Reconstruction Smore
BY Gabriel Penaloza
reconstruction people
Meaning
The period (1865-1877) during which the states that had seceded to the Confederacy werecontrolled by the federal government before being readmitted to the Union.
Frederick Douglass
Hiram Revels
Oliver Otis Howard
Presidents
Abraham Lincoln
The Civil War, in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, brought to America "a new birth of freedom." And during the war began the nation's efforts to come to terms with the destruction of slavery and to define the meaning of freedom.
Andrew Johnson
Ulysses S. Grant
Reconstruction Laws
Thirteenth amendment
Fourteenth Amendment
The 14th Amendment to the US constitutuion was ratified on July 9, 1868 during the Reconstruction era. It, along with the 13th and 15th amendments are collectively known as the Reconstruction amendments. However, of those three, the 14th is the most complicated and the one that has had the more unforeseen effects. Its broad goal was to ensure that the Civil Rights Act passed in 1866 would remain valid ensuring that "all persons born in the United States...excluding Indians not taxed...." were citizens and were to be given "full and equal benefit of all laws." (Quotes from the Civil Rights Act of 1866) However, it went beyond the provisions of the Civil Rights Act in many ways.
Fifteenth Amendment
agreed by congress february, 26,1869 ; ratified and in force february, 3, 1870.
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Reconstruction effects
positive
The country was united.
Freedman were able to own land and live their lives for the first time.
Blacks legally got the right to vote.
Blacks became politically active, taking up political offices.
Black schools and universities were founded.
Negative
KKK founding
Black Codes, which led to Jim Crow
Many freedmen were killed in an attempt to "recapture" slaves.
The South faced economic turmoil caused by printing CSA bills and carpetbaggers.
The bad handling by Andrew Johnson led to his Impeachment.
Panic of 1873
A major economic reversal began in Europe and reached the United States in the fall of 1873. The signal event on this side of the Atlantic was the failure of Jay Cooke and Company, the country’s preeminent investment banking concern. The firm was the principal backer of the Norther pacific railroad and had handled most of the government’s wartime loans, using a widespread sales campaign back by advertising to sell bonds to people who had never before owned securities.
Cooke’s fall touched off a series of events that encompassed the entire nation. The New York Sock Exchange was closed for 10 days. Credit dried up, foreclosures were common and banks failed. Factories closed their doors, costing thousands of workers' jobs. The volume of destitute people soon overwhelmed the abilities of charities to function. Most of the major railroads failed.
The public tended to blame President Grant and Congress for mishandling the economy. The causes were much broader, however. The postwar period was one of frenetic, unregulated growth with the government playing no role in curbing abuses. More than any other single event, the extreme overbuilding of the nation’s railroad system laid the groundwork of the panic and the depression that followed. Recovery was not realized until 1878.
In addition to the ruined fortunes of many Americans, there developed from the Panic of 1873 bitter antagonism between workers and the leaders of banking and manufacturing. This tension would erupt into the labor unrest that marked the following decades.