Unit Five: The Civil War & Reconstruction

SSUSH8: Explore the relationship between slavery, growing north-south divisions, and westward expansion that led to the outbreak of the Civil War. d. Explain how the arose out of territorial expansion and population growth. e. Evaluate the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the failure of popular sovereignty, Scott v. Sanford, John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry, and the election of 1860 as events leading to the Civil War. SSUSH9: Evaluate key events, issues, and individuals related to the Civil War a. Explain the importance of the growing economic disparity between the North and the South through an examination of population, functioning railroads, and industrial output. b. Discuss Lincoln’s purpose in using emergency powers to suspend habeas corpus, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, and delivering the Gettysburg and Second Inaugural Addresses. c. Examine the influences of Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, William T. Sherman, and Jefferson Davis. d. Explain the importance of Fort Sumter, Antietam, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and Atlanta, as well as the impact of geography on these battles. SSUSH10: Identify legal, political, and social dimensions of Reconstruction. a. Compare and contrast Presidential with Congressional Reconstruction, including the significance of Lincoln’s assassination and Johnson’s impeachment. b. Investigate the efforts of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, & Abandoned Lands (the Freedmen’s Bureau) to support poor whites, former slaves, & Indians. c. Describe the significance of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments. d. Explain the Black Codes, the Ku Klux Klan, and other forms of resistance to racial equality during Reconstruction. e. Analyze how the Presidential Election of 1876 marked the end of Reconstruction. SSUSH13: Evaluate efforts to reform American society and politics in the Progressive Era. c. Connect the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson to the expansion of Jim Crow laws and the formation of the NAACP.

Chapter One: Roots of Conflict

California’s desire to come into the Union as a free state led to the drafting of the Compromise of 1850. It tried to make everyone happy and succeeded in pleasing almost no one. The agreement allowed California to come in as a free state, but to make the pro-slavery folks happy, the Fugitive Slave Law was toughened up—making the work of the even more important. As for the rest of the Mexican Cession, the issue of slavery was put on hold. The topic was just too controversial in Congress to even be debated, so they issued a "Gag Rule" to prevent slavery from even being discussed. (This doomed the proposed , which tried to keep slavery out of the Mexican Cession. It never made it to the floor for a vote.) In 1852, a northerner named Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a fictional account of slavery’s cruelty called Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It became an international bestseller (at one point, second only to The Bible in sales). After reading the book, people in the North wondered how the South could be so mean. People in the South wondered why people in the North could be so easily be brought to tears. Even though this book (which is still in print) didn’t start the Civil War, it did strain relations between the North and the South. Two years after Stowe’s book hit the stands, Democrat Senator from Illinois, Stephen Douglas, proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In it was a plan to do away with the and let states decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery. This is called popular sovereignty and all kinds of trouble for the Democrats resulted from it. Not only was a new antislavery political party formed during this time (called the Republican Party), but so many pro-slavery and anti-slavery men flooded into Kansas (the first to vote on the issue) that fighting broke out. For nearly ten years, hundreds of people were killed over the issue of slavery—giving the state the dubious nickname of “.” In 1857, a slave—Dred Scott—found himself alone in a free state when his owner died. He thought that since no one now “owned” him, and he was in a free state anyway, he was free. Under the law, though, he was supposed to be shipped southward to be resold. Scott sued for his freedom. It went all the way up to the Supreme Court. They ruled that Blacks were property and therefore had no rights. The court also ruled that the whole notion of free states and slave states created by the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. The Dred Scott Decision was like throwing gasoline on a fire. Tensions between the North and South grew. (By the way, Scott eventually got his freedom when he raised enough donations to buy himself. Unfortunately, he died a short time later.) Stephen Douglas ran for re-election in 1858 and was opposed by a little-known lawyer named Abraham Lincoln. Unlike today when politicians use commercials to talk to the people, Lincoln and Douglas travelled around Illinois debating the issue of the day— slavery. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates made the unknown Lincoln a national figure. The South added Lincoln to their list of worries as the abolitionist movement grew in the North. There were countless people who worked to end slavery. Some of them included William Lloyd Garrison who ran an antislavery newspaper called The Liberator and Frederick Douglass who traveled around speaking eloquently about how he escaped slavery. And, of course, there was Harriet Tubman who was called “Moses” by the slaves she led to freedom along the Underground Railroad (which was a series of safe-houses and escape routes leading to free states and not a choo-choo that went underground). Yet there were other abolitionists who had more radical and violent ideas on how to end slavery. One of them was John Brown. John Brown considered himself to be God’s agent on Earth and he decided that the only way to cleanse the country of the “original sin of slavery” was with blood. So, in 1859, Brown led a group of followers into Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. His plan was to

