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The Freedmen’s Bureau
The Freedmen's Bureau was made to help and protect slaves/freedmen during the transition form slavery life to a life of freedom. It provided food, housing, and medical aid to the freedmen. It also made schools, offered legal assistance to those who needed them and help them manage abandoned or confiscated property including the redistribution of "abandoned' land to former slaves. It was mainly supported by Abraham Lincoln, Republicans in Congress, and members of the Abolitionist Movement. -
President Lincoln is Assassinated
President Abraham Lincoln was attending a play at the Ford Theater in Washington. He was sitting in the Presidential Box with his wife. Once the play reached a point where a huge joke was made and the audience was laughing loudly John Wilkes Booth(a confederate sympathizer that was against what Lincoln believed and had done) took the opportunity to shoot him in the back of his head. Andrew Johnson was later on made President after Lincolns assassination. -
The 13th Amendment is Passed
The Thirteen amendment made slavery illegal in the United States. This amendment also allows people to be prosecuted for forcing someone to work against their free will, though this amendment still allowed slavery to be a punishment for a crime. This amendment was the end of all slavery when it was finally ratified. -
Civil Rights Act of 1866
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 detailed rights of all U.S citizens, including the right to buy and sell property, engage in business, make contracts, sue, and give evidence in court. It was a huge step in the struggle for equality and it protected ex-slaves from legislation in the Southern Sates such as Black Codes and the Vagrancy Laws. -
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan is a secrets society based in the South and was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee during the Reconstruction Era. Their main Goal was to maintain white supremacy. They wanted to form a white southern resistance to the Republic Party's Reconstruction and they wanted to keep black men away from polls so that ex- Confederates can gain political control many states. they were an apposing threat to civil liberties and they committed terrible crimes with impunity. -
Military Reconstruction Acts
They passed the Military Reconstruction Acts which divided the South into five military districts and outlined how the new governments would be designed. Under federal bayonets, blacks, including those who had recently been freed, received the right to vote, hold political offices, and become judges and police chiefs. They did this because they didn't want the old Confederate leaders to take charge again, they didn't want them to have power. -
Andrew Johnson’s Impeachment Trial
Andrew Johnson was mainly impeached because of his removal of Edwin Stanton the Secretary of War and member of his cabinet which was a violation of law called the Tenure of Office Act. The Radical Republicans believed that the President was behaving too leniently towards the Southern states who were attempting to restore self-rule and passing state laws referred as Black codes. -
Election of Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant served two terms as president and even ran for a third, which he didn't win. Many of the people in his administration were crooks who stole from the government. A financial speculation led to a panic and the stock market crashed. Many people lost their jobs during this time. But during his time of presidency he did fight for the civil rights of both African Americans and Native Americans. He pushed for the 15th amendment (gives the right to all men to vote no matter their color) -
14th Amendment
This amendment granted citizenship to all the people born or naturalized in the United States, which included former slaves. It forbids any state to deny any person life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, or to deny to any person within its dominion the equal protection of the laws. -
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment was put into place to make sure that no citizen was denied the right to vote. It outlawed literacy tests and directed the Attorney General to challenge the use of poll taxes in state and local elections. -
Reconstruction Ends
The Reconstruction officially ended under the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877. He removed the federal troops from the South and the state governments took over. Unfortunately, many of the changes to equal rights were immediately reversed.