Reconstruction Era
by Jasmine Cox
Thaddeus Stevens
- In 1861, Stevens became chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and helped to secure passage of the legislation needed to finance the Civil War.
- Stevens served on the crucial Joint Committee on Reconstruction in the postwar period, guiding much of its legislation, including the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing civil rights for the freedmen, through the House.
- In 1868 Stevens served on the committee that drafted the articles of impeachment against Johnson and was a manager of the case before the Senate. Johnson was acquitted in May, and Stevens died on August 11 in Washington.
14th Amendment
- The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, has generated more lawsuits than any other provision of the U.S. Constitution.
- It makes "All persons born or naturalized in the United States"citizens of the United States and citizens of the state in which they reside.
- The racist attitudes expressed in Dred Scott also manifested themselves after the Civil War.
Andrew Johnson
- Andrew Johnson was born in a log cabin in Raleigh, North Carolina, on December 29, 1808.
- Chafing under the constraints of apprenticeship, Johnson and his brother ran away from their obligation.
- In 1835, Johnson won a seat in the Tennessee state legislature. He identified himself with the Democratic policies of Andrew Jackson
Civil Rights Act of 1866
- The Civil Rights Act of 1866 (14 Stat. 27) was a momentous chapter in the development of civic equality for newly emancipated blacks in the years following the civil war
- The roots of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 are traceable to the Emancipation Proclamation, delivered by President Abraham Lincoln
- This freed the slaves when this act was passed