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seize the guns stored there at the federal arsenal. He was sure that the slaves would then rally to him and he could lead them in a massive uprising that would make Nat Turner’s Rebellion like a picnic. That way, he could destroy slavery forever. (His mistake: the slaves apparently didn’t get the memo about the uprising.) Instead, the army arrived and those who survived were put on trial for treason— including John Brown himself. A short time later he was hanged (Another mistake: rope burns are a killer). Those who thought Brown’s intentions were right sang his praises. People who thought he was nuts said good riddance. One person called him the “meteor of the war” because back then comets and shooting stars were considered signs of bad things to come. And if there is one thing that may have finally pushed America into Civil War it was John Brown’s Raid. You see, because of people like John Brown scaring the crap out of southerners, they started forming militia groups to protect themselves. Those groups formed the basis of the Confederate Army. In the 1860 Presidential election the Democrat Party was split between three sectional candidates. The Republican Party saw their chance and nominated Abraham Lincoln. He was considered a moderate in the North because he only called for the restriction of slavery, not its abolition. Lincoln wanted slavery to be kept out of the territories to prevent its spread, but he vowed not to interfere with it where it existed. However, he did feel that the current situation couldn’t last forever. He said that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” In other words, Lincoln felt that eventually the country must become all one thing, or all another—slave or free. Still, to the people in the South, he was much too radical. When Lincoln won the election in November, South Carolina voted to secede from the Union the following month. By the time Lincoln took office in March of 1861, seven states had left the Union. By June, four more were gone, including Virginia where the newly elected President of the Confederate States of America (Jefferson Davis) had his capital in Richmond. (Maryland was going to vote on secession, but Lincoln had those in favor of it locked up so they couldn’t do it. Otherwise, Washington would’ve been in enemy territory. This was an example of how Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the crisis.) The “border states” of Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware, and (later) West Virginia still had slaves, but didn’t join the Confederacy.

Chapter Two: The Civil War Begins

In the middle of Charleston Harbor sat Fort Sumter. South Carolina told the Union forces within to get out. They refused and in the pre-dawn darkness of April 12, 1861 (at exactly 4:30am), the South opened fire on Fort Sumter and the Civil War began. After over thirty hours of bombardment, and with no help coming, the Union soldiers in Fort Sumter surrendered. The South won its first victory and, ironically, no one was killed. It was a bloodless opening to the bloodiest war in American history. One of the reasons why the Civil War cost so many lives was because the tactics both sides used were way behind the times. Technology was far in advance of what the generals were planning. They still lined up their men like the British did at Bunker Hill and marched into the guns—which were now much more accurate and could be reloaded a whole lot faster. Disease was another factor. In fact, more people died of illness than on the battlefield during the Civil War because they didn’t even know that it was a good idea to wash your hands before cutting off a limb or digging into a wound in search of a bullet. Another, less tangible reason for the high casualty rates was simply because the fighting was vicious. Like all fights within a family, it was personal and thus harder for either side to give in to the other.

Chapter Three: Robert E. Lee

The “best soldier” Abraham Lincoln had in 1861 was Robert E. Lee of Virginia. He offered Lee command of the Union army, but the offer was refused. Lee’s reason had everything to do with sectionalism. He believed himself to be a Virginian first and everything else second. Though Lee thought the break-up of the Union was a bad idea (and he said he’d “sacrifice everything but honor” for its preservation), he simply couldn’t fight against his state (or, as he called it, his “country”). Lee left the Union army and joined the Confederacy. A couple years later, Lee’s plantation across the Potomac River from Washington was confiscated and turned it into Arlington National Cemetery—this nation’s most hallowed ground. (Hallowed means something’s sacred.) Lee never returned home.

