo: The ruins of this In this module you will learn about the challenges that faced the nation
southern plantation stand as a bleak after the Civil War and the attempts to meet those challenges.
reminder of the changes brought to the
South by the Civil War. What You Will Learn …
Lesson 1: Rebuilding the South. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
The Big Idea The nation faced many problems in rebuilding the
Explore ONLINE! Union.
VIDEOS, including... Lesson 2: The Fight over Reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620
• Lincoln’s Legacy The Big Idea The return to power of the pre-war southern leadership
led Republicans in Congress to take control of Reconstruction.
• The Fall of Richmond
Lesson 3: Reconstruction in the South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
• After the Assassination The Big Idea As Reconstruction ended, African Americans faced new
• Johnson’s Impeachment hurdles and the South attempted to rebuild.

Document-Based Investigations
Graphic Organizers
Interactive Games
Image Carousel: Testing Freedoms
Image with Hotspots: The First Vote

610 Module 19
Timeline of Events 1860–1880 Explore ONLINE!

United States World

1860

1865 Abraham Lincoln is assassinated. 1865 Black Jamaicans rebel against

the wealthy planter class.

1868 President Andrew Johnson is impeached and 1868 The Meiji dynasty returns to
almost removed from office. power in Japan.

1869 The Suez Canal opens, linking the

Mediterranean and Red seas.

1870

1870 Hiram Revels becomes the first African

American to serve in the U.S. Senate.

1871 Otto von Bismarck and Wilhelm I

unite Germany.

1877 The Compromise of 1877 ends

Reconstruction.

1880

Reconstruction 611
Reading Social Studies
THEME FOCUS:
Politics, Society and Culture
In this module you will read about the time immediately after the Civil War. You
will see how the government tried to rebuild the South and you will learn about
how life changed for African Americans after slavery was declared illegal.
You will read about the political conflicts that emerged as southern leadership
worked to gain control of Reconstruction efforts. Throughout the module you will
read how the culture of the South changed after the war.

READING FOCUS:
Analyze Historical Information
History books are full of information. As you read, you are confronted with names,
dates, places, terms, and descriptions on every page. You don’t want to have to
deal with anything unimportant or untrue.
Identify Relevant and Essential Information Information in a history book
should be relevant to the topic you’re studying. It should also be essential to
understanding the topic and should be verifiable. Anything else distracts from the
material you are studying.
The first passage below includes several pieces of irrelevant and nonessential
information. In the revised passage this information has been removed. Note how
much easier the revised passage is to understand.

First Passage Lincoln’s Revised Passage

President Abraham Lincoln, who appearance and the President Abraham
was very tall, wanted to reunite day on which the Lincoln wanted to
the nation as quickly and pain- war ended are not reunite the nation as
lessly as possible. He had pro- essential facts. quickly and pain-
posed a plan for readmitting the lessly as possible.
southern states even before the He had proposed a
war ended, which happened on plan for readmitting
a Sunday. Called the Ten Per- Amnesty the southern states
cent Plan, it offered southerners International is even before the war
amnesty, or official pardon, for not relevant to ended. Called the
all illegal acts supporting the this topic. Ten Percent Plan, it
rebellion. Today a group called offered southerners
Amnesty International works to amnesty, or official
protect the rights of prisoners. There is no way pardon, for all illegal
Lincoln’s plan certainly would to prove the acts supporting the
have worked if it would have been accuracy of the rebellion.
implemented. last sentence.

612 Module 19
You Try It! Key Terms and People
Lesson 1
Reconstruction
The following passage is adapted from the module you are Ten Percent Plan
Thirteenth Amendment
about to read. As you read the passage, look for irrelevant,
Freedmen’s Bureau
nonessential, or unverifiable information. Andrew Johnson
Lesson 2
Black Codes
Freedmen’s Bureau In 1865 Congress established Radical Republicans
the Freedmen’s Bureau, an agency providing relief Civil Rights Act of 1866
for freedpeople and certain poor people in the Fourteenth Amendment
South. The Bureau had a difficult job. It may have Reconstruction Acts
impeachment
been one of the most difficult jobs ever. At its high Fifteenth Amendment
point, about 900 agents served the entire South. Lesson 3
All 900 people could fit into one hotel ballroom Hiram Revels
today. Bureau commissioner Oliver O. Howard Ku Klux Klan
eventually decided to use the Bureau’s limited Enforcement Acts
budget to distribute food to the poor and to provide Compromise of 1877
poll tax
education and legal help for freedpeople. One segregation
common food in the South at that time was salted Jim Crow laws
meat. The Bureau also helped African American Plessy v. Ferguson
war veterans. Today the Department of Veterans’ sharecropping
Affairs assists American war veterans.

After you read the passage, answer the following questions.

1. Which sentence in this passage is unverifiable and
should be cut?
2. Find two sentences in this passage that are irrelevant
to the discussion of the Freedmen’s Bureau. What
makes those sentences irrelevant?
3. Look at the last sentence of the passage. Do you think
this sentence is essential to the discussion? Why or
why not?

As you read Module 19, ask yourself what makes the

information you are reading essential to a study of
Reconstruction.

Reconstruction 613
 Lesson 1

Rebuilding the South

If YOU were there . . .

The Big Idea You are a young soldier who has been fighting in the
The nation faced many ­problems
Civil War for many months. Now that the war is over, you
in rebuilding the Union. are on your way home. During your journey, you pass
plantation manor homes, houses, and barns that have
Main Ideas been burned down. No one is doing spring ­planting in
■■ President Lincoln and the fields. As you near your family’s farm, you see that
Congress differed in their views
fences and sheds have been destroyed. You wonder
as Reconstruction began.
what is left of your home and family.
■■ The end of the Civil War meant
freedom for African Americans What would you think your future
in the South. on the farm would be like?
■■ President Johnson’s plan
began the process of
Reconstruction.
Reconstruction Begins
After the Civil War ended in 1865, the U.S. government faced
Key Terms and People the problem of dealing with the defeated southern states. The
Reconstruction challenges of Reconstruction, the process of readmitting the
Ten Percent Plan former Confederate states to the Union, lasted from 1865 to
Thirteenth Amendment 1877.
Freedmen’s Bureau
Andrew Johnson Damaged South Tired southern soldiers returned home to
find that the world they had known before the war was gone.
Cities, towns, and farms had been ruined. Because of high food
prices and widespread crop failures, many southerners faced
starvation. The Confederate money most southerners held was
now worthless. Banks failed, and merchants had gone bank-
rupt because people could not pay their debts.
Former Confederate general Braxton Bragg was one of many
southerners who faced economic hardship. He found that “all,
all was lost, except my debts.” In South Carolina, Mary Boykin
Chesnut wrote in her diary about the isolation she experienced
after the war. “We are shut in here. . . . All RR’s [railroads]
destroyed—bridges gone. We are cut off from the world.”
Lincoln’s Plan President Abraham Lincoln wanted to
reunite the nation as quickly and painlessly as possible.
He had proposed a plan for readmitting the southern states

614 Module 19
 even before the war ended. Called the Ten Percent Plan, it offered south-
erners amnesty, or official pardon, for all illegal acts supporting the rebel-
lion. To receive amnesty, southerners had to do two things. They had to
swear an oath of loyalty to the United States. They also had to agree that
slavery was illegal. Once 10 percent of voters in a state made these pledges,
they could form a new government. The state then could be readmitted to
the Union.
Louisiana quickly elected a new state legislature under the Ten Percent
Plan. Other southern states that had been occupied by Union troops soon
followed Louisiana back into the United States.
Wade-Davis Bill Some politicians argued that Congress, not the president,
should control the southern states’ return to the Union. They believed
that Congress had the power to admit new states. Also, many Republican
members of Congress thought the Ten Percent Plan did not go far enough.
A senator from Michigan expressed their views.

