USH: 4.1: Reconstruction, Rebuilding the South

DRILL: Manifest Destiny & Forty-Niners 
Manifest Destiny – an idea that the U.S. was meant to expand across the continent 
Forty-Niners - In 1849, gold-seekers came to California during Gold Rush.

OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to analyze the effects that the end of the Civil War had on southern life by comparing and contrasting the views of Lincoln, Congress, and Andrew Johnson about Reconstruction.

Notes:
1. In 1865, After the South’s surrender, the U.S. government began Reconstruction
2. President Lincoln wanted to offer amnesty— or a pardon for illegal acts—
3. Many Republican members of Congress disagreed with Lincoln’s plan. 
4. In 1865 the states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which made slavery illegal 
5. In 1865 Congress also set up the Freedmen’s Bureau to help poor people in the South & was created by Congress
6. In April 1865, President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.
7. Andrew Johnson became the next president, and his vision for Reconstruction was similar in many ways to Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan.

Odds & Ends
1. The Emancipation Proclamation had freed slaves only in the Confederate states that had been unoccupied by Union forces.
2. After the Civil War, southerners had to deal with farms and cities that had been destroyed.
3. At its high point the Freedmen’s Bureau had about 900 agents to help all poor people in the South.
4. One of the greatest successes of the Freedmen’s Bureau was in creating public schools in the South.
5. Benjamin Wade and Henry Davis disagreed with Abraham Lincoln on how best to bring the southern states back into the Union.
6. Homer Plessy, shoe maker lived in New Orleans, Civil Right activists. Sued the government over segregation (Plessy v. Ferguson)
USH: 4.1: Reconstruction, Rebuilding the South

1. d 		6. b
2. d 		7. b
3. d 		8. a
4. c 		9. a
5. c 		10. b
11. Thirteenth Amendment: this amendment made slavery illegal in the U.S. & the Freedman’s Bureau was an organization set up by Congress to help poor people in the South after the Civil War
12. Many white southerners found their homes ruined and their relatives dead. Former slaves were free to travel, and so they reunited with their families, starting new communities and churches.	13. Lincoln’s Plan called for offering amnesty to southerners who promised loyalty to the United States and opposed slavery. If 10 percent of a state’s voters made this pledge, then that state could rejoin the Union. President Johnson gave amnesty to all southerners who pledged loyalty to the Union and promised to support the abolition of slavery. He also set rules for establishing new state governments.
14. The bureau helped poor southerners, both black and white, by providing food, shelter, legal assistance, medical care, and education.	

PRIMARY SOURCE
1. the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments
2. that it does not have a tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races or to reestablish slavery
3. to enforce the equality of the two races before the law; to enforce social equality, abolish distinctions based on color, or require commingling of the races 
4. the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority 
5. almost 60 years

Summary: In today’s lesson, we analyzed the effects the Civil War had on southern life, we also compared and contrasted the views of Lincoln, and Johnson verses Congress, on Reconstruction.

Homework:
Reconstruction & Amnesty
Reconstruction - is the process of reuniting the nation and rebuilding the southern states without slavery
Amnesty - is a pardon for illegal acts.

Name __________________________ Class _______________ Date ________________

USHX  4 .1 Reconstruction, Rebuilding the South
MULTIPLE CHOICE  For each of the following, write the letter of the best choice in the space provided.
CHAPTER