Chapter Four: Stonewall Jackson

Thomas J. Jackson was a teacher at the Virginia Military Institute when the Civil War broke out, but soon became Robert E. Lee’s right hand man. During the first major battle of the war at Manassas, Virginia, his men held their ground while others retreated. One person shouted to his retreating men that Jackson was “standing like a stone wall” and the name Stonewall Jackson became a part of history. (By the way, the Battle of Manassas is also known as the Battle of Bull Run. A lot of Civil War battles have two names. Southerners named their battles for nearby towns while the North named theirs for nearby rivers. Manassas was the town next to Bull Run Creek. See how it works?) At the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1862, Lee gained his “most brilliant victory” by defeating a much larger Union Army. Stonewall Jackson and his officers were planning a night attack when nervous Confederates fired on the group. (Can you blame them? What would you do if you heard a bunch of soldiers coming out of the dark at you?) Jackson was wounded twice 2

in the left arm and had to have it amputated. He died of pneumonia a few days later. (Remember how disease killed more people than bullets?)

Chapter Five: George McClellan

General George McClellan was only thirty-five years old when he was given command of the entire Union Army. Unfortunately, once he got his forces trained and disciplined enough to fight, he was reluctant to do any fighting. He arrogantly refused to obey Lincoln’s orders and once made a comment that the President was nothing more than a “baboon” (that’s a monkey, in case you didn’t know). Finally, after much prodding, McClellan moved his thousands of troops against the outnumbered Confederates in Virginia. McClellan complained that he didn’t have enough men and moved cautiously. (Some of McClellan’s own men started calling him “the Virginia Creeper” because he was slow to attack.) When he finally reached the outskirts of Richmond (the Confederate capital), Robert E. Lee attacked and McClellan backed away faster than a cat from a bulldog. Refusing to put up much of a fight, McClellan retreated back to where he started. His whole campaign was a waste of time, men, and resources. Some of his own commanders stated that McClellan was motivated by “cowardice or treason.” (After the Battle of Antietam in 1862, he was removed from command. He then ran for President as a Democrat in 1864 against his old boss—Abraham Lincoln, the guy who fired him.)

Chapter Six: Shiloh

Union forces were pushing their way through Tennessee when they slammed into a large Confederate force at Pittsburg Landing near a meetinghouse called Shiloh. For two days, both sides slugged it out until the southern army withdrew (whoever leaves first, loses). People were horrified by the reports of 20,000 dead and wounded, but it was only the beginning—there were bigger battles to come. Before Shiloh, many felt the war would be wrapped up quickly. Union General Ulysses S. Grant thought the South was ready to give up, but after his victory at Shiloh, he realized in order to win the war they’d have conquer the South itself. Shiloh—a Hebrew word for “place of peace”—changed people’s perception of the war and made them realize that it was going to be very bloody affair.

Chapter Seven: Antietam

The North was losing the Civil War. By the summer of 1862, Union generals found themselves generally outgeneraled by Confederate generals. It also seemed more and more likely that Britain (who liked cotton a lot) was going to side with the South. Lincoln needed to change the focus of the war from one of simply preserving the Union to something “more noble.” He needed to make it not about restoring the Union as it was, but making it as it should be. He told his Cabinet that he had decided to emancipate the slaves. This would not only give the Northern army a “higher cause” to fight for, but also prevent European countries from siding with the South since doing so would make them look like they supported slavery. (England freed their slaves in 1825.) Lincoln’s Cabinet was surprised by his decision and Secretary of State William Seward worried about the timing. Since they were losing more battles than they won, claiming that the North was now freeing the slaves would seem like a desperate move. They’d look foolish if they couldn’t back up what they said with a victory. So, Lincoln agreed to wait. A few months later, Robert E. Lee invaded Union territory and was met by a larger army led by our old friend George McClellan at Sharpsburg, Maryland, along Antietam Creek. (McClellan knew what Lee was planning to do because battle plans were accidentally left behind and captured by Union soldiers. Yet, true to his nature, McClellan did nothing about it.) When the battle ended, there were 27,000 dead and wounded on the field. The Battle of Antietam was the “bloodiest day in American history,” but Lincoln could claim it as a victory since Lee retreated back into Virginia. The “victory” at Antietam allowed Abraham Lincoln to issue his Emancipation Proclamation. Many people think it freed the slaves. It actually didn’t free anyone. The document stated that only those slaves in areas under control of the Confederacy were free. And since Lincoln had no say in what happened in those areas, no one was actually freed. It wasn’t until the 13th Amendment was ratified that slavery was officially outlawed in this country. (There’s an unofficial holiday to celebrate “Emancipation Day.” It’s called “” and it marks the date that slaves in Texas first heard about their emancipation: June 19, 1865—2½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.)

