Lesson 1: Early Reconstruction Flashcards
Amnesty Definition
a government pardon
Freedmen Definition
the men and women who had been enslaved
Freedmen’s Bureau Definition
a government agency founded during Reconstruction to help former slaves
Reconstruction Definition
the rebuilding of the South after the Civil War
Ten Percent Plan Definition
the Reconstruction plan endorsed by Lincoln that allowed a southern state to form a new government after 10 percent of its voters swore an oath of loyalty to the United States
Thirteenth Amendment Definition
an 1865 amendment to the United States Constitution that banned slavery throughout the nation
Wade-Davis Bill Definition
an 1864 plan for Reconstruction that denied the right to vote or hold office to anyone who had volunteered to fight for the Confederacy
What were some social, economic, and political problems the North faced after the War?
Despite their victory, northerners faced a number of economic problems. Some 800,000 returning Union soldiers needed jobs. The government was canceling its war orders, and factories were laying off workers. Still, the North’s economic disruption was only temporary. Boom times quickly returned. The North lost more soldiers in the war than the South did. However, only a few battles had taken place on northern soil. Northern farms and cities were hardly touched. One returning Union soldier remarked, “It seemed … as if I had been away only a day or two, and had just taken up … where I had left off.” However, thousands of soldiers suffered wounds from the war, many of which included missing limbs and other painful injuries. The North faced political problems, too. There was disagreement about how to bring the South back into the Union and what to do with newly freed African Americans. Many wanted to punish southerners for what they had done, while others wanted a more moderate approach.
What were some social, economic, and political problems the South faced after the Civil War?
Economic conditions in the South were far worse than in the North. Confederate soldiers had little chance of taking up where they had left off. In some areas, every house, barn, and bridge had been destroyed. Two thirds of the South’s railroad tracks had been turned into twisted heaps of scrap. The cities of Columbia, Richmond, and Atlanta had been leveled. The war wrecked the South’s financial system. After the war, Confederate money was worthless. People who had loaned money to the Confederacy were never repaid. Many southern banks closed, and depositors lost their savings. The war changed southern society forever. Almost overnight, there was a new class of nearly four million people known as freedmen—men and women who had been enslaved. Under slavery, they had been forbidden to own property and to learn to read or write. What would become of them? How could the South cope with this sudden, drastic change? These economic and social problems combined with political problems. It was unclear how the southern states would run their governments. There were not yet legal systems in place to protect African Americans, and many white southerners feared African Americans gaining political power. Also, many white politicians who had held office in the Confederacy were forbidden from politics.
What happened to the economic differences between the South and the North after the War?
Overall, the economic differences between the agrarian South and industrial North increased after the war. The northern economy picked up, while the South struggled to rebuild. Many southerners resented northerners coming in to “fix” southern problems, and the ruined economy made recovery especially hard.
What was Lincoln’s ideology going into Reconstruction?
When the Civil War ended, President Lincoln hoped to deal with the tremendous damage and turmoil the Civil War had caused. The era following the Civil War became known as Reconstruction, or the rebuilding of the South. Lincoln wanted to make it fairly easy for southerners to rejoin the Union. The sooner the nation was reunited, Lincoln believed, the faster the South would be able to rebuild.
What was Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan?
As early as 1863, Lincoln outlined his Ten Percent Plan for Reconstruction. Under this plan, a southern state could form a new government after 10 percent of its voters swore an oath of loyalty to the United States. The new government had to abolish slavery. Voters could then elect members of Congress and take part in the national government once again. Lincoln’s plan also offered amnesty, or a government pardon, to Confederates who swore loyalty to the Union. Amnesty would not apply to the former leaders of the Confederacy, however.
Why was the Wade-Davis Bill constructed and what did it state? Why did Lincoln repel it?
Many Republicans in Congress felt that the Ten Percent Plan was too generous toward the South. In 1864, they passed the Wade-Davis Bill, a rival plan for Reconstruction. It required a majority of white men in each southern state to swear loyalty to the Union. It also denied the right to vote or hold office to anyone who had volunteered to fight for the Confederacy. Lincoln refused to sign the Wade-Davis Bill because he felt it was too harsh.
What is the cause-and-effect relationship between Reconstruction and the Freedmen’s Bureau?
Cause: Reconstruction; Effect: Freedmen’s Bureau
What were the duties of the Freedmen’s Bureau? What did they accomplished?
There were many effects of the Reconstruction era. One such effect was Congress and the President agreed on a proposal to create a new agency. One month before Lee surrendered, Congress passed a bill creating the Freedmen’s Bureau, a government agency to help former slaves. Lincoln signed the bill. The Freedmen’s Bureau gave food and clothing to former slaves. It also tried to find jobs for freedmen. The bureau helped poor whites as well. It provided medical care for more than one million people. One of the bureau’s most important tasks was to set up schools for freedmen. Most of the teachers were volunteers, often women from the North. Grandparents and grandchildren sat side by side in the classroom. Charlotte Forten, an African American volunteer from Philadelphia, wrote:
“It is wonderful how a people who have been so long crushed to the earth … can have so great a desire for knowledge, and such a capacity for attaining it.”
—Charlotte Forten, article in the Atlantic Monthly
The Freedmen’s Bureau laid the foundation for the South’s public school system. It also created colleges for African Americans, including Howard, Morehouse, and Fisk. Many of the graduates of these schools became teachers themselves. By the 1870s, African Americans were teaching in grade schools throughout the South.