“The people of the North are not such fools as to . . . turn around and
say to the traitors, ‘all you have to do [to return] is . . . take an oath
that henceforth you will be true to the Government.’”
—Senator Jacob Howard, quoted in Reconstruction: America’s
Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877, by Eric Foner

Two Republicans—Senator Benjamin Wade and Representative Henry

Academic Davis—had an alternative to Lincoln’s plan. Following procedures of the
Vocabulary Wade-Davis bill, a state had to meet two conditions before it could rejoin
procedure a series of
steps taken to accom-
the Union. First, it had to ban slavery. Second, a majority of adult males in
plish a task the state had to take the loyalty oath.
Under the Wade-Davis bill, only southerners who swore that they had
never supported the Confederacy could vote or hold office. In general,
the bill was much stricter than the Ten Percent Plan. Its provisions would
Reading Check make it harder for southern states to rejoin the Union quickly.
Contrast How was President Lincoln therefore refused to sign the bill into law. He thought
the Ten Percent Plan
different from the that few southern states would agree to meet its requirements. He believed
Wade-Davis bill? that his plan would help restore order more quickly.

Freedom for African Americans

One thing Republicans agreed on was abolishing slavery. The Emancipa-
tion Proclamation had freed slaves only in areas that had not been occu-
pied by Union forces, not in the border states. Many people feared that the
federal courts might someday declare the proclamation unconstitutional.
Slavery Ends On January 31, 1865, at President Lincoln’s urging, Con­
gress proposed the Thirteenth Amendment. This amendment made slav-
ery illegal throughout the United States.
The amendment was ratified and took effect on December 18, 1865.
When abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison heard the news, he declared
that his work was now finished. He called for the American Anti-Slavery
Society to break up. Not all abolitionists agreed that their work was done,

Reconstruction 615
These freedpeople have packed their household belongings and are leaving Richmond. Many people
traveled in search of relatives. Others placed newspaper advertisements looking for long-lost relatives.

In what ways did former slaves react to freedom?

however. Frederick Douglass insisted that “slavery is not abolished until

the black man has the ballot [vote].”
Freedom brought important changes to newly freed slaves. Many cou-
ples held ceremonies to legalize marriages that had not been recognized
under slavery. Many freedpeople searched for relatives who had been sold
away from their families years earlier. Others placed newspaper ads
seeking information about their children. Many women began to work at
home instead of in the fields. Still others adopted children of dead relatives
to keep families together. Church members established voluntary associa-
tions and mutual-aid societies to help those in need.
Now that they could travel without a pass, many freedpeople moved
from mostly white counties to places with more African Americans. Other
freedpeople traveled simply to test their new freedom of movement.
Northern migration, while not as extensive as the coming World War I
Great Migration beginning in 1910, significantly increased the urban
black population of the North. Detroit’s African American population, for
instance, more than doubled during the 1860s with the vast majority of its
new arrivals coming from the South. A South Carolina woman explained
this need. “I must go, if I stay here I’ll never know I’m free.”

616 Module 19
 For most former slaves, freedom to travel was
just the first step on a long road toward equal rights
and new ways of life. Adults took new last names
and began to insist on being called Mr. or Mrs. as
a sign of respect, rather than by their first names
or by nicknames. Freedpeople began to demand the
same economic and political rights as white citizens.
Henry Adams, a former slave, argued that “if I cannot
do like a white man I am not free.”
Forty Acres to Farm? Many former slaves wanted
their own land to farm. Near the end of the Civil
War, Union general William Tecumseh Sherman had
issued an order to break up plantations in coastal
South Carolina and Georgia. He wanted to divide
the land into 40-acre plots and give them to former
slaves as compensation for their forced labor before
the war.
Many white planters refused to surrender their
land. Some freedpeople pointed out that it was only
fair that they receive some of this land because their
For this couple, freedom brought the right to marry. labor had made the plantations prosper. In the end,
the U.S. government returned the land to its original
owners. At this time, many freedpeople were unsure
about where they would live, what kind of work they would do, and what
rights they had. Freedoms that were theirs by law were difficult to enforce.
Freedmen’s Bureau In 1865 Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau,
an agency providing relief for freedpeople and certain poor people in the
South. The Bureau had a difficult job. At its high point, about 900 agents
served the entire South. Bureau commissioner Oliver O. ­Howard eventu-
ally decided to use the Bureau’s limited budget to distribute food to the
poor and to provide education and legal help for freedpeople. The Bureau
also helped African American war veterans.
The Freedmen’s Bureau played an important role in establishing more
schools in the South. Laws against educating slaves meant that most freed-
people had never learned to read or write. Before the war ended, however,
northern groups, such as the American Missionary Association, began
providing books and teachers to African Americans. The teachers were
mostly women who were committed to helping freedpeople. One teacher
said of her students, “I never before saw children so eager to learn. . . . It
is wonderful how [they] . . . can have so great a desire for knowledge, and
such a capacity for attaining [reaching] it.”
After the war, some freedpeople organized their own education efforts.
For example, Freedmen’s Bureau agents found that some African Americans
had opened schools in abandoned buildings. Many white ­southerners con-
tinued to believe that African ­Americans should not be educated. Despite

Reconstruction 617
 Helping the Freedpeople
Congress created the Freedmen’s
African American students and teachers outside the Freedmen’s Bureau Bureau to help freedpeople and poor
school in Beaufort, South Carolina southerners recover from the Civil War.
The Bureau assisted people by:
opposition, by 1869 more
than 150,000 African Ameri- • providing supplies and medical
services.
can students were attending
more than 3,000 schools. • establishing schools.
The Freedmen’s Bureau also • supervising contracts between
helped establish a ­number freedpeople and employers.
of universities for African • taking care of lands abandoned or
Americans, including Howard captured during the war.
and Fisk universities. What role did the Freedmen’s Bureau play
during Reconstruction?
Students quickly filled
the new classrooms. Work-
Reading Check ing adults attended classes in the evening. African Americans hoped that
Analyze How did the education would help them to understand and protect their rights and to
Freedmen’s Bureau
help reform education enable them to find better jobs. Both black and white southerners ben-
in the South? efited from the effort to provide greater access to education in the South.

President Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan

While the Freedmen’s Bureau was helping African Americans, the issue
of how the South would politically rejoin the Union remained unresolved.
Soon, however, a tragic event ended Lincoln’s dream of peacefully reunit-
ing the country.
A New President On the evening of April 14, 1865, President Lincoln
and his wife attended a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC. During
the play, John Wilkes Booth, a southerner who opposed Lincoln’s poli-
cies, sneaked into the president’s theater box and shot him. Lincoln was
rushed to a boardinghouse across the street, where he died early the next

618 Module 19
 morning. Lincoln, his leadership remembered for its honesty, deep intel-
ligence, and high morals, became a symbol for the nation of the struggle of
the Civil War.
Vice President Andrew Johnson was sworn into office quickly. Recon-
struction had now become his responsibility. He would have to win the
trust of a nation shocked at its leader’s death. Johnson’s plan for bringing
southern states back into the Union was similar to Lincoln’s plan. How-
ever, he decided that wealthy southerners and former Confederate officials
would need a presidential pardon to receive amnesty. Johnson shocked
Radical Republicans by eventually pardoning more than 7,000 people by
1866.
New State Governments Johnson was a Democrat whom Republi-
cans had put on the ticket in 1864 to appeal to the border states. A for-
mer ­slaveholder, he was a stubborn man who would soon face a hostile
Congress.
Johnson offered a mild program for setting up new southern state
­governments. First, he appointed a temporary governor for each state.
Then, he required that the states revise their constitutions. Next, voters
elected state and federal representatives. The new state government had
to declare that secession was illegal. It also had to ratify the Thirteenth
Amendment and refuse to pay Confederate debts.
By the end of 1865, all the southern states except Texas had ­created
new governments. Johnson approved them all and declared that
the United States was restored. Newly elected representatives came
Reading Check to ­Washington from each reconstructed southern state. However,
Summarize What ­Republicans complained that many new representatives had been leaders
was President
Johnson’s plan for of the Confederacy. Congress therefore refused to readmit the southern
Reconstruction? states into the Union. Clearly, the nation was still divided.
Summary and Preview In this lesson you learned about early plans for
Reconstruction. In the next lesson you will learn that disagreements about
Reconstruction became so serious that the president was almost removed
from office.

Lesson 1 Assessment
Review Ideas, Terms, and People Critical Thinking
1. a. Identify What does Reconstruction mean? 4. Summarize In this lesson you learned about Recon-
b. Summarize What was President Lincoln’s plan for struction. Create a graphic organizer similar to the one
Reconstruction? below and show how African Americans were affected
2. a. Recall What is the Thirteenth Amendment? by the end of the war.
b. Elaborate In your opinion, what was the most African Marriages are legalized.
important accomplishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau? Americans and
Explain. Reconstruction

3. a. Recall Why was President Lincoln killed?

b. Analyze Why did some Americans oppose
President Johnson’s Reconstruction plan?

Reconstruction 619
 Lesson 2

The Fight over Reconstruction

If YOU were there . . .

The Big Idea A member of Congress, you belong to the same ­political
The return to power of the
party as the president. But you strongly disagree with his
­pre-war southern leadership led ideas about Reconstruction and civil rights for African
Republicans in Congress to take Americans. Now some of the president’s ­opponents are
control of Reconstruction. trying to remove him from office. You do not think he is
Main Ideas a good president. On the other hand, you think remov-
ing him would be bad for the unity of the country.
■■ Black Codes led to opposition
to President Johnson’s plan for Will you vote to remove the president?
Reconstruction.
■■ The Fourteenth Amendment
ensured citizenship for African
Opposition to President Johnson
Americans. In 1866 Congress continued to debate the rules for ­restoring
■■ Radical Republicans in
the Union. Meanwhile, new state legislatures approved by Pres-
Congress took charge of ident Johnson had already begun passing laws to deny African
Reconstruction. Americans’ civil rights. “This is a white man’s government, and
intended for white men only,” declared Governor Benjamin F.
■■ The Fifteenth Amendment
gave African Americans the Perry of South Carolina.
right to vote.
Black Codes Soon, every southern state passed Black Codes,
Key Terms and People or laws that greatly limited the freedom of African Ameri-
Black Codes cans. They required African Americans to sign work contracts,
Radical Republicans creating working conditions similar to those under slavery. In
Civil Rights Act of 1866 most southern states, any African Americans who could not
Fourteenth Amendment prove they were employed could be arrested. Their punishment
Reconstruction Acts might be one year of work without pay. African Americans were
impeachment
also prevented from owning guns. In ­addition, they were not
Fifteenth Amendment
allowed to rent property except in cities.
Black Codes in Mississippi and South Carolina also included
Apprentice Laws. These laws required law ­enforcement officials
to semiannually report to the ­Probate Court orphaned chil-
dren or children of parents deemed unfit. The Probate Court
was then required to find work for the minor as an apprentice.
The former owner had priority in choosing the minor as his
apprentice.

620 Module 19
 “Provided, that said apprentice shall be bound by indenture, in case
of males until they are twenty-one years old, and in case of females
until they are eighteen years old.”
—Laws of the State of Mississippi, Passed at a Regular Session of the
Mississippi Legislature, Jackson, 1865

Masters had the right to inflict moderate punishment on their appren-

tices and to recapture runaways. But the codes also required masters to
provide food and clothing to their apprentices, teach them a trade, and
send them to school.
The Black Codes alarmed many Americans. As one Civil War veteran
asked, “If you call this freedom, what do you call slavery?” African
Americans organized to oppose the codes. One group sent a petition to
officials in South Carolina.

“We simply ask . . . that the same laws which govern white men shall
govern black men . . . that, in short, we be dealt with as others are—
in equity [equality] and justice.”
—Petition from an African American convention held in South Carolina, quoted in There Is a River:
The Black Struggle for Freedom in America by Vincent Harding

Radical Republicans The Black Codes angered many Republicans. They

thought the South was returning to its old ways. Most Republicans were
moderates who wanted the South to have loyal state governments. They
also believed that African Americans should have rights as citizens. They

DOCUMENTBASED INVESTIGATION Historical Source

Johnson vs. Stevens

“Military governments . . .
President Andrew Johnson, a southern established for an indefinite
Democrat from Tennessee and former period, would have divided the
slaveholder, argued that the South people into the vanquishers and
should not be placed under military
the vanquished, and would have
control.
envenomed [made poisonous]
Thaddeus Stevens, a Pennsylvanian hatred rather than have
Radical Republican and champion of restored affection.”
equal rights for African Americans, —Andrew Johnson
believed that Congress had the power to
treat the South as conquered territory. “The future condition of the
conquered power depends on the
will of the conqueror. They must
Analyze Historical Sources come in as new states or remain
How did Johnson’s and Stevens’s views on as conquered provinces. Congress
the South differ? What role do you think their . . . is the only power that can
personal backgrounds played in shaping act in the matter.”
their views?
—Thaddeus Stevens