Chapter Eight: Gettysburg

The largest battle of the Civil War started over shoes. (It was rumored that there was a supply of shoes in the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the Confederates went there to get them.) For three days (July 1-3, 1863) thousands of Americans killed each other in droves. By the end of the first day the North held the high ground including two hills on their left flank—the Big and Little Round

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Tops. (A flank, by the way, is a side.) On the second day of the battle, the Confederates tried to get around the Union left flank by attacking a small force stationed on Little Round Top. Union Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (a college professor by trade) was ordered to hold his ground at all costs. (If the Confederates had gotten around Chamberlain’s position, the whole Union Army might have been routed and they were the only ones between Lee’s men and Washington DC.) All day Chamberlain held his ground, but then he ran low on men and ammunition. To the surprise of everyone, he ordered his men to charge down the hill at the attacking Confederates—who quickly ran for their lives. By holding his ground at Little Round Top, Chamberlain effectively saved the Union. On the third and final day of the battle, Robert E. Lee ordered an all-out assault on the Union center. Confederate General George Pickett sent his 10,000 men on what became a suicide march across open ground into the guns of the enemy. Pickett’s Charge, as it became known, was a failure. It was also the turning point of the war. From that time, the South began to lose the Civil War. Later in the year, the residents of Gettysburg created a large cemetery to handle all the dead. Lincoln was invited to the dedication service and asked to say “a few appropriate words.” His speech—known as the Gettysburg Address—began “Four score and seven years ago…” (which is 87 years) and told the nation why they were fighting the war and what was still left to do. They needed to finish the job, he said, or the men who died would’ve done so for nothing. It was a noble cause, he asserted, to fight to preserve a government that was “for the people [and] by the people.” Lincoln speech at Gettysburg is one of the most famous in history.

Chapter Nine: Vicksburg

The town of Vicksburg, Mississippi, was called the “key to the Confederacy.” As long as the South held the city, the Mississippi River couldn’t be completely open to Union forces. For months, Union General Ulysses S. Grant laid siege to the city. The civilians inside dug caves in the hillsides to escape the shelling. Subsequently, Union soldiers started calling Vicksburg “prairie dog town.” Eventually, the city surrendered and Grant marched into the city on July 4, 1863, the same day that Robert E. Lee retreated from Gettysburg. (The reason Lee marched into Pennsylvania in the first place was to try to draw Grant away from Vicksburg. Didn’t work.) Vicksburg was the “nail that held the two sides of the Confederacy together” and when it fell, the South was divided. The Mississippi River had become a Union highway and Ulysses S. Grant had become a Northern hero. (Vicksburg’s loss was so depressing that the town wouldn’t celebrate the 4th of July again until 1944.)

Chapter Ten: Grant Takes Command

After his victories in the West, Abraham Lincoln gave Grant command of the entire Union Army. The new commander’s strategy was simple: destroy the South’s ability to make war. He sent William T. Sherman through Georgia (more on that later) and Grant went after Lee’s army himself. One of the things that made Grant different from the Union commanders who came before him was that even though he might lose a battle, he kept moving southward. Before Grant came along, Union generals would retreat after a loss. Grant knew that even though the South could have won the war at first with their superior generals (Lee, Jackson, etc.), they could never have won with superior numbers. The North had more people than the South (as well as a strong manufacturing base) and the cruel fact was that Grant could afford to lose more soldiers than Lee could. So, using his numeric superiority to his advantage, Grant wore Lee down by being constantly on the attack. (Historian Shelby Foote said Grant won the war with his “superior numbers and doggedness.”)

Chapter Eleven: Election of 1864

Known as “Copperheads” (because some wore copper pennies on their lapels), Northern “Peace Democrats” called for an end to the war “with or without victory.” The Democrats favored negotiating a peace treaty with the Confederacy (leaving the slaves in bondage) and nominated a young guy who looked good and spoke well to be their candidate: George McClellan. Things did not look promising for the Republicans that year. The summer of 1864 was the “North’s darkest hour” with Sherman stuck outside Atlanta and Grant’s army stopped at Petersburg, just short of Richmond. Lincoln was sure he was going to be beaten in the fall election and some Republican leaders wanted to kick him off the ballot and pick someone else. Something needed to happen to turn things around. That “something” occurred right before the election when William T. Sherman was able to break the stalemate and take Atlanta. The fall of Atlanta was key to Lincoln being re-elected. (He was the first President since Jackson to win a second term.)

