life under reconstruction 1865-1877 under reconstruction 1865-1877 the good, the bad, and the ugly...
TRANSCRIPT
Life Under Reconstruction
1865-1877
The Good, The Bad,
and The Ugly
Reforms made
under
Reconstruction
made the civil rights
movement possible
GOALS #21 & #22
I. What was good about Reconstruction?
A. Freedman’s Bureau
– set up schools,
hospitals and
distributed food,
clothing and fuel for
African-Americans
What was good about
Reconstruction?
B. Legislation
- 13th Amendment – made slavery illegal in the
U.S.A.
- 14th Amendment – all people born in the
U.S.A. were citizens and were entitled equal
protection under the law
- 15th Amendment – gave all MALE citizens
the right to vote
Right to vote!
•African-Am. MEN
can vote and hold
public office for first
time
•C. Whites attempted to
limit this right by-
•Grandfather clause
•Literacy tests
•Poll taxes
D. New Power Structure
Most white Southerners could not hold office because of ironclad oath
Carpetbaggers – Northerners who traveled to the South for political and financial advantage
Scalawags – Southerners who supported Reconstruction and were considered traitors
African-Americans
Power shift in the South
The scalawags,
carpetbaggers and former
slaves now held all the
power in Southern state
legislatures
Southerners resented
African-Am. as lawmakers
and fellow voters
II. What was bad about
Reconstruction?
Black Codes – Laws meant to discriminate
against African-Americans- also called “Jim
Crow laws”
A. Jim Crow Laws
•Popular song in the 1800’s
• It stood for all the laws that
made it OK to separate
whites and African-
Americans (segregation)
No land ownership
B. Sharecropping – Land, animals, and farm tools supplied
landowner
Cropper received a share (usually 1/3rd to ½ ) for his work
African-Americans remained very poor
C. President Grant 1868-1876
Gen. Ulysses Grant –
one of our worst
Presidents
Tolerated a lot of
corruption
Let the Radical
Republicans control
the South
What was ugly about Reconstruction?
A. Ku Klux Klan was
formed in 1866 to scare
African-Am.
In the 1920’s, 5 million
Am. belonged to the Klan
Today may be 8,000
Klan members
IV. End of Reconstruction – 12
years later Compromise of 1877
-The Deal
Republican Rutherford B. Hayes became President
Democrats were promised that troops would leave the South