Reconstruction 621
 hoped that the government would not have to force the South to follow
federal laws.
Radical Republicans, on the other hand, took a harsher stance. They
wanted the federal government to force change in the South. Like the
­moderates, they thought the Black Codes were cruel and unjust. The
­R adicals, however, wanted the federal government to be much more
involved in Reconstruction. They feared that too many southern ­leaders
remained loyal to the former Confederacy and would not enforce the
new laws. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and Charles Sumner of
­Massachusetts were the leaders of the Radical Republicans.
A harsh critic of President Johnson, Stevens was known for his ­honesty
and sharp tongue. He wanted economic and political justice for both
African Americans and poor white southerners. Sumner had been a strong
opponent of slavery before the Civil War. He continued to argue tirelessly
for African Americans’ civil rights, including the right to vote and the right
to fair laws.
Both Stevens and Sumner believed that, like Lincoln’s proposed Ten
Reading Check
Compare and Percent Plan, President Johnson’s Reconstruction plan was too lenient
Contrast How were toward the South, thereby making it a failure. Although the Radicals did
Radical Republicans not control Congress, they began to gain support among moderates when
and moderate
Republicans similar President Johnson ignored criticism of the Black Codes. Stevens believed
and different? the federal government could not allow racial inequality to survive.

Fourteenth Amendment
Urged on by the Radicals in 1866, Congress proposed a new bill. It
would give the Freedmen’s Bureau more powers. The law would allow
the ­Freedmen’s Bureau to use military courts to try people accused of
­v iolating ­A frican Americans’ rights. The bill’s supporters hoped that these
courts would be fairer than local courts in the South.
Johnson versus Congress Surprising many members of Congress,
­Johnson vetoed the Freedmen’s Bureau bill. He insisted that Congress
could not pass any new laws until the southern states were represented
in Congress. Johnson also argued that the Freedmen’s Bureau was
unconstitutional.
Republicans responded with the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This
act ­provided African Americans with the same legal rights as white
­A mericans. President Johnson once again used his veto power. He argued
that the act gave too much power to the federal government. He also
Academic rejected the ­principle of equal rights for African Americans. Congress,
Vocabulary however, ­overrode Johnson’s veto.
principle basic
belief, rule, or law Many Republicans worried about what would happen when the
­southern states were readmitted. Fearing that the Civil Rights Act might
be overturned, the Republicans proposed the Fourteenth Amendment in
the summer of 1866. The Fourteenth Amendment included the following
provisions:
1. It defined all people born or naturalized within the United States,
except Native Americans, as citizens.

622 Module 19
 2. It guaranteed citizens the equal protection of the laws.
3. It said that states could not “deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law.”
4. It banned many former Confederate officials from holding state or
federal offices.
5. It made state laws subject to federal court review.
6. It gave Congress the power to pass any laws needed to enforce it.
1866 Elections President Johnson and most Democrats opposed the
Fourteenth Amendment. As a result, civil rights for African ­A mericans
became a key issue in the 1866 congressional elections. To help the
­Democrats, Johnson traveled around the country defending his Recon-
struction plan. Johnson’s speaking tour was a disaster. It did little to win
votes for the Democratic Party. Johnson even got into arguments with
people in the audiences of some of his speaking engagements.
Reading Check Two major riots in the South also hurt Johnson’s campaign. On May 1,
Summarize What
issue did the 1866, a dispute in Memphis, Tennessee, took place between local police
Fourteenth and black Union soldiers. The dispute turned into a three-day wave of vio-
Amendment address, lence against African Americans. About three months later, another riot
and how did it affect
the congressional took place during a political demonstration in New Orleans. During that
elections of 1866? dispute, 34 African Americans and three white Republicans were killed.

Congress Takes Control of Reconstruction

The 1866 elections gave the Republican Party a commanding two-thirds
majority in both the House and the Senate. This majority gave the
­Republicans the power to override any presidential veto. In addition, the
Republicans became united as the moderates joined with the Radicals.
Together, they called for a new form of Reconstruction.
Reconstruction Acts In March 1867, Congress passed the first of several
Reconstruction Acts. These laws divided the South into five districts. A
U.S. military commander controlled each district.
The military would remain in control of the South until the southern
states rejoined the Union. To be readmitted, a state had to write a new
state constitution supporting the Fourteenth Amendment. Finally, the
state had to give African American men the right to vote.
Thaddeus Stevens was one of the new Reconstruction Acts’ most
­enthusiastic supporters. He spoke in Congress to defend the acts.

“Have not loyal blacks quite as good a right to choose rulers and
make laws as rebel whites? Every man, no matter what his race or
color . . . has an equal right to justice, honesty, and fair play with
every other man; and the law should secure him those rights.”
–Thaddeus Stevens, quoted in Sources of the American Republic,
edited by Marvin Meyers et al.

President on Trial President Johnson strongly disagreed with Stevens.

He argued that African Americans did not deserve the same treatment as
white people. The Reconstruction Acts, he said, used “powers not granted

Reconstruction 623
 The Reconstruction Amendments
Thirteenth Amendment Fourteenth Fifteenth Amendment
(1865) Amendment (1868) (1870)
“Neither slavery nor “All persons born or “The right of citizens of the
involuntary servitude, except naturalized in the United States, United States to vote shall not
as a punishment for crime and subject to the jurisdiction be denied or abridged by the
whereof the party shall thereof, are citizens of the United States or by any State
have been duly convicted, United States and the State on account of race, color, or
shall exist within the United wherein they reside. No State previous condition of servitude.”
States, or any place subject shall make or enforce any
This amendment, for all
to their jurisdiction.” law which shall abridge the
intents and purposes, gave
privileges or immunities of
This amendment African American men the
citizens of the United States;
legally banned slavery right to vote.
nor shall any State deprive
throughout the United
any person of life, liberty, or According to the language
States but it was not
property, without due process of this amendment, what
without fault. A loophole,
of law; nor deny to any person group of citizens was not
or an ambiguity of a law,
within its jurisdiction the granted voting rights?
existed. “Involuntary
equal protection of the laws.” How would you change
servitude,” according to
the language to include all
this amendment, could be Most notably, this
citizens?
enforced as punishment for amendment overturned
a crime. The amendment the Dred Scott case by
also failed to specify granting citizenship to all
what the legal status of people born in the United
freedpeople would be or if States (except for Native
they would be fully entitled Americans).
to the rights of American
What role do you think
citizens.
Black Codes played
How might the loophole in in the drafting of this
the Thirteenth Amendment amendment?
have been exploited
by opponents of the
amendment’s ratification?

to the federal government or any one of its branches.” Knowing that John-
son did not support its Reconstruction policies, Congress passed a law lim-
iting his power. This law prevented the president from removing cabinet
officials without Senate approval. Johnson quickly broke the law by firing
Edwin Stanton, the secretary of war.
For the first time in United States history, the House of Representa-
tives responded by voting to impeach the president. Impeachment is the
process used by a legislative body to bring charges of wrongdoing against
a public official. The next step, under Article I of the Constitution, was a
trial in the Senate. A two-thirds majority was required to find Johnson
guilty and remove him from office.
Although Johnson was unpopular with Republicans, some of them
believed he was being judged unfairly. Others did not trust the president

624 Module 19
 This Reconstruction-era ­painting
shows African ­American men ­voting
after passage of the
Fifteenth Amendment.