Chapter Twelve: Sherman’s March to the Sea

William T. Sherman had an idea. He planned to cut all ties with the rest of the Union Army and march his men all the way from Atlanta to Savannah. Some thought he was crazy (which wasn’t too far from the truth), but Sherman assured Grant and Lincoln

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that he could do it and “make Georgia howl.” So, in November of 1864, Sherman left Atlanta burning and marched his 62,000 men towards the sea. They were divided into two columns and left a sixty-mile-wide path of destruction in their wake. They burned supplies, tore up railroad lines, and basically took Georgia out of the war. In December, Sherman’s men took Savannah but didn’t destroy it (which is why it’s one of the few southern cities with pre-Civil War structures still intact today). On the 25th, Sherman sent a telegram to Lincoln giving him the city as a Christmas gift. He then took his troops up into South Carolina. That state got it even worse than Georgia did. “This is where secession began,” a Union soldier exclaimed, “and this is where it will end.” Before leaving Georgia, Sherman had to find a way of dealing with the thousands of escaped slaves that were flocking to his army. He didn’t have to supplies to feed them, nor the men to guard them from Confederate guerrillas, and they were impeding his march. So, he came up with the idea of confiscating land from southern plantations, dividing them up into forty-acre plots, and giving them to the former slaves. This became known as the “40 acres and a mule” plan. Unfortunately for the people who thought they were getting a farm of their own, the federal government later reversed Sherman’s order citing the 4th and 5th Amendments’ seizure provisions.

Chapter Thirteen: End of the War

As Union troops tore through the Confederacy, Abraham Lincoln made plans for the end of the war. In his second inaugural address, he talked about the nation binding up its wounds and coming back together. He knew that the nation needed time to heal, and Lincoln didn’t want to increase the resentment of the South by treating them like a conquered enemy. All the South had to do to rejoin the Union, he told them, was to lay down their guns and go home. (And, of course, obey the 13th Amendment.) Unfortunately for Lincoln (and the South), he wouldn’t get a chance to implement his plans. In March of 1865, Grant was able to finally take Richmond. What was left of the Confederate army fled westward while Jefferson Davis attempted to get away by heading southward. (He was captured on May 10th in Irwinville, Georgia.) Lee found was surrounded on all sides by two Union armies as he approached Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. He surrendered to Grant on April 9th. This surrender did not officially end the Civil War (like Yorktown did not officially end the American Revolution), but for all intents and purposes, it was over. One by one, what was left of the Confederate military surrendered to Union forces. (On a side note, there was a Virginia farmer named Wilbur McLean who owned the land where in 1861 the Battle of Manassas took place. Afterwards, he moved his family away from the fighting—he hoped—to a little town along the Appomattox River. By chance, his house was chosen to host Lee’s surrender to Grant four years later. Wilbur McLean could therefore rightly claim that the “Civil War began on my front yard and ended in my front parlor.”)

