AIM: 4.                                                What was Reconstruction?  

 

  RECONSTRUCTION:  Name given to the period of time from the end of the Civil War, in 1865 to 1877. It was also the time when the South was to be rebuilt from the devastation of the war, be reunited into the Union, & the former slaves were to be given their rights as freed Americans.

 

  President Lincoln’s plan to reunite the South back into the United States was called the 10% Plan. It said that when 10% of the voters of a southern state pledged loyalty to the Union & they wrote a new state constitution banning slavery they could then rejoin the Union. Many members of Congress felt that this plan was too lenient on the South!

 

  However with Lincoln’s assassination, in April 1865 shortly after the war ended, many members of Congress wanted to punish the South!

 

  Andrew Johnson, the Vice President, became the new President. He tried to follow Lincoln’s 10% Plan but ran into problems with Congress who wanted to take strong steps against the South!

 

  Thirteenth Amendment: Amendment or addition to the Constitution passed in 1865, which abolished slavery. The approval of the 13th Amendment was necessary before any former Confederated state could be readmitted into the Union.

 

  Radical Republicans: Republican members of Congress who wanted to punish the South for starting the war & for the death of Lincoln. These Congressmen were also very upset that the newly freed slaves were not being given all their rights, in the South as freed people. Congress refused to permit these southern states back into the Union or permit their elected representatives to serve in Congress!

 

   Freedmen:  Name given to the newly freed slaves.

 

  Black Codes:  Name given to a series of laws passed in former Confederate states, which prevented the Freedmen from voting, serving on juries, owning guns, staying out late past a curfew hour, and other restrictions which kept them almost as slaves. These Black Codes angered Northern Congressmen even further. These Congressmen believed that the Civil War had been fought to free the slaves & now that the war was over the South was refusing to permit them to be free!

 

 

                        HOMEWORK:

Read pages 328 – 331. Do page 342 ques. 3 & 9, and pg.                                327 ques. 1,3, & 4.