What right did the Fifteenth Amendment

protect?

pro tempore of the Senate, Benjamin Wade. He would become president if

Johnson were removed from office. By a single vote, Senate ­Republicans
failed to convict Johnson. Even so, the trial weakened his power as
president.
Election of 1868 Johnson did not run for another term in 1868. The
Democrats chose former New York governor Horatio Seymour as their
presidential candidate. The Republicans chose Ulysses S. Grant. As a
war hero, Grant appealed to many northern voters. He had no political
­experience but supported the congressional Reconstruction plan. He ran
under the slogan “Let Us Have Peace.”
Shortly after Grant was nominated, Congress readmitted seven
­southern states—Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North
Carolina, and South Carolina. (Tennessee had already been readmitted in
1866.) Under the terms of readmission, these seven states approved the
Fourteenth Amendment. They also agreed to let African American men
vote. However, white southerners used violence to try to keep African
Americans away from the polls.
Reading Check Despite such tactics, thousands of African Americans voted for Grant
Analyze Information and the “party of Lincoln.” The New Orleans Tribune reported that many
To which voters did former slaves “see clearly enough that the Republican party [is] their
Grant appeal in the
presidential election ­political life boat.” African American votes helped Grant to win a narrow
of 1868? victory.

Reconstruction 625
 Fifteenth Amendment
After Grant’s victory, Congressional Republicans wanted to protect their
Reconstruction plan. They worried that the southern states might try to
keep black voters from the polls in future elections. Also, some Radical
Republicans argued that it was not fair that many northern states still had
laws preventing African Americans from voting. After all, every southern
state was required to grant suffrage to African American men.
In 1869 Congress proposed the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave Afri-
can American men the right to vote. Abolitionist William Lloyd ­Garrison
praised what he saw as “this wonderful, quiet, sudden transformation of
four millions of human beings from . . . the auction block to the ballot-
Reading Check
box.” The amendment went into effect in 1870 as one of the last Recon-
Find Main Ideas struction laws passed at the federal level.
How did ­Radical The Fifteenth Amendment did not please every reformer, however.
Republicans
take control of Many women were angry because the amendment did not also grant them
Reconstruction? the right to vote.
Summary and Preview In this lesson you learned that Congress took
control of Reconstruction and took steps to protect the rights of African
Americans. In the next lesson you will learn about increasing opposition
to Reconstruction.

Lesson 2 Assessment
Review Ideas, Terms, and People Critical Thinking
1. a. Describe What were Black Codes? 5. Identify In this lesson you learned about the issues
b. Make Inferences Why did Republicans think that led Republicans to take over Reconstruction.
Johnson’s Reconstruction plan was a failure? Create a graphic organizer similar to the one below
2. a. Recall What was the Civil Rights Act of 1866? and identify the main provisions of the Fourteenth
Amendment and their effects.
b. Summarize Why was the Fourteenth Amendment
important? Provisions Effects
3. a. Recall Why was President Johnson impeached?
b. Evaluate Which element of the Reconstruction Acts
do you believe was most important? Why?
4. a. Recall What does the Fifteenth Amendment state?
b. Elaborate Do you think that women should have
been included in the Fifteenth Amendment? Explain.

626 Module 19
 Lesson 3

Reconstruction in the South

If YOU were there . . .

The Big Idea You live on a farm in the South in the 1870s. Times are
As Reconstruction ended,
hard because you do not own your farm. Instead, you
African Americans faced and your family work in a landowner’s cotton fields. You
new hurdles and the South never seem to earn enough to buy land of your own.
attempted to rebuild. Some of your neighbors have decided to give up farm-
Main Ideas ing and move to the city. Others are going to work in the
textile mills. But you have always been a farmer.
■ Reconstruction governments
helped reform the South. Will you decide to change
■ The Ku Klux Klan was
your way of life?
organized as African Americans
moved into
positions of power.
Reconstruction Governments
After Grant became president in 1869, the Republicans seemed
■ As Reconstruction ended, the
stronger than ever. They controlled most southern govern-
rights of African Americans
ments, partly because of the support of African American
were restricted.
voters. However, most of the Republican officeholders were
■ Southern business leaders unpopular with white southerners.
relied on industry to rebuild
the South. Carpetbaggers and Scalawags Some of these office-holders
Key Terms and People were northern-born Republicans who had moved to the South
Hiram Revels
after the war. Many white southerners called them carpetbag-
Ku Klux Klan gers. Supposedly, they had rushed there carrying all their posses-
Enforcement Acts sions in bags made from carpeting. Many southerners resented
Compromise of 1877 these northerners, accusing them—often unfairly—of trying
poll tax to profit from Reconstruction. Because the South needed both
segregation physical and economic rebuilding, there were many business
Jim Crow laws opportunities. Northerners who had not been devastated by the
Plessy v. Ferguson war had more money to invest and could therefore profit from
sharecropping
these opportunities.
Southern Democrats cared even less for white southern Repub-
licans. They referred to them as scalawags, or greedy rascals.
Democrats believed that these southerners had betrayed the
South by voting for the Republican Party. Many southern Repub-
licans were small farmers who had supported the Union during
the war. Others, like Mississippi governor James Alcorn, were
former members of the Whig Party. They preferred to become
Republicans rather than join the Democrats.