Chapter Fourteen: Assassination

On April 14th, Abraham Lincoln decided to celebrate the end of the fighting by going with Ulysses S. Grant and his wife to see the popular stage show Our American Cousin playing just down the street from the White House at Ford’s Theater. When actor John Wilkes Booth (a southern sympathizer) heard about Lincoln’s plans, he made some of his own. Booth and his group of followers planned to take out the whole Union leadership in one night. Booth would kill Lincoln and Grant while another one of his group would kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and another would take out Secretary of State William Seward (who was resting at home in a neck brace after almost being killed in a carriage accident). Grant didn’t go to the theater with Lincoln that night (Grant’s wife couldn’t stand Lincoln’s wife—who was, let’s face it, a little crazy) so Lincoln was Booth’s only target when he snuck up behind the President and shot him in the back of the head with a small pistol. Booth then leaped from the President’s box (about a ten-foot drop) to the stage below. He caught his spur in a draped flag and landed oddly—breaking his left leg. Booth shouted something, though no one is certain what. Some in the audience thought he said “The South is avenged!” while others heard him call out “Sic Semper Tyrannis” (Virginia’s state motto). As Booth ran (or, limped, rather) from the stage, chaos broke out in the theater. A doctor in the audience reached Lincoln and though the President was still breathing, his wound was pronounced mortal. They carried Lincoln across the street to an apartment and laid him across a bed that was a little too small for the tall man. Lincoln died the next morning. Secretary of War Stanton said that “now he belongs to the ages”—meaning that Lincoln had become a part of the fabric of American history. (In a little bit of trivia, Booth visited a friend days before the assassination in that same apartment that Lincoln died in. The actor found himself becoming quite tired, so Booth’s friend offered the use of his bed for a nap and Booth did so. It was on that very same bed that Lincoln would be placed a few days later. Cue the Twilight Zone music!) Booth had another victim that night as well. When Grant couldn't make it to the theater, Lincoln asked Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancé, Clara Harris, to accompany the President and Mrs. Lincoln. After Booth shot Lincoln, Rathbone—who was sitting in the same box with the President—was slashed by the knife Booth had in his other hand. Rathbone eventually recovered from his wounds—physically that is. Mentally, Rathbone was never the same. Eighteen years later, he stabbed

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Clara to death with a similar knife and then went after their three children (who escaped). Rathbone spent the rest of his life in a mental institution. By the way, if you’re wondering what happened to the other folks in Booth’s group, the one who was to kill Johnson chickened out. The other guy actually stormed into Seward’s home, ran up the stairs, leaped on the bed where the Secretary of State was resting and started stabbing him in the neck with a knife. After a several blows, the man ran from the house (he was captured a few minutes later). Seward survived the attack because the neck brace he was wearing shielded his neck from the knife! (Almost dying saved his life.)

Chapter Fifteen: Aftermath

John Wilkes Booth fled southward after the assassination of Lincoln, but Union troops caught up with him a couple weeks later and set fire to the barn he was hiding in. When that didn’t smoke him out, a soldier shot him in the neck and they dragged him out the barn. Paralyzed and bleeding to death, Booth asked to have his hands raised. They held them up and he looked at them. Booth’s last words were “Useless, useless.” (It’s open to interpretation what he meant by that.) As 1865 came to a close, the remnants of the Confederacy faded away. When it was all said and done, 620,000 Americans were dead. That’s more than all the other wars this country has fought—combined. There wasn’t a single family by 1865 who wasn’t in some way touched by the Civil War. The destruction was unimaginable, but it made America what it is today. That’s what historian Shelby Foote meant when he said that the Civil War was the “crossroads of our being.” Before the Civil War, people used to say “the United States are…” Now we say “the United States is…” That’s was the Civil War did. It made us an “is.” Unfortunately for the freed slaves, life did not improve for very long. The government’s Reconstruction programs and civil rights laws tried to help, but as time passed and people became more interested in other things, those ideals were forgotten. (Americans have a short attention span. Wait! Who said that? Uh…what were we talking about? ) The Democrats who ruled before the Civil War came back into power throughout the old Confederacy and did their best to undo every reform. It would take another hundred years before Blacks won back the rights so many had died for during those four years of war.

Chapter Sixteen: Reconstruction

As the Civil War came to an end, Abraham Lincoln planned on how to bring the South back into the Union. His ideas—known as Presidential Reconstruction—were continued for a while by Andrew Johnson. This form of Reconstruction was easy on the South (the thinking being that Southerners would be less likely to resent losing the war if they weren’t treated as a conquered people). The government’s first-ever relief agency, the Freedman’s Bureau, was set up to help ex-slaves with employment, education (like Morehouse College), etc., and new state constitutions were written accepting the 13th Amendment. After radical Republicans in Congress (determined to punish the South for the Civil War) took control, Congressional Reconstruction (or, as it’s sometimes called, Radical Reconstruction) began. Again, new state constitutions were written—this time accepting the 14th and 15th Amendments as well—and effectively kicking out ex-Confederates from state offices. Any state not doing as it was told was placed under martial law. Federal troops occupied southern states until they learned to behave and follow the new rules. All the states of the Confederacy went through Radical Reconstruction except for Tennessee. (Perhaps it’s just a coincidence that Andrew Johnson happened to be from Tennessee.) The last southern state to go through Reconstruction was South Carolina (they were stubborn to the end). However, federal laws are still in effect today that has Washington keeping a close eye on the South to make sure it isn’t being naughty again. As Reconstruction began, a new social order started in the South. Those southerners who “collaborated” with the North during this time were labeled as “scalawags.” Those northerners who traveled to the South for the purpose of exploiting the chaotic situation were called “carpetbaggers”—named for the fabric their luggage was made out of. (This term is still used today whenever a politician moves to an area just to get elected. Hillary Clinton in 2000 and Robert Kennedy in 1968 were both called carpetbaggers for moving to New York just to run for the Senate.)

