-
The Freedmen’s Bureau
Congress created the Freedmen's Bureau to assist emancipated slaves during their transition from slavery to freedom. In addition to providing food and housing, they also established schools and offered legal assistance to the Freedmen. -
President Lincoln is Assassinated
John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, becoming the first president of the United States to be assassinated. -
The 13th Amendment is passed
Slavery in the United States was made illegal by the 13th Amendment. One section is about slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States, or within any state subject to their jurisdiction, unless as a punishment for crime. The second section is by appropriate legislation that congress shall enforce this article. -
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Black Codes were laws taken out in the southern states that restricted black freedoms and privileging orphans into forced apprenticeships, enforcing harsh labor laws, placing ex-slaves on juries, placing freedmen on juries, and enacting unequal laws. -
Ku Klux Klan
The KKK's original goal was to oppose Reconstruction policies of the radical Republican Congress and to maintain "white supremacy". -
Military Reconstruction Acts
To prevent a continuation of the ruling class in power, they sought to punish the South. By 1867, the Southern states were divided into five military districts, and the new governments were laid out. -
Andrew Johnson's Impeachment Trial
He was impeached for removing the Secretary of War and member of his cabinet, Edwin Stanton, in violation of a law called the Tenure of Office Act. The Senate acquitted Andrew Johnson by one vote less than the two-thirds necessary to remove him from office and allowed him to stay in office.A trial for impeachment is conducted in the same manner as a trial in court, with witnesses and cross-examinations. -
Election of Ulysses S. Grant
It was his fame as a war hero that propelled him to the White House, where scandals marred his presidency. The 15th Amendment gave all men the right to vote, regardless of their race, color, or whether they were former slaves. The law he signed allowed African Americans to become citizens. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment is a state that is not allowed to deny equal protection to a male citizen on the basis of race. -
15th amendment
Citizens' voting rights are protected by the Fifteenth Amendment irrespective of their race or color of skin. Former slaves are also entitled to vote under this amendment. -
Reconstruction ends
Under the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes, Reconstruction officially ended in 1877. The federal troops were removed from the South, and state governments took over. Several of the changes made to equal rights were subsequently reversed.
