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Emancipation Proclomation
Gave freedom to slaves in rebel-held territory in the south. Slaves in states loyal to the Union were not freed. It was a political and military tactic -
13th Amendment passed
Formally abolished slavery. Freed 3.5 million slaves. Meant that African Americans could now:
- Have their plantation marriages legalised
- worship freely in their own churches
- own property
- travel freely -
Freedman's Bureau set up
- Set up by federal gov to short term support free slaves & provide basis for long term security.
- Supported black self-help groups provide education for black children & adults
- Head: General Oliver Howard.
- Traditional curriculum would train black lawyers, scientists and teachers and indirectly future leaders.
- But educational advances only for small minority
- By 1890 65% black children in south illiterate compared to 15% white
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South Carolina's Freedmen's Convention
The appeal ran as follows
'We simply ask that we be recognised as men; that we have the right of trial by jury of our peers; that schools be established for the education of coloured children as well as white ... that no impediments be put in the way of acquiring homesteads for ourselves and our people; that in short we are dealt with as others are - in equity and justice.' -
Lincoln assassinated
assassinated at Ford theatre by a Southern Democrat John Wilkes Booth. -
Civil Right Act
Asserted all races (other Native Americans) were full citizens of the US, even if thewy had previously been slaves. -
Military Reconstruction Act
Divided the South into Military districts to try and force the South to ensure that African Americans would get their rights. -
Period: to
Reconstruction
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22 black people elected to congress
twenty to the House of Representatives and two (from Mississippi) to the Senate. -
Closing down of Freedmen's Bureau
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Slaughterhouse Case
Supreme Court decided that the rights of citizens should stay under state rather than federal control. It ruled that the 14th amendment to the Constitution protected a person's individual rights but not their civil rights, that is rights granted at the discretion of the civil government, the state. In the future these latter rights would be eroded. This was the first of a number of victories for advocates of states rights that would impede the granting of civil rights to African Americans