During the third act, a young actor named John Wilkes Booth gainedentrance to the presidential box with a note. He waited until laughter filled thetheater and then moved toward the President. He drew out a pistol, shot thePresident once, and leaped from the balcony down to the stage. Breaking his legas he fell, John shouted, “Sic semper tyrannis,” meaning “Thus, always totyrants,” the motto of Virginia. Booth was a Confederate supporter and sawLincoln as a tyrant who had not allowed the South to secede from the Union. Hehad planned his assassination of Lincoln as a counterblow to Lee’s surrender daysearlier. In the screaming and confusion that followed, Booth got away. He waslater traced to a barn in Virginia. What happened next is unclear. He either shothimself or was shot by his pursuers. 62

Lincoln died of his wounds the following morning, April 15, 1865.

C. Reconstruction

The South in RuinsWhen Lee surrendered to Grant, the South lay in ruins. Unlike the North,

where there was little direct impact from battles except in central Pennsylvania(Gettysburg) and Maryland (Antietam), little of the South had escaped the fight-ing. Grant had battered first the Mississippi Valley and then Virginia, andSherman had marched right through the heart of the Confederacy, destroyingeverything in his path.

While 360,000 Union soldiers had died, 250,000 Confederate soldiers hadbeen killed. Although smaller in number, a larger percentage of the Southern malepopulation was lost. In all, one in 20 Southern whites had been either killed orwounded. Four million slaves who had been freed had nowhere to go and no wayto make a living. Parts of the South had been devastated by Union troops in aneffort to keep supplies from reaching the Confederate army. Homes, farms, shops,and factories had been set afire, and farm tools and machinery had beendestroyed. Two-thirds of the railroad system in the South had been torn up, or thetracks had been bent so that they were useless. The economy was in no bettershape than the landscape. Banks failed and creditors went without payment as thecollapse of the government made Confederate money worthless.

Struggle for Control of the SouthBefore his death, Lincoln had drafted a policy toward the South that was

lenient and very much in the spirit of his second inaugural: “with malice towardsnone.” His policy had an eye towards “binding up the nation’s wounds” ratherthan pouring salt in them. Among its provisions were that the states were to bereadmitted to the Union after ten percent of the male citizens took an oath of loy-alty to the United States. New state constitutions that banned slavery had to bewritten, and the states had to agree to establish schools to educate AfricanAmericans. Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia accepted Lincoln’s pro-visions and established new governments.

A group in Congress known as “Radical Republicans” disagreed withLincoln’s plan. While the Radical Republicans did not control the Republicanparty, and the members of the group sometimes disagreed with one another, thegroup was able to influence Congress and succeeded in pushing through many of

Teaching Idea

Have students create a time line ofLincoln’s life, from the beginningthrough to his assassination. Nameother presidents that have beenassassinated.

History and Geography: American 287

Use Instructional Master 82.

Directions: Write dates for each event in time order from top to bottom on the left. Add details about the event along theline to the right.

Time Line

Master 82 Grade 5: Teacher Material

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Name Date

Cross-curricular

Teaching Idea

Walt Whitman’s poem “O Captain, MyCaptain,” was written shortly afterthe assassination of Lincoln and paystribute to Lincoln. You may wish toteach the poem after discussing theassassination.

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Teaching Idea

Ask students to break apart the word“reconstruction” into prefix, root word,and suffix. Discuss the meaning ofeach. Then, ask students why theybelieve this period in history wascalled “Reconstruction.” (The answershould be to bring the country togetheragain to fix it and rebuild it.) As youdiscuss the next sections with stu-dents, they can track the information onInstructional Master 84, T-Chart, whereone side is a positive outcome ofReconstruction, and the other side is anegative outcome. At the end of thissection, ask students to write a para-graph answering the question, “WasReconstruction good for our country?Why or why not?” and justify theiranswer based on notes taken in classand/or on research using primarysources outside of class.

their policies. The Radical Republicans believed stronger measures were neces-sary to reconstruct the South and to protect the rights of the freed slaves. Theywanted to make sure that former Confederates, almost all of whom wereDemocrats, would not, or could not, be elected to public office. When the fourstates noted above elected new members of Congress, the Radical Republicansblocked them from taking their seats.

After Lincoln’s assassination, Vice President Andrew Johnson automaticallybecame president. He had been a senator from Tennessee at the time of secessionand had not followed his state out of the Union; he remained in the Senate. TheRepublicans had chosen him as Lincoln’s running mate in 1864. Johnson, a self-made man, was a supporter of states’ rights and the small farmer. For the mostpart, he agreed with Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction. To get around Congress’sopposition, he took the opportunity of the Congressional recess later in 1865 toput it into effect. By the time Congress reconvened in December 1865, only Texashad not complied with the Presidential Reconstruction, as Johnson’s plan wascalled.

The Radical Republicans refused the new members of Congress their seats.Congress formed a commission that found that Presidential Reconstruction wasineffective. The antagonism between the president and Congress worsened in1866 over the Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment (see pp. 290–291).Johnson believed the first was unconstitutional because it violated the rights ofstates. He disapproved of the constitutional amendment for the same reason.

The election of 1866 hinged on whether the people supported Johnson’s viewor the Radical Republicans’ view of the proposed 14th Amendment. The peo-ple supported the Radical Republicans, and they gained enough new mem-bers in Congress to override any veto from Johnson. The Radical Republicanswere now in charge of Reconstruction. They threw out all the new state gov-ernments because many of the Southern constitutions had “black codes” thatlimited the rights of freed slaves. The exception was Tennessee, because itwas the only state that had ratified the 14th Amendment.