Chapter Seventeen: Johnson’s Impeachment

Andrew Johnson was a southerner and therefore not trusted by the radical Republicans in Congress. Lincoln put him on the ticket in 1864 to show unity, but Johnson didn’t make a good first impression when he showed up drunk for his inauguration as Vice President. (In fairness, he hadn’t been drinking. He had a cold and tried to get rid of it before the ceremony by taking a lot of medicine. Medications back then were mostly alcohol and Johnson received a snoot full.)

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Johnson was not in favor of punishing the South and he kept vetoing Congress’ efforts to do so. Congress would then override his vetoes. Finally, the radicals had enough and passed a law they knew Johnson would not obey. It was called the Tenure of Office Act and it said that the President couldn’t fire anybody unless Congress approved. Since the President can fire anyone from the Executive Branch anytime he wants, this was obviously unconstitutional (and the courts would strike it down later) and Johnson vetoed it. Congress overrode his veto. Johnson, proving a point, fired his Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton (a radical who proceeded to barricade himself in his office and refused to leave). Congress now had their excuse and impeached him. In the trial that followed, Johnson was acquitted by only one vote. (He remained in office for the rest of Lincoln’s term, but he got the message and Congress did as it pleased. Johnson’s administration is perhaps best remembered for buying Alaska from Russia. People laughed at Secretary of State William Seward’s deal and called it “Seward’s Folly.” Then gold and oil were discovered there. Who’s laughing now?)

Chapter Eighteen: End of Reconstruction

Reconstruction finally came to an end after the disputed election of 1876. When the electoral votes were tallied on election night, Democrat Samuel Tilden appeared to have won the election. However, there were about twenty disputed electoral votes in the South (ex-Confederates weren’t supposed to vote under Radical Reconstruction, but they did). A committee was set up to determine who got those electoral votes. After much debate and controversy, the committee gave most of the electoral votes to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes (pronounced “ruh-ther-furd”) which meant that Tilden ended up losing by just one vote. According to many, Hayes made a promise to the Democrats who controlled the South in order to win the election. Known as the Compromise of 1877, Hayes made good on his promise and ended Reconstruction shortly after being sworn into office.

Chapter Nineteen: Setbacks for Blacks

Almost all of the hard work to bring civil rights to ex-slaves was pretty much forgotten in the rush for a new prosperity after the Civil War. As Reconstruction governments headed by Republicans were voted out, and Democrats took over, Blacks were finding themselves being forced back into a second-class status. At first, the South passed Black Codes to keep Blacks, as they put it, “in their place.” Under these rules, for example, Blacks couldn’t quit their job for a better one, and any ex-slave without a job would be arrested, fined for loitering, and forced to work to pay off their fine. These new rules were brutally enforced at times by a new organization called the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was the militant arm of the Democrat party. They terrorized citizens (both Black and White) with lynchings (murder by hanging), cross-burnings (which makes no sense at all unless someone brings marshmallows), and dressing up in bed sheets (supposedly to represent the ghosts of Confederate soldiers). They were (and are) murderous thugs who believe in the supremacy of the White race. Of course, no race is superior to another, and that’s proven by the fact that people of all races still watch the weirdness on MSNBC. (You know, it makes one wonder why so many people associate the Democrats with civil rights when they were the ones who drove it from the South after Reconstruction for the next hundred years.) Black Codes were the forerunner of what were collectively known as Jim Crow Laws. There wasn’t a person named Jim Crow, it’s just that in the late 1800s there was a popular stage show character named Jim Crow and the name became synonymous with segregation laws (crows being black in color, you see). Jim Crow Laws were meant to keep Blacks and Whites apart (this is what segregation does) with such rules as having separate schools, drinking fountains, entrances to theaters, etc. Eventually the Supreme Court ruled in the Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896 that segregation was legal as long as everything was equal. Plessy v. Ferguson’s “separate but equal” ruling would eventually be overturned in 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education case (because, the court ruled, things cannot be both separate and equal.) In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was created with the help of Book T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois. These two civil rights leaders had differing views on how Blacks could advance in society. Dubois believed that they should be more confrontational in their struggle to obtain civil rights. This ran counter to Booker T. Washington’s belief that Blacks should “uplift themselves” through educational and economic advancement. To this end, the NAACP worked to get obstacles (such as legalized segregation) out of people’s way.

