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Reconstruction WebQuest

Directions

Use the links provided to answer the following questions

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

  1. What did Lincoln outline in a speech given on April 11, 1865 Plans for peace and reconstruction
  2. What were two things John Wilkes Booth believed in?
    1. Slavery
    2. White Supremacy
  3. After assassinating Lincoln, Booth yelled “Sic Semper Tyrannis” to the people at Fords Theaters Thus be it ever to tyrants

Reconstruction

  1. What does the term Reconstruction refer to? The period following the Civil War of rebuilding the United States
  2. What are the 3 things that President Johnson wanted to do as part of his Presidential Reconstruction plan?
    1. Pardoned most Southern whites
    2. Appointed provisional governors
    3. Outlined steps for creation of new state governments
  3. What 2 thing did Radical Republicans want to do with their plan for reconstruction?
    1. Punish the South
    2. Prevent the ruling class from continuing in power
  4. What did the Military Construction Acts of 1867 do? It divided the South into five military districts and outlined how the new governments would be designed

Sherman’s Special Field Order

  1. What is provided to African Americans in Sherman’s Field Order? Conquered land, which is redistributed to African Americans
  2. Before the end of the year (1865), President Johnson revoked Sherman’s Field Order. How did that impact African Americans? It would have revoked land ownership by African Americans, as well as restoring the ownership to white enslavers. This impacted the African Americans as they would have fewer options, either being pushed off land or staying and working under the original enslavers.

Passage of the Fifteenth Amendment

  1. How did white people from the North and South feel about giving voting rights to former slaves? Many felt the approach of black suffrage was unfair, and 11 of the 21 Northern states did not allow black people to vote.
  2. What did white southerners try to cast themselves as? White southern probably wanted to keep their original system, but Congress ruled that in order to be let into the Union, the states had to accept both the 15th Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment

The Civil Rights Act of 1866

  1. What did the Civil Rights Act of 1866 grant to all males? That they were equally protected under law, and that it was illegal to deny any person the right of citizenship on basis of their race or color.
  2. Why wasn’t it a complete success? Failed to protect political or social rights like voting and equal accommodations

13th Amendment Ratified

  1. What did the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolish? Slavery

14th Amendment Formally Adopted

  1. What does the 14th Amendment guarantee to African Americans? Citizenship, but they had to be naturalized in the United States.

15th Amendment - Definition, Date & Summary

  1. What does the 15th Amendment grant to African American men? Black suffrage

Rebuilding the Old Order

  1. In the south, former slaves had to resort to sharecropping. What did the white land owners give the former slaves for working their land? The blacks would work land, and in exchange, the landlord would sometimes provide food, shelter, seed, and tools.
  2. Who were the carpetbaggers? Northerners who saw the shattered South as a chance to get rich quickly by seizing political office now barred from the old order.
  3. Who were the scalawags? Southern whites, who allied themselves with the Carpetbaggers, and also took advantage of the political openings.
  4. What 3 white supremacist groups formed during Reconstruction?
    1. KKK (Ku Klux Klan)
    2. Knights of the White Camelia
    3. White Brotherhood
  5. How did they try to control African Americans? Through violence and intimidation. Massacres, lynching, rape, pillaging and terror were common.

Southern Justice and the President’s Veto of the Military Government Bill

  1. Why is the term “southern justice” used for this political cartoon? The term is used to depict how black people are treated differently within the North and the South. The South views them as a good joke, while the North is depicted to hang the free men.

An 1872 Political Cartoon called “One Vote Less,” which comments on racial violence during Reconstruction

  1. Why is this political cartoon called “One Less Vote?” The cartoon explicitly depicts a dead black person, and the title explicitly references this to allude to the fact that it’s one less vote, as they had just gained the right to vote.

PBS

  1. What is going on in this political cartoon? Error 404.

Worse Than Slavery Cartoon

  1. Why do you think artists used the phrase “worse than slavery” in this political cartoon? The artists used the phrase to emphasize how the issue of discrimination and racism were still unsolved even after the abolishment of slavery, and how the formation of these groups of terror, such as the KKK, lead to a worse environment.