The South was divided into five military districts and the army was dis-patched to enforce the civil rights of former slaves and maintain order; inother words, the South was placed under martial law. The states had to writenew constitutions guaranteeing African-American males the vote and had toratify the 14th Amendment. Restrictions were placed on former Confederateofficials.

ImpeachmentThe power struggle between President Johnson and the Radical Republicans

continued. In 1867, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in an attempt tolimit the president’s power. According to this bill, a president would need theapproval of the Senate before firing any federal official whom the Senate had con-firmed. Included among these federal officeholders were the cabinet members.Johnson vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode his veto. In violation of the newlaw, Johnson fired a cabinet member who had sided with the Radical Republicansagainst him.

The House impeached Johnson; that is, it found enough evidence of wrong-doing to hand him over to the Senate for a trial. (The House’s responsibility in this

Use Instructional Master 84.

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Teaching Idea

Have students imagine they are freedslaves. Talk about what it must havebeen like to have nothing but theclothes on their backs and no informa-tion about how to find a job, food, aplace to live, how to read, how to usemoney, and so on.

Have students draw up a list ofthings that they would need, includingkinds of information. If students do notmention education, talk about whyknowing how to read and write wasimportant to former slaves.

Teaching Idea

Before teaching the 13th–15thAmendments to the Constitution, reviewthe Constitution and the first 12Amendments.

legal aid and negotiated contracts for freed slaves to make sure their pay andworking conditions were fair. To provide medical care, the bureau founded hos-pitals. 63

The bureau established schools to teach African-American children andadults how to read and write. Within five years, some 300,000 African Americanswere in school. The Freedmen’s Bureau also established black colleges.

As the Civil War ended, many freed slaves came to expect that they would begiven “40 acres and a mule.” This promise stemmed from several sources but ulti-mately was not honored. Toward the end of the Civil War, General Shermanissued a proclamation that all freed slaves should be granted 40-acre parcels ofland. This land was formerly owned by whites but would be given to freed slavesin an attempt to help them establish a homestead and to compensate them fortheir work as slaves. The Union army also had a surplus of mules it did not need,so Sherman ordered that the mules be distributed to the freed families as well.President Johnson rescinded Sherman’s order once he became president on thegrounds that it was unconstitutional, and President Johnson had all confiscatedland returned to its former white owners. The Freedmen’s Bureau also issued anact stating that freed slaves should be given up to 40 acres of land, but it was notpassed by Congress. President Johnson vetoed any attempt to give land to AfricanAmericans, most of whom felt they were entitled to this opportunity based on theburden of their labor as slaves.

13th, 14th, 15th Amendments to the ConstitutionThe 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments are known as “the Reconstruction

Amendments.” These three amendments were passed in response to slavery andextended the rights of African Americans.

13th Amendment• outlawed slavery

• was passed and ratified in 1865 by the required 27 states, includingSouthern states

• stated that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punish-ment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist with-in the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

14th Amendment• was the civil rights amendment

• extended certain rights to African Americans and denied certain rights towhite Southerners

• was passed and ratified by Northern states and Tennessee in 1868

• was opposed by Johnson because he believed it violated the rights of thestates

• stated that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and sub-ject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the statewherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridgethe privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any statedeprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nordeny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Freedmen’s Bureau school

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• provided that (a) the number of representatives for a state in the House ofRepresentatives would be reduced in proportion to the number of citizens whowere denied their voting rights by the state; (b) no former Confederate officercould hold office unless Congress pardoned him; (c) debts of the Confederategovernment would not be repaid; (d) former slave owners could not sue for theloss of their property, that is, slaves

15th Amendment• was the African-American suffrage amendment

• was passed and ratified in 1870

• was considered necessary when Southern states continued to denyAfrican-American men the right to vote

• stated that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not bedenied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color,or previous condition of servitude.”

Black CodesIn response to Northern efforts to aid former enslaved African Americans—

such as the establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau and ratification of the 13thAmendment—Southern legislatures passed a series of black codes in 1865 and1866. These laws were similar to the old slave codes, which limited severely theactivities of African Americans, that Southern towns, cities, and legislatures hadpassed in the 1700s and in the early 1800s.

In an attempt to reimpose some of the restrictions of slavery, the black codestypically required that former slaves be indoors by a curfew and have a permit totravel. In addition, a white person had to be present if former slaves wished tomeet in a group. New regulations forbade former slaves from serving on juries,voting, owning land, and holding public office. Most troubling were those provi-sions that made it lawful to arrest and fine unemployed African Americans. Anemployer could pay the fine and then force the unemployed former slave to workin order to repay the fine. This amounted to a new form of servitude.

The Ku Klux Klan and “Vigilante Justice”As early as 1866, groups of white Southerners began a campaign of terror

against African Americans and their white supporters. Angry whites, many ofwhom were Confederate veterans returned from the war, organized into secretsocieties, such as the Knights of the White Camelia and the White League.Perhaps the most notorious, and certainly the largest, was the Ku Klux Klan.

Klan members dressed in white robes and masks and rode out under cover ofnight. Their aim was to keep former slaves and white Republicans from voting orholding public office. The Klan planted and burned crude wooden crosses infront of the homes and churches of people they wanted to frighten. When thisfailed to scare off African Americans, the Klan beat their victims. The violenceescalated until “vigilante justice” took over in the late 1800s; several hundred vic-tims of the Klan were abducted and hung in the South every year. 64

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