BELL RINGER

Where did President and Mrs. Lincoln go on the night Lincoln

was assassinated?

Northern Reconstruction

President Lincoln and Reconstruction Reconstruction was the rebuilding of

the former Confederate states and reuniting the nation.

To encourage Southerners to abandon the Confederacy, Lincoln offered amnesty, which would give full pardon to all southerners who swore allegiance to the U.S. Constitution and accepted federal laws ending slavery.

President Johnson and Reconstruction

After President Lincoln’s assassination, Vice President Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency.

Johnson was more lenient toward the Confederacy basically allowing Confederate leaders to take control of Reconstruction.

Johnson even overlooked Mississippi’s refusal to ratify the 13th Amendment, which Congress passed in January 1865 to abolish slavery.

The Black Codes

President Johnson’s actions encouraged former Confederates to adopt laws limiting the freedom of former slaves, known as Black Codes.

Black codes differed from state to state, but the all aimed to prevent African Americans from achieving social, political, and economic equality with southern whites.

They re-established white control over African American labor.

The Freedman’s Bureau

In March 1865, Congress established the Freedman’s Bureau.

The bureau aided the millions of southerners left homeless and hungry by the war.

The Freedman’s Bureau played a major role in providing education for African Americans who had been denied this opportunity under slavery.

Most agreed that the bureau’s presence forced white southerners to recognize the emancipation of slaves.

1866

Upset with the president’s decision to stop the Freedman’s Bureau, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the first civil rights law in the nation’s history.

The act declared that everyone born in the United States was a citizen with full civil rights.

Fearing a future Congress might overturn the act, Congress wrote it into the 14th Amendment.

It required states to extend equal citizenship to African Americans and promised all citizens the “equal protection of the laws.”

Presidential Impeachment

In February President Johnson was impeached for making “scandalous” speeches, and bringing Congress “into disgrace.”

Although he was acquitted he still lost the support of his own party.

The Fifteenth Amendment

In February 1869 the 15th Amendment was passed giving the right to vote to African Americans.

It did not give them the right to hold office, nor did prevent states from limiting their voting rights through discriminatory requirements

STUDY GUIDE CHANGES

PLEASE REMOVE THE FOLLOWING TERMS FROM YOUR STUDY GUIDE: MARY SURRAT (UNDER 3/19) RECONSTRUCTION ACTS (UNDER 3/22)

THEY WILL NOT APPEAR ON YOUR TEST

Assignment

Chose one of the Amendments you just learned about.

Create a bumper sticker for your chosen Amendment; using a short slogan or catch phrase to explain its importance

Use the book if you need more information