Reconstruction 627
 African American Leaders African Americans were the largest group
of southern Republican voters. During Reconstruction, more than
600 African Americans won election to state legislatures. Some 16 of
these politicians were elected to Congress. Other African Americans held
local offices in counties throughout the South.
African American politicians came from many backgrounds.
Hiram Revels was born free in North Carolina and went to college in
Illinois. He became a Methodist minister and served as a chaplain in the
Union army. In 1870 Revels became the first African American in the
U.S. Senate. He took over the seat previously held by Confederate president
Jefferson Davis. Revels held a moderate view of the readmission of former
Confederates. Education and employment for African Americans were two
of his top priorities. Revels exemplified the ability of African Americans
Clergyman and educator
to take part in governing. After completing his term, he became the first
Hiram Revels was the first president of Alcorn University.
African American elected Unlike Revels, Blanche K. Bruce grew up in slavery in Virginia. Bruce
to the U.S. Senate in 1870.
became an important Republican in Mississippi and served one term as a
U.S. senator. He worked to integrate the military while in office.
State Governments Change Direction The new Reconstruction state gov-
ernments made policies that increased civil and voting rights for
African Americans. They passed laws that ensured African Americans
were allowed to vote in every community. In many places, however, there
was still resistance by whites. Because former Confederates usually could
not vote, they struggled to maintain political influence.
Reconstruction governments provided money for many new ­programs
and organizations in the South. They helped to establish some of the
first state-funded public school systems in the South. They also built new
hospitals, prisons, and orphanages and passed laws prohibiting discrimi-
nation against African Americans. Many of these programs improved
the lives of African Americans and whites in the South and gave people
economic opportunities and access to political offices. However, ­racism
and the dramatically different culture of groups led to conflicting
­expectations, and sometimes tensions led to violence.
Southern states under Republican control spent large amounts of
money. They aided the construction of railroads, bridges, and public
Reading Check ­buildings. These improvements were intended to help the southern econ-
Summarize What omy recover from the war. To get the money for these projects, the Recon-
reforms did struction governments raised taxes and issued bonds. Although some
Reconstruction
state governments people protested the increased taxes, the improved infrastructure helped
carry out? the South to increase its trade and production capabilities.

Ku Klux Klan
As more African Americans took office, resistance to ­Reconstruction
increased among white southerners. Democrats claimed that the
­Reconstruction governments were corrupt, illegal, and unjust. They also
disliked having federal soldiers stationed in their states. Many white
southerners disapproved of African American officeholders. One ­Democrat

628 Module 19
 The Ku Klux Klan
Members of the Ku Klux Klan often attacked under cover of darkness to hide
their identities. This Klan member, shown on the left, even disguised his horse.

Why do you think Klan members disguised themselves?

noted, “‘A white man’s government’ [is] the most popular rallying cry
we have.” In 1866 a group of white southerners in Tennessee created
the Ku Klux Klan. This secret society opposed civil rights, particularly
­suffrage, for African Americans. The Klan used violence and terror against
African Americans. The group’s membership grew rapidly as it spread
throughout the South. Klan members wore robes and disguises to hide
their identities. They attacked—and even murdered—African Americans,
white Republican voters, and public officials, usually at night.
Local governments did little to stop the violence. Many officials feared
the Klan or were sympathetic to its activities. In 1870 and 1871 the federal
government took action. In an affirmation of federal authority, Congress
passed laws, called the Enforcement Acts, that made it a federal crime to
interfere with elections or to deny citizens equal protection under the law.
Reading Check Within a few years, the Klan was no longer an organized threat. But
Draw Conclusions groups of white vigilantes, including the White League in Louisiana and
Why did southerners the Red Shirts in Mississippi, North and South Carolina, continued to
join the Ku Klux Klan
or other vigilante assault African Americans and Republicans throughout the 1870s. Unlike
groups? the Ku Klux Klan, the White League and the Red Shirts operated openly.

Reconstruction Ends
The violence of the Ku Klux Klan was not the only challenge to Recon-
struction. Republicans slowly lost control of southern state governments
to the Democratic Party. The General Amnesty Act of 1872 allowed former
Confederates, except those who had held high ranks, to serve in public
office. Many of these former Confederates, most of whom were Democrats,
were soon elected to southern governments.
The Republican Party also began losing its power in the North.
Although President Grant was re-elected in 1872, financial and political
scandals in his administration upset voters. In his first term, a gold-buying

Reconstruction 629
 scheme involving Grant’s cousin led to a brief crisis on the stock market
called Black Friday. During his second term, his personal secretary was
involved in the Whiskey Ring scandal, in which whiskey distillers and pub-
lic officials worked together to steal liquor taxes from the federal govern-
ment. Also, people blamed Republican policies for the Panic of 1873.
Panic of 1873 This severe economic downturn began in September 1873
when Jay Cooke and Company, a major investor in railroads and the larg-
est financier of the Union’s Civil War effort, declared bankruptcy. The
­company had lied about the value of land along the side of the Northern
Pacific Railroad that it owned and was trying to sell. When the truth
leaked out, the company failed.
The failure of such an important business sent panic through the stock
market, and investors began selling shares of stock more rapidly than
people wanted to buy them. Soon, 89 of the nation’s 364 railroads had
failed as well. The failure of almost 18,000 other businesses followed
within two years. By 1876 unemployment had risen to 14 percent, with an
estimated two million people out of work. The high ­unemployment rate
set off numerous strikes and protests, many involving railroad workers.
In 1874 the Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives.
Northerners were becoming less concerned about southern racism and
more concerned about their financial well-being.
Election of 1876 Republicans could tell that northern support for Recon-
struction was fading. Voters’ attention was shifting to economic problems.
In 1874 the Republican Party lost control of the House of Representa-
tives to the Democrats. The Republicans in Congress managed to pass
one last civil rights law. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 guaranteed African
Americans equal rights in public places, such as theaters and public trans-
portation. But as Americans became increasingly worried about economic
problems and government corruption, the Republican Party began to
abandon Reconstruction.
Republicans selected Ohio governor Rutherford B. Hayes as their
1876 presidential candidate. He believed in ending federal support of
the Reconstruction governments. The Democrats nominated New York
­governor Samuel J. Tilden. During the election, Democrats in the South
again used violence at the polls to keep Republican voters away.
The election between Hayes and Tilden was close. Tilden appeared
to have won. Republicans challenged the electoral votes in Oregon and
three southern states. A special commission of members of Congress and
Supreme Court justices was appointed to settle the issue.
The commission narrowly decided to give all the disputed votes to
Hayes. Hayes thus won the presidency by one electoral vote. In the
­Compromise of 1877, the Democrats agreed to accept Hayes’s victory.
In return, they wanted all remaining federal troops removed from the
South. They also asked for funding for internal improvements in the South
and the appointment of a southern Democrat to the president’s cabinet.
Shortly after he took office in 1877, President Hayes removed the last of
the federal troops from the South.

