Reconstruction Era
By:Cora Bledsoe
Thaddeus Stevens
- Thaddeus Stevens was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
- He was also one of the leaders of the Radical Republican faction of the Republican Party during the 1860s.
- A fierce opponent of slavery and discrimination against African-Americans, Stevens sought to secure their rights during Reconstruction.
Andrew Johnson
- 17th President of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869.
- Johnson became president as he was Vice President at the time of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination.
- A Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, Johnson came to office as the Civil War concluded. The new president favored quick restoration of the Seceded states to the Union.
Freedom's Bureau
- Was a U.S. federal government agency that aided distressed freedmen during the Reconstruction era of the United States.
- Established the Freedmen's Bureau on March 3, 1865, was initiated by President Abraham Lincoln and was intended to last for one year after the end of the Civil War.
- The Freedmen's Bureau was an important agency of the early Reconstruction.
14th Amendment
- The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.
- The amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War.
- The Fourteenth Amendment, particularly its first section, is one of the most litigated parts of the Constitution.