Unit Five: Essential Questions

1) What did the Wilmot Proviso try (but failed) to keep out of the Mexican Cession? 2) What free state came into the Union because of the Compromise of 1850? 3) What policy did the Kansas-Nebraska Act create that led to more tensions between the North and South? 4) What anti-slavery newspaper did William Lloyd Garrison publish? 7

5) Who was Frederick Douglass? 6) What did the Dred Scott Decision declare unconstitutional? 7) What did John Brown hope to achieve by raiding Harper’s Ferry? 8) What was President Lincoln saying about the Civil War in his second inaugural address? 9) Who was Jefferson Davis? 10) What do the battles of Antietam, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and Atlanta have in common? 11) Why did Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863? 12) What was the major difference between the North and the South throughout the Civil War? 13) What was the difference between Presidential Reconstruction & Radical (Congressional) Reconstruction? 14) What was the Freedmen’s Bureau? 15) What Reconstruction Amendment ended slavery? 16) Why did the Democrats form the Ku Klux Klan? 17) Why was Andrew Johnson impeached? 18) What did the Compromise of 1877 end? 19) Who created the NAACP along with Booker T. Washington? 20) How were Jim Crow Laws effected by the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson? 21) Who was the leader of the Union Army that won the Civil War?

Unit Five: Key Terms

Appomattox Court House: location of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to the Union Army (April 10, 1865) black codes: laws passed by in the South following the Civil War to restrict the economic, political, and social growth of Blacks border states: slave-holding states who chose to stay with the Union during the Civil War Brown v. Board of Education: 1954 case in which ruled that racial segregation in schools was a violation of the 14th Amendment Compromise of 1850: federal legislation that allowed the people of a state to determine if the state would be free or slave Confederate States of America: alliance of 11 southern states that seceded from the Union following the election of Lincoln in 1860 Emancipation Proclamation: (January 1, 1863) decree by President Lincoln freeing all slaves held within the Confederacy Fifteenth Amendment: ratified in 1870; enfranchised, or gave the vote to, black men First Reconstruction Act: divided the South into military districts, granted Black voting rights, & disenfranchised Confederate leaders Fort Sumter: (April 12, 1861) opening battle of the Civil War Fourteenth Amendment: (1868) granted citizenship to all male Americans, regardless of race, color, or previous servitude Freedmen’s Bureau: government agency established after the Civil War to help freed slaves find jobs and education Fugitive Slave Law of 1793: allowed owners to reclaim runaway slaves Fugitive Slave Law of 1850: obligated individuals to assist in the capture of runaway slaves Gettysburg Address: Lincoln’s speech to commemorate the new cemetery at Gettysburg, conveying the need to preserve the Union. grandfather clause: refers to laws passed by southern states that disenfranchised Blacks following the Civil War by only allowing those blacks to vote whose grandfathers could vote prior to passage of the 14th Amendment Jim Crow laws: late 19th century legislation that established the political, economic, and social separation of races Kansas-Nebraska Act: 1854 legislation that allowed people in Kansas & Nebraska to decide if their states would be free or slave Ku Klux Klan: group whose goal was to run Union troops and carpetbaggers out of the South so Democrats could regain control literacy test: reading and civics test devised by southern legislatures to disenfranchise black voters poll taxes: a set of taxes established by southern states in the late 1800s with the intent of disenfranchising blacks Radical Republicans: post-Civil War Republican congressmen who sought Reconstruction legislation that punished the South Reconstruction: a federal plan for social, economic, and political change in the former Confederacy following the Civil War secede: to leave a union of states Thirteenth Amendment: (1865) amendment to the Constitution that abolished slavery

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