630 Module 19
 Redeemers Gradually, Democrats regained control of state governments
in the South. In each state, they moved quickly to get rid of the Recon-
struction reforms.
Democrats who brought their party back to power in the South were
called Redeemers. They came from a variety of backgrounds. For instance,
U.S. senator John T. Morgan of Alabama was a former general in the
­Confederate army. Newspaper editor Henry Grady of Georgia was inter-
ested in promoting southern industry.
Redeemers wanted to reduce the size of state government and limit
the rights of African Americans. They lowered state budgets and got rid
of a variety of social programs. The Redeemers cut property taxes and
cut ­public funding for schools. They also succeeded in limiting African
­A mericans’ civil rights.
African Americans’ Rights Restricted Redeemers set up the poll tax
in an effort to deny the vote to African Americans. The poll tax was a
special tax people had to pay before they could vote.
Some states also targeted African American voters by requiring them
to pass a literacy test. A so-called grandfather clause written into law
affected men whose fathers or grandfathers could vote before 1867. In
those cases, a voter did not have to pay a poll tax or pass a literacy test.
As a result, almost every white man could escape the voting restrictions.
Jim Crow Laws Redeemer governments also introduced legal segregation, the
This 1913 illustration shows the forced separation of whites and African Americans in public places.
segregation of society caused by
Jim Crow laws—laws that enforced segregation—became common in
Jim Crow laws. After Reconstruction
ended, the U.S. court system upheld southern states in the 1880s.
legalized segregation for nearly eighty African Americans challenged Jim Crow laws in court. In 1883,
years. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
finally put an end to all state and local
­however, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of
laws requiring segregation. 1875 was unconstitutional. The Court also ruled that the Fourteenth
­A mendment applied only to the actions of state governments. This
ruling allowed private individuals and businesses to practice segregation.
Plessy v. Ferguson In 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court returned to the issue
of segregation. When Homer Plessy, an African American, refused to leave
the whites-only Louisiana train car he was riding on, he was arrested and
accused of breaking Louisiana’s Separate Car Act of 1890. This Jim Crow
law stated that:

“all railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in this

state, shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the
white, and colored races, by providing two or more passenger
coaches for each passenger train, or by dividing the passenger
coaches by a partition so as to secure separate accommodations. . . .”
—Separate Car Act of 1890, Louisiana state law

Plessy sued the railroad company and lost. His lawyers argued that the
law violated his right to equal treatment under the Fourteenth Amend-
ment. He then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court
ruled against Plessy in Plessy v. Ferguson. Segregation was allowed, said

Reconstruction 631
 the Court, if “separate-but-equal” facilities were provided. Among the
­justices, only John Marshall Harlan disagreed with the Court’s decision.
Segregation became widespread across the country. African Americans
were forced to use separate public schools, libraries, and parks. When they
existed, these facilities were usually of poorer quality than those created
for whites. In practice, these so-called separate-but-equal facilities were
separate and unequal. Neither Congress nor the president would make
significant actions to overturn the doctrine until the 1900s.
Farming in the South Few African Americans in the South could afford to
buy or even rent farms. Many African Americans therefore remained on
plantations. Others tried to make a living in the cities.
African Americans who stayed on plantations often became part of
a system known as sharecropping, or sharing the crop. Landowners
provided the land, tools, and supplies, and sharecroppers provided the
labor. At harvest time, the sharecropper usually had to give most of the
crop to the landowner. Whatever remained belonged to the sharecropper.
In theory, “croppers” who saved a little might even rent land for cash and
keep their full harvest in a system known as tenant farming.
Instead, most sharecroppers lived in a cycle of debt. When they needed
food, clothing, or supplies, most families had to buy goods on credit
because they had little cash. When sharecroppers sold their crops, they
hoped to be able to pay off these debts. However, bad weather, poor
harvests, or low crop prices often made this dream impossible.
Sharecroppers usually grew cotton, one of the South’s most important
Reading Check cash crops. When too many farmers planted cotton, however, the supply
Find Main became excessive. As a result, the price per bale of cotton dropped. Many
Ideas How were
African Americans’ farmers understood the drawbacks of planting cotton. However, farmers
rights restricted? felt pressure from banks and others to keep raising cotton.

Rebuilding Southern Industry

The southern economy suffered through cycles of good and bad years as
cotton prices went up and down. Some business leaders hoped industry
would strengthen the southern economy and create a New South.
Southern Industry Henry Grady, an Atlanta newspaper editor, was a
leader of the New South movement. Grady and his supporters felt that
with its cheap and abundant labor, the South could build factories and
provide a workforce for them.
The most successful industrial development in the South involved tex-
tile production. Businesspeople built textile mills in many small towns to
produce cotton fabric. Many people from rural areas came to work in the
mills, but African Americans were not allowed to work in most of them.
Southern Mill Life Work in the cotton mills appealed to farm families who
had trouble making ends meet. Recruiters sent out by the mills promised
good wages and steady work. Mills employed large numbers of women and
children. Women did most of the spinning and were valued workers. How-
ever, few women had the opportunity to advance within the company.

632 Module 19
The New South “The New South . . . is
Atlanta rebuilt quickly after the war, becoming a leading railroad stirred with the breath
and industrial center. Newspaper editor Henry Grady gave stirring
speeches about the need for industry in the South. He became one of
of a new life.”
—Henry Grady
the best-known spokesmen of the “New South.”

Why might Grady point to Atlanta as a model for economic change?

Many mill workers were proud of the skills they used, but they did not
enjoy their work. Workers often labored 12 hours a day, six days a week.
Reading Check Cotton dust and lint filled the air, causing asthma and an illness known
Find Main Ideas as brown-lung disease. Fast-moving machinery caused injuries and even
What did southern
business leaders hope deaths. Despite the long hours and dangerous working conditions, wages
industry would do? remained low. However, mill work did offer an alternative to farming.

Reconstruction in the North

Although most federal Reconstruction policies were designed to reform the
South, they affected groups in the North as well. There were many groups
that worked to advance their own rights and interests during this time.
Women and Northern African Americans The Radical Republicans passed
many federal laws that required southern states to allow African American
men to vote. They based their cause on the ideal of equality found in the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Women’s suffragists
began using these same arguments to support their own suffrage. Wyo-
ming and Utah granted women the vote in 1869, but their motivations
were not just to ensure equal rights for women. Wyoming leaders hoped to
attract more women residents, while Utahans hoped to counteract the
rising number of non-Mormon voters.

Reconstruction 633
 African Americans in the North faced less social discrimination than
they did in the South but still faced racism and segregation. In response,
some state governments passed laws that made segregation illegal. Some
integrated their school systems. Still, most states upheld the principle of
separate-but-equal facilities.
A Changing Economy During the war and Reconstruction, the economy of
the North and the West grew rapidly. Manufacturing, commerce, and rail
transportation generated tremendous fortunes. Large companies grew by
buying smaller companies, and railroads made huge profits transporting
goods and people. Tax revenue increased as well, and governments were
able to provide more services and make more investments.
Between 1865 and 1873, more than 2 million immigrants arrived in
the United States. They provided a new pool of labor for the growing
­industrial economy. The number of labor unions increased, and they began
to push for policies that protected workers. Reformers pressed for eight-­
hour-workday and fair-pay laws. In addition, the increase in commercial
Reading Check and trading businesses led to a shift in the makeup of the working class.
Compare and
Contrast How was
It now included a majority of professionals and white-collar workers.
Reconstruction in Eventually the focus of the Republican Party began to move away
the North similar from civil rights for African Americans and toward reducing government
to and different
from Reconstruction corruption. The acceptance of the Compromise of 1877 signaled the end
in the South? of the Republican focus on reforming racial politics in the South.
Summary and Preview In this lesson you learned about the end of Recon-
struction. In the years that followed, the South continued to rebuild, but
the gains made by African Americans were reversed.

