reconstruction
How do groups of people get and hold onto power?
Enduring Understandings
1. Differences in cultural beliefs within a nation often lead to divergent visions of the future, including how economic, social, and political systems, may develop.
2. Geographical location can influence culture and loyalties.
Essential Questions
1. Historically, why has there always been a struggle between security and liberty?
2. How has the government's commitment to establish justice changed over time?
3. Did the Civil War and Reconstruction significantly improve the lives of African Americans?
4. How did Reconstruction change the Constitution and its interpretation?
The Union victory in the Civil War in 1865 may have given some 4 million slaves their freedom, but the process of rebuilding the South during the Reconstruction period (1865-1877) introduced a new set of important challenges. Under President Andrew Johnson in 1865 and 1866, new southern state legislatures passed restrictive "black codes" to control the labor and behavior of former slaves and other African Americans. Outrage in the North over these codes weakened support for Johnson’s approach, known as Presidential Reconstruction, and led to the triumph of the more radical wing of the Republican Party. During Radical Reconstruction, which began in 1867, newly enfranchised blacks gained a voice in government for the first time in American history, winning elections in southern state legislatures and even to the U.S. Congress. In less than a decade, however, reactionary forces–including the Ku Klux Klan–would reverse the changes made by Radical Reconstruction in a violent backlash that restored white supremacy in the South.
La victoria de la Unión en la Guerra Civil en 1865 puede haber dado unos 4 millones de esclavos de su libertad, pero el proceso de reconstrucción del Sur durante el período de la reconstrucción (1865-1877) introdujo una nueva serie de desafíos importantes. Bajo el presidente Andrew Johnson en 1865 y 1866, las nuevas legislaturas estatales del sur pasaron restrictivas "códigos negros" para controlar el trabajo y el comportamiento de los ex esclavos y otros afroamericanos. Indignación en el Norte durante estos códigos debilito el apoyo al planteamiento de Johnson, conocido como Reconstrucción Presidencial y llevó al triunfo al candidato más radical del Partido Republicano. Durante la Reconstrucción Radical, que comenzó en 1867, los negros recién emancipadas ganaron una voz en el gobierno por primera vez en la historia de los Estados Unidos, ganando puestos importantes resultado de elecciones. Puestos en las legislaturas estatales del sur e incluso al Congreso de los EE.UU.. En menos de una década, sin embargo, las fuerzas reaccionarias-como el Ku Klux Klan-haría revertir los cambios realizados por la Reconstrucción Radical en una reacción violenta que restauró la supremacía blanca en el sur.
Some sources for you to explore:
Read the Emancipation Proclamation
Here is a good video about Lincoln's struggle with emancipation.
History.com has a good summary of the Reconstruction period. Sorry for the commercials!
Here is a great interactive timeline for Reconstruction.
PBS offers resources about the rise and fall of the Jim Crow era here.
The Library of Congress created a site with information about African Americans' experiences during the Reconstruction period here.
These resources offer information about Jim Crow laws:
Xavier and the rest of Ms. Taylor's group found a great guide to the Jim Crow laws. Thanks for sharing!
- www.statutes-of-limitations.com/news/read/a-guide-to-jim-crow-laws
- The National Park Service has a sampling of the various laws that passed organized by state:
- https://www.nps.gov/malu/learn/education/jim_crow_laws.htm
- The Smithsonian also offers a sampling of the types of laws that were passed during the Jim Crow era:
- http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/jim-crow.html
These resources offer information about Black Codes:
These resources offer information about sharecropping:
- http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/sharecropping
- http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/sharecropping/
These resources offer information about African-Americans moving West during and after Reconstruction:
- **Video #1 for PARCC task - Pap Singleton and African American "Exodusters"
- **Video #2 for PARCC task - Isaiah Montgomery and Mound Bayou
- More on Benjamin "Pap" Singleton: http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/singleton.htm
- Photo of "Exodusters" waiting for a boat to carry them Westward: http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/seven/w67i_levee.htm
- http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/seven/theexodust.htm
- http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4807
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