The Reconstruction Period (1865-1877)

Question 1

Main issues

Answer 1

Slaves are free but left without any political, economic means

Blacks wanted to integrate mainstream society

The South was occupied by Union troops: which freedom for southerners?

Question 2

3 amendments to the Constitution

Answer 2

13th abolished slavery (1865)

14th defined citizenship for all Americans (1868)

15th gave voting rights to black men (1870)

Question 3

Government intervention: the “Freedmen’s Bureau”

Answer 3

A federal agency that provided education, health, homes to black

Served as a mediator with white southerners for work contracts

First major federal intervention in favor of a particular group in the US

Backed by the military (occupation of the South until 1877)

Question 4

End of Reconstruction

Answer 4

Opposition of whites to giving more rights to blacks –> end to Reconstruction in 1877

Reconciliation between North and South seen as more important than the rights of blacks

Southern states forced the imposition of segregation as new social control of the black population (1868-1900)