______ 1. The Freedmen’s Bureau was created by
a. President Andrew Johnson.
b. the Supreme Court.
c. President Abraham Lincoln.
d. Congress.
______ 2. Following the war, freed people did all of the following EXCEPT
a. hold ceremonies to legalize marriages not recognized under slavery.
b. take new last names.
c. search for their relatives.
d. move from mostly black counties to places with more white people.
______ 3. President Andrew Johnson’s plan for Reconstruction
a. pardoned all northerners who took a loyalty oath and accepted slavery.
b. required southern states to accept a constitution written by Congress.
c. won instant congressional approval. 
d. was similar in many ways to Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan.
______ 4. The Thirteenth Amendment
a. outlawed civil wars within the boundaries of the United States.
b. created the death penalty for people who assassinated a U.S. president.
c. made slavery illegal throughout the United States.
d. gave amnesty to all southerners.
______ 5. The Emancipation Proclamation
a. was declared illegal in 1865.
b. made it illegal for northerners to discriminate against southerners.
c. had freed slaves only in the Confederate states that had been unoccupied by Union forces.
d. abolished the Thirteenth Amendment.
______ 6. After the Civil War,
a. life for southerners was exactly as it was before the Civil War.
b. southerners had to deal with farms and cities that had been destroyed.
c. southerners found it easier to travel because Union troops had built railroads throughout the South.
d. banks thrived because Confederate money was accepted everywhere.
______ 7. At its high point the Freedmen’s Bureau had about 900 agents to help
a. African Americans in the North.
b. all poor people in the South.
c. poor white people in the South.
d. poor white people in the North.
______ 8. One of the greatest successes of the Freedmen’s Bureau was in 
a. creating public schools in the South.
b. finding northern factory jobs for all freed people who wanted them.
c. helping freed people who wished to move to other countries.
d. helping freed people keep land given to them by the U.S. government.
______ 9. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by
a. John Wilkes Booth.
b. Alexander Stephens.
c. Benjamin Wade.
d. Gideon Welles.
______10. Benjamin Wade and Henry Davis disagreed with Abraham Lincoln on
a. whether or not freed people should be permitted to move to other states.
b. how best to bring the southern states back into the Union.
c. how to encourage white planters to give up their land to freed people.
d. whether slavery should be abolished.

11. Identify:Thirteenth Amendment & the Freedman’s Bureau: 

12. How did life in the South change after the Civil War?

13. What were Lincoln & Johnson’s plans for Reconstruction?

14. What did the Freedmen’s Bureau do for poor southerners?

USHX  4 .1 Reconstruction, Rebuilding the South
PRIMARY SOURCE READING Plessy v.  Ferguson
In 1890  Louisiana passed a law requiring “separate-but-equal” passenger cars for black and white railroad travelers. In 1892 Homer Plessy, an African American man, was arrested for attempting to ride in a car reserved for white travelers. When lower courts upheld the law, Plessy appealed his case—calledPlessy v.  Ferguson—to the Supreme Court. In 1896 the Court ruled 7-1 against him. Justice Henry Brown wrote for the majority in the case. For almost 60 years both northern and southern states used this decision to continue a system of legal segregation. As you read the excerpt, consider how Justice Brown views the purpose of legislation as well as the content of a specific law.

The constitutionality of this act is attacked  upon the ground that it conflicts both with the Thirteenth  amendment of the Constitution, abolishing slavery, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits certain restrictive legislation  on the part of the States. . . . A statute [law] which implies merely a legal   distinction between the white and colored races . . . founded in the color of the two races . . . has notendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races, or re-establish a state of involuntary servant de [slavery]. . . . [T]he Thirteenth Amendment is . . . relied upon by the plaintiff [Homer Plessy] in error in this connection. . . .  
The object of the [Fourteenth Amendment] was  undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, b t . . . it co ld not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political, equality, or a commingling of the two races  upon terms unsatisfactory to either. Laws permitting, and even requiring, their separation . . .  do not necessarily imply the inferiority of either race to the other. . . . 
We consider the  underlying fallacy [weakness] of the plaintiff’s argument  to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority.  f this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act. . . . 
The argument also assumes that social prejudices may be overcome by legislation, and that equal rights can-not be sec red to the negro except by an enforced commingling [interaction] of the two races. We cannot accept this proposition. 

UNDERSTANDING WHAT YOU READ 
1. What parts of the U.S. Constitution did Homer Plessy believe the separate passenger cars law violated?

2. What does Justice Brown say about a law that implies “merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races”?

3. What does Justice Brown say is the object of the Fourteenth Amendment? What does he say is not its purpose?

4. What does the majority opinion say is the  underlying weakness of Plessy’s argument?

5. How long was the majority decision in Plessy v. Ferguson used by states to uphold segregation laws?

In your own words, summarize today’s lesson.