Lesson 3 Assessment
Review Ideas, Terms, and People 4. a. Identify Who was Henry Grady, and why was he
important?
1. a. Identify Who were some prominent African
American leaders during Reconstruction? Why was b. Predict What are some possible results of the rise of
the election of Hiram Revels significant? the “New South”?
b. Evaluate What do you think was the most Critical Thinking
important change made by Reconstruction state
governments? Explain your answer. 5. Identify Causes and Effects In this lesson you learned
2. a. Recall For what reasons did some local about Reconstruction governments. Create a graphic
governments not stop the Ku Klux Klan? organizer similar to the one below and show why
Reconstruction ended, as well as the results of its end.
b. Draw Conclusions How did the Ku Klux Klan’s use
of terror interfere with elections in the South? Causes Effect/Cause Effects
End of
3. a. Summarize What was the Compromise of 1877? Reconstruction
b. Evaluate How did Plessy v. Ferguson affect life in the
United States?
c. Explain What was the relationship between Jim
Crow laws and segregation?

634 Module 19
Social Studies Skills
Chance, Oversight, and Error in History
Understand the Skill deepen the riverbed next to the mill. During his
Sometimes, history can seem very routine. One digging, he noticed some shiny bits of yellow
event leads to others which, in turn, lead to still metal in the water. The result of this accidental
others. You learn to look for cause-and-effect find was the California gold rush, which sent
relationships among events. You learn how thousands of Americans to California, and
point of view and bias can influence decisions speeded settlement of the West.
and actions. These approaches to the study of In 1863 the army of Confederate general
history imply that the events of the past are Robert E. Lee invaded Maryland. The Civil War
orderly and predictable. had been going well for the South. Lee hoped a
In fact, many of the events of the past southern victory on Union soil would convince
are orderly and predictable. They may seem the British to aid the South in the war. However,
even more so since they’re over and done a Confederate officer forgot his cigars as his
with, and we know how things turned out. unit left its camp in the Maryland countryside.
Yet, predictable patterns of behavior do exist Wrapped around the cigars was a copy of Lee’s
throughout history. Recognizing them is one battle plans. When a Union soldier came upon
of the great values and rewards of studying the abandoned camp, he spotted the cigars.
the past. As the philosopher George Santayana This chance discovery enabled the Union army
once famously said, “Those who cannot to defeat Lee at the Battle of Antietam. The
remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Union victory helped keep the British out of
the war. More importantly, it allowed President
At its most basic level, however, history is Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation
people, and people are “human.” They make and begin the process of ending slavery in the
mistakes. Unexpected things happen to United States.
them, both good things and bad. This is the
unpredictable element of history. The current
phrase “stuff happens” is just as true of the past Practice the Skill
as it is today. Mistakes, oversights, and just In April 1865 President Lincoln was assassinated
plain “dumb luck” have shaped the course of while attending the theater in Washington, DC.
history—and have helped to make the study of Bodyguard John Parker was stationed outside
it so exciting. the door of the president’s box. However, Parker
left his post to find a seat from which he could
Learn the Skill watch the play. This allowed the killer to enter
the box and shoot the unprotected president.
California merchant John Sutter decided to
build a sawmill along a nearby American river in Write an essay about how this chance event
1848. He planned to sell the lumber it produced altered the course of history. How might
to settlers who were moving into the area. Reconstruction, North–South relations, and
Sutter put James W. Marshall to work building African Americans’ struggle for equality have
the mill. To install the large waterwheel that been different had Lincoln lived?
would power the saw, Marshall first had to

Reconstruction 635
Module 19 Assessment
Review Vocabulary, Terms, and People
Complete each sentence by filling in the blank with the correct term or person from
the module.
1. were laws that allowed racial segregation in public places.
2. The Radical Republicans were led by , a member of Congress from
Pennsylvania.
3. The period from 1865 to 1877 that focused on reuniting the nation is known as
.
4. Following the Civil War, many African Americans in the South made a living by
participating in the system.
5. After opposing Congress, Andrew Johnson became the first president to face
proceedings.
6. The Amendment made slavery in the United States illegal.
7. In 1870 became the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Comprehension and Critical Thinking

Lesson 1 b. Analyze How did the debate over
8. a. Describe How did the lives of African the Fourteenth Amendment affect the
Americans change after the Civil War? election of 1866?
b. Compare and Contrast How was Presi- c. Elaborate Do you think Congress was
dent Johnson’s Reconstruction plan right to impeach President Andrew
similar and different from President Johnson? Explain.
Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan? Lesson 3
c. Evaluate Which of the three Reconstruc- 10. a. Describe What reforms did Reconstruc-
tion plans that were originally proposed tion governments in the South support?
do you think would have been the most b. Draw Conclusions In what ways
successful? Why? did southern governments attempt
Lesson 2 to reverse the accomplishments of
9. a. Identify Who were the Radical Repub- Reconstruction?
licans, and how did they change c. Evaluate Do you think the South was
Reconstruction? successful or unsuccessful in its rebuild-
ing efforts? Explain your answer.

636 Module 19
Module 19 Assessment, continued
Review Themes Social Studies Skills
11. Politics Explain the political struggles that Chance, Oversight, and Error in History Use
took place during Reconstruction. the Social Studies Skills taught in this module to
12. Society and Culture How were the lives of answer the question about the reading selection
ordinary southerners affected in the years below.
after Reconstruction?
Johnson’s speaking tour was a disaster. It did
Reading Skills little to win votes for the Democratic Party.
Johnson even got into arguments with people
Analyze Historical Information Use the Reading
in the audiences of some of his speaking
Skills taught in this module to answer the question
engagements.
about the reading selection below.

Radical Republicans, on the other hand, took 14. Which of the following is an example of
a harsher stance. They wanted the federal chance, oversight, or error that affected
government to force change in the South. Like history?
the moderates, they thought the Black Codes a. Johnson got into arguments with
were cruel and unjust. audiences.
b. The tour was a disaster.
13. Which of the following is relevant c. The tour did not win votes.
information for the passage above? d. Johnson spoke for the Democratic Party.
a. Thaddeus Stevens was a Radical
Republican. Focus on Writing
b. Andrew Johnson was a Democrat. 15. Write a Job History In this module you
c. Radical Republicans wanted the federal read about the changing job scene dur-
government to make major changes in ing Reconstruction. Put yourself in the
the South. shoes of a person living then. It could be
d. Radical Republicans were eventually anyone—a returning soldier, a shopkeeper,
removed from power. a schoolteacher, or a politician. What jobs
would that person seek? Why would he or
she leave one job for another? Write a brief
job history for that person during Recon-
struction. Include at least four jobs. Make
each job description two to four sentences
long. End each one with a sentence or two
about why the person left that job. Add one
sentence explaining why he or she took the
next job. Be sure to include specific histori-
cal details.

Reconstruction 637